The licensee must cease broadcasting on [February 12, 2011], by no later than the end of the broadcast day.

January 28, 2011 1:21 PM

After over 18 months of infighting, including a seven-month lockout where it was "broadcasting without any community involvement or reflection, oversight or management, or apparent control", CKLN -- Toronto's first campus radio station -- has had its licence revoked by the CRTC, Canada's broadcast regulator.

Should CKLN not appeal, or fail in its appeal, this will free up a frequency that can support at least 225W ERP in Toronto, a rare and highly valuable commodity in the crowded airwaves of Canada's largest city, where there are currently no available FM frequencies for prospective broadcasters.

posted by Shepherd (12 comments total)

The dissenting opinion by Loise Poirier attached to the CRTC ruling is particularly interesting. What an odd saga.
posted by mek at 1:27 PM on January 28, 2011

The way that station has been run has been a joke for years. There have been threats to shut it down dating back to the mid-1990s due to management infighting and other internal issues.

It really is a sad, sad, sad situation when a university that prides itself on producing RTA (radio television arts) and journalism grads can't keep a radio station on the air and functioning in at least a somewhat professional manner.
posted by sardonyx at 1:34 PM on January 28, 2011

was looking for the superior court filings, but couldn't find anything.

canlii.org search

the other cases are interesting though.
posted by rjeschmi at 1:52 PM on January 28, 2011

Sad. It was one hell of a station in its heyday.
posted by maudlin at 2:25 PM on January 28, 2011

I had a split second of cognitive dissonance when I saw a reference to The Palin Foundation.
posted by BrotherCaine at 2:25 PM on January 28, 2011

Timeline: Why CKLN Radio's Broadcast License Was Revoked
posted by Kabanos at 2:31 PM on January 28, 2011 [1 favorite]

20 bucks says the CRTC ends up giving the frequency to Rogers.
posted by rocket88 at 3:26 PM on January 28, 2011 [4 favorites]

This is completely insane. How does a radio station screw up to the point that they actually lock staff out of the building? Crazy.
posted by zug at 4:00 PM on January 28, 2011

College Radio in Toronto (the bottom of the FM dial) has often been fraught with drama. CIUT-FM has also had its share of interesting times.

The programming can sometimes be uneven, but at its best it can be sublime.
posted by ovvl at 5:25 PM on January 28, 2011

Sigh. CKLN was a fixture when I was living in T.O. It's really unpleasant to see it dismember itself like this. Having said that, if that NOW Magazine article is an accurate reflection of how things have been over there, I can see what it's losing its license.
posted by LMGM at 7:07 PM on January 28, 2011

CKLN was pretty much the cool station when I was a teenager in the mid-80's. Once you got a bit older and CFNY started to suck a bit, you'd tune into CKLN and hear great stuff and wait and wait for the announcer to say what track that was 4 songs ago. I had little pencil scratches all over my basement walls where I wrote the bandnames/songtitles on several occasions.
But when I actually went to Ryerson in the '90's, it gave off a bit of a removed, elitist kind of vibe down there in the basement of Jorgenson Hall or wherever, that I declined to get involved.
I've only tuned in sporadically over the last decade or so but this is still sad.
posted by chococat at 7:29 PM on January 28, 2011

I remember my amazement at discovering a station you could phone up with a request... and they would actually play it! And staying up 'till 5 am to tape their monthly deadhead bootleg show. And listening to Handsome Ned's country program, just before he died. And the fundraising drives, which were actually fun to listen to. And Mae Brussel's weird conspiracy show. Sigh... too bad they couldn't figure out a way to keep a cool thing going.

So what happens to that frequency now... just dead air? Such a great resource wasted. Couldn't they continue to just broadcast online?

Anyway, I'm kind of hoping they'll go out with some kind of we-don't-give-a-shit-anymore free-form party... open format 'til closing time!
posted by Crane Shot at 11:03 PM on January 28, 2011 [1 favorite]