The 88.1 FM frequency has been known as the home of radio at Ryerson for many years. Ryerson had been a part of the airwaves since 1949, but recently CKLN-FM (the Ryerson station that had held the CRTC license since 1983) lost its license. February 12, 2011 was the last broadcasting day for that service.
Of interest to us, are the 27 applicants who will battle it out in front of the CRTC for the right to be awarded the now vacated frequency.
This series will begin with a short history of the lost Ryerson license.
As the CRTC explained in its revocation decision, “CKLN Radio had been experiencing ongoing difficulties with its governance structure, staff, funding, accounting, programming, and access to its transmitter site.”
That is an excellent summary, but it does not provide an in-depth understanding of what happened. After all, just two years earlier the CRTC had granted CKLN-FM a full term (7 year) license renewal. What happened to bring the service to a premature end?
Here is what happened:
1) THE STAFF FOUGHT WITH EACH OTHER
It came to a head when station volunteers, staff, and individuals claiming to be members of CKLN-FM’s Board of Directors, were locked out of the studio by the Palin Foundation. This caused the normal daily operations and the programming of the station to stop.
2) THE TRANSMITTER WAS SHUT OFF!
CKLN’s transmitter was located on top of the First Canadian Place office tower at the corner of King and Bay Streets in Toronto. Brookfield Properties Ltd., the building manager for First Canadian Place, denied access to CKLN’s transmitter to all associated with CKLN-FM Radio. Repairs were unable to be performed and the signal started to show signs of deficiency.
3) CKLN-FM STARTED BREAKING CRTC RULES WITH ITS BROADCAST MATERIAL
By not having access to its transmitter, and without the ability to bring volunteers into the studio to program the service, CKLN-FM was unable to broadcast “community radio programming produced primarily by volunteers.” So as a “temporary solution” a programmer set up a loop of jazz and incidental spoken word programming. This caused more problems, as CRTC Canadian content rules were then disobeyed.
4) THERE APPEARED TO BE NO SOLUTION
As if this were not bad enough, the station appeared to have competing boards of directors and the CRTC needed to know who was in charge of the station. The CRTC “invited” CKLN-FM to a public hearing to try to explain how CKLN-FM proposed to solve the crisis. With no adequate solution having been proposed by CKLN-FM, the CRTC revoked the license.
Many people wished to give CKLN-FM a second chance. In fact, CRTC Commissioner Louise Poirier wrote a dissenting opinion as part of the revocation decision. She argued that revocation was an extreme remedy, and she would have given the station more time to come into compliance with the CRTC’s rules.
However, she was in a minority. The majority of the CRTC Commissioners felt that, due to the governance problems, CKLN-FM could not rectify the problems even if it wanted to.
So last fall, with the 88.1 FM slot sitting vacant, the CRTC called for applications by anyone who wanted to operate a service at that frequency. Although the CRTC noted in its call that it had made no determination that it would grant a new license, 27 prospective licensees filed applications by the December 19, 2011 deadline.
The prospect of getting beachfront property in the form of a prime spot on the FM dial, in Toronto, is a tempting prize.
We will next update you when the applications themselves are made public in March.
