CHMS-FM

In July, Quinte Broadcasting Co. Ltd. received approval to operate an AM station at Bancroft. It would use the 1240 kHz frequency and have a power of 1,000 watts daytime and 250 watts night-time.

CJNH 1240 signed on the air on March 1. A 140 foot tower (offering a non-directional signal) was located in Dungannon Township. CJNH was originally to be a full repeater of CJBQ in Belleville, but because of poor ground conductivity in the region, it was hard to receive stations from outside the area – even CJBQ with a power increase to 10,000 watts. It was decided (with major support from the Chamber of Commerce) that CJNH would have a local programming in addition to simulcasting some CJBQ programs. There was also a 42 member North Hastings Community Radio Committee which produced a number of hours of weekly programming on CJNH. The “NH” in the call letters represents the service area of the station: North Hastings.

Fred White was among the volunteers of the Community Radio Committee at CJNH. Along with Margaret Hawley, he had been doing a weekly show of old-time and semi-classical music for six years, performing as technician, librarian and announcer. When he started his radio career he was 74. On November 18, Fred turned 80. A surprise birthday party was held during his on-air shift. It was likely that White was one of the oldest Canadian disc jockeys at the time.

On January 13, the CRTC approved Quinte Broadcasting’s application to amend the broadcasting licence for CJBQ Belleville, by deleting the condition of licence which required the station to operate as an affiliate of the CBC English-language AM Radio Network service. The CBC service would be replaced on CJBQ Belleville and CJTN Trenton by locally-originated programs, and on CJNH Bancroft by programs from CJBQ Belleville, its originating station. The CBC network service would continue to be available to Belleville and area residents through CBCP-FM Peterborough-Cobourg.

Frank C. Murray retired as general manager of Quinte Broadcasting (CJBQ-CIGL Belleville, CJTN Trenton and CJNH Bancroft). Associated with the company for 35 years, Murray was a past president of the Central Canada Broadcasters Association and the Radio Bureau of Canada, and a former director of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters. Murray was active in many local organizations and was recently honoured in Lahr, West Germany, for his work in promoting the twinning of Lahr with Belleville. He would continue with Quinte Broadcasting as a consultant.

On December 13, the CRTC approved an increase in night-time power for CJNH from 250 to 1,000 watts. 

CJNH marked its 10th anniversary with a new broadcast facility.

Top loading was added to the CJTN tower.

CJNH became a semi-satellite of CJTN Trenton.

On February 17, the CRTC approved the purchase of CJNH from Quinte Broadcasting Co., Ltd. by The Haliburton Broadcasting Group Inc. Under Quinte’s ownership, CJNH operated as a part-time service producing 20 hours of local programming each week. It received the rest of its programming from Quinte’s stations in Trenton (CJTN) and Belleville (CJBQ). Haliburton proposed to increase the amount of local programming broadcast on CJNH by 12 to 15 hours each week. In addition, it would offer programs received from its station, CFBG-FM Bracebridge. 

On March 2 the CRTC approved the conversion of CJNH from AM to FM – using a frequency of 97.7 MHz with an effective radiated power of 50,000 watts. All station programming would originate from Bancroft. The new station would retain the current CJNH programming format. It proposed to offer a better service to the local community of Bancroft and area, and be able to reach the areas of Minden and Haliburton, comunities that currently are without a local radio service. The applicant intends to expand both local news and information coverage.

CJNH-AM became CHMS-FM “The Moose” in May.

Standard Broadcasting purchased a 29.9% interest in Haliburton Broadcasting.

On September 19, the CRTC approved the transfer of control of The Haliburton Broadcasting Group Inc. through the transfer of Christopher Grossman’s voting shares (100% of the total) to his personal holding company, 1572676 Ontario Inc. Haliburton is the licensee of CFBG-FM Bracebridge, CHMS-FM Bancroft, CHMT-FM Timmins, CHYC-FM Sudbury, CHYK-FM Timmins, CKAP-FM Kapuskasing and CKLP-FM Parry Sound, Ontario. 

On August 29 the CRTC renewed CHMS-FM’s licence to August 31, 2014.

Former CJNH owner Myles Morton passed away at the age of 85.

Moose FM morning show host Drew Hosick moved to Haliburton Broadcasting’s
new Star FM Kemptville, also as morning host. 

In September it was announced that Lindsay May, would join Moose FM (Bancroft) to host the morning show. She had been filling in as mid-day host and Community Events co-coordinator at 98.9 The Drive (Kingston). Her last day in Kingston was set for October 26.

On October 19, the CRTC approved the application by Vista Radio Ltd. for authority to acquire from Haliburton Broadcasting Group Inc. the assets of Haliburton’s AM and FM radio stations and their transmitters located in Bancroft, Barry’s Bay, Bolton, Bracebridge, Caledon, Cochrane, Elliot Lake, Espanola, Fort Erie, Haldimand, Haliburton, Hearst, Huntsville, Iroquois Falls, Kapuskasing, Kemptville, Niagara Falls, North Bay, Parry Sound, Prescott, St. Catharines, Stratford, Sturgeon Falls and Timmins. Vista was a corporation controlled by Westerkirk Capital Inc., in turn controlled by Thompson Investments Limited. CHMS-FM was among the stations acquired by Vista.