CJAD 800 Radio celebrates 80 years, reflecting on eight decades of Montreal history

CJAD 800 is marking a major milestone, celebrating eight decades on air in Montreal

CJAD 800 Radio is marking a major milestone – the iconic Montreal radio station is celebrating its 80th anniversary.

For eight decades, CJAD has been a constant presence through some of Quebec’s biggest moments.

Morning host Andrew Carter has had a front-row seat to it all.

“For a guy like me, it was my dream job,” he said, aside from those daily 4 a.m. wake-up calls.

The station opened in 1945 and quickly became the soundtrack for countless Montreal families.

“I listened to it as a kid. Well, I listen to it because my parents listened to it, right, and that’s the story of a lot of people,” Carter said. “I’ve always said CJAD will get you at some point in your life.”

Former general manager Rob Braide said he was hooked from the very beginning.

“It inspired me. It didn’t intimidate me. I got to work with Gord Sinclair, George Balcan and Ted Blackman,” he said.

While those familiar names are now part of CJAD history, the station continues to evolve with new voices and faces.

Even the station’s old traffic helicopter is the stuff of legend, at the centre of a National Film Board documentary.

Newscaster Trudie Mason vividly remembers how absorbed her father once was in a CJAD segment about the referendum that he blew a stop sign.

“My dad said, ‘I was listening to Neil McKenty on CJAD, and I was so involved in what he was saying, I wasn’t paying attention’ and the cop let him off,” she said.

During a major “No” rally, Braide recalls that radio crews managed to broadcast from high above the crowd from the Sun Life Building.

“We jammed open the windows, and we got our broadcast equipment out onto the balcony overlooking the demonstration for the ‘No’ [side]. It was magical. It was the most incredible broadcasting,” he said.

Through the Quiet Revolution, Bill 101, and decades of political and social change, CJAD has remained a key voice for many English-speaking Quebecers.

“CJAD has always advocated for the anglophone community, and we continue to as, as much as possible,” Carter said.

Braide echoed that sentiment. “It’s one of the only places you can go to hear the other side of the story,” he said.

That connection is especially clear during the station’s call-in shows — where listeners don’t hold back.

“It’s a very special connection that we have with our listeners,” Carter said. “They care about what you’re saying, whether they agree with it or not.”

For Dr. Joe Schwarcz, who first joined the airwaves in 1980, the decades have flown by.

“Forty-five years, I tell you, has gone by just like that,” he said with a snap of his fingers.

His segments are to fight what he calls scientific quackery.

“The nice thing about the radio is that you reach a lot more people, so you get the message out there,” he said.

The newsroom may be smaller today, and Carter admits the space now has far less cigarette smoke and typewriter clacking than it once did. There’s also far more competition from podcasts, social media, and online news – but for the veterans who’ve spent their careers at the station, they say CJAD isn’t going anywhere.

“Someone said to me, ‘Oh, AM radio. That’s dead. You’re not going to have a career there,’” Mason said. “And 40 years later, we’re still here and we’re still telling stories for our community.”