In 1999, CKLQ-AM Brandon (Manitoba) received a license for a new FM station in Brandon, on 94.7 MHz with 100,000 watts. The station signed on in June 2000 as CKLF-FM playing Adult Contemporary music and calling itself Star 94.7. Owner Riding Mountain Broadcasting Ltd. had six owners in 1999, but one of the owners, Westman Media Co-operative, bought out the rest on September 2, 2003.
Also in Brandon in 1999, CKX won CRTC approval to move from 1150 KHz AM to 101.1 MHz FM with 100,000 watts. In December 1947, CKX and CKY Winnipeg suffered very different fates. Manitoba Government Telephones had been forced to rid itself of both stations as the result of a C.D. Howe (federal minister) pronouncement that provincial governments could not own radio stations. The CBC bought the assets of CKY and made it into CBW. Lloyd Moffat later obtained the CKY call letters for his own newly-licensed station in Winnipeg. But CKX was purchased by a group of Brandon businessmen headed by John B. Craig, who continued the station as a commercial venture. In 1991, the corporate name became Craig Broadcast Systems. And in 2002, Standard Radio purchased Craig.
In 2001, CJLR-FM La Ronge (Saskatchewan) was granted its first powerful FM transmitter license, increasing its North Battleford repeater from 49 to 28,000 watts, moving the transmitter 20 km to the West and increasing antenna height, all of which required a change in frequency from 94.7 to 95.5 MHz. In 2006, a 1260 watt transmitter was approved for Yorkton. And on May 28, 2007, a 43,000 watt transmitter was approved by the CRTC for Regina. The station began in La Ronge with a license on April 27, 1989, for a 10 watt FM transmitter on 89.9 MHz. Owner Missinipi Broadcasting was formed in 1983 when the federal government introduced the Northern Native Broadcast Access Program.
In 1996, this article appeared in the Calgary Herald (courtesy albertaboy4life):
XL Radio broadcasting despite having no licence
Bob Blakey, Calgary Herald. Sep 17, 1996. pg. D.3
Canada's broadcast regulator has a message for XL Radio -- get off the air.
The AM station, at 1140 on the dial, continues to beam programming out to Calgarians, even though its licence has expired.
"Last week the station was told they should no longer be broadcasting,'' said Lucie Sincennes, an officer of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.
The CRTC, she said Monday is "looking into'' XL's continued presence on the air.
According to a business deal announced in the spring, XL traded its AM licence for one on the FM band. Known as Kiss FM, the station rapidly became the city's No. 1 or No. 2 station, according to how you measure ratings.
But XL Radio stayed on -- and on and on. The station continues to play a mix of hits and album tracks in the morning, then sells time later in the day to a religious broadcaster and another one in the evening that airs Chinese-language programming.
XL owner Elmer Hildebrand, head of Golden West Broadcasting of Altona, Man., couldn't be reached for comment Monday.
In the sale, Calgary's Rawlco Communications ended up with majority ownership of the FM outlet and Golden West got XL and a minority share of Kiss.
But the Manitoba company's interest in XL doesn't die with the station's sign-off. Golden West owns CHRB High River, and wants to move it to XL's 1140 frequency.
It also has applied for permission to take over XL's 50,000-watt transmitter for CHRB and scrap the High River station's current 10,000-watt transmitter. Hildebrand told the CRTC in Calgary in July that a more powerful transmitter would better serve High River and area residents.
A local radio consultant who asked not to be named said he believes Hildebrand is keeping XL on the air for the sake of "continuity.'' A period of silence on 1140 between an XL sign off and a takeover by CHRB could cost the operation listeners.
XL Radio was once the biggest station in Calgary. In the 1970s, its formula of flamboyant disc jockeys and top-40 rock far outdistanced all competitors. Starting in the late 1980s, ill-conceived format and call-letter changes (before ultimately reverting to "XL'') hastened the listener exodus, and it fell to last place in the ratings.
