It doesn't happen very often but the CRTC has told CKAV-FM, the Aboriginal station at 106.5, that it must be off the air by July 25. The order includes similar outlets in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Ottawa. The reason? Repeated and apparently deliberate non-compliance with Commission requirements.

Among their sins:

Failure to file complete and accurate program logs and logger tapes, 
failure to file annual returns for the 2013-2014 broadcast year for its five stations, 
failure to broadcast regular daily local newscasts on each station that include at least five distinct local news stories of direct and particular relevance to the Aboriginal community within the market served, 
failure to file complete annual updates on the achievement of its business objectives and
failure to file audited financial statements for each of its stations.

For its part, Aboriginal Voices Radio claimed it couldn't make any money, never found its footing in the markets it served and couldn't afford to live up to its promises of performance. And check out this explanation when asked why they weren't living up to expectations:

"In the current licence term AVR laid off almost all of its sales and programming staff in 2014. Of the remaining five staff members, four were executives. By its own admission, these remaining staff members were focused on larger questions of financial viability rather than ensuring regulatory compliance.

As a case in point, in explaining how AVR could be unaware that its stations in Edmonton and Calgary had gone off-air, the licensee stated: “We weren’t necessarily focused on, you know, monitoring the station every day simply because we did not have the personnel to do that and we were trying to reinvigorate AVR as an operation.”

Wow. So they didn't even know that some of their own stations were off the air. I can see why that didn't go over well with the Commission. 

 More here.

This means there's an open frequency in the city, something no one thought would happen anytime soon. But don't necessarily expect anything different. The Commission is calling for a similar service to be established. 

"There is a pressing need to serve the Aboriginal community as a whole given that issues vitally important to Aboriginal Canadians are not fully covered or addressed at all in non-Native media. Consequently, and as a priority, the Commission intends to issue a call for applications and hold a hearing to license new services that would fulfill this mandate." 

Last edited by RadioActive (June 25, 2015 11:44 am)