CANADA
600 CFQR Montréal now with own programming.
CFQR’s licence was approved by the CRTC in 2012 for transmission with 10kW days and 5kW at
night. CFQR was licensed for almost-entirely local programming. It took until June 2017 for the
station to actually transmit and it did so with test transmissions of mainly music but no actual
content. From 13th June CFQR has taken a tentative step forward by presenting a morning drive
programme hosted by Jim Connell.
CFQR’s story is peppered with difficulty. The station blamed the lack of a suitable internet connection to its transmitter site as the reason for it not broadcasting sooner. The lack of internet connection meant that the station could not relay the emergency National Public Alerting System – a matter that the CRTC rejected as non-compliant. This, along with a failure to submit financial returns, caused the CRTC only to issue a short-term four-year licence renewal expiring on 31st August 2023. (CRTC decision 2019-292).
Medium Wave News July/August 2022 via WOR iog (2022-07-05)