CKSP-AM

On November 28, the CRTC approved an application by Sher-E-Punjab Radio Broadcasting Inc. for a broadcasting licence to operate a new ethnic commercial AM radio station to serve Vancouver. It would be a class B station on 600 kHz with a full-time power of 10,000 watts. All of the station’s programming would be ethnic and target a minimum of 19 distinct ethnic groups in at least 17 languages, and at least 85% of the programming would be broadcast in third languages. The applicant indicated that the station would predominantly target the South Asian population, particularly the Punjabi and Hindi communities. The new station would serve a growing ethnic audience of Vancouver residents by offering a news/talk format to listeners between the ages of 40 and 65. The applicant committed to devote 115 hours of local programming each broadcast week, 65 hours of which would be spoken word programming. It would broadcast 8.5 hours of news, including 6.8 hours of pure news, of which 70% would be local. The licence would expire August 31, 2023.

On August 14, the CRTC approved the application by Sher-E-Punjab Radio Broadcasting Inc. to change the authorized contours of its unlaunched Vancouver AM station by relocating the transmission site and increasing the daytime transmitter power from 10,000 to 50,000 watts and the nighttime transmitter power from 10,000 to 20,000 watts. The technical changes were necessary because the land identified for the original transmission site had been sold, and the new owner was not interested in leasing the land to the applicant. The new proposed site would be located approximately 24 kilometres east of the original site. Since the transmitter would be moved that great a distance, the increase in power was needed to cover the core Vancouver market. Although the proposed power increase would result in an increase to the primary service contour to the west, east and south, it would only increase the contour slightly to the north. Accordingly, the Commission considered that the proposed power increase was not excessive in order to maintain good coverage to the north as originally proposed.

CKSP 600 was noted testing in August.

Sher-E-Punjab AM 600 (CKSP) signed on the air September 28. The station was branded as “BC’s #1 South Asian News Talk Radio.” Prior to the station being licenced, KRPI in Washington State had been targeted by the CRTC as “pirate radio” for broadcasting into the Lower Mainland after complaints of unfair competition from licenced broadcasters.