The “new adventure” announced Thursday by music station WKND, 99.5 FM was confirmed Monday morning. Starting August 26, the channel renamed 99.5 Montréal will broadcast content from digital radio station Qub Radio. And Mario Dumont will start the day by hosting the morning show.
The announcement was made at the offices of 99.5 Montréal, in Griffintown, in the presence of Nicolas Leclerc, co-owner of Leclerc Communication and vice-president of the station, general manager Benoît Simard and hosts Mario Dumont and Benoît Dutrizac.
According to Nicolas Leclerc, whose company still owns the channel, it was Leclerc Communication that contacted the Qub team “a few months ago” to broadcast some of the digital radio content. He presented the 99.5 Montréal project, which will no longer be called WKND, as an alternative to 98.5 FM, owned by Cogeco, which according to him, enjoys a monopoly in the commercial talk radio market.
“We are seeing a growing appetite among French-speaking listeners for opinion, information and public affairs content, which is reflected in the sharp increase in listening hours and market share of talk radio stations,” explained Nicolas Leclerc. “In Montreal, in a market of 2.5 million French-speakers, it is surprising that there is only one commercial news and public affairs station.”
Qub’s content, which will be broadcast on weekdays from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., will be resolutely opinion-oriented. Mario Dumont will start the show from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. He will be joined by journalist Alexandre Dubé. Isabelle Maréchal, who worked for 17 years at 98.5 FM, will be on the air from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., followed by Benoît Dutrizac (11 a.m. to 2 p.m.) and Sophie Durocher (2 p.m. to 3 p.m.).
The homecoming show will be hosted by Richard Martineau from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. He will be joined by columnist Mathieu Bock-Côté. The full teams of hosts and collaborators will be revealed in the coming days.
Mario Dumont, who will compete with Patrick Lagacé, who has been in post since Monday on the morning show of 98.5 FM, also believes that it was time for voices to be expressed on other private commercial channels. His motto: “Learn and understand”. The former politician, who will only have two weeks to build a team, plans to take advantage of the “direct contact” with listeners as part of his new morning show. He will also continue to host his daily show on LCN (at 10 a.m.).
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
Mario Dumont will host the morning show on 99.5 Montreal starting August 26.
Four news bulletins will be broadcast each day. The usual musical programming, presented by the channel’s hosts, will be broadcast in the evenings and on weekends. Nicolas Leclerc is therefore convinced that his agreement with Qub Radio complies with the conditions of his licence with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).
Let us recall that a CRTC policy dating back to 2008 prevents a single company from owning a general-interest television channel, a paid daily newspaper and a radio station in the same market. A policy that Quebecor has already asked the CRTC to abolish, as it owns the TVA station and The Montreal Journal.
But according to Mathieu Turbide, vice-president of digital content at NumériQ and Quebecor, owner of Qub Radio, the company is not contravening CRTC policy.
In production, there are producers who sell content to broadcasters, it exists at Radio-Canada, at TVA. On the radio, in English Canada as in the United States, content syndication is very common, and that’s what we do. Leclerc Communication remains the owner of 99.5 FM and has total control over its programming. They came to choose the content they wanted and we agreed to assign broadcasting rights, that’s all.
Mathieu Turbide, Vice President of Digital Content at NumériQ and Quebecor
This reorganization of Qub’s schedule will of course be reflected in the digital content broadcast on the web and on television. As for advertising revenue, each of the two companies – Qub and Leclerc Communication – will broadcast its own advertisements and therefore benefit from its own revenue.
Mathieu Turbide admits that this type of agreement in radio is a “new way of doing things,” but that it is “completely permitted.” “We are not acquiring an antenna,” he insists. In the end, the fact remains that Quebecor will be present on the FM band for the fall season.
For his part, Nicolas Leclerc confirmed to us that he had “courtesy meetings” with CRTC representatives before moving forward with this transformation project. He is convinced that he will meet all of his obligations. The CRTC is being tight-lipped about its comments, but is monitoring the matter.
Asked about the compliance of the agreement between Leclerc Communication and Qub Radio, the federal regulatory body responded to us briefly by email: “The CRTC expects all regulated entities to comply with the conditions of service, policies and regulations and will take appropriate measures in the event of a problem.”
For its part, 98.5 FM, which launched its new programming this Monday, with the broadcast of Lagacé in the morningled by Patrick Lagacé, replacing Since we have to get uphosted by Paul Arcand, reacted briefly, while wishing to concentrate on its launch.
“Our priority is to meet the expectations of our audiences and to prioritize the quality and credibility of the content we produce every day,” Cogeco management said. “For the rest, we let the CRTC assume its responsibilities and explain to us how they can authorize everything within the current regulatory framework.”
For ADISQ – the professional association of the Quebec music industry – the change in programming of 99.5 FM is “a significant loss for our ecosystem.” According to the organization, the music station was an “additional and different showcase for Quebec’s French-speaking artists, particularly for emerging artists.”
“Today, both the radio and music industries are facing significant challenges,” said ADISQ Executive Director Eve Paré in a press release. “This is due to an inequity towards streaming platforms that are not subject to the same rules. This has persisted for too long in our system. The Leclerc group’s decline is a painful reminder of the importance of the CRTC’s current work to restore balance within our broadcasting system.”