Fans of country music in Quebec will have reason to celebrate today, though it will be at the expense of fans of classical music in the provincial capital.
On Wednesday, the CRTC approved the sale of CJSQ-FM 92.7 to Arsenal Media, and its proposed licence change from a specialty classical music format to a mainstream format, which Arsenal says it will use to turn the station into a country music station.
Arsenal currently has four country stations under its Hit Country brand — CKGS-FM 105.5 in La Baie, CKYQ-FM 95.7 in Plessisville, CHCT-FM 105.3 in Sainte-Marie and CJIT-FM 106.7 in Lac-Mégantic, plus CRTC approval for a fifth station at 107.9 in Joliette. The Quebec City station will be its largest market for country, though the station’s transmitter is in the mid range at 2,840 watts.
It wasn’t long ago that Quebec was a wasteland for country radio, with a few independent stations and a few time slots on community stations like CKRK in Kahnawake. The biggest reason for this was CRTC regulations that require French-language songs on French-language stations. There just weren’t enough popular francophone country music songs to make that format work.
But Arsenal has decided it can work, and is investing in it. And in an era where even major-market radio stations are being thrown in the trash, that’s worth acknowledging.
The company, which is less than 15 years old, has grown through various acquisitions to become Quebec’s largest radio broadcaster by number of stations. And it isn’t done. It’s also waiting for approval to buy BPM Sports from RNC Media (a CRTC hearing was held in April). And it’s always ready to pounce on other opportunities.
But what’s great for Arsenal and country music sucks for classical music fans in the Capitale-Nationale region. The writing has been on the wall ever since Radio Classique’s sister station in Montreal (CJPX-FM 99.5) was sold to Leclerc in 2020. Even owner Gregory Charles’s love of classical music can only sustain a money-losing station for so long. And so with the $525,000 purchase price, he’s out.
When CJPX-FM 99.5 in Montreal changed format, it looked like Montreal lost its Classical Music station.
Jump forward since that day, Montrealers has access to two Classical Music Stations.
CBF-FM 95.1-HD2, and WVPS-FM 107.9-HD2.
So, it would seem that HD Radio can save a format.
Now, I doubt that any of the other station owners in Quebec City would activate HD Radio so that they can place a Classical music format.
But, SRC has done so on several of it’s FM stations across the country. Perhaps its time for that to happen is the Quebec City market as well.
As for Arsenal Media, its good to see somebody is trying to build up the business, unlike Rogers current moves.
Arsenal has corporatised so many local radio stations across the province, with job losses in every station bought, bland music formats programmed at their headquarters, the loss of a platform for local artists and lots of voice tracking done from other cities.
It’s not really a good news to see them expanding that much.