Editing CKAC (section)

===Golden age===
In 1950, CKAC increased its daytime power to 10,000 watts (nighttime power remained at 5,000 watts), and the station began to broadcast 24 hours a day.

On October 1 of that same year, CKAC began to air the "Le Chapelet en famille" (the "Family Rosary Hour") as recited by [[archbishop]] [[Paul-Emile Léger]] in the [[Marie-Reine-du-Monde Cathedral]], and this program proved so popular that competitors actually lobbied hard to get permission to [[simulcast]] that program, to no avail. (The program disappeared in 1970, as religious practice declined precipitously in the late 1960s, in Montreal and elsewhere in Quebec and ratings were down, but this provoked many complaints among still-devout [[Catholics]]).

On March 13, 1958, CKAC raised its power to 50,000 watts full-time, using a [[directional antenna]] pointing east using two towers, as it moved to its current transmitter site located in [[Saint-Joseph-du-Lac]], just west of the [[Island of Montreal]]. The station now had one of the best signals in Eastern Canada, which was quite an exceptional situation for a privately owned station. In the early days of radio in Canada, the [[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation|CBC]] used its dual role as regulator and broadcaster to ensure that most of the country's clear-channel allocations went to CBC-owned stations.

CKAC faced serious competition which intensified in the 1960s as new French-language stations such as [[CINF (AM)|CKVL]] (opened in 1946), CJMS (opened in 1954) and [[CKLM]] (opened in 1962) were attracting listeners. While none of these stations had a signal nearly as impressive as CKAC (especially considering nighttime signal restrictions), this was not yet a problem for these stations as [[urban sprawl]] was still minimal.

However, CKAC quickly regained the top ratings spot in 1970, due to the crucial role its highly regarded news service had in keeping listeners informed during the [[October Crisis]], in which the [[terrorist]] and [[Quebec sovereignty movement|separatist]] [[Front de libération du Québec]] movement kidnapped and murdered provincial Labour Minister [[Pierre Laporte]].

The station was sold from [[Power Corporation]] (which bought La Presse and CKAC in 1968) to [[Telemedia]] in 1969, and CKAC became the flagship of the new [[Télémédia (network)|Télémédia network]], which also included [[CKOB-FM|CHLN]] 550 in [[Trois-Rivières]], [[CKOY-FM|CHLT]] 630 in [[Sherbrooke]], and the now-defunct [[CKCV (defunct)|CKCV]] 1280 in [[Quebec City]], [[CKCH (defunct)|CKCH]] 970 in Hull (now [[Gatineau]]) and [[CJMT (defunct)|CJMT]] 1420 in Chicoutimi (now [[Saguenay, Quebec|Saguenay]]).

From 1970 until the late 1980s, CKAC was regularly one of the very few stations in Canada to attract over one million listeners according to [[Bureau of Broadcast Measurement|BBM]] ratings and regularly made millions of dollars in profits every year, as it was home to such famous and renowned hosts as long-time mornin gman [[Jacques Proulx]], mid-morning host [[Suzanne Lévesque]] and 1980s midday host [[Pierre Pascau]].

CKAC became the French radio flagship of the [[MLB]] [[Montreal Expos]] (who became the [[Washington Nationals]] after the 2004 season) in 1972, and broadcast post-season games in addition to all (or in the last years, most) Expos regular-season games until 2003, with legendary [[play-by-play]] host [[Jacques Doucet (sportscaster)|Jacques Doucet]] describing over 5,500 games.

The station got an [[FM broadcasting|FM]] [[sister station]] in 1977, when Telemedia launched [[CITE-FM]] on 107.3 [[MHz]]. (The two stations became competitors in May 2005; for more information, please see "Recent decline and sale to Corus Entertainment" section).

Unlike most other privately owned [[clear-channel stations|clear channel]] (class A) radio stations in North America, CKAC never converted to [[AM stereo]].