CHOI is a French language FM radio station that broadcasts on the frequency 98.1 out of Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. Locally, it is known as Radio X (a reference to "generation X", as most of CHOI's listeners consider themselves). It is owned by Genex Communications since July 1996. As of the fall 2004 Bureau of Broadcast Measurement ratings released in December 2004, CHOI was the most popular radio station in the city with 443,000 listeners, up from 380,000 earlier in the year. The station is well-known for airing controversial ideas and opinions, and is very critical of the province's center-of-left political consensus, notably of the Parti Quebecois. The station has become a target of various left-wing groups for some controversial political statements, notably feminists and homosexual advocates, and proeminent politicians on the left, while gathering support on the right, notably from the Action démocratique du Québec and the Conservative Party of Canada.

Dispute with the CRTC

On July 13, 2004, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission ruled that the radio station would be shut down because it kept airing offensive and insulting remarks even after being put on probation in 2002. This means that the station would be forced to stop transmitting on the night of Tuesday, August 31, 2004, when its license expires. This prompted a huge march in the streets of Quebec City on July 22 when 50,000 people walked through the streets of the city in defense of the station, the hugest march in the capital city of Quebec since the 1960s.

On August 10, 2004, the station staged a protest against the CRTC's decision on Parliament Hill in Ottawa where 5,000 Quebec fans of the station went to the country's capital to demonstrate their support for the station. CHOI aired their regular afternoon show live from Ottawa.

On August 11, 2004, the station filed an appeal in federal court to extend its licence and to reverse the CRTC's decision.

On August 25, 2004, the CRTC and the federal government did not object to the station's request to continue its normal operations during the court procedings. This means that even though the station's license expires on August 31, 2004, it will be permitted to continue transmitting after that date and as long as the court procedures are in progress.

The shutting down of CHOI by the CRTC has generated a debate regarding freedom of expression in Quebec and Canada, notably since CHOI is the only right-wing radio station on the air in the province, and generally opposed to the values and opinions of the ubiquitous Liberal Party of Canada. The court is expected to hear the case and make a judgement by March 2005.

External link

• CHOI FM website (http://www.choiradiox.com/)

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Choi is also a Cantonese surname, translated from 蔡.