After complaining to the CRTC that too many big buildings were hurting their reception and their bottom line, the Commission has approved a big power boost for CIND-FM. They’ll more than double their current output from 2,100 to 4,800 watts, with a max ERP to 12,000. They’ll also get a slight increase in their antenna height.
 
Owner Rock 95 claimed it was suffering financially because the signal was being blocked in density-high Toronto, and had over 300 complaints from listeners that they couldn’t hear the station properly. Interestingly, no other competitors in the market opposed the move, but one intervener reminded the Hull solons that CIND knew exactly what it was getting when it got the original licence, and that the move will potentially result in interference to two Canadian broadcasters and one foreign broadcaster. (I can think of the two Canadian ones that might be affected, but who is the U.S. broadcaster? WBFO?)
 
Noting that a frequency shift in Toronto’s crowded FM dial wasn’t an option, the Commission allowed the increase. “The licensee further stated that the CIND-FM’s low tuning share requires it to spend more on sales and marketing in order to offset the reduced return on these expenditures. It added that other factors, such as increases in rent and the cost of living in Toronto, have also increased costs.”
 
It costs more to live in Toronto? Who could have seen that coming?
This entire thing involves another local station, CFPT, the Indigenous outlet at 106.5. In order to allow CIND to increase its tower height because of antenna sharing, theirs will have to be lowered slightly, but they’ll get a power boost, as well, to make up for it. CFPT will soon have an ERP of 2,950 watts instead of the 2,600 they were using.
 
There’s one more very important notice that’s tacked on to the end of the CRTC announcement, almost as a throwaway, but to me it’s very significant.

“The Commission … notes Rock 95’s future plans relating to [HD Radio.] In this regard, Rock 95 stated that it will register its HD Radio proposal with the Commission once it moves forward on the matter.”

Stay tuned. I can't wait to see what they put on those secondary channels. Now that more people will be able to hear them.
 
Read the decision here.