City Montreal, Quebec First air date December 21, 1962 | Frequency 1280 kHz (AM) Format multilingual | |
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Branding CFMB Radio Montréal 1280 Slogan Montreal's #1 Multilingual Radio Station | ||
CFMB is a multilingual Canadian radio station located in Montreal, Quebec, owned by Evanov Communications. It broadcasts on 1280 kHz with a power of 50,000 watts full-time as a class B station, using a directional antenna with different patterns day and night (the nighttime pattern being significantly tighter). Its transmitter is located near Saint-Mathieu, while its studios are located on Avenue Papineau, Montreal.
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The station has a multilingual format targeting ethnic minorities and broadcasts programming in 16 different languages.
History
CFMB was founded by Casimir Stanczykowski in 1962. From its inception on December 21, 1962 until September 29, 1997, the station broadcast on 1410 kHz. Its move to 1280 kHz was somewhat controversial, as that frequency was previously (until 1994) home to the now-defunct CJMS, a French-language station. Some individuals claimed that this move resulted from a conspiracy to prevent new competition to CKAC and CKVL, as 1280 kHz was the best AM frequency available in the Montreal area. Others claimed that the CRTC used the opportunity to promote multiculturalism at the expense of integration of immigrants to the French language. Supporters of the decision note that CFMB was due to lose its transmitter site and had already bought the old CJMS site, and that the only other application to use the 1280 kHz frequency was for a station with only 10,000 watts of power.
As of Stanczykowski's death in 1981, the station was owned by CFMB Ltd., which was majority-owned by his widow Anne-Marie Stanczykowski, and her son Stefan Stanczykowski. Station president Andrew Mielewczyk also held a 19.2% stake in the company. The 1410 kHz transmitter was briefly reactivated in 1998 when the station lent it to CJAD, which lost all four of its towers in the 1998 Ice Storm.
On November 18, 2014, it was announced that CFMB would be sold to Evanov Communications, pending CRTC approval. The acquisition made CFMB a sister station to Evanov's CHRF, a new French-language radio station whose original intent was to serve Montreal's LGBT community (the format was dropped in December 2015). The sale also united CFMB with CKJS in Winnipeg, another multicultural station that was founded by Stanczykowski. Evanov plans to maintain "synergies" between the two stations and has moved CFMB and CHRF to new studios on Avenue Papineau.
Programming
CFMB currently broadcasts ethnic programming in Algerian Berber, Khmer, Chinese, Greek, Haitian Creole, Italian, Spanish, Lithuanian, Arabic, Urdu, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian and Ukrainian.
After being laid off from CKGM, Elliott Price briefly produced his own Sunday-night sports talk program for CKGM, Price is Right, beginning February 14, 2016. The program originally aired on Sunday nights; on June 13, 2016, the show switched to weeknights, and in July 2016, was re-named Sportsnet Tonight with Elliot Price as part of a syndication arrangement with the Rogers Media-owned sports network.{ The show ended on February 3, 2017, followed by the announcement that he would move to Rogers' flagship sports station CJCL in Toronto to host its morning show.