Since the late 2000s, CJBQ is the only remaining Canadian AM radio station operating between Ottawa and the Greater Toronto Area.

In the summer of 1970 a budding young Peter Mansbridge, then at CBC Radio affiliate CHFC in Churchill, Manitoba, answered a trade publication ad for a "Broadcast position available at CJBQ in Belleville, Ontario", only to have the station turn him down flat.

He landed at CBC owned-and-operated station CBW 990 in Winnipeg in 1971, crossing to television a year later and eventually taking the national news anchor desk.

They lost this affiliation in 1984 when CBC added CBCP-FM, a Peterborough-based rebroadcaster of CBL Toronto.

Today the station's music format is predominantly gold-based AC spanning the 1960s through the 2010s, with some classic country and oldies mixed in, in addition to a continued heavy local news, talk and sports commitment; sister station CIGL-FM programs a more contemporary AC format.