CHOC-FM

On September 28, the CRTC approved the application by La Maison des Jeunes de St-Rémi inc. for a French-language FM community radio programming undertaking at Saint-Rémi, on the frequency 104.9 MHz (channel 285LP), with an effective radiated power of 0.8 watt. The station would broadcast a minimum of 15 hours of local programming per broadcast week, and produce 15-minute local newscasts dealing with current issues and community events, for broadcast at noon and at 6 p.m. Conditions of licence: a minimum of 40 % of the programs consist of spoken work programming. The station must devote 10% or more of its overall musical programming to material from content category 3 (Traditional and Special Interest). The licensee must broadcast no more than 4 minutes of advertising for every hour of broadcast up to a total of 120 minutes of advertising per broadcast week.
 

CHOC-FM began broadcasting. The call sign had been used until recently by a station in Jonquiere, Quebec.

On October 2, the CRTC approved the application by La radio communautaire inter-génération, jardin du Québec to amend the broadcasting licence for CHOC-FM Saint-Rémi, by increasing the effective radiated power from 0.8 watt to 200 watts. The licensee indicated that this increase in power would allow it to provide better service within its existing coverage area and overcome interference caused by CFXM Granby and CJGO Lachute. The Commission noted that the power increase would result in a change of CHOC-FM’s status from a low power unprotected service to a regular Class A1 FM station.

On September 10, the CRTC approved the application by Radio communautaire intergénération Jardin du Québec to increase the effective radiated power of the CHOC-FM from 200 watts to 250 watts, and to change the authorized contours. The Commission noted that there would be a slight increase in the authorized contours as a result of the increase in ERP and the relocation of the transmitter to a site one kilometre from the existing site. The licensee indicated that the proposed changes were necessary due to a decision by the City of Saint-Rémi to move its communications tower.

On June 28, the CRTC renewed the licence for the French-language Type B community radio programming undertaking CHOC-FM to August 31, 2012. The Commission also approved the licensee’s application to delete the condition of licence requiring it to devote a minimum of 40% of its programming to spoken word programming. 

On January 12, the CRTC approved the applications by Radio communautaire Intergénération Jardin du Québec to amend the licence for CHOC-FM in order to relocate the transmitter in Saint-Rémi and to add new transmitters in Napierville and Saint-Jacques-le-Mineur. The applicant stated that the relocation of the Saint-Rémi transmitter would allow it to increase the average effective radiated power from 250 to 547 watts, to change the antenna radiation pattern from non-directional to directional, to increase the maximum ERP from 250 to 1,750 watts and to increase the effective height of antenna above average terrain from 30 to 62.9 metres. The applicant wished to relocate the transmitter in Saint-Rémi and to increase the ERP in order to resolve reception problems within the station’s licensed service area and to allow the entire regional county municipality of Jardins-de-Napierville to receive the station’s signal. The transmitter in Napierville would operate at 103.5 MHz (channel 278A) with an average ERP of 1,188 watts (directional antenna with a maximum ERP of 3,800 watts and an EHAAT of 59.1 metres). The transmitter in Saint-Jacques-le-Mineur would operate at 102.9 MHz (channel 275A1) with an average ERP of 117 watts (directional antenna with a maximum ERP of 250 watts and an effective height of antenna above average terrain of 34.3 metres). The applicant also stated that the addition of new transmitters in Napierville and St-Jacques-le -Mineur would solve signal reception problems for CHOC-FM. 

On August 8, the CRTC administratively renewed the licence for CHOC-FM until August 31, 2013.

On October 11, the CRTC approved CHOC’s application to relocate the transmitter site, change the antenna from non-directional to directional, change the transmitter class from A1 to A and to increase average ERP from 250 to 572 watts (max. ERP from 250 to 1,714 watts, with an EHAAT increase from 30 to 53.9 metres).

In July, the CRTC gave CHOC a licence renewal to the end of the year due to non-compliance issues, including failure to file annual returns, inaccurate monitoring and issues surrounding implementation of the National Public Alerting System.

On August 4, it was announced that CHOC-FM would go dark on the following Monday. Financial difficulties and a lack of human resources were cited as the reasons behind the decision. CHOC had been on the air since 1999.

CHOC did leave the air as planned, on August 6.

In December, the CRTC announced it would not renew the broadcasting licence for CHOC-FM Saint-Rémi, Quebec. The licence would expire on 31 December 2018. The station was found to be in non-compliance with the filing of annual returns,  the filing of complete and accurate monitoring materials, and with the implementation of the National Public Alerting System.