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CKOF-FM (104.7 MHz) is a French-language commercial radio station in Gatineau, Quebec, serving the National Capital Region including Ottawa. Owned and operated by Cogeco, it broadcasts a talk radio format, calling itself "104,7 FM". Some programming is shared with sister station CKOI-FM Montreal. The radio studios and offices are in the Chemin des Terres neighbourhood of Gatineau.

CKOF-FM has an effective radiated power (ERP) of 31,000 watts, with a maximum of 100,000 watts. The transmitter is located in Camp Fortune, near Gatineau Park.

History

The station originally began broadcasting in 1968 on the AM band. It was CJRC, on 1150 kHz with a daytime power of 50,000 watts and a nighttime power of 5,000 watts as a class B station. It used a directional antenna with slightly different daytime and nighttime directional patterns in order to protect various other stations on that frequency – particularly CKOC in Hamilton, Ontario.

The station was signed on the air on June 3, 1968 by Raymond Crepeau, Marcel Joyal, Robert Campeau and Gerard Moreau with the presence of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, the then-prime minister of Canada (and father of future prime minister Justin Trudeau) as part of the Radiomutuel network. Originally its headquarters were at the Sparks Street Mall in Ottawa but were later moved in the old city of Gatineau in the 1980s after a stay on Belfast Road in Ottawa. It became part of the Radiomédia network (later known as Corus Québec) on September 30, 1994, after Radiomutuel merged with Télémédia (that network's Gatineau station, CKCH, was closed down).

On November 24, 2006, the CRTC authorized the station to switch to the FM band. The change of frequency forced CHMY's transmitter in Arnprior, formerly on 104.7, to move to 107.7 FM. The 104.7 MHz frequency was also used in Ottawa by 3077457 Nova Scotia Limited which was approved in 2005 to operate a tourist information station. The station, CIIO-FM later moved to 99.7 MHz in 2007.

On April 16, 2007, at 7:00 a.m. EDT, CJRC made the move to the FM band on 104.7 MHz as CJRC-FM Le FM parlé de l'Outaouais.

On June 12, 2008, CJRC-FM received approval to increase power from 2,900 to 36,000 watts.

In March 2009, Corus announced plans to drop the talk radio format on CJRC, CHLT-FM in Sherbrooke, CHLN-FM in Trois-Rivières and CKRS-FM in Saguenay, in favour of a classic hits-oldies format branded as "Souvenirs Garantis", effective on March 28, 2009.

Since the implementation of the new CJRC-FM on 104.7 in 2007, the old 1150 AM has been simulcasting the programming of CJRC-FM which was originally to be shut down on March 16, 2009 although as of April 2009, the 1150 AM signal was still in operation. The old AM 1150 CJRC signal finally left the air on May 1, 2009.

In early 2010, the local morning news show featuring Louis-Philippe Brûlé (previously before for several years by Daniel Séguin) was removed in favor of a provincial newscast broadcast from Montreal by Paul Arcand.

On December 17, 2010, the CRTC approved the sale of most of Corus Entertainment stations in Quebec, including CJRC-FM, to Cogeco.

On February 21, 2011, the station rebranded to CKOI 104.7, picking up the hot adult contemporary format and branding similar to its Montreal sister station, CKOI-FM and CJRC-FM change its callsign to CKOF-FM.

On June 20, 2012, Cogeco announced that CKOF-FM, along with CKOY-FM and CKOB-FM, will revert to their talk formats on August 20, 2012, all but dismantling the CKOI network. Apart from an expansion of talk programming, no changes in current talk and sports programming are expected for these stations.

References

1. FCCdata.org/CKOF-FM
2. Astral Communications inc. (2000-01-14). "Notice annuelle -- Exercice terminé le 31 août 1999" (PDF) (in French). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-10-28. Retrieved 2006-12-11.
3. Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2006-637 CJRC Gatineau – Conversion to FM band (24 November 2006)
4. Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2005-601, Use of frequency 104.7 MHz by the new low-power tourist information service in Ottawa, CRTC, December 21, 2005
5. Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2007-75, Low-power tourist information service in Ottawa - Technical change, CRTC, March 1, 2007
6. Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2008-123
7. Francophone news-talk listeners across much of Quebec will be out of luck at month's end Scott Fybush/NERW, 2009-03-09
8. Corus offre une place sur le AM à la radio communautaire d'Ottawa, Le Droit, March 31, 2009
9. 1150 finally fell silent on Friday, Scott Fybush/North East Radio Watch, 2009-05-04
10. Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2010-942: "Transfer of effective control of various commercial radio programming undertakings from Corus Entertainment Inc. to Cogeco inc.", issued December 17, 2010.
11. "CJRC devient CKOI 104,7 - Culture - Info07 - la Revue". Archived from the original on 2011-07-13. Retrieved 2011-02-14.
12. Per Industry Canada Broadcasting Database
13. Fagstein: "Cogeco to convert three CKOI stations to talk radio", June 20, 2012.
14. Cogeco press release: "COGECO Diffusion : expansion de son réseau parlé", June 20, 2012. (in French)

External links

• 104,7 FM
• CKOF-FM at The History of Canadian Broadcasting by the Canadian Communications Foundation
• CKOF-FM in the REC Canadian station database

45°30′57″N 75°39′29″W / 45.51583°N 75.65806°W / 45.51583; -75.65806

• Radio stations in Ottawa–Gatineau
• Cogeco radio stations
• News and talk radio stations in Canada
• French-language radio stations in Quebec
• 1968 establishments in Quebec
• Radio stations established in 1968