K Rock Kingston

[OpenMike]

Radio waves choppy; New FM station bumps tiny rival

Jennifer Pritchett
Local News - Thursday, August 30, 2007 @ 00:00

A new country music station in Kingston will bump a public radio station on Amherst Island to another frequency, despite attempts to keep the tiny broadcaster's spot on a crowded FM dial.

This week, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) approved K-Rock's application to launch a country music station on 93.5 FM. The channel is just one notch down the dial from CJAI Amherst Island Public Radio at 93.7 FM.

The K-Rock application to the CRTC was the most problematic of three the regulator approved on Tuesday to move stations to the FM dial.

The CRTC also approved CHUM radio's application to relocate All-Time Favourites 1380 AM to 98.9 FM, and Corus Entertainment's request to move Oldies 960 AM to 104.3 FM.

After K-Rock applied to the CRTC in February, Amherst Island's CJAI filed an intervention with Ottawa to stop the larger radio station from getting approval to use the new frequency.

But CJAI station manager Rosemary Richmond said yesterday the public radio station won't be forced off the air.

In preparation for the CRTC decision, the station has applied to Ottawa to move to a protected frequency at 92.1 FM.

That application is pending and, if approved, will prevent other larger stations from forcing the public radio station to move again. "We're still very much committed to staying on the air ... and hopefully will continue to serve our community," said Richmond.

As a development station that made its first broadcast 17 months ago on 93.7 FM, CJAI wasn't protected as a permanent station by the CRTC. That means the interference caused by the new K-Rock station broadcasting from 93.5 FM would force it to move.

The public radio station runs on about $24 a day and broadcasts distinctly local programming that includes shows called Best of the Barn and Uncle Barry's Canadian Blues. Its weekday playlist is 68-per-cent Canadian content - about double the required quota set out by the CRTC - and on the weekends it's 100-per-cent Canadian.

It will cost the station between $5,000 and $7,000 to make all the equipment changes necessary to slide down the dial to 92.1 FM, Richmond said.

"It would have been easier for us certainly to stay on the frequency where we are because our equipment is tuned for that frequency, but it's not an impossibility to change frequencies," she said.

K-Rock station manager John Wright said the station would pay the costs associated with CJAI moving to move to another frequency.

"We understand that Amherst Island radio is a good operation and they still need to operate and we're going to help them [financially] to move to another frequency," he said.

Wright said he empathizes with the community radio station, but also pointed to the fact that the FM dial is very congested.

"Most frequencies have stations on them so almost any frequency you pick [already has a station]," he said.

The CRTC approval gives K-Rock a year to get the new station on the air.

Before the new station hits the airwaves, about six or seven new staff, including on-air and support personnel, and will have to be hired, he said.

"I think it's a real exciting time," Wright said. "There going to be more Canadian services available to the people in Kingston. K-Rock is now in its sixth year so this is a big expansion for us - it's terrific."

When K-Rock's new station is up and running sometime in the next year, it will become the sixth radio station in Kingston and the only country music station licensed to a Kingston operator.

The city's other country music station, KIX 102.7, is broadcast in Canada by K-Rock, but is licensed by an operator out of Cape Vincent, N.Y.

[Primitive]

This is a bit of a lie.

K Rock is in bed with the station from Cape Vincent.

Mark my words... When the new station is ready to go, 102.7 will fip away from country to another format, and both stations will share the money.

K Rock isn't on a noble quest to get radio listeners to return to Kingston radio as the CRTC decision would have us believe.