co-branded with TSN's French-language sister network Réseau des Sports (RDS). Bell also stated that the proposed format would supplant CKAC's recent switch from sports talk to traffic radio in 2011. On October 18, 2012, the CRTC rejected Bell's proposal to acquire Astral Media. Since the application to convert CKGM into a French station was contingent on the approval of the Astral merger, it too was rejected by the CRTC. Prior to hearings in May 2013 regarding a modified proposal to acquire Astral Media, 15,000 listeners signed a petition issued by Bell in support of allowing the company to keep the station. Bell asserted that the CRTC could force CKGM to be sold or shut down if the company was not granted an exemption to the ownership cap. Bell proposed an exemption promising to keep CKGM as a sports radio station and invest $245,000 in local amateur sports and sports journalism scholarships for seven years. At the hearings however, the CRTC's commissioner noted that most of the comments on Bell's petition only supported CKGM maintaining a sports radio format and not Bell's purchase of Astral as a whole, and that the company could elect to sell a different station instead. Rogers Media showed interest in making a "reasonable offer" to purchase CKGM if Bell were forced to divest the station; Rogers planned to put the station in its Sportsnet Radio chain, maintaining a sports format and complementing the recently acquired City station CJNT-DT to increase its presence in Montreal. However, if this were to have occurred, CKGM would have lost its Canadiens radio rights because they are owned by Bell directly. The CRTC ultimately approved Bell's deal and its exemptions for CKGM. After 45 years in the same building, CKGM relocated in September 2013 its studios to 1717 René-Lévesque Boulevard East to join the rest of the Bell Media cluster in Montreal. References External links TSN 690 Montreal KGM KGM Radio stations established in 1959 KGM Sport in Montreal KGM 1959 establishments in Quebec Clear-channel radio stations