Max 98.3 FM: CHER-FM Keeps Sydney Singing with Cape Breton’s Biggest Classic Hits
Step off the ferry in North Sydney, turn on the dial, and you will almost certainly land on CHER-FM—better known as Max 98.3. Broadcasting from the heart of Sydney since 1965 (and on the FM band since 2001), the station has grown into Cape Breton’s undisputed home for classic hits. From the Eagles soaring through morning traffic on George Street to Bryan Adams powering Saturday night kitchen parties, Max 98.3 curates a feel-good playlist that spans the 70s, 80s, and 90s while peppering in beloved Maritime anthems for good measure.
Weekdays kick off with “Max Mornings with Darren,” a hyper-local blend of weather, road reports on the Sydney River Bridge, and trivia that routinely gifts listeners concert tickets or Tim Hortons cards. Mid-day host Krista keeps the office crowd moving with “The Nineties at Noon,” while afternoons belong to veteran rock guru Steve Hart, whose “Five-O-Clock Freak-Out” counts down the day’s most-requested tracks just in time for the commute down Kings Road. Evenings settle into “Cape Breton Classic Concert,” an hour of live recordings that might feature April Wine at Centre 200 one night and Great Big Sea rocking the Savoy the next.
Community service is stitched into Max 98.3’s fabric. The annual Max “Stuff-a-Bus” toy drive fills an entire transit coach with gifts bound for Cape Breton’s Family Place Resource Centre. During Celtic Colours International Festival, the station broadcasts artist interviews and pop-up sessions from Bras d’Or Lakes Inn, giving global fans a front-row seat. When winter nor’easters barrel in, Max flips to storm-watch mode, sharing real-time power-outage maps and school-closure updates faster than most social feeds.
Technologically, CHER-FM pairs a 100,000-watt signal on 98.3 FM with a crisp online stream accessed through the “Max 98.3” mobile app and smart-speaker commands (“Play Max Ninety-Eight-Three”). SEO-friendly pages titled “Max 98.3 playlist,” “classic hits radio Sydney NS,” and “CHER-FM live stream” ensure that anyone searching for Cape Breton radio finds the station within a click.
Whether you are hauling lobster traps off Louisbourg, studying at Cape Breton U, or pining for home from an Alberta job site, Max 98.3 FM delivers the riffs, stories, and local spirit that make Sydney sing—one perfectly timed power ballad at a time.
