CJMS is a French languageCanadianradio station located in Saint-Constant, Quebec. It broadcasts on 1040 kHz with a daytime power of 10,000 watts and a nighttime power of 5,000 watts as a class B station, using a directional antenna with the same directional pattern day and night to protect WHO in Des Moines, Iowa. It transmits from the same site CKGM used when it was on 980 kHz near Autoroute 30 in Saint-Constant. The station has a format which is part-time country music and part-time talk and infomercials. Despite having advertising itself as a country-formatted station, it was generally viewed as a talk/infomercial station which airs country music in non-key dayparts. CJMS has no direct link whatsoever with the old CJMS 1280 which closed on September 30, 1994. The call sign CJMS was chosen as the original plan was to use the 1280 kHz frequency, which was allocated instead by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to multilingual station CFMB. On September 28, 1998, Michel Mathieu, on behalf of a company to be incorporated, the station was approved but originally planning on using the 1320 kHz frequency, with a day-time transmitter power of 5,000 watts and a night-time transmitter power of 3,000 watts. Despite this, CJMS deliberately went on the air at 1040 kHz on April 25, 1999, 45 years to the day after the original CJMS began operations. On July 31, 2020 in decision 2020-239 the CRTC chose to not renew CJMS's radio license which expires August 31, 2020.
History of Non-Compliance
During a period of several years beginning in the early-2000s, CJMS had a history of chronic non-compliance of its license terms. Such violations have included failures to submit logger tapes, submit annual reports, meet French-language music quotas, provide a proper Canadian talent development contribution, broadcast local news, and provide a list of its musical selections. The CRTC had summoned the station's owners to a hearing at its Gatineau headquarters on November 5, 2013 to discuss its actions, due to the station's continual non-compliance. At the hearing, station owner Alexandre Azoulay claimed that the non-compliance was due to his father, who was suffering from dementia. He also mentioned that he was also in the process of selling CJMS to another broadcaster, who owns one other station in the region, though he refused to say who that party was. The board then explained that the CRTC usually does not transfer or amend licenses of stations that were found out of compliance. Azoulay then agreed to provide documentation of the sale to the board within 24 hours after the hearing.
Station sale
Within one-to-two months after the hearing, the CRTC may impose sanctions on the station, or even mandate that its license is suspended, not renewed, or cancelled. It would also decide whether or not to accept the sale, or force the purchasing party to apply for a new license. In September 2014, it was announced that Groupe Médias Pam Inc., the owners of ethnic station CJWI 1410 AM, announced plans to acquire the station; its decision will be decided on at a CRTC hearing on November 12, 2014 in Gatineau. Groupe Médias Pam plan on keeping the country format, though they intend on making the station more marketable to younger listeners, as well as plans to simulcast CJWI during drive-time periods. CJMS and CJWI both share a broadcasting site at Saint-Constant; the sale would bring the property under a single owner. The sale was approved by the CRTC on December 11, 2014, which on that date the station was rebranded as 1040 AM, L'authentique. CJMS's license was also renewed through August 31, 2017 - a shorter term than usual, due to violations that were incurred under Azoulay's ownership.
