Graphic courtesy: Montreal Alouettes
Fans wanting to listen to Montreal Alouettes games in French this season will have to turn their radio dials, as the franchise has found a new broadcast home.
On Friday, the Alouettes unveiled that 99.5 Montreal will be their official French-language radio broadcaster, beginning with the preseason opener on May 22. The station, which is owned by Leclerc Communications, will carry every game throughout the 2026 season across the airwaves and on its mobile app.
“We are very pleased to welcome a new partner into the Montreal Alouettes family. We remain confident that the Leclerc Communication group will help showcase our team across the province by giving it excellent visibility throughout Quebec,” senior vice president, chief operations and financial officer René Masson said in a statement. “Ultimately, all of our football fans will be the real winners as they’ll be able to get even more access to the team and players via this new deal.”
Alouettes games had been exclusively broadcast in French on 98.5 FM since 2011, with that station long being viewed as the leader in the marketplace. Jean St-Onge called games last season, with former CFL defensive back J.P. Bolduc providing colour commentary. The play-by-play announcer and analyst for this year’s broadcasts will be announced at a later date.
Since 2024, Leclerc Communications has had an agreement with Quebecor, the company of Alouettes owner Pierre Karl Péladeau, to simulcast its Qub Radio talk programming on 99.5 Montreal from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on weekdays. The move prompted the station to lay off most of its on-air staff, though they continue to play rock music on evenings and weekends to comply with Canadian broadcasting rules.
Quebecor was not able to purchase 99.5 Montreal outright because they already operate a newspaper and a TV station in the city, which would have constituted a violation of CRTC cross-media ownership regulations. However, the station is viewed as an extension of Péladeau’s media empire due to the partnership.
“We are very proud to partner with an organization as iconic as the Montreal Alouettes,” Benoit Simard, 99.5 Montreal‘s general manager and programming director, said in a statement. “This partnership represents an important step in the development of our station and will allow us to offer our listeners sports coverage that is unifying, passionate, and deeply rooted in Montreal.”
The timing of Péladeau granting radio rights to one of his media affiliates is intriguing, as the CFL’s television broadcast rights deal is set to expire following the 2026 season and a new agreement is expected to be announced in the near future. The league’s French-language rights are currently held by RDS, Bell Media’s francophone sports network and the chief rival to Quebecor’s TVA Sports channel. That has long fueled speculation that Péladeau would like to acquire his team’s TV rights for his own network.
For now, the Alouettes’ English radio broadcasts will continue to be aired on TSN 690 in Montreal, under the Bell Media umbrella.
