CKNA-FM

In November, under the leadership of Jacques Lachance, a group of community radio enthusiasts in Natashquan ran a forty-eight-hour radiothon, using a 10 watt transmitter, that raised $3000. The station was not formally licensed at this stage.

In the fall, the community of Natashquan opened its own sociocultural centre, which housed a 10 watt radio station with the callsign CJAN-FM, on 98.1 MHz. The station went on the air during the Christmas holidays.

CJAN went off the air on January 6th, but returned to the air on January 30th.

On May 1st, representatives of the Corporation de Développement Communautaire des Cantons d’en Bas Natashquan went before the CRTC to apply for a licence for their French-language community radio station, to continue to broadcast on 98.1 MHz, with an effective radiated power of eight watts. On June 8th, the Corporation was granted a five-year licence, to expire on March 31st 1989. At this time, the station’s call letters were changed to CKNA-FM, as CJAN was already in use by another station.

On September 11th, La Radio Communautaire CKNA Inc, which had been incorporated two years earlier, received CRTC approval to acquire the assets of CKNA-FM Natashquan from the Corporation de Développment Communautaire des Cantons d’en Bas, and with it a broadcast licence to continue the operation of CKNA-FM.

The Commission also approved a change of frequency for the station, from 98.1 MHz to 104.1 MHz, and an increase in effective radiated power from 8 watts to 40 watts, to provide a better quality signal to Natashquan and area. CKNA-FM undertook to broadcast 33 hours per week of local programming, and received approval to rebroadcast programming from CKAC and CITE-FM Montreal, “to offset the community’s isolation and its lack of available radio services.”

On March 3rd, CKNA-FM received a five-month administrative licence renewal from the CRTC. On June 21st, a new five-year licence was issued, from September 1st 1989 to August 31st 1994; it was a condition of renewal that the station should adjust its planned music programming to conform to the Commission’s policies on community radio in terms of musical diversity.

CFNA-FM received approval from the CRTC on January 15th for the station to increase its effective radiated power from 40 watts to 6560 watts, which would improve service to the neighbouring community of Porte Parent, and extend the station’s coverage to Aguanish and Ile-A-Michon. The Commission also approved CFNA-FM’s request to make some adjustments to its foreground/mosaic programming to better serve its predominantly francophone audience.

A six-year licence renewal was granted to CKNA-FM by the CRTC on July 12th, to expire on August 31st 2000. The station was also relieved of any limitation on the amount of advertising it could carry

On August 4th the licence of CKNA-FM and many other radio stations was renewed until February 2nd 2001, to give the Commission time to review all the applications.

The CRTC renewed CKNA-FM’s licence on February 15th for just over six years, from March 1st 2001 to 31st August 2007. The station undertook to broadcast 126 hours of programming per week, of which 24 hours 30 minutes would be locally produced. 15% of its local programming would be community-oriented spoken-word programming.

On March 9th the CRTC announced that it planned to renew the licence of CKNA-FM, along with those of a large group of other non-commercial radio programming undertakings, in the absence of any interventions against such action. On May 22nd, in the absence of any interventions, the Commission renewed CKNA-FM’s licence for a further seven years, from September 1st 2007 to August 31st 2014.