About Mike FM

Mike FM

Overview

Mike FM is the on-air brand of CKDG-FM, a commercial ethnic specialty radio station broadcasting at 105.1 MHz in Montreal, Quebec. Owned by Groupe CHCR Inc. — the company formerly known as Canadian Hellenic Cable Radio — the station operates under a CRTC ethnic-programming licence that requires the majority of its schedule to serve Montreal's cultural communities. On weekdays, its morning and afternoon drive periods carry English-language classic hits programming under the Mike FM name, while the remainder of the broadcast week is devoted to ethnic programming, led by Greek-language shows reflecting the station's roots in Montreal's Greek community and extending to programming for many other cultural groups.

Under the conditions set out in its current CRTC licence, CKDG-FM must devote at least 60 per cent of its programming to ethnic programs, at least half of its programming to languages other than English and French, and carry programming serving at least eight different cultural groups in at least six languages. It is a low-power Class A FM signal — 524 watts of effective radiated power from a transmitter site with an antenna height of 197.4 metres above average terrain — aimed at the Montreal market, with studios on Avenue du Parc in the city's Mile End/Parc-Extension area, historically the heart of Greek Montreal.

History

CKDG-FM's origins lie in cable radio. For decades before it held an FM licence, the service operated as CHCR — Canadian Hellenic Cable Radio — a closed-circuit cable radio service serving Montreal's Greek-speaking community. On 2 July 2003, in Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2003-194, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission approved the company's application for a new ethnic FM station in Montreal at 105.1 MHz, with programming directed primarily to the area's Greek-speaking community and additional ethnic programming planned in Armenian, Croatian, Serbian, Russian and Tagalog, alongside English and French. The station took to the air on 17 April 2004, initially with an effective radiated power of 141 watts.

In May 2005, CKDG began using the English- and French-language share permitted by its licence for an English-language variety hits format in the morning and afternoon drive periods, branded "Mike FM" — the name by which the station has been known ever since. Its owner later launched a sister station, CKIN-FM 106.3, approved in 2009 with a similar format built around French-language drive programming; CKIN-FM was sold to CINA Media Group in 2015. CKDG also explored a change of frequency: in May 2010 it applied to the CRTC to move from 105.1 to 106.7 MHz, a proposal that would have placed it second-adjacent to CKIN-FM, but the application was withdrawn in February 2012 and the station remains at 105.1 MHz.

CKDG's licence history was turbulent through the 2010s. As chronicled by the Montreal media blog Fagstein from CRTC records, the Commission renewed the licence for short three-year terms in 2010, 2013 and 2016 rather than the standard seven years, citing failures that included unpaid Canadian content development contributions, late annual returns, insufficient Canadian music, and schedules that did not meet the requirement to serve eight cultural groups; trade coverage of those proceedings identified Marie Griffiths as the owner of licensee Canadian Hellenic Cable Radio Ltd. The station addressed the programming findings with a revised schedule in late 2015. The regulator's most recent full review ended the short-term cycle: in Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2023-97, issued 27 March 2023, the CRTC renewed CKDG-FM's licence for a full term running from 1 September 2023 to 31 August 2030, confirming the station's place on the Montreal dial for the rest of the decade.

Programming and Content

Programming on 105.1 Mike FM follows the two-part structure built into its licence. Weekday mornings and afternoons are given to English-language drive-time shows built around classic hits music and entertainment, presented under the Mike FM banner. In April 2024 the station added a familiar Montreal media voice to that lineup: Mose Persico, the longtime CTV Montreal entertainment reporter known for his "Mose at the Movies" segments, became Mike FM's afternoon drive host on 1 April 2024, shortly after leaving CTV in Bell Media's 2024 layoffs, bringing his movie-review and entertainment segments to the station, as reported by Broadcast Dialogue and Fagstein.

The rest of the schedule is multilingual ethnic programming. Greek-language programming is the station's foundation, consistent with its origins in Canadian Hellenic Cable Radio and the CRTC's original approval, which also contemplated programming in Armenian, Croatian, Serbian, Russian and Tagalog. Station listings over the years have also described programming in Italian, Hungarian, Ukrainian, Romanian and Haitian/Caribbean languages, among others — the mix that allows the station to meet its licence conditions of serving at least eight cultural groups in at least six languages each broadcast week, with at least 60 per cent of programming ethnic in nature and at least half in third languages.

Audience and Reach

Mike FM serves the multicultural population of greater Montreal. Its core community is Montreal's Greek community — one of the city's long-established immigrant communities, historically centred on Avenue du Parc, Parc-Extension and Laval — for which the station's predecessor provided Greek-language radio on cable for decades before the FM launch. Around that core, the station's ethnic blocks reach Armenian, Italian, Russian, Romanian, Ukrainian, South Asian and other communities whose members listen in their own languages at set times of the week. The English-language drive shows broaden the audience to general Montreal listeners during the highest-demand commuting periods. As a Class A low-power FM undertaking, the station's over-the-air signal is designed for the Montreal area, while its online stream extends its reach to listeners anywhere.

Digital Presence

The station's website is mikefm.ca, and the station promotes live streaming of its broadcast online. A mobile app published under the name "MIKE FM 105.1" offers live streaming of the broadcast along with playlists, on-demand content, song details and contest and social-media interaction, extending the station's presence beyond its FM footprint. The station's programs and personalities also maintain a presence on social platforms; Mose Persico's movie segments, for example, are promoted across the station's platforms as well as his own social media accounts.

Ownership and Organisation

CKDG-FM is owned and operated by Groupe CHCR Inc. of Montreal, the licensee named in the CRTC's 2023 licence renewal. The company was formerly Canadian Hellenic Cable Radio Ltd. — the "CHCR" in the corporate name comes from that earlier identity, under which it ran the Greek cable radio service that preceded the FM station and, for a time, sister station CKIN-FM. In CRTC proceedings during the 2010s, trade coverage identified Marie Griffiths as the owner of Canadian Hellenic Cable Radio Ltd.; the station's affairs during its compliance difficulties included new senior administrative staff hired to bring the company into line with its licence obligations, an episode documented by Fagstein in 2016. Under its current licence, in force to 2030, the station continues to operate from studios on Avenue du Parc in Montreal.

Contact and Availability

Mike FM broadcasts on 105.1 FM in Montreal and can be heard worldwide through its online stream at mikefm.ca and through its mobile app. Programming runs around the clock, alternating English-language classic hits drive-time shows on weekdays with Greek-led multilingual ethnic programming. The public business email field for this listing is intentionally left empty, in line with this directory's practice.