CHEZ-FM
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| CHEZ-FM | |
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| City of license | Ottawa, Ontario |
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| Broadcast area | National Capital Region Eastern Ontario |
| Branding | CHEZ 106 |
| Slogan | Ottawa's Classic Rock |
| First air date | 1977 |
| Frequency | 106.1 MHz (FM) |
| Format | mostly classic rock, some alternative rock |
| ERP | 100 kW |
| Class | C1 |
| Owner | Rogers Communications |
| Website | chez106.com |
CHEZ is a Canadian radio station, which broadcasts classic rock at 106.1 FM in Ottawa. The station uses the brand name CHEZ 106 ("chez" is pronounced "shay", like the French word.)
[edit] History
CHEZ was launched at 6pm on March 25th 1977 by CHEZ-FM Inc., a company owned and operated by Harvey Glatt and based at 126 York Street in the Market. Harvey Glatt owned Treble Clef music stores and was a concert promoter at the time.
The initial signal strength was 100,000 watts, and the first song was "Isn't She Lovely" by Stevie Wonder. The original morning show host was Mike O'Reilly, better known at the time as frontman in the rock group Bolt Upright and the Erections.
The station focused on the 18-34 year old demographic by playing English progressive rock music. CHEZ also ran children's programming, talk programming and even some French programming when it first launched on air. Shows like CHEZ Ottawa, The Source, Jazz 106, Medium Rare and In the City distinguished the station from others in the Ottawa market.
During the first few years on air, CHEZ FM competed with AM station CFRA, then a pop leaning music station, and after less than 10 years on the air CHEZ attained the number one position in the Ottawa Market with nearly 300,000 weekly listeners.
CHEZ had 2 sister stations, 101.1 FM (Q-101) and 630 AM CJET, under the umbrella of Rideau Broadcasting, located in Smiths Falls Ontario.
The station and its holdings (Rideau Broadcasting), Canada's last major independent radio station, was sold to Rogers Communications in 1999, joining CKBY (Y105) and CIWW AM (Oldies 1310) in the Ottawa market. CHEZ quickly went on to hire their main competition, CKQB's morning show of Doc & Woody, in late 1999.
In 2000, Rogers Communications moved its operations out of the Market, and CHEZ-FM are currently located at 2001 Thurston Drive.
To date, CHEZ has had an enourmous impact with the youth, even though "classic rock" spans from mid 1960's to roughly 1975. The station also airs "new music from old artists" (U2, Rush, Robert Plant, Neil Young, the Tragically Hip, etc.) There is also some criticism for airing repeated songs on a constant basis.
The CHEZ 106 Morning show currently features Doc and Woody.
[edit] External Link
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| Radio stations in Ottawa, Ontario and Gatineau, Quebec |
|---|
| CFRA 580 • CJRC 1150 • CFGO 1200 • CIWW 1310 CILV 88.5 • CHUO 89.1 • CIHT 89.9 • CBOF 90.7 • CBO 91.5 • CJET 92.3 • CKCU 93.1 • CKKL 93.9 • CIMF 94.9 • CFTX 96.5 • CHLX 97.1 • CJLL 97.9 • CJWL 98.5 • CHRI 99.1 CJMJ 100.3 • CKBY 101.1 • CBOX 102.5 • CBOQ 103.3 • CKTF 104.1 • CISS 105.3 • CHEZ 106.1 • CKQB 106.9 • CKDJ 107.9 |
