Montreal is in a unique position when it comes to the demographic factors which determine the audience for its many radio stations. On the one hand, Montreal is the biggest city in the province, and as such, is a major cultural center for the Francophone majority. On the other hand, it also represents a huge urban population, totaling 3 million inhabitants, and this includes a large percentage of cultures that do not speak French as a first language. Throw in the fact that the United States is less than an hour away by car, and that the American media have penetrated deep into the heart of Quebec, and you have a formula for a listening population which wants to hear homegrown Quebecois music – but which also yearns for the pop and rock hits that are sung primarily in English.
The major music stations
This situation has lead to somewhat stale offerings when it comes to music-oriented radio in the city. Anglophone listeners have 3 major stations to choose from: CHOM (97.7 FM), which plays primarily ‘classic’ rock, Mix 96 (95.9 FM) which is oriented towards repetitive Top 40-style music and Q92 (92.5 FM) which plays a strange mixture of easy listening and soft rock which transforms into live disco broadcasts and the John Tesh radio show once the sun goes down. There is also a soft rock station which drifts in from upstate Vermont, along with the Burlington-based Buzz (99.9 FM), a modern rock radio station with a very limited play list.
Francophone listeners don’t have it much better. Their FM options are limited to Jazz (CKLX 91.9 FM), Top 40 once again, (CKFM 94.3 FM and CKOI 96.9 FM), and the softest of soft rock and adult contemporary (CITE 107.3 FM). Add in to this mix a number of college radio stations and community radio and you have a pretty good picture of what kind of music you are going to hear when you are searching for tunes on the FM dial.
The major talk stations
French talk stations CBM (95.1 FM), CINF (690 AM) and CKAC (730 AM) dominate the airwaves when it comes to news, talk and sports. English stations like CJAD (800 AM) and CKGM (990 AM) make an valiant effort to reach out to the Anglophone audience. Of course, CBC radio is available in both French and English, and offers a fairly wide-ranging array of program that includes sports, arts, talk radio and music.
Satellite radio
An alternative to the somewhat limited radio situation in Montreal is to opt for Sirius or XM satellite radio. The city is completely covered by a network of terrestrial repeaters, and there are very few parts of the city where the satellite signal does not penetrate. The diversity of the programming makes it a worthwhile investment if you enjoy radio and will be spending any time in Montreal.
