Radio … and Me – 19

On the morning after Labour Day weekend, Montrealers woke up to learn of the abrupt demise of their venerable radio station, CKAC - 730, the oldest French station in North America. Instead of the wall-to-wall 'CKAC Sports' program, listeners were being treated to Circulation 730, a 24-hour program of … (wait for it) Traffic Reports.
Quel dommage, the manner by which it came about.
Quelle surprise? Well, not really.
Heaven knows, Montreal needs continuous traffic reports … the list of road closures / bridge re-construction alone is quite long, along with the usual summary of highway / street accidents involving legendary Montreal drivers! 'Reports every 10 minutes' are not enough.
Background: Metromedia Broadcasting, the operators of two 50,000-watt AM news frequencies 690 and 940 had closed down both French and English stations, respectively, last year, and had also surrendered both licenses, in haste, as it turns out!
This spring, along came an offer to Metromedia from the Quebec Transportation Ministry, to do 24-hour Traffic Reports on both spots, with 200,000$$$-plus attached to it, and Metromedia asked the CRTC regulators to let them have the licenses back immediately.
Two other radio chains soon objected strenuously, so the CRTC opened the frequencies to accelerated public hearings.
Metromedia was in no mood to wait for even a couple of months:
1. The $$$-heavy Transport deal had a closure clause, with the deadline fast approaching, and
2. CKAC -730 (their 50,000-watt station), was just sitting there -- apparently not making much profit -- despite doing popular Sports-Talk across the province, as well as the lucrative play-by-play broadcasts of the Canadiens AND the Allouettes!
So, throughout Labor Day Weekend, Metromedia announced the switch.
What a reaction!
Radio sports fans -- and thousands of others, in both French and English -- let loose a barrage of negative comments on radio, TV and the city's many dailies. Most messages were of the 'how-dare-they' tone. (Metromedia had tried to soften the blow by moving some of their popular Sports shows / hosts to evenings on CHMP, their FM Talk station.)
The CKAC station had been on the air since 1922, built by one of the associates of Marconi, no less, and had served as THE Quebec French station, before and during the emergence of Radio-Canada in the '30s and 40s. Check out this comprehensive history of CKAC on 'Wikipedia.' In its heyday -- 'way before Metromedia -- it was a vital part of the cultural and political scene: we recall that the hostage-taking / killing F.L.Q. leaders first approached CKAC to read their lengthy 'manifesto' on the air during the 'October Crisis' of 1970.
However, during the last 15 years, a variety of owners and program formats had reflected the steady decline of AM radio across the continent. They remained Number One for their excellent broadcasts of Canadien and Alouette games. I'll miss that; I'm a proud 'Habs' fan!
In the end for Metromedia, it was all a business -- a.k.a. money -- decision.
What a shame! They didn't have to treat her that way.