Radio & Podcast News – CRTC asks Rafale FM Labrador to explain ad revenue earned while off the air

The CRTC has reopened the public comment period for licence renewal of Labrador francophone community radio station Rafale FM (CJRM-FM) – the station revealed in an April CBC report to have been off the air since 2015 while still accepting advertising dollars. In a letter to Radio communautaire du Labrador inc., the commission asks the licensee to confirm the station’s status and justify National Advertising Sales revenues identified in annual reports filed with the commission for the broadcast years 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18 if the station was off the air during those years. Interventions are now being accepted until May 29.

Jim Pattison Broadcast Group has rebranded CK750 Melfort, SK to Saskatchewan’s New Beach Radio. Known as CK750 since 2002, Beach Radio’s playlist will focus on hits from the 1980s and 90s, available at 750AM locally and online at beachradiosk.ca. Beach Radio will still air news and sports, Melfort Mustangs hockey and Saskatchewan Roughriders broadcasts.

Bayshore Broadcasting has changed the format of 89.1 Max FM (CISO-FM) Orillia, ON from Classic Hits to Modern Rock. The station dropped its previous Adult Contemporary format in Nov. 2018 when it rebranded to Max FM.

The CRTC has approved an application by University of the Fraser Valley to extend the reach of campus station CIVL 101.7 Abbotsford, BC. into Chilliwack. The transmitter would operate at 92.3 MHz (channel 222A) with an average effective radiated power (ERP) of 1,700 watts (maximum ERP of 4,600 watts).

CBC has received approval to operate an FM rebroadcasting transmitter to broadcast CBC Radio One programming out of Thunder Bay (CBQT-FM). The new transmitter would replace CBLB-AM Schreiber, ON at 90.9 FM.The new transmitter will operate at 90.9 MHz (channel 215A1) with an effective radiated power of 130 watts.

CBC Vancouver is airing multi-platform special Matheson, starting May 21 – a series on the lives of students at Surrey’s L.A. Matheson Secondary School. It will air on CBC Radio One’s The Early Edition every weekday morning through May 31 at 7:10 a.m., with features on CBC Vancouver News at 6 p.m. and online at cbc.ca/bc. Associate producer Jason D’Souza spent one month embedded at the school with a mission to let the students’ issues and concerns dictate the stories to tell and how to tell them. The series will explore technology in the classroom and the role of social media; Surrey’s reputation and how it impacts students; cultural dynamics in a school of predominantly South Asian students; and the rising prevalence of vaping, among other issues. The final episode of Matheson will be a special live remote broadcast with community members invited to attend a pancake breakfast.

Calm Radio, the Toronto-headquartered online music streaming service focused on the wellness and relaxation markets, has secured $1.25M in financing from BDC and TD Commercial Banking. The company says the funds will be used to propel its rapidly growing listener base which it says grew by over 85% over the last fiscal year, now streaming over five million hours of sleep, relaxation and meditation music to close to one million unique IPs each month. With a combination of ad-supported and paid subscribers, Calm Radio was recently awarded the Industry Star award at the 11th Annual Media Excellence Awards – the so-called “Oscars of Technology.”

Spotify is testing how people listen in the car through a voice-controlled music and podcast device called “Car Thing.” The test is being done with a small group of users in the U.S. only In a post to its website, Spotify says its focus remains on becoming the world’s number one audio platform—not on creating hardware.

BandsNBuds, a podcast from SiriusXM Canada’s Sarah Burke, manager of Music Programming (and one-time swing announcer at Indie88 (CIND-FM) Toronto), and music programmer Drew Khan, just passed the 35-episode mark. If you didn’t catch Dave Grohl’s mom Virginia Hanlon at Canadian Music Week, she’s a guest on the latest episode of BandsNBuds, promoting her book “From Cradle To Stage: Stories From The Mothers Who Rocked and Raised Rockstars.” Other recent guests include Dan Mangan and Hawksley Workman.

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