City Montreal, Quebec Branding 107,3 Rouge FM | Broadcast area Greater Montreal First air date May 20, 1977 | |
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Slogan Toute la musique, une couleur Frequency 107.3 MHz (FM) (also on HD Radio) | ||
CITE-FM is a French-language Canadian radio station located in Montreal, Quebec.
Contents
- Beautiful music as Radio Cit 1977 1990
- Switch to adult contemporary the RockDtente era and the Astral takeover 1990 2011
- Renaming of RockDtente to Rouge FM and pending sale to Bell Media 2011 present
- Transmitters
- References
Owned and operated by Bell Media, it broadcasts on 107.3 MHz with an effective radiated power of 42,900 watts (class C1) using an omnidirectional antenna from the Mount Royal candelabra tower. Its studios are located at the Bell Media building at 1717 Rene-Levesque Boulevard East in Montreal.
The station has had an adult contemporary format since 1990 and is the flagship of the Rouge FM network which operates across Quebec and Eastern Ontario.
Beautiful music as Radio-Cité (1977-1990)
CITE-FM started operations on May 20, 1977 as a sister station to CKAC 730 with a beautiful music format. Unlike most other FM stations in Montreal which were created as a sister station to an existing AM station, it never shared the call sign of its AM sister (i.e. it was never known as "CKAC-FM").
While the station was originally planned to be on 93.5 MHz, then-owner Telemedia was forced by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to use 107.3 MHz instead, as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation had targeted 93.5 MHz as a reserved frequency and rushed to move CBM-FM from 95.1 to 93.5 MHz in 1976.
Up until 1990, CITE-FM identified itself as Radio-Cité.
Switch to adult contemporary, the RockDétente era and the Astral takeover (1990-2011)
The station switched to adult contemporary music in 1990 and Radio-Cité was renamed Cité Rock-Détente. Telemedia's radio stations in Quebec and the Maritimes were purchased in 2002 by Astral Media. CITE-FM became the sister station of Astral Media's CKMF-FM. Because of federal competition laws, Astral Media was not permitted to keep CKAC, the longtime AM sister of CITE-FM. Following the transaction, CITE-FM left the CKAC building that was in the corner of Sainte-Catherine Street and Peel Street, and relocated to CKMF's building at the corner of René Lévesque Boulevard and Papineau Avenue.
In 2004, Astral Media revamped the Rock Détente network with a new logo. This resulted in "Cité Rock-Détente" being renamed to simply "107,3 RockDétente". As such, the station no longer publicly uses its callsign.
Renaming of RockDétente to Rouge FM and pending sale to Bell Media (2011-present)
On August 18, 2011, at 4:00 p.m. EDT, the station ended its longtime 21-year run with the RockDétente branding. All RockDétente stations, including CITE-FM, rebranded as Rouge FM. The last song under the RockDétente branding was "Pour que tu m'aimes encore" by Celine Dion, followed by a tribute of the branding. The first song under Rouge FM was "I Gotta Feeling" by Black Eyed Peas.
Transmitters
The following stations are known rebroadcasters of CITE-FM:
CITE-FM-1, a Rouge FM station in Sherbrooke, is not a rebroadcaster, but a separate station, despite the call sign suggesting otherwise. CITE-FM-2, also serving Sherbrooke, is a low-powered repeater of CITE-FM-1.