CFMB Radio Montréal

CFMB has a faithful and exclusive audience with over 30% of Montreal's population being of ethnic origin.

A recent census reported 180,000 persons of Italian origin in Montreal; 70,000 of Greek origin; 70,000 of West Indian origin; 40,000 of Portuguese origin; and 40,000 of Chinese origin. For some Montrealers, CFMB is the Italian station, for others CFMB is the Greek station, others still - the Spanish station. As you can see, CFMB is over twenty stations combined in one.

Statistics Canada reports that 30% of Montreal's population claim a mother tongue other than French or English. This segment of the population has only one, fully licensed, multilingual radio station offering programming in their native tongue, CFMB 1280. This compares to twenty-two English and French radio stations offering programming catered to the other 70% of the population. Simple arithmetic proves CFMB's potential to reach thousands of Montrealers. Advertisers' intent on attracting this often overlooked division of the population cannot neglect CFMB's strength in marketing their product.

Although 19% of Montreal's population is between 18 and 24 years old, a prominent amount of 40% of Montreal's ethnic population falls in this category.
Although 42% of Montreal's adult population owns a home instead of renting an apartment, an imposing 64% of Montreal's ethnic population owns the house they live in.
Ethnic population prefers paying cash for their purchases. An amazing 62% paid cash for their automobiles, of which 61% were bought new.
Twelve percent of Montreal's population has attended a university; meanwhile, 26 percent of Montreal's ethnic population has a university degree.

CFMB, as other Canadian ethnic broadcasters, does not subscribe to the Bureau of Broadcast Measurements, BBM. The service is not structured to give an accurate account of the ethnic market. The BBM ballots are unilingual, either French or English, and are not written in the language of the ethnic household they are surveying; this obviously compromises the BBM analysis of the ethnic broadcaster. Furthermore, the BBM, which was conceived to analyze a broadcaster with a uniform-unilingual format, is hard-pressed to report on whom listens to an ethnic station whence one audience tunes out at a specific time when their specific language program ends, while another audience tunes into a different language program.

An important fact to consider as you plan an advertising strategy: Over 30% of our population is not French, nor English-speaking. While twenty-two French and English radio stations --serving the greater Montreal area-- compete for a market share from 70% of the population, CFMB has a potential audience of over one million people whose mother tongue is neither French nor English. CFMB is the only commercial radio station catering exclusively to Montreal's ethnic population.