CANADIAN RADIO NEWS – CRN
Editor: Jon Pearkins – jon@pearkins.com

640 NU Gjoa Haven CBIA CFFB’s only AM LPRT will become a repeater of CFFB-FM-3 Iqaluit NU as part of the shutdown of CFFB-1230. CBIA runs 40 watts.

820 ON Hamilton CHAM Has applied to move to 1650 with 4500 watts day, 1000 watts critical hours, and 500 watts at night on the same land as the transmitter site of co-owned CKOC-1150 Hamilton ON. The initial application, made more than a year ago, states that CHAM will remain off the air for as long as a year until the 1650 Hamilton site is fully functioning. In theory, CINA’s current 400 watt could be used by CHAM on 1650 once CINA’s simulcast period is complete but there is no mention of this possibility in
the CRTC documents that have been made public to date.

990 NL Corner Brook CBY The CRTC will hold a virtual hearing on April 30th to consider four ownership
changes for FM stations and the CBC’s application to move CBY to FM with 10 kW on 106.7 MHz from a tower height of 143.8 metres above average terrain. Due to interventions from Lark Harbour NL, the CBC
also proposed adding a new FM repeater there, with 240 watts on 105.3 MHz. Nine existing FM repeaters will remain in operation.

1230 NU Iqaluit CFFB The CBC has until February 27 2028 to upgrade CFFB-FM-3 in Iqaluit from 179 watts
to 640 watts. Once completed, CFFB-AM will simulcast its FM for three months before signing off forever. CFFB’s license will then transfer to CFFB-FM-3. CFFB’s 11 FM LPRTs and one AM LPRT (CBIA-640) will
continue to be included in that license. The CRTC’s decision makes no mention of a change in call letters for CFFB-FM-3 to CFFB-FM, but it seems likely. All CBC licenses expire on August 27 2027.

1440 AB Wetaskiwin CKJR Applied to use their night-time directional pattern during the day on a permanent basis. Doing so will be the equivalent of doubling their daytime power into Edmonton,
which is now the primary market that they wish to serve with their Sports 1440 format. They are currently 10 kW non-directional in the daytime, and their signal suffers in many areas of Edmonton. The station’s rationale for this Technical Application is to eliminate the obsolete switching units used at sunrise and sunset to switch between directional and non-directional. In addition, the transmitter’s landowner might not authorize the required trenching of his farmland between the three towers to upgrade the switching equipment and has no contractual obligation to do so. Even with the landowner’s permission, the upgrade costs are stated by the station to be “extremely expensive.”

1470 BC Vancouver CJVB License expires on March 5th when the station merges its programming with co-owned CHKG-FM. So far, there are no reports of interest in the frequency by other parties, so the transmitter site will likely be cleared of towers and other structures.

1580 BC Revelstoke CBPK This is a Weatheradio Canada 50 watt repeater transmitter of Revelstoke’s CIT-
386 on 162.400 MHz. Both will be shut down on March 16th along with the entire Weatheradio network, which originally signed on in 1976. CBPK is the network’s only remaining AM transmitter, although there are several FM transmitters scattered across Canada.
+CBPK is also Revelstoke’s last AM transmitter. Coincidentally, Revelstoke was the first community to get a CBC LPRT (Low Powered Relay Transmitter). On October 22nd 1940, a 20 watt transmitter signed on to
840, simulcasting CBR Vancouver. The LPRT initially was assigned call letters reserved for experimental stations, but the CBC quickly decided upon a call letter pattern, granting the station CBRA, with “A” for first and “CBR” indicating the station being simulcast. The call letters remained, even though CBR became CBU in 1952, until the LPRT moved to FM when the call letters changed to CBTO-FM.

1650 ON Mississauga CINA Has applied to move to 820 with 50 kW day/10 kW night, using the existing CHAM Hamilton ON transmitter site. Initially, CINA will simulcast on 1650 and 820 for up to 30 days. The initial application, made more than a year ago, indicates that 1650 could remain silent for almost a year until the 1650 Hamilton site is fully functioning. No mention is made of the possibility of CHAM using CINA-1650’s current 400 watt transmitter site in the interim.

Tips from SOWNY.net
IRCA DX Monitor March 7, published March 2 via WOR iog (2026-03-03)