MONTREAL – The radio arm of Cogeco Inc. will create two new specialty traffic stations to serve the Greater Montreal area after receiving provincial funding for that purpose on Monday.
Starting next fall, road users in Montreal will be able to listen to Cogeco Diffusion’s French and English stations on the AM band for live traffic updates, information on road work, and weather conditions from 4:30 AM (6 AM on weekends) through 1:00 AM.
Cogeco said that it will receive $1.5 million per year per station from Transports Québec to finance a portion of the dedicated traffic radio operations through 2014.
“Cogeco Diffusion is proud to work with the Ministère des Transports to lessen the inconvenience of the major road work that will be going on over the next few years in the Greater Montréal area”, said SVP of radio, Richard Lachance, in the announcement. “With our radio broadcasting expertise and our facilities, Cogeco Diffusion can deliver radio that’s focused on people’s real needs for traffic news and information, non-stop, seven days a week. Radio is the ideal medium for reaching drivers because 70% listen to radio while they’re on the road.”
“Traffic radio will certainly help to reduce the impact our work sites have on truckers and drivers in the Greater Montréal area”, said Minister of Transport Sam Hamad. “The agreement announced today will make it possible to create and operate new radio stations that will enhance the services already provided by Québec 511 and traffic announcers.”
