CJLL-FM

On October 4, Radio 1540 Ltd. (owner of CHIN Toronto) was awarded a licence for a new ethnic station at Ottawa. The new station would operate on 97.9 MHz and serve the approximately 360,000 residents of Ottawa/Hull who were of minority ethnic origin. Ninety-four percent of weekly programming would be ethnic, and at least 92% of all programming would be in languages other than English, French or languages of the Aboriginal peoples of Canada. Such programming would be directed to a minimum of 37 cultural groups in at least 20 different languages each broadcast week.

On September 18, approval came for the station to temporarily operate with revised technical parameters. The transmitter site would be relocated from Camp Fortune, Quebec, to Place de Ville, Tower C, in Ottawa, and effective radiated power would be increased from 800 to 1,500 watts at a lower antenna height.

CJLL began testing in September and signed on the air before the end of the year. The JL in the calls: CHIN founder Johnny Lombardi. Studios and offices were located at Suite 100, 30 Murray Street, off Sussex Drive.

On December 3, CJLL was granted an increase in power from 800 to 6,770 watts, as a result of the relocation of the transmitter from Camp Fortune, to Place de Ville. 

Radio 1540’s application for a second station in Ottawa (96.5 MHz) was denied by the CRTC on June 23.

The CRTC renewed CJLL-FM’s licence on March 12. Radio 1540’s request for a condition of licence 3 was denied. The amendment would have permitted the reduction of the minimum amount of third language programming that CJLL-FM must broadcast weekly from 92% to 85%. 

The new General Manager/General Sales Manager at CJLL was Francesco Di Candia while Gary Michaels was now Program Director. When Michaels was GM at CHIN Ottawa he hired Di Candia from his long-time Sales Rep duties at CHIN Toronto to become GSM there.

On June 22, the CRTC administratively renewed the licence for CJLL-FM until November 30, 2012.

The CRTC approved the change in the effective control of Radio 1540 Limited, from John Lombardi to Lenny Lombardi, following the death of John Lombardi in 2002. Radio 1540 Limited was the licensee of CHIN, CHIN-FM, CHIN-DR-1 and CHIN-DR-2 Toronto (Ontario), as well as CJLL-FM. 

While Operations Manager/Program Director Gary Michaels had not been at CJLL since last summer, he had now formalized his absence through resignation. He began with the station as PD and later saw Ops Manager added to his duties. 

On October 22, the CRTC renewed CJLL-FM’s licence to August 31, 2017. This short-term renewal would allow for an earlier review of the licensee’s compliance with the Radio Regulations, 1986 and its conditions of licence.

Hunsdeep Rangar (43) died on June 7. Rangar was host of the Mirch Masala and Bhangra Nation programs on CHIN 97.9 FM.