Fiktiv Canada - CJAD 800

CJAD (800 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station operating in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The station has an English language news/talk radio format and identifies itself on-air as CJAD 800. Owned and operated by Bell Media, it has a daytime power of 50,000 watts but reduces power to 10,000 watts at night to avoid interfering with other stations on AM 800. The transmitter is located near Saint-Edouard, while studios and offices are located on Rene-Levesque Boulevard East in Downtown Montreal. CJAD can be heard across Canada on Bell Satellite TV channel 953.

Local hosts are heard throughout the day and evening with a few syndicated shows also carried including Coast to Coast AM with George Noory.

Commonly referred to as Montreal's Heritage Radio Station, the station was founded by J. Arthur Dupont in 1945, whose name the call letters were based on. CJAD signed on the air on December 8, 1945. In its first years, CJAD had its studios and offices on Rue de la Montagne (Mountain Street) in Montreal, now the site of O'Sullivan College.

In 1961, CJAD was purchased by Standard Broadcasting. In 1978, control of Standard Broadcasting was purchased by Conrad Black via Hollinger Inc. In 1985, Standard was purchased by Slaight Communications, a privately held company owned by J. Allan Slaight.

In 1962, sister station 95.9 CJFM was launched, with programming always separate from CJAD.

For most of its history, CJAD had a full service format. The music was mainly middle of the road songs in the 1960s and 70s, switching to an adult contemporary sound by the 1980s. Two specialized shows were heard on weekends: "The Bandstand" with Dick Irvin Jr., and "Starlight Concert" with Rod Dewar. In 1995, CJAD shifted its format to full-time news/talk, dropping all music and entertainment, save for the Sunday morning Trivia Show and the CJAD Comedy Show, also heard on Sundays.

Starting in 1992, almost all of CJAD's programming was simulcast on Corus Entertainment-owned AM 900 CKTS in Sherbrooke. On November 19, 2006, CKTS ceased broadcasting, signing off the transmitter and surrendering its licence to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). According to Corus, this was because of high ongoing maintenance costs that neither Corus nor Standard were willing to cover.

In April 2007, Astral Media and Standard Broadcasting announced that Standard had agreed to sell CJAD and its other Montreal stations to Astral. On March 16, 2012, Bell Media announced that it had entered in an agreement to acquire Astral Media for an estimated value at $3.38 billion, with the deal including CJAD and its sister radio stations in Montreal.

On Labour Day Weekend, 2012, CJAD, as well as its sister stations previously owned by Astral, moved from 1411 Fort Street to new facilities in the Bell Media Radio building on Rene-Levesque Boulevard East at Papineau Avenue.

In January 1998, all four of CJAD's broadcast towers toppled during The Ice Storm. CJAD's first attempt to get back on the air was to use CKGM's former AM 980 transmitter, re-tuned to the 800 frequency. This, however, turned out to be impossible as the 980 site was damaged by ice as well. CJAD then made arrangements to broadcast on CFMB's former 1410 transmitter, but the signal was poor to the west. CJAD management then reached an agreement with CHUM Limited to use their CKGM transmitter on 990 kHz until new towers were erected.

CJAD is the radio station Montrealers turn to for news, sports, weather, traffic, information, debate and opinion. Our mission is simple: inform, entertain and provide a voice to Montrealers. CJAD 800 AM provides the most frequent news updates, traffic reports, and comprehensive weather. Our experienced and well-known presenters know how to engage and challenge our listeners.

CJAD's award-winning News department has more experience than any other newsroom in Quebec. We are Montreal's News Authority. No other private radio rival has its own correspondents in Quebec City and on Parliament Hill. No other Montreal radio station brings you breaking news as it happens, editorial comment to help you understand what is happening and why, and updates news and sports every 30 minutes.

We cover Montreal and get you where you have to go, when you have to be there. Other radio stations admit they listen to CJAD All-Day Traffic Centre updates every 15 minutes for the real story. Weekends, we've got your roads covered too. Heading home from the cottage or holiday getaways? Listen for updates well into the evening as the race back to the city intensifies. So get it first, from CJAD 800.

Some Montreal radio stations think you can cover Montreal's weather from another province! Not CJAD 800. Get the latest details every 30 minutes, with exclusive forecasts from CTV Montreal meteorologists, travellers' forecasts, and special requests for your vacation weather.

CJAD 800's award-winning sports department gives you the inside story of the games every day with updates at :25 and :55 minutes past the hour during the The Andrew Carter Morning Show and The World Today with Aaron Rand.