CJAD turns 80: Montreal's AM radio institution endures

Eighty years ago today, on December 8, 1945, a radio station signed on in Montreal with call letters borrowed from its founder's name: J. Arthur Dupont stamped his initials onto the city's airwaves and launched CJAD from studios on Mountain Street, in a building that's now home to O'Sullivan College.

What started as a middle-of-the-road music station in the post-war era evolved into Montreal's go-to for news, talk, and local coverage. CJAD has been there for Quebec's defining moments: the Oka Crisis, the 1989 Polytechnique massacre, both referendums, the 2013 Lac-Mégantic rail disaster. For decades, it was also the English voice of the Montreal Canadiens, a role it held until 2010.

Photograph: Archives de la Ville de Montréal

Indeed, CJAD has been a lifeline at times: During the 1998 Ice Storm, all four of CJAD's broadcast towers collapsed under the weight of accumulated ice. Veteran newscaster Trudie Mason remembers working in the newsroom wearing a jacket, the backup generator keeping the broadcast going but doing nothing for the heat.

The station bounced between borrowed transmitters, first attempting to use a sister station's equipment, then making a deal to broadcast on a different frequency entirely, all to stay on air until new towers could be erected.

For political analyst Dan Delmar, who started at the station in 2005 as an intern, CJAD was formative in ways that extended beyond his career: He remembers riding the school bus through the Laurentians with a Sony portable radio pressed against the metal frame for better reception, catching grief from other kids for listening to talk radio. Two decades later, he calls it "one of Canada's most influential media outlets and a uniquely civilized space with a storied history of broadcasting diverse viewpoints."

The station's had its share of transformations. Standard Broadcasting bought it in 1961, Conrad Black briefly controlled it in the late '70s. By 1995, CJAD ditched music entirely, going all-in on news and talk and it's been that way ever since. Today, it's owned by Bell Media, one of only two full-time commercial English AM stations left in Quebec. The other is CKGM, the Montreal radio station branded TSN Radio 690.

The station's marking the occasion with special programming throughout the day and archival clips spanning eight decades, including interviews with Hélène-Louise Dupont, daughter of founder J. Arthur Dupont, and audio from pivotal moments in Montreal's history.

Eighty years on since Dupont first fired up those transmitters, CJAD remains the voice of Montrealers.