CJAI-FM

On November 23, Amherst Island Radio Broadcasting Inc. (AIR) was granted a licence for an English-language developmental community FM station at Stella. The station would broadcast 126 hours of programming per week, of which a minimum of 28 hours would be live. Programming would showcase local musicians and other performing artists, community events, service groups and the history of Amherst Island. The new station would operate at 93.7 MHz with an effective radiated power of 5 watts.

CJAI-FM signed on the air April 1. The studios were located in a cow barn’s milking house and the antenna was atop the barn’s grain silo. Some of the “names” associated with CJAI: former Global TV anchorman Peter Trueman; Tom Richmond, a former Rochester, New York DJ; former CBC executive Harold Redekopp, and Terry Culbert – station manager – also a former Global employee.

On October 15, Amherst Island Radio Inc. received permission to change CJAI-FM’s frequency from 93.7 MHz to 92.1 MHz. In response to the CRTC’s approval of an application by K-Rock 1057 Inc. proposing the use of 93.5 MHz for a new FM station at Kingston and in response to being informed by K-Rock that on-air testing of its new station’s signal would commence between  October 12 and 19, AIR filed the present application for the use of 92.1 MHz, to ensure the continuity of its service until such time as the Commission considers AIR’s application for a regular community radio licence. The licensee indicated that the proximity of Stella to Kingston would result in CJAI-FM’s frequency 93.7 MHz being incompatible with the frequency 93.5 MHz to be used by K-Rock, rendering CJAI-FM’s signal useless, given K-Rock’s technical parameters.

On December 6, Amherst Island Radio Broadcasting Inc. was authorized to operate CJAI-FM as an English-language, Type B community station on 92.1 MHz.  The CRTC denied a concurrent application for the use of the frequency 93.7 MHz. The applicant indicated that, during each broadcast week, the station would broadcast 126 hours of programming, including 112 hours of station-produced programming which would include locally produced and performed folk, bluegrass and gospel country music, information on local ferry operations, local and regional news, information on environmental issues, interview programs focussing on local artists, writers and other individuals and radio plays. Its acquired programming will compliment this local programming and focus on the broadcast of documentaries, radio serials from the 1930s and the Dig Your Roots concert series produced by the National Campus and Community Radio Association.