FM broadcasting in Canada
Encyclopedia
Domestic FM Networks
FM Broadcasting started just after World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
ended. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
first FM outlets were built in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
for English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
service (two stations), and one each in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
and Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
.
At least one station, CKOI-FM
CKOI-FM
CKOI-FM is a French-language Canadian radio station located in Montreal, Quebec.Owned and operated by Cogeco, it broadcasts on 96.9 MHz from the roof of the CIBC Tower in Downtown Montreal with an effective radiated power of 307,000 watts using an omnidirectional antenna...
in Montreal, is licensed for over 300 kW (307,000 watts).
Regulation of Canadian content
One of the more contentious parts of Canadian broadcast history is the Canadian ContentCanadian content
Canadian content refers to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission requirements that radio and television broadcasters must air a certain percentage of content that was at least partly written, produced, presented, or otherwise contributed to by persons from...
(Cancon) requirements. Launched in 1970, to maintain a sense of Canadian stations being "Canadian," it required 35% of all broadcast content be of Canadian origin. (In 1994, CJCA was shut down for violating this rule.)
With music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
, a special system was created to clarify what is considered Canadian content and what isn't. Last modified in 1991, most compact discs and cassettes in Canada come with the MAPL symbol
Symbol
A symbol is something which represents an idea, a physical entity or a process but is distinct from it. The purpose of a symbol is to communicate meaning. For example, a red octagon may be a symbol for "STOP". On a map, a picture of a tent might represent a campsite. Numerals are symbols for...
on them.
Canadian content is calculated by a simple circle divided into four parts (M, A, P and L) Two of the four parts must be shaded to be considered Canadian content.
- M = MusicMusicMusic is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
- A = ArtistArtistAn artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
- P = ProducerRecord producerA record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
- L = LyricsLyricsLyrics are a set of words that make up a song. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist or lyrist. The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of...
In the late 1990s and into the new century, there has been a real migration of Canadian AM
AM broadcasting
AM broadcasting is the process of radio broadcasting using amplitude modulation. AM was the first method of impressing sound on a radio signal and is still widely used today. Commercial and public AM broadcasting is carried out in the medium wave band world wide, and on long wave and short wave...
stations onto the FM dial. In some cases, the AM channel is left idle, in others "specialized" stations have taken over.
Community broadcasting
Most Canadian cities of 50,000 or more people tend to have a community radioCommunity radio
Community radio is a type of radio service, that offers a third model of radio broadcasting beyond commercial broadcasting and public broadcasting. Community stations can serve geographic communities and communities of interest...
station. Typically these stations operate between 1000w to 5000w on FM.
FM regulatory aspects
In 1991, Section 3 of the Broadcasting ActBroadcasting Act
The Broadcasting Act is an Act of the Parliament of Canada regarding broadcasting of radiocommunications...
was amended to state that "the Canadian broadcasting system ... should ... reflect ... the special place of Aboriginal
Aboriginal peoples in Canada
Aboriginal peoples in Canada comprise the First Nations, Inuit and Métis. The descriptors "Indian" and "Eskimo" have fallen into disuse in Canada and are commonly considered pejorative....
peoples within (Canadian) society ... ", and that " ... programming that reflects the Aboriginal cultures of Canada should be provided within the Canadian broadcasting system as resources become available for the purpose."
Aboriginal broadcasting has been mostly a post 1980s phenomena in Canada, and has only had formal regulatory support since the 1990s. Mostly the broadcasting has been on the FM band, as the AM band in Canada is mostly full and has been at capacity due to US night-time MW signals reaching into Canada.
Mileposts in Aboriginal broadcasting
Aboriginal broadcasting in Canada is mostly on the FM band.In June 2000, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) announced that Aboriginal Voices Radio had been granted a licence for a station in Toronto, with transmitter on the CN Tower
CN Tower
The CN Tower is a communications and observation tower in Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Standing tall, it was completed in 1976, becoming the world's tallest free-standing structure and world's tallest tower at the time. It held both records for 34 years until the completion of the Burj...
.
While only 2% of the content would be in Aboriginal languages, the CRTC stipulated that the programming should be " ... oriented to the native population, and reflect the specific interests and needs of that audience."
In October 2000, AVB
AVB
Acapella Vocal Band was a vocal group put together by Keith Lancaster in 1986 to augment the vocal group Acapella. AVB's popularity and ministry quickly grew, prompting Lancaster to launch AVB as a full-time touring group in 1988...
applied for a licence to operate an Aboriginal Voices Radio Network
Aboriginal Voices
Aboriginal Voices Radio Network is a Canadian national radio network with licensed radio stations in nine Canadian metropolitan areas, all which are licensed under the calls of Toronto flagship station CKAV-FM...
(AVR), and the application was granted in February 2001. AVR was later granted licences for stations in Ottawa, Calgary
Calgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...
, Vancouver, Kitchener-Waterloo
Regional Municipality of Waterloo
The Regional Municipality of Waterloo is a regional municipality located in Southern Ontario, Canada. It consists of the cities of Kitchener, Cambridge, and Waterloo, and the townships of Wellesley, Woolwich, Wilmot, and North Dumfries. It is often referred to as the Region of Waterloo or just...
and Montreal.
Aboriginal Radio Stations
Organizational format [Call Letters; City/Town, Province]- CFIE-FM TorontoTorontoToronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, OntarioOntarioOntario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa.... - CFNR-FMCFNR-FMCFNR-FM is a Canadian radio station based in Terrace, British Columbia, owned and operated by Northern Native Broadcasting. The programming represents the First Nations communities in Northern British Columbia. Programming of CFNR-FM is distributed to numerous repeater stations in the region.The...
TerraceTerrace, British ColumbiaTerrace is a city on the Skeena River in British Columbia, Canada. The Kitselas people, a tribe of the Tsimshian Nation, have lived in the Terrace area for thousands of years. The community population fell between 2001 and 2006 from 12,109 with a regional population of 19,980 to 11,320 and...
, British ColumbiaBritish ColumbiaBritish Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858... - CFWE-FMCFWE-FMCFWE-FM is a Canadian radio station, airing a country format for First Nations throughout the province of Alberta. The station's programming airs from studios in Edmonton, although prior to 2009 the station did not broadcast in the city and its primary transmitter was licensed to Lac La...
EdmontonEdmontonEdmonton is the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta and is the province's second-largest city. Edmonton is located on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Capital Region, which is surrounded by the central region of the province.The city and its census...
, AlbertaAlbertaAlberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces... - CHCR-FMCHCR-FMCHCR-FM is a community radio station broadcasting at 102.9 FM in Killaloe, Ontario, with a repeater at 104.5 FM in Wilno, known as "Canadian Homegrown Community Radio"....
KillaloeKillaloe, OntarioKillaloe is a town located in Renfrew County, Ontario, Canada in the township of Killaloe, Hagarty and Richards. Geographically it is located in Eastern Ontario. The shores of Golden Lake are located to the east, which is well known for quality angling and year round recreation...
, Ontario - CHFN-FMCHFN-FMCHFN-FM is a First Nations community radio station that operates at 100.1 FM in Neyaashiinigmiing, Ontario, Canada.Owned by Chippewas of Nawash, the station was given approval by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission in 2003....
Wiarton, Ontario - CHLE-FM Yellowknife, Northwest TerritoriesNorthwest TerritoriesThe Northwest Territories is a federal territory of Canada.Located in northern Canada, the territory borders Canada's two other territories, Yukon to the west and Nunavut to the east, and three provinces: British Columbia to the southwest, and Alberta and Saskatchewan to the south...
- CHMO-FM Moosonee, Ontario
- CHMZ-FMCHMZ-FMCHMZ-FM is a Canadian radio station that broadcasts at 90.1 FM in Tofino, British Columbia. It also operates as the studio source from programming on 99.5 CIMM-FM in Ucluelet. Collectively, the stations are labelled as Long Beach Radio. Programming targets regional news and events as well as a...
Tofino, British Columbia - CHON-FMCHON-FMCHON-FM is a Canadian radio station, owned by Northern Native Broadcasting which broadcasts at 98.1 FM in Whitehorse, Yukon. A community radio station with a variety of music and information programs for the First Nations population, the radio station serves much of the Yukon, as well as several...
WhitehorseWhitehorse, YukonWhitehorse is Yukon's capital and largest city . It was incorporated in 1950 and is located at kilometre 1476 on the Alaska Highway in southern Yukon. Whitehorse's downtown and Riverdale areas occupy both shores of the Yukon River, which originates in British Columbia and meets the Bering Sea in...
, YukonYukonYukon is the westernmost and smallest of Canada's three federal territories. It was named after the Yukon River. The word Yukon means "Great River" in Gwich’in.... - CINC-FM WinnipegWinnipegWinnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...
, ManitobaManitobaManitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other... - CJLR-FM La Ronge, SaskatchewanSaskatchewanSaskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....
- CKON-FMCKON-FMCKON-FM is a radio station located in Akwesasne, a Mohawk nation territory that straddles the Canada-United States border ....
Akweasasne, Ontario - CKRK-FMCKRK-FMCKRK-FM is an English-language Canadian radio station located in the Kahnawake Mohawk Territory, a First Nations reserve near Montreal, Quebec....
Kahnawake, QuebecQuebecQuebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level.... - CKRZ-FMCKRZ-FMCKRZ-FM is a radio station in Ohsweken, Ontario. Owned by the Southern Onkwehon:we Nishinabec Indigenous Communications Society , the station airs a community radio format for the region's Six Nations and Mississauga First Nations.-History:...
Ohsweken, Ontario - CKTI-FMCKTI-FMCKTI-FM is a First Nations community radio station in Canada, playing a mixture of country and classic rock music broadcasting at 107.7 FM in Kettle Point, Ontario...
Kettle Point, Ontario - CKUN-FMCKUN-FMCKUN-FM is a First Nations/community radio station broadcasting at 101.3 FM in Christian Island, Ontario, Canada. The station began broadcasting in 2002 and is owned by Chimnissing Communications.-External links:** at Canadian Communications Foundation*...
Christian Island, Ontario - CKWO-FMCKWO-FMCKWO-FM is a Canadian radio station that airs active rock and aboriginal/First Nations community radio programming broadcasting at 92.3 FM in Fort Frances, Ontario and the Couchiching First Nation...
Fort Frances, Ontario
Station identification
Historical notes- The International Telecommunication UnionItuItu is an old and historic municipality in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. The population in 2009 was 157,384 and the area is 641.68 km². The elevation is 583 m. This place name comes from the Tupi language, meaning big waterfall. Itu is linked with the highway numbered the SP-75 and are flowed...
(ITU) originally assigned the call letter blocks VAA to VGZ to Canada. For a while, UWA-UZZ was assigned to Canada, but deleted in 1934. - Also in 1934, Canada was assigned the blocks CFA-CKZ and VXA-VYZ originally assigned to "Great BritainGreat BritainGreat Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
and protectorates," and CYA-CZZ, originally assigned to MexicoMexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
.
Current practices
- Newfoundland and LabradorNewfoundland and LabradorNewfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada. Situated in the country's Atlantic region, it incorporates the island of Newfoundland and mainland Labrador with a combined area of . As of April 2011, the province's estimated population is 508,400...
was assigned VOA-VOZ, and was assimilated into Canada's assignment when Newfoundland became part of Canada on April 1, 1949. - Canadian station normally use call letters from the CFAA-CFZZ and CHAA-CKZZ blocks.
Current subcarrier services
These are currently permitted subcarrier services, as allowed by the CRTC- Radio Data SystemRadio Data SystemRadio Data System, or RDS, is a communications protocol standard for embedding small amounts of digital information in conventional FM radio broadcasts. RDS standardises several types of information transmitted, including time, station identification and programme information.Radio Broadcast Data...
- DirectbandDirectBandDirectBand is a North American wireless datacast network owned and operated by Microsoft. It uses FM radio broadcasts in over 100 cities to constantly transmit data to a variety of devices, including portable GPS devices, wristwatches and home weather stations....