CKXS-FM

On May 26, the CRTC approved an application from Five Amigos Broadcasting Inc. for a broadcasting licence to operate an English-language commercial FM radio station in Wallaceburg, Ontario. Five Amigos was owned by Greg Hetherington (25% of the voting shares), Gary Patterson (25% of the voting shares), Gregory Aarssen (17% of the voting shares), Mike Kilby (16.5% of the voting shares) and Max Fantuz (16.5% of the voting shares). It was controlled by its board of directors, pursuant to the terms of the Shareholders’ Agreement. The new station would offer an Adult Contemporary music format. It would provide a minimum of 91 hours of local programming per broadcast week, with the remainder consisting of syndicated programming. Further, it would provide a minimum of 12 hours of spoken word programming per broadcast week, of which four hours and 12 minutes would be devoted to news. It would also broadcast information relating to weather, sports, business reports and community events. The Commission received interventions in support of this application, as well as an intervention in opposition from Blackburn Radio Inc. The licence would expire 31 August 2015. The station would operate at 99.1 MHz (channel 256A) with an average effective radiated power of 570 watts.

99.1 FM CKXS-FM officially signed on the air October 20 at 9:00 a.m. with John Mellencamp’s “Born in a Small Town”. CKXS aired an Adult Rock format to a listening area encompassing a 25 to 30 kilometres radius of Wallaceburg. 99.1 FM was owned by Five Amigos Broadcasting Inc. (Greg Hetherington, Gary Patterson, Mike Kilby, Max Fantuz and Greg Aarssen). Hetherington and Patterson were co-general managers and both were also the morning show co-hosts. CKXS had eight full-time and two part-time employees. The airstaff made their official debut on the morning of October 26. Station names included Hetherington and Patterson, along with Jay Smith, Dana Treacy and Chris Prince. The station planned an official grand opening, including tours of the facility for early November. CKXS planned to focus on the Wallaceburg-Dresden, Port Lambton, Mitchell’s Bay area. Studios and offices were located at 520 James Street.

The CRTC approved the change to the ownership of Five Amigos Broadcasting Inc. (FAB), through the transfer of the shares held by Greg Aarssen (17%) and Greg Hetherington (25%) to the three other shareholders. This transaction did not affect the effective control of the licensee, which continued to be exercised by its board of directors, pursuant to the shareholders agreement in place. FAB was the licensee of CKXS-FM Wallaceburg.

On April 3, the CRTC approved an application by CKXS-FM to increase the average ERP from 655 to 1,100 watts (directional antenna with a max. ERP increasing from 1,150 to 3,000 watts) and the EHAAT from 55.5 to 86.5 metres.