CFCM-TV

CFCM-TV is the TVA owned and operated station in Quebec City. Its studios and transmitter are co-located on Myrand Street in the former suburb of Sainte-Foy. CFCM's transmission facilities also hosts the transmitter for CBVE-TV, the local rebroadcaster of CBMT.

CFCM was Quebec's first private television station, going on the air for the first time on July 17, 1954. CFCM started out as a private bilingual CBC/SRC affiliate. The station's original owner was Télévision de Québec, a consortium of theatre chain Famous Players and Quebec City's two private AM radio stations, CHRC and CKCV.

At its launch, CFCM immediately linked up with both the CBC and SRC microwave networks. The station started broadcasting an all-French service on March 17, 1957, when Télévision de Québec launched CKMI-TV. When SRC opened CBVT on September 7, 1964, CFCM joined the loose association formed by Montreal's CFTM-TV and Chicoutimi's CJPM-TV a year earlier. This was the forerunner of TVA, which was formally organized in 1971.

Télévision de Québec was nearly forced to sell its stations in 1969 because of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission's new rules requiring television stations to be 80 percent Canadian-owned. The largest shareholder, Famous Players, was a subsidiary of American film studio Paramount Pictures. Eventually, Famous Players reduced its shares to 20% by 1971, allowing Télévision de Québec to keep CKMI and CFCM The company...
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