CJME was founded in 1959 by a group of businessmen led by J. Marsh Ellis, a former radio salesman. Its original format was easy listening, but the station was not successful until it began playing top 40 music. In 1967, CJME was purchased by the Rawlinson family, owners of CKBI radio and CKBI-TV in Prince Albert. Their company later came to be called Rawlco Communications. By the 1990s the station's format had evolved from Top 40 to oldies. In 1998 CJME relaunched as 'News Talk CJME', forming a network with Saskatoon stationCKOM, then known as NTR. At Midnight on September 7, 1998, the last song played on CJME was "American Pie" by Don McLean, then the station played a loop recording of "a new station is coming" for an entire day. At 5:30AM on September 8, 1998 CJME was relaunched as a news/talk radio station. In 2001 CJME moved from their longtime position at 1300 kHz to the 980 kHz frequency. On September 11, 2006, the station changed its on-air brand from 980 CJME to News Talk 980. In late 2008, the station added the CJME call letters back to its on-air brand, becoming known as 'News Talk 980 CJME'. On September 29, 2009, CJME applied to add new FM rebroadcasters to extend its coverage into south Saskatchewan. The new transmitters would be located at Gravelbourg, Swift Current and Warmley, all with the ERP of 100,000 watts. This application received CRTC approval on February 26, 2010.
Rebroadcasters
Programming
Most of CJME's weekday lineup is shared with its Saskatoon sister station CKOM, aside from a local morning show and an afternoon newscast at 12:30 p.m. Its daytime lineup consists of Gormley, which, after the 12:30 p.m. CJME Midday Report, is followed by Saskatchewan Afternoon, and The Green Zone—a daily sports talk show. CJME also airs the syndicated Prime Time Sports on a tape delay, along with Coast to Coast AM. CJME has won dozens of national and regional awards, including multiple Best Radio Newscast awards, as well as recognition for Breaking News coverage, Feature Reporting, Ongoing Coverage, Investigative Reporting, Special Event coverage and Commentary. The station devotes a significant amount of coverage to the CFL's Saskatchewan Roughriders, which includes coverage preceding and following each game.
