Tag Archives: Rythme FM

| Radio

Rythme FM expands with third new affiliate in six months

The network of Véro, Mitsou and Sébastien Benoit is continuing to grow.

Owner Cogeco Diffusion announced on Tuesday that it has added an affiliate in the Abitibi region to the Rythme FM brand, expanding it to seven stations throughout Quebec.

CHOA-FM, which operates at 96.5 FM in Rouyn-Noranda, 103.5 FM in Val-d’Or and 103.9 FM in La Sarre, is owned by RNC Média and operates under the Planète brand. The changeover is expected to happen on March 9.

Like other Rythme FM affiliates, the Abitibi station will carry the noon-hour show hosted by Mitsou Gélinas and Sébastien Benoit, and the afternoon drive show hosted by Véronique Cloutier. Its morning show and daytime programming before and after lunch, will be local. The station promises no reduction in local programming, and that announcers Isabelle Harvey, Amélie Pomerleau and Véronique Aubin will remain with the station.

CHOA is the third station in six months to add itself to the Rythme FM family. CHLX-FM 97.1 in Gatineau, another Planète station, became Rythme FM Outaouais in August. CKRS-FM 98.3 in Saguenay and CKGS-FM 105.5 in La Baie, owned by Attraction Radio, are also adding themselves to the Rythme FM network on Feb. 9.

CKRS, a station formerly owned by Corus but which wasn’t sold to Cogeco, had until recently been a talk station, but last month got approval for a licence amendment allowing it to switch to music.

The expansion gives the Rythme FM network a presence in most major regions of Quebec: Montreal, Sherbrooke, Trois-Rivières, Gatineau, Abitibi and Saguenay, plus CIME-FM in the Laurentians, which is part of the Rythme FM brand but doesn’t carry its network programming.

The big missing link here is Quebec City. CJEC-FM 91.9 used to be a Rythme station, but when Cogeco bought Corus it was forced to sell the station. New owner Leclerc Communication eventually rebranded it WKND. Convincing it to return to the Rythme FM brand would be the most obvious choice, since it’s the only adult-contemporary music station there not owned by Bell Media. Cogeco could also rebrand M 102.9, its classic hits station in Lévis. But since that station just adopted that brand, it’s probably not in their plans.

It might also look to expand in the Bas-Saint-Laurent (Rivière-du-Loup, Rimouski), Centre-du-Québec (Drummondville, Victoriaville) and Gaspésie regions. Attraction has other stations that might fit the bill, but others are owned by smaller companies that might be less interested in replacing local shows with Véro.

| Radio, TV, Video

Launch parties-o-rama (UPDATED)

Not having been invited the time to attend all the fall launch parties being put on by the radio and TV people over the last little while, I’m pleased to see that most of them are briefly summarized in video form.

The two big ones were rebranding efforts: NRJ radio, which is what Énergie has turned itself into, and V, which is the new TQS.

But there were also launches for CKOI, Rock Détente, Rythme FM, Musique Plus, Radio-Canada, Télé-Québec, TVA, VRAK.tv and Télétoon, and fortunately the people at WebPresse believe these parties are news.

So here are the launch parties in YouTube format from various sources:

Continue reading →

| Montreal, Navel-gazing, Radio

Bienvenue aux écouteurs de Rythme FM

Pour les gens qui m’ont entendu ce matin à Les matins de Montréal de Rythme FM, voici un lien vers ma carte des structures au Québec:

At-risk overpasses

Légende:

  • ROUGE: structures démolis, fermés ou qui vont être remplacés
  • JAUNE: structures dont la ministère a décidé de faire des travaux majeures ou qui ont encore des restrictions de poids
  • VERT: structures qui ont passé l’inspection et n’ont pas besoin de travaux ni restrictions
  • BLEU: structures dont l’inspection n’est past complet ou un décision n’est pas encore publié

D’autres liens utiles:

Autres pensées:

  • J’ai jamais pensé que le Courrier international à décidé que je suis un “ailleurs” ici. (En regardant le blogue encore, c’est plutôt parce que je suis anglophone, et il aime mon blogue alors j’ai rien contre lui)
  • Ma mère n’est pas fâché contre moi pour le truc “Jim FM” (je savais pas qu’ils lisait mon blogue en direct!). Mais elle pense que j’étais un peu nerveux. C’est vrai, mais j’étais plutôt fatigué!
  • Ma carte n’est pas à 100%, ça prend un autre mise-à-jour fini!
  • Je retourne à mon lit maintenant.

(Voici un enregistrement “rush” de baisse qualité de l’entrevue. Je vais le remplacer par un plus meilleur: .mp3, .ogg)

| Navel-gazing

Want to hear me practice my French?

I’ve just been booked as a phone-in interview for Rythme FM’s morning show tomorrow at 8am (105.7 FM). They want me to talk about my recently-updated map of Quebec’s overpasses.

Those of you willing to wake up early enough to listen to it will not only listen to my embarrassingly awful French being broadcasted to a huge audience, but that same awful French made awfuler by the fact that I’ll be low on sleep.

Anyone have a message for Patrice l’Écuyer?

UPDATE:

  • Mom: “Your dad wants to know what radio station it is.”
  • Me: “105.7 Rythme FM.”
  • Dad: “Jim FM?”
  • Me: “No. Rythme FM. Rhythm. 105.7”
  • Dad: “What are the call letters?”
  • Me: “I don’t know. They don’t use them.”
  • Mom: “He doesn’t know. It’s Rim FM. R-I-M.”
  • Me: “NO! RYTHME FM. R-Y-T-H-M-E!”
  • Mom: “Oh. Rythme FM.”
  • Dad: “What are the call letters? It’s C-something.”
  • Me (Googling): “CFGL.”
  • Mom: “CFGL.”
  • Dad: “Ahh! CFGL! Why didn’t he just say so?”

My dad’s a devout CHOM listener. The remaining stations he knows only by their callsign.

Let’s hope the station understands me better through my cellphone.

UPDATE (After the interview): Here’s a rush recording of the interview from my not-designed-for-broadcast digital recorder. I’ll replace it with a better version later: .mp3, .ogg