CIEL-FM

CIEL-FM is a French-language Canadian radio station located in Rivière-du-Loup, Quebec.

Owned and operated by Radio CJFP (1986) ltée (part of the Groupe Radio Simard), it broadcasts on 103.7 MHz with an effective radiated power of 60,000 watts using an omnidirectional antenna (class C1). The station has an adult contemporary music format.

The station was originally known as CJFP and went on the air on April 13, 1947 [Larouche, Marc. "CJFP devient CIEL-FM", Le Soleil, May 7, 2001, pg. A-4.] as an AM station broadcasting on 1400 kHz. From 1984 until the station's move to FM in 1994, it was one of the few AM stations authorized to increase its power at night, due to NARBA amendments which authorized all stations on "graveyard" ((class C) channels to quadruple their nighttime power. CJFP actually became the most powerful station in all of North America among those stations, as it was authorized to broadcast with 10,000 watts during the day and 20,000 watts (directional) at night; [Decision CRTC 84-1031 [http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/1984/DB84-1031.htm] ] however, this did not actually result in good coverage at night due to massive co-channel interference. [Decision CRTC 94-736 [http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/1994/DB94-736.HTM] ] The FM signal went on the air on December 15, 1994 [Former Canadian AM stations, by Kit Sage [http://www.geocities.com/xkit/canam.htm] ] and the AM signal went off the air in June 1995.

Because the station already had an FM sister station, namely CIBM-FM (at the time, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) regulations generally forbade broadcasters to operate more than one AM station and one FM station per market), CJFP-FM originally operated under a condition of licence which required at least half of the programming to be "spoken-word programming" (i.e., talk radio). [Decision CRTC 94-736 [http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/1994/DB94-736.HTM] ] As such, CJFP-FM became the first privately-owned French-language FM station to broadcast mainly talk programming; most of that talk programming came from the Radiomédia network. The station abandoned most of its talk programming, adopting a fulltime adult contemporary format, and changed its call sign to CIEL-FM, effective September 1, 2001. [Larouche, Marc. "CJFP devient CIEL-FM", Le Soleil, May 7, 2001, pg. A-4.] That call sign was used, until August 2000, on a Montreal-area station now known as CHMP-FM, which coincidentally now has a talk format.

Rebroadcasters

The following stations are fulltime rebroadcasters of CIEL-FM :

* CIEL-FM-1 in Rivière-du-Loup, broadcasting on 93.9 MHz using a directional antenna with an average effective radiated power of 13 watts and a peak effective radiated power of 50 watts (class LP);

* CIEL-FM-3 in Cabano, broadcasting on 98.3 MHz with an effective radiated power of 3,000 watts (class A) using an omnidirectional antenna;

* CIEL-FM-5 in Sully, broadcasting on 93.5 MHz using a directional antenna with an average effective radiated power of 18 watts and a peak effective radiated power of 45 watts (class LP), which went on the air in 2001.

CIEL-FM-1 went on the air when CJFP moved to FM. [Decision CRTC 94-736 [http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/1994/DB94-736.HTM] ] CIEL-FM-3 replaced CJAF 1240 in Cabano in 1996 [Decision CRTC 96-632 [http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/1996/DB96-632.HTM] ] , and CIEL-FM-5 went on the air in 2001 [Decision CRTC 2001-192 [http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/2001/DB2001-192.htm] ] . Another rebroadcaster, CHRT 1450 in Pohénégamook, was shut down when the station's main FM signal was implemented.

There is a station in Trois-Pistoles which uses the call sign CIEL-FM-4 (formerly CJTF-FM), but since 1997 it is no longer a rebroadcaster of CIEL-FM. [Decision CRTC 97-114 [http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/eng/Decisions/1997/DB97-114.htm] , renewed under its new call sign in Decision CRTC 2001-406 [http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/2001/DB2001-406.htm] ]

Notes

External links

* [http://www.ciel103.com/ciel/ CIEL 103,7 (official website)]