is a
Canadian Media corporation. It owns several
Radio Station s in
Quebec and
Atlantic Canada , as well as several
Television Station s that are available across Canada, including
The Movie Network ,
Viewers Choice ,
Family ,
Teletoon and more.
Astral Media's roots lie with Angreen Photo, a
Canadian Company founded in 1961. It was created when
Montreal 's Greenberg brothers founded it to operate the
Photography concession in
Miracle Mart , a
Department Store chain. Its acquisition in 1968 of a photographic store eventually grew into a 125-store chain, Astral Photo, the remnants of which are now owned by the
Black's chain. The store grew quickly into
Motion Picture processing after acquiring the Pathé-Humphries motion picture lab. The name was changed to Bellevue Pathé and later to AstralTech.
Astral, in its present day form, was constituted in 1973 under the name Astral Bellevue Pathé Limited. Astral eventually undertook
Videocassette duplication and video
Wholesaling . Astral also
Produced or
Executive Produced over 100 feature
Film s and
Television Program s and television
Miniseries . In 1983, the Greenberg's acquired complete control of two
Pay-per-view networks. Astral expanded its television operations by launching new networks. Astral ceased to be directly involved in
Film and program production in 1983. Later, they also became involved with the home video market, lasting from the mid-1980s until at least 1996.
In February 2000, Astral Communications became Astral Media. For a discussion of The Movie Network/Movie Central
Duopoly , see
The Movie Network .
On February 23, 2007, Astral announced that it had signed a letter of intent and had entered into exclusive negotiations regarding the acquisition of substantially all the assets of radio broadcaster,
Standard Radio Inc.
Astral Media announces signature of letter of intent to acquire Standard Radio
Current members of the ,
Austin Beutel ,
Paul Bronfman ,
André Bureau (chairman),
Jack Cockwell ,
George Cohon ,
Paul Godfrey ,
Stephen Greenberg ,
Ian Greenberg ,
Sidney Greenberg ,
Sidney Horn , and
Timothy Price .
- CKMF-FM 94.3, Montreal
- CHIK-FM 98.9, Quebec City
- CKTF-FM 104.1, Gatineau / Outaouais
- CIMO-FM 106.1, Magog / Estrie
- CIGB-FM 102.3, Trois-Rivières / Mauricie
- CJAB-FM 94.5, Saguenay
- CJMM-FM 99.1, Rouyn-Noranda
- CJMV-FM 102.7, Val D'Or
- CIKI-FM 98.7, Rimouski
- CJDM-FM 92.1, Drummondville
- CIKX-FM 93.5, Grand Falls, New Brunswick
- CKTY-FM 99.5, Truro, Nova Scotia
- CKTO-FM 100.9, Truro, Nova Scotia
- CJCJ-FM 104.1, Woodstock, New Brunswick
- CKBC-FM 104.9, Bathurst, New Brunswick
- CFXY-FM 105.3, Fredericton, New Brunswick
- CIBX-FM 106.9, Fredericton, New Brunswick
- CKHJ 1260, Fredericton, New Brunswick
Astral also programs two channels for broadcast on
Sirius Canada . Rock Velours, based on the RockDétente format, airs on Sirius channel 192, and Énergie
2, based on the Énergie format, airs on Sirius channel 193.
In addition, Astral partnered with
CHUM Limited in an application for a terrestrial digital subscription service which was also licensed by the CRTC at the same time as the satellite radio services. That service has not launched as of April, 2007; it is not currently known if it ever will.
