CIRA-FM

On October 14, Radio Ville-Marie received a licence for a predominantly religious French-language FM station at Montréal, broadcasting on the frequency 91.3 MHz, with an effective radiated power of 36,200 watts. The new station would offer at least 60 hours a week of local programming. A non-profit organization, it is limited to no more than six minutes of advertising in an hour, with an average of four minutes per hour, for a total of 504 minutes per week. In licensing the station, the CRTC said Radio Ville-Marie exceeded some of the expectations, noting its ecumenical orientation and plan for training volunteers.

CIRA-FM “Radio Ville-Marie” began broadcasting.

On March 24, Radio Ville-Marie was given approval to add a transmitter in Trois-Rivières, broadcasting on 89.9 MHz with an effective radiated power of 6,000 watts.

A transmitter for CIRA-FM was approved for Victoriaville on September 23. It would operate on 89.3 MHz with an effective radiated power of 575 watts.

CIRA proposed to change the frequency for its Victoriaville transmitter from 89.3 to 103.5 MHz (power would remain at 575 watts). The CRTC denied the application on April 29.

For the record, the CIRA-FM Radio Ville-Marie studios and offices were noted as being at 4020, St. Ambroise,  bureau 199 in Montreal.

On September 26, CIRA-FM was authorized to add a transmitter at Rimouski. The new transmitter would operate on a frequency of 104.1 MHz and have an average effective radiated power of 111.5 watts. 

On September 23, the CRTC approved an application by Radio Ville-Marie to amend the broadcasting licence for CIRA-FM in order to operate an AM transmitter in Gatineau. The new transmitter would operate at 1350 kHz with a daytime power of 1,000 watts and a night-time power of 180 watts. The licensee indicated that the addition of the transmitter in Gatineau would allow it to respond to the requests for the service from that region’s population.

In the fall, CIRA 91.3 began testing its Gatineau transmitter – CIRA-5 on 1350 kHz. It started out by simulcasting the signal of CJEU 1670 in Gatineau but once fully operational it would simulcast CIRA Montreal.

CIRA-5 (1350 kHz) began broadcasting – simulcasting CIRA 91.3 Montreal.

On January 31, the CRTC approved the application by CIRA-FM to change the authorized contours of CIRA-FM-2 Trois-Rivières, by relocating the transmitter, decreasing its average ERP from 6,000 to 2,100 watts (max. from 6,000 to 3,200 watts), changing its radiation pattern from non-directional to directional and increasing its antenna height. 

Transmitter CIRA-5 (1350) was shut down for financial reasons. It had been on the air since 2012.

The CRTC granted a short-term renewal of the licence of CIRA and its transmitters through August 2022. The commission said the short-term renewal would allow for a review of compliance issues including broadcasting messages soliciting funds that violate the Religious Broadcasting Policy, absence of program logs for some time periods and late or incomplete filing of annual returns.