Owned and operated by Corus Quebec, it broadcast on 690 kHz with a power of 50,000 watts as a clear channel (class A) station, using a slightly directional antenna solely for the purpose of improving reception in downtown Montreal.

Following the advent of television, the station was forced to redefine itself and some Top 40 programming appeared with Léon Lachance, whose show was highly popular with both linguistic groups.

CKVL innovated with the first open line talk show in Quebec in 1959, hosted by "Madame X" (Reine Charrier).

In 1968, CKVL abandoned its variety format in favour of a hybrid talk/music format, with weekday daytime programming being all-talk with a high proportion of open-line shows, including the famous Jacques Matti / Hélène Fontaine duo and former Liberal (and future Social Credit) politician Yvon Dupuis as morningman.

A licence was attributed by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to another group (Télé Inter-Cité Québec Ltée), which managed to go bankrupt before even getting the station on the air.

In 1981, CKVL committed a famous April Fool's hoax as it claimed that Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau had announced his resignation, and got an imitator posing as Trudeau to do an "exclusive interview" in which "Trudeau" claimed he was tired of dealing with political issues such as the Constitution and also "le poisson de Terre-Neuve" ("fish from Newfoundland"; April's Fool day is known in French as "Poisson d'Avril" -- "Fish of April").

The station implemented drastic budget cuts in 1990, which resulted in the number of unionized employees fall from 76 to 18, although CKVL did manage to recruit a new morningman by poaching Pierre Pascau from CKAC.

The station's newsroom was also closed, effective in May 1991, with news being subsequently supplied by the Canadian Press NTR audio service.

In July, evening host Roger Drolet was fired, and Gaétan Bacon was hired to do an oldies music show during weekday afternoons.

The new all-news format began 35 hours later (on December 14, at 11 a.m.) on the 690 kHz frequency from brand-new studios located in downtown Montreal.

However, in June 2013, Tietolman-Tetrault-Pancholy Media was granted a construction permit for a new station to occupy the 850 kHz frequency, to air a French-language sports-talk format.

In February 2009, Corus announced a restructuring plan to address massive financial losses accumulated at the station since the 1999 format change.

[12] Later that year, Cogeco acquired Corus' Quebec stations; the sale included the transmitter sites and equipment in Kahnawake used for CINF and CINW, but not the licenses, as they were submitted to the CRTC for cancellation.

[13] In May 2011, Cogeco announced that they have planned to sign on two new AM traffic information radio stations for the Montreal area, in conjunction with Transports Québec.

[17] On July 29, 2011, the CRTC began taking other applications for the two frequencies, which left Cogeco's plans for the stations in doubt.

[19][20] On September 7, 2011, the CRTC announced the applicants for the 690 frequency: Paul Tietolman (the son of Jack Tietolman), for a francophone news-talk format; Evanov Communications, for a francophone LGBT-based radio station; and Bell Media, as a new frequency for CKGM, replacing its signal at 990 kHz.

[21] On November 21, 2011, CKGM's relocation from 990 to 690 was approved by the CRTC; after the move is made, Evanov was assigned the 990 frequency for their station, CHRF.