City | West Nipissing, Ontario |
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Broadcast area | Nipissing District |
Branding | Le Loup 97.1 |
Slogan | La Voix du nord |
Frequency | 97.1 MHz (FM) |
First air date | February 6, 2014 |
Format | hot adult contemporary (French) |
ERP | 6,500 watts |
Class | B1 |
Callsign meaning | an available callsign that could be pronounced like the French word chic |
Owner | Le5 Communications |
Sister stations | CHYK-FM, CHYC-FM |
Website | http://www.leloupfm.com |
CHYQ-FM is a Canadian radio station, which broadcasts at FM 97.1 in West Nipissing, Ontario. It broadcasts a francophone hot adult contemporary format for the local Franco-Ontarian community. It is owned by Le5 Communications, and branded as Le Loup 97.1.
CHYQ and its sister stations CHYK in Timmins and CHYC in Greater Sudbury are the only francophone commercial stations programmed entirely in Ontario. Apart from commercials and separate morning shows, the three stations in fact simulcast the same programming at almost all times, although all three stations produce a portion of the shared broadcast schedule
On August 4, 2010, Le5 Communications filed an application with the CRTC to launch the station. The company received license approval on January 6, 2011.
Prior to the launch of CHYQ, the region's francophone audience was served solely by CFSF-FM, which aired a bilingual format featuring programming in both English and French. A local non-profit group previously held short-term licenses to broadcast special events programming in the region on 93.5 FM with the call sign CFDN, but never launched a permanent station.
CHYQ was the first commercial French-language radio station licensed in Ontario since the launch of CHYC-FM's original AM incarnation, CFBR, in 1957; apart from the three Le5 stations, all other French radio stations in Ontario are non-commercial outlets owned by non-profit community radio groups or Radio-Canada.
On November 15, 2013, Le5 received approval from the CRTC to extend the time limit to January 6, 2015 to commence the operation of the French-language commercial FM station in Nipissing, Ontario. This was the final extension to be granted by the Commission.