 | |
| Type | Radio network |
|---|---|
| Country | Canada |
| Headquarters | Quebec City Montreal |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Canadian Broadcasting Corporation |
| History | |
| Launch date | 1937; 89 years ago (1937) |
Former names | Radio de Radio-Canada (1937–1997) Première Chaîne (1997–2013) |
| Coverage | |
| Availability | AM/FM: Canada,Sirius XM: Canada/United States |
| Links | |
| Website | Ici Radio-Canada Première |
Ici Radio-Canada Première (formerlyPremière Chaîne) is a CanadianFrench-language radio network, the news and information service of theCanadian Broadcasting Corporation (known as Société Radio-Canada in French), thepublic broadcaster of Canada. It is the French counterpart ofCBC Radio One, the CBC's similar English-language radio network.
The service is available across Canada, although not as widely as CBC Radio One. Only the provinces ofQuebec andOntario are served by more than onePremière originating station. In all other provinces, the whole province is served by a single station with multiple transmitters. It reaches 90 percent of all Canadianfrancophones.
Each originating station outside Montreal airs a national schedule, taken from flagship stationCBF-FM, complete with opted-out local/regional shows at peak times, depending on each market. News bulletins are aired live, irrespective of location.
The network may broadcast on either theAM orFM bands, depending on the market. A national version is available across North America onSirius XM Canada channel 170.[1] Première was available in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East live via theHot Bird satellite.[2] The satellite service closed in June 2012 as part of the budget measures affectingRadio Canada International.[3]
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Some French-language programming had aired on the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission'sCRCM since 1933, but the CBC's French radio network traces its formal beginning to December 11, 1937, with the launch ofCBF inMontreal.
In 1938, the station was expanded into a fledgling network with the launch ofCBV inQuebec City andCBJ inChicoutimi. Also that year, the long-runningsoap operaLa Pension Velder, which ran until 1942 and was then revived in the 1950s as a television series, aired for the first time. The following year, the even more successful and influentialUn Homme et son péché was launched.
For the first month ofWorld War II, Radio-Canada aired 24 hours a day, broadcasting war news from Europe. Also that year, the network broadcast its firstMontreal Canadiens hockey game.
In 1940, another popular radio soap,Jeunesse dorée, made its debut. In 1941, the network, which had previously relied onCanadian Press reporters, launched its own news division and twoshortwave radio stations in Montreal to serve francophones outside Quebec. Throughout the 1940s, its expansion inside Quebec was primarily through privateaffiliate stations.
In 1942, the network controversially refused to give airtime to the "No" side in theConscription Plebiscite. Nonetheless, 72.9 per cent of Quebec voters were opposed.
In 1945, theInternational Service was launched. In 1946, the network launched an experimentalFM station in Montreal (which would becomeCBFX), and expanded outside Quebec for the first time with the launch ofCKSB as a private affiliate inSt. Boniface, Manitoba, nearWinnipeg.
The network also had seven privately owned affiliates:
In 1948, the influential children's seriesTante Lucille andGérard Pelletier'spublic affairs programLes Idées en marche debuted. Also that year, three studios in Montreal's King's Hall building were destroyed in an explosion, leading Radio-Canada to centralize its operations in a new building onboulevard Dorchester.
In 1952, the network became autonomous from the CBC head office inToronto. Previously, all programming decisions had to be reviewed by the Toronto staff in advance.
Through the 1960s, the network began to expand across Canada, taking overToronto'sCJBC in October 1964, and launchingOttawa'sCBOF in 1964 andVancouver'sCBUF in 1967. As well, influential broadcasterLise Payette launched her first program,Place aux femmes, in 1965.
The network eliminatedtobacco advertising in 1969, and eventually dropped all commercial advertising in 1974, except for Montreal Canadiens hockey games (which would move to theRadiomédia network in 1997). TheMaison Radio-Canada, which remains the flagship facility for all of Radio-Canada's broadcast services, was officially opened byPierre Trudeau in 1973, and Radio-Canada'sFM network was launched in 1974. Through the remainder of the 1970s, the network began to directly acquire many of its private affiliate stations, includingCHFA inEdmonton,CFRG inGravelbourg andCFNS inSaskatoon, although with the CBC's financial difficulties in the 1980s, this process was slowed down considerably.
The network was rebranded asPremière Chaîne in 1997, concurrently with the rebranding of all of the CBC's radio networks.
In 1999, Radio-Canada applied to theCRTC for a license to launch a third all-news station in Montreal, on the 690 AM frequencyCBF had surrendered in 1997 when it moved to FM. The application was rejected. Radio-Canada filed an appeal of the decision with theFederal Court of Appeal, which denied the request in October of that year.
In 2002, two of the network's last three remaining private affiliate stations,CKVM inVille-Marie andCFLM inLa Tuque, disaffiliated from the network, and the final private affiliate,CHLM inRouyn-Noranda, was directly acquired by the network in 2004. The network now directly owns all of the stations that broadcast its programming.
On June 5, 2013, it was announced that Première Chaîne would be re-branded asIci Première on August 9, 2013 as part of a wider re-branding of the CBC's French-language outlets. This was a nod to the network'ssystem cue since the 1930s,Ici Radio-Canada ("This is Radio-Canada"). Followinghighly publicized complaints about the new "Ici" name, prompted primarily by the removal of the historic "Radio-Canada" brand, the new name was changed toIci Radio-Canada Première instead.[5][6][7][8]
Première's flagship 60-minute news program isÇa nous regarde, a national news and discussion program similar to CBC Radio One'sThe World at Six andAs It Happens.
There are various regional adjustments to the national schedule. In the Atlantic provinces the national schedule airs live, with programme trailers announcing the broadcast time as one hour later.
All Première outlets produce a regional program in the morning (Monday to Friday) from their respective studios. For afternoon programs, in some provinces or regions, a program may originate from a studio in the largest station in their area and broadcast to all stations in a given region; for example: stations in Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and St. John's broadcasts the program produced in Moncton and CBEF Windsor broadcast the show produced in Toronto at CJBC.
In the summer, the morning show for the Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland are produced in turn by the stations of Halifax and of Charlottetown and the afternoon program of the Rimouski, Matane and Sept-Îles stations is produced alternately in each of the stations and broadcast on these three stations.
For Saturday morning shows, they are produced respectively in Moncton (for the Maritimes), Montreal (for the province of Quebec, except the Outaouais region), Ottawa (for Eastern Ontario and the Outaouais region), Sudbury (for Ontario, except Ottawa and Kenora), and Vancouver (for the Western provinces, as well as Kenora, Ontario).
In Northern Canada, CFWY-FM in Whitehorse, Yukon rebroadcasts the programs ofCBUF-FM Vancouver. This station is not owned by the CBC, but by theFranco-Yukon Association. Conversely,Ici Nord Québec, anchored byCBFG-FM Chisasibi and transmitted to nine otherFirst Nations communities in theNord-du-Québec region via FM repeater transmitters, airs the same schedule as CBF-FM, but with four hours of regional programming inserted on weekdays, three of these in theCree language.[9]
The feed forSirius XM Canada airs live across North America and simulcasted from CBF-FM in Montreal, meaning programmes are broadcast using theEastern Time Zone. The entire schedule is aired as of 2016.[10]
Listeners in Europe, Middle East and North Africa were able to receive direct programming from CBF-FM Montreal, withRCI's own shows inserted into the schedule in the morning and evening. This ceased in June 2012.
During certain holidays, a single program may be heard on a provincewide or a regionwide basis. In Quebec, stations outside Montreal, Quebec City and Outaouais airs a morning program and an afternoon show produced by different outlets in turn. In Ontario, holiday editions of morning shows are produced at CJBC, CBON or CBEF, and is broadcast on all three stations. In most holidays, the afternoon show is produced at the station that had not produced the morning show of that day. And all Première outlets in Western Canada present special pan-regional programming on holidays replacing local programs -Les matins de l'Ouest andLe retour de l'Ouest.
On Christmas Day and New Year's Day, all stations nationwide carry the same schedule from Montreal, live or taped, depending on location. Also, on the weeks of Christmas and New Year's, regional morning shows begin at 6:00 in all areas, except Montreal where it could begins at 5:00 or 6:00 one year and another.
In addition to primaryproduction centres listed here, most stations in the network also serve a larger region throughrebroadcasters. Due to the significant number of such rebroadcast frequencies, those are listed in each individual station's article rather than here.
Historically, Première has broadcast primarily on the AM band, but many stations have moved over to FM. Over the years, a number of CBC radio transmitters with a majority of them on AM have either moved to FM or had shut down completely.See:List of defunct CBC radio transmitters in Canada[11]
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