It would probably also do fine if it’s run by or in partnership with an established Indigenous radio broadcaster, like Wawatay (Northern Ontario, including Timmins and Sioux Lookout), NCI (Manitoba, including Winnipeg), or Windspeaker (Alberta, including Calgary and Edmonton).

Last edited by Jonathan W (February 15, 2026 11:57 am)

torontostan wrote:

It won't work, we don't have the populations to support it. The frequencies should remain silent 

I completely agree. It's been proven twice not to work in either city. What is the point of trying again, especially when radio audiences are already shrinking? 

The only thing I would add is that perhaps that frequency, a precious rare FM spot on an overcrowded Toronto dial, could perhaps be used for something else. But it appears the CRTC has decided it's Indigenous or nothing.  

It all depends on what we mean by “work.”  As a traditional commercial radio model - no, that’s been proven to not.

Numeris isn’t designed to measure specialty stations; it’s a surface skim. No ratings does not necessarily mean nobody’s listening.

Scarboroughbluffsradiof99 wrote:

What about adding ethnic in the call?
Maybe open things up for groups like akash, CINA radio, middle east radio canada, or Whiteoaks.
Or open the call up for aplicents aplying for nich stations like stations with talk programs for seniors, the disabled, christian radio, lgbt talk, or a station only in first nations languages and no english programing at all.
And, the CRTC should also recuire the new station to use hd radio for origenal programing and to let ethnic broadcasters or nich broadcasters use there hd channels for different formats.

I'm honestly not sure why you seem so insistent on ethnic stations. The GTA already has a ton of them - CHLO, CINA, CIRF, three CHINs, CHTO, CFMS, CIRV, CJSA, CHKT, CJRK, CHAM and before it went all digital only, CJMR. And many of them, like CFMS, already have three subcarriers, all in different languages.

Not to mention part time outlets like Sauga960, which is now all ethnic in morning drive, as well as overnight. 

And I probably even forgot one or two of them. That's 13 by my count, minus 1320. 

With spectrum space already so crowded, why would we possibly need more?

RadioActive wrote:

Scarboroughbluffsradiof99 wrote:

What about adding ethnic in the call?
Maybe open things up for groups like akash, CINA radio, middle east radio canada, or Whiteoaks.
Or open the call up for aplicents aplying for nich stations like stations with talk programs for seniors, the disabled, christian radio, lgbt talk, or a station only in first nations languages and no english programing at all.
And, the CRTC should also recuire the new station to use hd radio for origenal programing and to let ethnic broadcasters or nich broadcasters use there hd channels for different formats.

I'm honestly not sure why you seem so insistent on ethnic stations. The GTA already has a ton of them - CHLO, CINA, CIRF, three CHINs, CHTO, CFMS, CIRV, CJSA, CHKT, CJRK, CHAM and before it went all digital only, CJMR. And many of them, like CFMS, already have three subcarriers, all in different languages.

Not to mention part time outlets like Sauga960, which is now all ethnic in morning drive, as well as overnight. 

And I probably even forgot one or two of them. That's 13 by my count, minus 1320. 

With spectrum space already so crowded, why would we possibly need more?

There are a lot of unsurved or undersurved groups.
Arabic speakers, ukrainians are now unsurved at a critical time, african language groups, vietnamese, filipinos, persions, gujarati speakers, bangladeshis who are growing asspecialy here in scarborough and the bluffs area, malayalam speakers, telugu speakers, and haritige programs in english for those who are still connected to there ethnic cultures.

RadioAaron wrote:

As a community station funded by grants/donations is the only way forward

If CJRT, with commercials, grants and donations, can barely scrape by, then an indigenous station here has no chance. Period......

Whatever the business case for an Indigenous FM station in Toronto (or lack of one), you can absolutely be sure there will be applications. It will be interesting to see who's behind them and how they expect to make any money or keep it on the air, given past history. 

What will be really curious to watch is that in the past, the CRTC has disqualified applicants if they don't think their station proposals are economically viable. It's now been shown on two separate occasions that this concept doesn't work - and yet perhaps in the interest of political correctness, they're still going to try a third time. 

I would love to see an Indigenous station work in Toronto. But history already shows it likely won't. Apparently, the Commission has never heard about the concept of history repeating itself. 

This will be a fascinating story to follow as it unfolds. 

Radiowiz wrote:

[
I agree with others in this thread that a Community radio format might work for indigenous radio. 
It costs a lot of money to run a radio station and nothing to turn on the radio, but if donations run the show instead of commercials, plus volunteers instead of paid staff, there might be something there... 

Less than 1% of Toronto's population identifies as Indigenous..... it will not work, community or not.

What would the requirements be? Certain % of Indigenous identifying staff?, % of music selections.

Or could they essentially sound like a commercial formatted station and just mix the odd indigenous selections in (some of which would be familiar to many anyway (i.e. Hendrix, Robbie Robertson, William Prince, Aysanabee, Blackie & The Rodeo Kings)?

km93 wrote:

What would the requirements be? Certain % of Indigenous identifying staff?, % of music selections.

Or could they essentially sound like a commercial formatted station and just mix the odd indigenous selections in (some of which would be familiar to many anyway (i.e. Hendrix, Robbie Robertson, William Prince, Aysanabee, Blackie & The Rodeo Kings)?

CFPO already tried that and failed

mace wrote:

Common sense tells us that back to back failures of a format means that format isn't meant for this market. The CRTC could use a good dose of common sense. Like that will ever happen.

It's more than a format, and this is more than a market; this is a segment of Canadian society that's had its culture ripped away, and it's slowly being rebuilt. Think of this as part of reconciliation.

It can work, but I think it needs to find a way to at least break even. And I think it needs underlying infrastructure. I think some ideas floated here are good ones. Like linking up with NCI in Manitoba, and others like it.

Indeed, there are success stories across Canada in Indigenous radio. I think the key here will be creating something at a national level, outside of government, and run and controlled by Indigenous peoples. Non-profit and community stations have the NCRA as a centrifugal force. That might be one avenue to pursue to help set something up. In the US there's organizations like Native Voice One / Native American Radio Network. The cooperative aspect of a Canadian Press / Broadcast news model might also guide how this might happen.

Running an Indigenous station in a rural or isolated area is an entirely different proposition than running one in Toronto. Cities like Toronto, Vancouver and Winnipeg are *almost* like a diaspora - I'm using that word metaphorically because of course Indigenous people were here before settlers - because for many it is kind of a home away from home. And so participation and listening will happen (or unfortunately not happen) differently.

I'd be curious to know Indigenous demograhics for a city like Toronto / GTA. Where in the GTA are the greatest concentraions of Indigenous people? What are their economic data? Where in Canada are they from? Figuring out who the *primary* audience is. (The secondary audience would be non-Indigenous, and I'd love to see Indigenous radio so compelling that there would be a decent-sized non-Indigenous listenership. There could even be non-Indigenous participation, but that needs to be *very* carefully thought out.

I'm grateful the CRTC (and other forces which might also be involved) are seeing this through at least to this point.
 

Last edited by Saul (February 17, 2026 11:50 am)

The third time's definitely not a charm in the case of reissuing new indigenous radio license in Toronto and Ottawa. CRTC is definitely living in a pipe dream by musing that there will be viable operators daring to submit applications targeting the indigenous group, as seen in the previous failures stated extensively by tvguy.

This is all being done to serve the purpose of political correctness, instead of realising the dire circumstances that radio revenues are sinking across the world and Canada, needless to mention by serving such a niche audience locally. This plan will probably die on the vine before it materialises.

torontostan wrote:

Let me put this in comparative terms for you..... even if there was a class C1 FM signal available for use and it could do whatever format it wanted, it would STILL be an uphill battle for an independent station to be successful in Toronto. Putting an incredibly narrow reach format on a bad signal is absolutely never going to be financially solvent without significant government grants, and for what gain? This is virtue signalling by the CRTC.... plain and simple

You haven't offered any concrete reasoning here. It's all subjective - your opinion. How do you define success, in this particular instance? Are you entirely certain it will need government grants? And even if so, why is that so wrong - you do realize governments spend money on everything from oil and gas to sports? And what do you mean by gain - how do you define that? Maybe to the recovery of Indigenous people and culture, this could be substantial and even cornerstone. Do remember that Indigenous culture has strong oral roots - so radio would be a natural. And, yes, radio is evolving. 106.5, or 1010 or 99.9 for that matter, are mere content delivery trucks. A strong station planning and operations team would need to plan for the future. The proverbial seven generations. If this is CRTC or government virtue signaling, I'd rather that than breaking up families and clans and punishing and torturing kids for speaking their ancestral language.