station branded tsn radio 690 since september 4 2012 . for the national radio network see tsn radio . ckgm city montreal quebec broadcast area greater montreal branding tsn radio 690 slogan montreal s sports radio frequency 690 khz am first air date 1959 format sports power 50 000 watts class a transmitter coordinates 45 17 43.08 n 73 43 18.12 w 45.2953000 n 73.7217000 w 45.2953000 ; 73.7217000 callsign meaning ck greater montreal former callsigns chtx 1989 1991 ckis 1991 1996 former frequencies 980 khz 1959 1990 990 khz 1990 2012 affiliations tsn radio owner bell media radio programmed by tsn bell media 80 % espn 20 % bell media canada radio 2013 partnership sister stations cfcf dt cjad cjfm chom webcast listen live website tsn radio 690 ckgm branded as tsn radio 690 is an english language canadian radio station in montreal . formerly an affiliate of sports radio network the team it was one of three stations to retain the sports format after the network folded in 2002 until it switched to the tsn radio branding as in october 2011 . the station has an all sports format since may 2001 . ckgm officially began broadcasting on 690 khz as a 50 000 watts clear channel class i a station on september 4 2012 . it changed its branding to tsn radio 690 accordingly . its nighttime signal covers most of the eastern half of north america including three fourths of canada . its transmitters are located near mercier while its studios are located on ren l vesque boulevard east in montreal . ckgm is best known for having been a legendary and influential top 40 station in its heyday from 1970 to 1986 . contents 1 current programming 2 live sports 3 notable staff 4 history 4.1 early days 4.2 top 40 era 4.3 sale to chum limited 4.4 the team 990 4.5 sale to ctvglobemedia 4.6 ckgm files for frequency swap 4.7 tsn radio 5 references 6 external links current programming edit local programming on the station includes melnick in the afternoon with mitch melnick off the cuff with knuckles chris nilan the montreal forum an all sports show and a forum for montreal canadiens fans with tony marinaro and the morning show with conor mckenna rick moffat and shaun starr . these shows mainly focus on montreal canadiens analysis especially during hockey season but also address all the major sports in north american . tsn radio 690 airs in depth coverage of the montreal canadiens as the english language flagship broadcaster . it features lengthy pre and post game coverage for each game . tsn radio 690 carries network national feeds of the nfl mlb nascar and some nhl playoffs and the world junior hockey championships . the station also carries some espn radio programming . the station was also part of canada s olympic broadcast media consortium tsn radio 690 also has rights for the golf s the british open the u.s. open uefa euro 2012 and 2016 nba playoffs and sunday night football as part of tsn s broadcasting rights for the events . on june 22 2011 bell media announced it had signed a deal with the montreal canadiens to become the canadiens official english language radio broadcaster for the next 7 seasons . 1 live sports edit tsn radio 690 is the flagship station for the following teams radio broadcasts montreal alouettes cfl 2 montreal canadiens nhl 1 montreal impact mls 3 tsn radio 690 also features live coverage of the following mlb baseball select games including some from the toronto blue jays and washington nationals nfl football select games indycar auto racing nhl playoffs hockey notable staff edit elliott price tony marinaro mitch melnick chris nilan knuckles nilan sergio momesso history edit early days edit ckgm was founded by geoff stirling and opened on december 7 1959 . the station was then on 980 khz with a power of 10 000 watts full time as a class b station using a directional antenna with different patterns day and night the nighttime pattern being somewhat tighter . the 980 khz frequency had been previously occupied by ckvl . while most of the station s programming was devoted to music playing top 40 hits the station also had a number of open line talk shows . ckgm 980 was very well listened to in its heyday of top 40 hits in the northern vermont and northern new york areas due to their closeness to montreal . an fm sister station ckgm fm later known as chom fm starting in 1970 was opened on july 16 1963 . after a few weeks of simulcast with ckgm the fm station adopted a beautiful music format on september 1 . in 1963 a molotov cocktail was thrown through a window but was faulty and did not ignite inside the studios . in 1965 ckgm hired open line host pat burns famous for his controversial opinions especially on language issues . known in particular for featuring prominently on his show francophones who were proud of being bilingual or of being assimilated to the anglophone community again depending on the point of view burns would remain on the air until early 1969 only being driven out of montreal after a boycott campaign targeting the station s advertisers was launched . burns was sufficiently controversial to be publicly denounced by quebec premier daniel johnson sr. and the station received numerous bomb threats during the late 1960s . the station had already a history of bombing . in 1968 ckgm moved from 1455 drummond in downtown montreal to 1310 greene in westmount . ckgm became the montreal expos flagship for their first season in montreal in 1969 . baseball would move to cfcf the following year . top 40 era edit on january 1 1970 ckgm changed its format to become a full time top 40 station . success was immediate as ckgm managed to beat direct competitor cfox also a full time top 40 station in the fall 1970 bbm ratings . ckgm would quickly become one of north america s legendary am top 40 stations . legendary morningman ralph lockwood formerly of cfox made his debut on ckgm on october 2 1972 . he would remain with the station until late 1981 . in 1975 ckgm introduced la connection fran aise referring to a trio of bilingual personalities rob christie marc denis 4 and scott carpentier which used both english and french on the air and played songs of both languages . as ckgm remained an english language station this resulted in french language stations complaining to the canadian radio television and telecommunications commission crtc and even refusing to observe quotas of francophone music . on air bilingualism would remain a distinctive ckgm feature until stringent crtc regulation forbidding it and also enforcing quotas on the francophone side went into effect on january 1 1980 . ckgm got a record high number of listeners among english language stations in montreal according to the fall 1976 bbm ratings that were released on december 13 of that year thanks in part to the large numbers of francophones who listened to the station almost 40 % of ckgm listeners were french speaking . during its top 40 era ckgm was one of a handful of canadian radio stations to carry american top 40 with casey kasem . sale to chum limited edit on august 20 1985 ckgm and sister station chom fm were sold to chum limited . ckgm switched its format to gold based adult contemporary under the lite rock less talk and favourites of yesterday and today monikers a few months later on january 15 1986 . the station returned to a top 40 format on february 10 1989 changing its call sign to chtx in an attempt to distance itself as far as possible from its earlier days as a top 40 station that even included adopting a new phone number . chtx identified itself on air as 980 hits and also infamously identified itself as the station that plays the most music allowed by law in reference here to crtc regulations that limited hit music on fm stations . anecdotal evidence suggests that at least some listeners wondered if there was in fact a legal limitation on the number of songs radio stations can play . on september 14 1990 at 5 pm chtx moved to the adjacent 990 khz frequency 5 increasing its power to 50 000 watts full time from a new transmitter site located in ville mercier and converting itself to am stereo . however 990 was a class b frequency requiring the station to use a directional antenna which is slightly directional during the day and extremely directional at night to protect clear channel class a stations cbw in winnipeg manitoba and cby in corner brook newfoundland and labrador . the switch occurred one week later than initially scheduled on orders from the federal department of communications due to the tense security situation the oka crisis in the neighbouring indian reserve of kahnawake . another format change occurred on may 24 1991 with the new format being oldies although the station would also air dr. laura s open line show . the station changed its call sign to ckis and identified itself as oldies 990 . the station returned to its original ckgm call sign on january 15 1996 as the station moved to a talk radio format known as talk radio with attitude which included a low amount of locally produced programming . for that reason the station got abysmally low ratings with fewer than 100 000 listeners . the ckis calls moved to a calgary radio station formerly owned by rawlco and as of 2009 are now used in a toronto radio station . when the 1998 ice storm took place ckgm continued to rely on automation making few efforts to broadcast adapted emergency information . on january 9 of that year competitor cjad lost its broadcast towers due to the accumulation of ice . after that station moved temporarily to 1410 khz using the former facilities of cfmb ckgm leased its signal to cjad on a temporary basis starting on january 22 1998 . technically ckgm left the airwaves and was replaced on 990 khz by cjad . cjad returned to its assigned frequency of 800 khz on may 29 1998 and after two weeks of simulcast ckgm returned on june 12 1998 at noon . the station took the opportunity to re launch itself as a largely automated oldies station again using the oldies 990 as its moniker but keeping the ckgm call sign . the team 990 edit team 990 logo in september 2000 shortly after the crtc made changes to radio ownership regulations allowing a single company to own up to four stations in a market chum announced it would trade ckgm and sister station chom fm to standard broadcasting which already owned two stations in montreal in exchange for cfwm fm in winnipeg a market where chum already had two stations . this move allowed standard to acquire winnipeg s ckmm fm hot 103 & cfqx fm qx104 .1 . however a few months later the ckgm portion of the deal was cancelled . 6 the company immediately announced that ckgm would be added to the list of chum owned am stations switching to an all sports format on may 7 2001 joining the new the team network and identifying itself as team 990 . ckgm became the radio flagship of the montreal expos a few days later marking a return of baseball on english language airwaves . the station would broadcast the last expos games as a montreal franchise in 2004 . even in the very last days before the switch to the new format the largely automated ckgm continued to air a promo criticizing those talk stations in addition to always playing