The old Hits FM logo
Remember Hits FM? It was a cross-border station in New York State at 94.7 FM that made no secret about targeting Montreal, even having a sales office in the city and choosing WYUL as its callsign. Its signal wasn’t as strong or Virgin or The Beat or CKOI, but it was unencumbered by CRTC regulations that included a quota on Canadian music, another for French-language music on French stations, and a limit on the number of hit songs on English-language stations.
But it shut down in 2021, the station’s licence sold to a religious broadcaster who turned it into K-LOVE 94.7.
Not included in that sale was Hits FM’s Facebook page, which went dormant (except for a single repost of some viral joke image) until November 2025, when it began actively posting again. No announcement, just a bunch of reshares of viral content, the kind you’d see on any radio station’s social media trying to build cheap engagement.
Just after the new year, the page announced (in a since-unpublished post) that Hits FM was back as an online radio station, kicking off with 10,000 commercial-free songs and announcements about DJs and other details to follow.
A new logo for Hits FM (via hitsfmradio.com)
It linked to a new website, hitsfmradio.com, which for now is just a playlist of songs, a live streamer, and links to download apps.
At first I thought this might have been someone’s attempt to take advantage of an abandoned brand. But the use of the existing Facebook page seemed to suggest some official link to the old station.
So I asked Tim Martz, CEO of Martz Communications Group, which owned Hits FM until it was sold in 2021, about the new station.
“Oops, that release was premature,” he told me in an email. “We’re working on possibly launching this to the public, but have not made a decision on how it would work and who would be involved.”
The Facebook post disappeared after that message, but the page is still posting reshared content.
Could it work?
The internet has plenty of online radio stations, and a handful of those specifically target Montreal. But those tend to be one-person mostly automated operations with no connection to traditional broadcasters.
If Martz wants to make a serious go at online radio, with live DJs, news and traffic reports, etc., he might be able to find enough of a niche audience like 94.7 Hits FM did, maybe with a smaller staff. But even with the advanced technology of today, it’s still a lot easier for people in cars to scan the FM band for stations than to try to connect to an online station.
It’s decent but its app is very glitchy. Doesn’t always work the way it’s supposed to. Hopefully they can bring back what it had when it was on FM radio. More people are going to online radio these days anyway or Spotify. This way they can always have their station with them.
See CABIN RADIO 7 years on-line soon too launch its licensed FM service. https://cabinradio.ca/live/
Are there any open frequencies on the US side of the border?
It is much easier to get on air in the USA than in Canada.
Dan Shields,
Ottawa
Not that would have a decent signal into Montreal, unless it’s on AM or something (and even then, probably only at night).
Their only way back onto the FM dial in Montreal would be to get on HD radio of a station licensed for it. Though I doubt any would take a web radio station as their HD feed.
HD Radio maybe the only real solution. There are a few radio stations that come in really well in the Montreal area from the Burlington-Plattsburgh market on the US side. WEZF-FM 92.9, WBTZ-FM 99.9, WQLR-FM 94.7, WVPS-FM 107.9
WVPS-FM has HD Radio activated, but that station is part of Vermont Public.
If any of the others activated HD Radio, maybe they could rent one of their HD sub-channels.
The other option is getting a AM license with a good foot print in the area. And activating HD Radio on it. That could be a good work around.
As for internet based radio, or streaming a station, I really don’t use i. I prefer an actual radio in the home and especially in the car. I will stream CFQR-AM 600 when I’m on the computer. Because I can’t stand that analog AM sound.
The Montreal FM marketplace has enough space for a Top Rung station with Great DJ’s that that know today’s music and are connected to the Top 100 music hits. Montreal FM radio needs personalities that are on air entertainers that don’t bore you with personal chatter. I listen to Toronto and Ottawa DJ’s both Girls & Guys, which are way Better than here in Montreal. Broadcasters like Bell Media are Cheap bottom line companies and there are others.
There is a Price to pay for Talented people, and right now Montreal announcers are boring in a Big city and are Not on air personalities.
I think internet radio that is aimed at a region sort of defeats the concept of the internet.
Radio is naturally regional. It is physically restricted to an area and as such, creates community or commonality by where you can hear it. Minus the miracle of the internet, you cannot listen to Montreal radio stations in Calgary, example. Broadcast radio defines itself by the primary and secondary coverage areas. The knock on effect of that fact is to make local information (weather, sports, news, traffic) valuable and something that listeners may seek out. It is why even the most music oriented radio stations tend to have more talk based formats in the morning and evening commutes, as current information is valuable and desirable.
WYUL / Hits FM has a niche market that made them reasonably popular for those who could hear them. A Montreal regionally oriented station that could play hit music without consideration for government meddling in content requirements, etc. They could just blast the hits. People wanted that, so they listened. With slightly better coverage into Montreal, they very well could have been a strong player in the market. They provided something that the market otherwise lacks.
Go onto the internet, and all of that is gone. Worse yet, if you aim at a particular market (say like Montreal) you then specifically aren’t serving the rest of the 99% of the internet who aren’t going to listen to Montreal local news, weather, sports, and traffic.
There are thousands of online radio stations in the top 40 / hot hits / fresh tracks vein out there already. Not sure that another one with a super narrow local / regional focus will make a drop of difference.
I wonder how this station would be launched to the public one day like would it be on more streaming platforms or something else ?
At the moment their official app is playing a different station and it’s 2000’s rock.
Their official app isn’t even playing their music anymore. It’s been playing Revolt Radio a rock station playing 2000’s rock. It’s odd as their website isn’t playing anything since the afternoon of March 28th. Don’t know what’s going on. Their Facebook fan chat put out a poll asking if rock could be played. People have been voting yes. They asked late night March 27th.
They just made the announcement on their HitsFM FAM chat that they made the switch to rock. Sad because I listened to the new HitsFM daily.
They had their radio format good the first time January until March and now their rock format doesn’t sound good I don’t see why they would have the idea to change their format to rock when their format was already good