CHTN-FM

Northumberland Broadcasting Co. Ltd. received a licence on July 2 for a new AM station at Charlottetown, operating on a frequency of 1190 kHz with a power of 10,000 watts. 

CHTN began broadcasting on December 25 with a recording of the “Island Hymn”. All of the work was not yet completed at the transmitter site but the owners wanted to get the station on the air for Christmas. As a result, CHTN signed on with only 1,000 watts of power on its 1190 kHz frequency rather than the fully authorized power of 10,000 watts. The studios were on North River Road at West Royalty, the transmitter and three 243 foot towers were at Rocky Point. CHTN was owned by Northumberland Broadcasting Co. Ltd.

CHTN began operating at the authorized 10,000 watts in February, using a directional pattern at night.

A share transfer was approved by the CRTC. CHTN would now be owned by A. K. Scales and J. F. Morris.

Approval was granted August 14 for the transfer of 100 common and 1,900 preferred shares in Northumberland Broadcasting Co. Ltd. from W. Allison MacRae to Alan K. Scales and Arnold E. MacLennon. MacRae sold his shares because he was retiring.

On October 7, Arnold E. MacLennan and Alan K. Scales took full ownership of CHTN.

On April 21, the CRTC approved the sale of Northumberland Broadcasting Co. Ltd. by the existing shareholders to Wayne MacArthur (51%), Harold Boyce (10%), Elaine Murley (10%), Forbes Taylor (9%), Richard Green (5%), Douglas Maceachern (5%), Millie MacEachern (5%), and Maurice Rodgerson (5%). Control would reside with MacArthur who had been general manager of CHTN for the past three years. Three of the other new shareholders were station employees.

Wayne MacArthur, president and general manager of CHTN, passed away at the age of 37 on March 11. His wife Welda would continue her involvement with the station.

Rick Green was named general manager, Dave Galley became sales manager, and Graham Brown was CHTN’s new news director.

On March 21, the CRTC approved the application for authority to transfer effective control of Northumberland Broadcasting Company Limited, licensee of CHTN, through the transfer of shares representing a total of 94 % of the common voting shares from nine of the ten shareholders on record to Arnold E. MacLennan and Alan K. Scales. The Commission further approved the proposal to transfer effective control of the licensee company through the transfer of the common voting shares noted above from Messrs. MacLennan and Scales to Newfoundland Capital Corporation Limited, a public corporation whose regional head office was located in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. The Commission considered that these transactions would provide the licensee company with the new leadership and financial resources necessary to continue CHTN’s service to the community and it was satisfied that the transfers of control were in the public interest.

Harry MacLellan was CHTN’s general manager and Don Mabee was program director.

On June 10, Northumberland Broadcasting Co. Ltd. received permission to change CHTN’s frequency from 1,190 kHz to 720 kHz and to decrease night-time power from 10,000 watts to 7,500 watts. Daytime power would remain at 10,000 watts. 

Ross Lord was named news director. Former news director John Owen remained as morning news anchor. Creative writer Linda Nicolson was now doing on-air work at the station. Tony Jans, evening man for the past few years was now CHTN’s mid-day announcer.

With the move from 1190 to 720, CHTN was now serving all of P.E.I. and a chunk of Nova Scotia – from Port Hawkesbury to Kentville, and well in to New Brunswick.

Paul Alan became program director. He had been with CKCW Moncton. 

John C. Owen passed away. He was the first voice heard on CHTN when it went on the air in 1974. He was still working part-time at the station as a newscaster and as news director, a few weeks before his death.

Scott Scantlebury left CHTN as sports director to join CBC-TV Charlottetown. Wayne James was now CHTN’s overnight host. He had been with CFLY-FM in Kingston.

News director Craig Ainslie left CHTN for CBC Radio News in Charlottetown. Paul Alan was CHTN’s program director and morning man. Kathy Hicks was now doing morning news at CHTN. She had been with CIHI Fredericton. Warren McIntyre joined CHTN for mid-days and promotions. He had been with K100 in Saint John.

Studios were listed at 590 North River Road.

Barry Rogers became program director at CHTN, replacing Paul Magee who went to KIX-FM in St. John’s. Kirk MacKinnon became CHTN’s music director.

The CRTC permitted Maritime Broadcasting and Newcap to enter into an LMA involving CFCY and CHLQ-FM and CHTN. Both broadcasters were experiencing financial hardship in a difficult Charlottetown market, and considered that their economic viability would be better protected through the sharing of their facilities and administrative and sales resources. Maritime acted as manager and the LMA stipulated that each licensee would be responsible for making, supervising and controlling decisions related to programming, particularly news. 

MBS and NewCap entered the LMA in August. CHTN sold its studio-office building and moved in with CFCY / CHLQ-FM. Combined staffing was reduced by ten with general manager Blair Daggett becoming news director and program director for CHTN. He said the alternative to the LMA would have been to close the 20 year old station.

It was announced that five people would be laid off by the end of the year at jointly operated CHTN, CFCY, and Q-93.

James (Jimbo) Cross, 52, died in Charlottetown. He began his broadcasting career at CFCY in the mid ‘60s and retired from CHTN in 1995 due to illness.

The Local Marketing Agreement between Maritime and Newcap came to an end on May 31.

On March 24, the CRTC approved the application by Newcap Inc. for a broadcasting licence to operate a new English-language commercial FM radio station in Charlottetown at 100.3 MHz. The new radio station would replace Newcap’s existing AM station CHTN, and offer a Classic Hits/Oldies music format. The application by Newcap was one of four applications to serve Charlottetown considered at a public hearing. Newcap and Maritime Broadcasting System Limited both proposed to convert existing local AM stations to the FM band. In addition, Newcap and Coast Broadcasting Ltd. each proposed to establish new FM radio stations. The Commission determined that the Charlottetown market could support the conversion of the two existing local AM radio stations, as well as a new commercial FM station. Newcap was a wholly owned subsidiary of Newfoundland Capital Corporation Limited, which was legally controlled by Harold R. Steele. It owned radio stations in Alberta, Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador. The new station (CHTN) would operate at 100.3 MHz (channel 262C1) with an average effective radiated power of 33,000 watts. The applicant submitted that conversion of CHTN to the FM band would allow CHTN to compete in a fair and equitable manner while providing a new service to Charlottetown. The proposed station would offer a Classic Hits/Oldies musical format, offering music from the 1960s to the present, targeting primarily female listeners aged 35 to 54. A minimum of 35% of the popular (category 2) musical selections aired during each broadcast week would be Canadian selections, in accordance with the minimum level for category 2 musical selections set out in the Radio Regulations, 1986. The local programming would include 12 hours and 30 minutes of spoken word programming each week, including 6 hours of news, presented in 82 newscasts each week. Newcap indicated that the proposed station would offer regular community information with weather and travel updates twice each hour all day, and public service announcements hourly during the daytime. The new station would also continue CHTN’s practice of frequently broadcasting tide time, ferry schedules, traffic updates from the Confederation Bridge, and other information related to the tourism industry. Newcap further proposed the addition of a program to be called CHTN Presents, a weekly hour-long program that would feature Prince Edward Island artists and their music, with interviews and possible live acoustic performances. The Commission considered that the conversion of CHTN to the FM band would increase the technical quality of the station’s sound, and strengthen Newcap’s competitive position in the Charlottetown radio market. The licence would expire 31 August 2012.

CHTN officially flipped to FM on July 5 at 8:00 a.m., becoming “100.3 The Ocean”. The old CHTN-AM had an oldies format. The new FM station had a classic hits format.

It should be noted that CHTN’s studios and offices were now located at 90 University Avenue.

Newcap launched CHTN’s sister station CKQK-FM on July 26.

On January 19, CHTN-FM was authorized to add transmitters in Elmira (99.9 MHz with average effective radiated power of 990 watts) and St. Edward (89.9 MHz with average ERP of 1,600 watts).

Ocean 100’s new Program Director was Corey Tremere. Gerard Murphy continued as Music Director and also moved to Promotions and Marketing.

In January, Gerard Murphy took on a new role with the station to further develop station promotions and marketing. He would continue as music director and afternoon drive host. Corey Tremere assumed the role of program director. Heather McAulay joined Ocean100/KRock 105-5 as Sales Coordinator.

In March, Ocean 100 and K-Rock 105.5 were now operating repeater stations in eastern and western PEI in order to increase the broadcast coverage area of the two stations. Islanders living in eastern PEI who were not able to access local radio could now listen to Ocean 100 at 99.9 and K-Rock at 103.7on their FM radio dial. Islanders in western PEI who could not access PEI radio service could listen to Ocean 100 at 89.9 and K-Rock at 91.1. Since all PEI radio stations moved to the FM dial in 2006, some Islanders in eastern and western PEI had been experiencing difficulties in getting the new FM signals. General Manager Jennifer Evans with Ocean and K-Rock said they were very pleased to offer this new extended service. At this time, the new repeater signals were being tested by Industry Canada for a few weeks to ensure the signals did not pose any interference with existing radio signals. The rebroadcasters were CHTN-FM-1 and CKQK-FM-1 Elmira / CHTN-FM-2 and CKQK-FM-2 Saint Edward. 

Dwayne Sawchyn was promoted to Regional Sales Manager, Newcap Maritimes (six markets with 10 stations in NS, NB and PEI), and was based in Halifax. He had been Retail Sales Supervisor at CFRQ-FM/CKUL-FM Darmouth/Halifax.

On October 23, the CRTC approved an application by Newfoundland Capital Corporation Limited, on behalf of Newcap Inc. and its licensed broadcasting subsidiaries, for authorization to effect a change in the ownership and effective control of various radio and television broadcasting undertakings in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador, so that effective control of the undertakings would be exercised by Eric Boyko (Stingray Digital Group Inc.). Stingray took ownership of the stations just a few days later.