13 Facts About CKAC

CKAC is a French-language radio station located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

CKAC had historically been a dominant station in its early years, with its listenership fuelled by popular programming such as a Sunday church broadcast, news coverage, as well as its broadcast rights to the Montreal Expos of Major League Baseball.

In 1968, the station and La Presse was acquired by the Power Corporation of Canada, and CKAC was in turn sold to Telemedia the following year, becoming the flagship of a provincial network of stations.

CKAC became the flagship and provider of talk radio programming to the Corus Quebec network, but its newsroom was later shut down in favor of that of its new sister station CINF .

CKAC was the first francophone radio station in North America.

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CKAC created its own orchestra that year, which would produce concerts aired on American stations twice a week until 1933.

CKAC faced serious competition which intensified in the 1960s as new French-language stations such as CKVL, CJMS and CKLM were attracting listeners.

However, CKAC quickly regained the top ratings spot in 1970, due to the crucial role its highly regarded news service had in keeping listeners informed during the October Crisis, in which the terrorist and separatist Front de liberation du Quebec movement kidnapped and murdered provincial Labour Minister Pierre Laporte.

Station was sold from Power Corporation to Telemedia in 1969, and CKAC became the flagship of the new Telemedia network, which included CHLN 550 in Trois-Rivieres, CHLT 630 in Sherbrooke, and the now-defunct CKCV 1280 in Quebec City, CKCH 970 in Hull and CJMT 1420 in Chicoutimi .

From 1970 until the late 1980s, CKAC was regularly one of the very few stations in Canada to attract over one million listeners according to BBM ratings and regularly made millions of dollars in profits every year, as it was home to such famous and renowned hosts as long-time morningman Jacques Proulx, mid-morning host Suzanne Levesque and 1980s midday host Pierre Pascau.

CKAC ran into ratings difficulties in the early 1990s, mostly because of a resurgence from CJMS.

Merger did help CKAC to regain many of its lost listeners and market shares, but still CKAC did not dominate in ratings as it used to do.

CKAC was the radio flagship of the Montreal Canadiens, the Montreal Alouettes, the Montreal Impact and the Toronto Blue Jays .