I'm getting a strong "Listener supported radio" feeling out of what I'm reading, and not a serious commercial format.
What was CJRT's format at the time? Wouldn't the Jazz/classical/Country combo be considered some form of threat to their existence?

I remember reading about the Bill Ballard and and Dave Charles project in 1976. May have even seen Reiner Schwarz on TV talking about it. I think the station was aiming for a progressive rock format like the one that CHUM FM had come close to abandoning by this time. 

I was excited but eventually the licence went to Q 107 and fans of  the progressive rock format got a reprieve with the power increase of CFNY in 1977 and the return of Reiner Schwarz and David Pritchard there.

As Steve Allen used to jokingly say, "The thick plottens!" I was curious about what happened to CKIN-FM and I was stunned to come across this article from July 1976, which announces the granting of a chain that would become the all-news CKO Radio Network. 

But it's the second part of the story that's truly interesting. Apparently, the CRTC did licence CKIN and there was every intention to put it on the air with a freeform progressive format designed to challenge CHUM-FM. Obviously, that never happened. But search as I might, I haven't been able to find anything that indicates why this station never actually hit the air or even where it was supposed to be on the dial. 

So I was wrong in my earlier post - the CRTC said yes. But apparently something else unknown said no. And the station remains stillborn. Whatever they had planned, this place would have been different in other ways. Check this out:

"CKIN-FM will be the only FM station in Toronto not broadcasting from the CN tower. Charles and his associates believe that the costs involved were too unrealistic for a new licensee. Instead, the transmitter will be located on a hill north of Toronto. At a maximum power of 100,000 watts, the station will broadcast in all directions from that point, giving it a northern range far exceeding that of any transmitter at the CN Tower, and Toronto reception of equivalent quality."

And it would have launched with a staff of 11 announcers, with 55% of the programming day devoted to "enriched mosaic programming," whatever that means. 

Does anyone know what happened to CKIN-FM, CFGM's only real chance at an FM station in the GTA? I'm not sure if I would have been a listener. But it most certainly would have been different. 

Yes, I think you're right. A quick check of the History of Canadian Broadcasting site for Q107 repeats that story about the TX not being on the CN Tower and that Dave Charles was, of course, instrumental in Q's founding. It also notes something I'd forgotten - Q107 was originally licenced to Richmond Hill and was owned by CFGM. 

So that has to be it. What it doesn't explain is how the original idea that the CRTC said yes to morphed from CKIN to CILQ - and the home of "Toronto's Rock" as we know it today. An interesting and a highly unusual detour on the way to local broadcasting history.