CINA-AM

On April 23, the CRTC approved the application by Neeti P. Ray, on behalf of a corporation to be incorporated, for a broadcasting licence to operate a commercial AM ethnic radio programming undertaking in Mississauga. At the same time, the Commission denied the application by S. S. TV Inc. for a broadcasting licence to operate a commercial AM ethnic radio programming undertaking in Brampton. Both applicants sought the use of the same frequency. Ray’s new station would operate on 1650 kHz (Class C) with a transmitter power of 1,000 watts, day and night. Ray is an experienced radio and television ethnic programming content provider and has experience in subsidiary communications multiplex operations. The applicant indicated that it would own 67% of the voting interest of the corporation to be incorporated and would exercise effective control over the new radio programming undertaking. The proposed licensee would be governed by the board of directors pursuant to a Shareholders’ Agreement whereby board members would be nominated by Neeti P. Ray and Renu Ray. Ray stated that all of the programming to be broadcast by the proposed AM station would be ethnic programming, and that 93.6% of the programming would be in third languages, that is, languages other than English, French or a language of the Aboriginal peoples of Canada. The applicant proposed to serve a minimum of nine ethnic groups in a minimum of six languages during each broadcast week. According to the applicant’s sample programming schedule, the programming would target the Armenian, Bangladeshi, East-African Indian, East Indian, Gujarati, Pakistani, and Punjabi communities in various third languages, as well as the Guyanese and Trinidadian/Tobagonian communities in English. Ray proposed to broadcast 70 hours per week of programming in Hindustani; 20 hours per week of programming in Urdu; eight hours per week of programming in each of the Bangla (Bengali), Gujarati, Punjabi and English languages; and four hours per week of programming in Armenian. Ray stated that a minimum of 98 hours of programming broadcast during each broadcast week would be devoted to local programming and that, normally, all programming would be local programming. The applicant stated that the commitment to 98 hours of local programming would allow for circumstances warranting the broadcast of non-local programming such as World Cup soccer coverage, international cricket matches or foreign election coverage. The proposed station would offer 36 hours and 15 minutes of spoken word programming per broadcast week, of which eight hours and 45 minutes would be news programming (33% of which would be local news). In order to ensure compliance with Policy regarding open-line programming, Public Notice CRTC 1988-213, 23 December 1988, the applicant proposed to offer ongoing seminars and workshops reviewing issues such as abusive comment, balance and programming standards. In addition, the applicant indicated that a time delay mechanism would be implemented. Finally, Ray confirmed that it would adhere to the Religious Broadcasting Policy, Public Notice CRTC 1993-78, 3 June 1993, as it relates in particular to balance and ethics. Ray stated in its application that it would ensure that at least 10% of musical selections broadcast during ethnic broadcast periods would be Canadian selections as specified in section 2.2(4) of the Radio Regulations, 1986. Subsequent to the filing of the application by Ray, the Department of Industry granted technical acceptability subject to the condition that the transmitter power would not exceed 680 watts at night. The licence for the new radio station will expire 31 August 2013.

CINA (“Seena”) began on-air testing late in the year and signed on the air in December.

On March 14, the CRTC approved an application to amend the licence for CINA by changing the authorized contours by increasing the transmitter power from 1,000 to 5,000 watts day time. The night-time power would remain at 680 watts and all other technical parameters would remain unchanged. The licensee submitted that the proposed change would significantly improve CINA’s daytime coverage in Mississauga, resulting in a better quality signal to listeners located in the western and south western parts of its licensed area who had been experiencing poor reception. The licensee was also concerned that listenership would continue to erode if the signal quality was not consistent throughout its principal listening area.

Rick Sargent took over as operations manager of CINA-AM Mississauga. Sargent was operations manager of CIAO 530 Toronto for 12 years until 1998, then owned low-power stations CFGM-FM Caledon and CJFB-FM Bolton until selling them to Haliburton.