Most FIFA World Cup Games are on Montreal radio… technically

(UPDATE: a few minor changes were made based on the comment left by fagstein)

I’m usually stuck at the office in the daytime when most of the games are on live. I’m not anywhere near a TV and I have limited access to internet.

How can I follow the World Cup? How about the radio?

Officially most of the games aren’t on local radio, but if you’re aware of the hidden gems of the Montreal radio dial, you can find them. Turns out, you can find almost all of them, including evening repeats.

I stumbled across the soccer game between Germany and Ghana today by accident, while trying to find a newscast. What I found, was actually CBC TV’s audio feed on 87.75 FM, which can be heard on either 87.7 FM or 87.9 FM.

Actually, I had known about this radio signal, but it’s usually a useless one, for the most part, as it is quite literally nothing more than the audio feed of over-the-air channel 6. But today, it was worth listening to. This little known FM frequency can be practical whenever the CBC carries live sports events like Soccer or Hockey Night in Canada. It’s also handy for listening to CBC’s newscasts in the car.

There are a few drawbacks, as the commentators will occasionally assume that you can see what they’re talking about. Yet for the most part, it’s not all that different from listening to actual radio play-by-play.

Just a reminder: if you don’t live in Montreal or if you want actual radio coverage, Sirius Satellite Radio is carrying all of the games and CBC Radio One will carry the last four games. Also, more info on television and online coverage available here, in my previous article.

5 Comments

Filed under Montreal, Radio

5 responses to “Most FIFA World Cup Games are on Montreal radio… technically

  1. I think describing it as “simulcast” is somewhat misleading. It’s not a copy of the CBMT-TV audio signal, it IS the CBMT-TV audio signal, on 87.75 MHz (so 87.7 is closer than 87.9), which is the audio frequency of television’s Channel 6.

    And, unfortunately, once the television transition to digital is complete and the analog CBMT transmitter is shut down in 2011, we won’t be able to take advantage of it anymore.

  2. Thanks for the clarification. But that has me wondering, if I’m visiting another Canadian town where, let’s say CTV, broadcasts on analog channel 6. Does this mean that I will find the CTV audio feed in the 87.7-87.9 FM range over there?

    • Sure. You’ll hear anything that broadcasts analog on channel 6, provided you’re close enough to the transmitter to receive it.

      In Canada, that means CKAL (Citytv, Calgary), CBGAT (Radio-Canada, Gaspé), CBWT (CBC, Winnipeg), CFWH (CBC, Whitehorse), CHAT (Citytv, Medicine Hat, Alta.), CHEK (Victoria), CJON (NTV, St. John’s) and CJPM (TVA, Saguenay), plus some U.S. border stations.

      It’s a simple result of the fact that television audio is transmitted almost the same way FM radio audio is, and that the TV broadcast band for channel 6 is just below the FM broadcast band.

  3. This is also true in Northwestern and central New Brunswick where CBC broadcasts on channel 6 in Perth-Andover and Chatham. I remember one time I was driving in the Perth area and looking for a radio station to listen to and I found CBC, the noon news was on. After that Mr. Bean was on, which certainly was interesting (and somewhat boring) to listen to on the radio.

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