Tantramar Community Radio Society
35 Church Street
P.O Box 487
Amherst, N.S.
B4H 4A1

The Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission approved the society’s licence application on Monday, rejecting an intervention by the owners of CKDH, Maritime Broadcasting System.

“It’s great news, something we have all been working toward for a long time,” society treasurer Randy Smith said Tuesday. “This is just another step in setting up a community radio station. Now we’ll move forward with putting the infrastructure in place and raising the funds required to get us on air as soon as we can.”

The licence gives the society two years to get on air at the 107.9 frequency, although Smith is hoping it should be ready to go live within a year once a transmitter and tower are in place and after other equipment, not to mention a broadcasting location, are operational.

The society plans to raise several hundred thousand dollars required to get on the air, although it already has the funding support of a number of government agencies including the Municipality of Cumberland and the provincial government.

“We’re ready to get started with the next phase, but we’ll more likely wait until September or October because summer can be a difficult period to get organized because people already have their commitments made for the summer,” Smith said.

Smith feels the number of submissions from the community in favour of their application also played a key role in the CRTC decision.

Earlier this year, the CRTC approved MBS’ application to move CKDH to the FM dial to a frequency of 101.7. The longtime AM station is hoping to make the jump to FM sometime this summer.

In its opposition to the society’s application, MBS chair Robert Pace told the CRTC in March that little had changed from the organization’s original application that was rejected last July. 

He said the market is not big enough for competing FM stations and suggested the non-profit society would not only cut into its advertising revenues, but would in fact be a money-making organization.

The society has said all along that its music choices would be much more diverse, with much more local and Canadian content, and all its profits sunk back into the station’s infrastructure. Also, instead of relying solely on ad revenues, Tantramar Community Radio would get funding from fundraising, memberships and government.

In its decision, the CRTC said “it is of the opinion that the proposed community FM station would not have a significant financial impact on CKDH’s commercial operations.”

The two stations will join Parrsboro Community Radio that broadcasts year round at 99.1 FM and over the Internet at parrsborocommunityradio.ca.