It doesn't happen often - a Canadian radio station found in so many violations of the rules that its licence is pulled and it's ordered off the air by the end of the month.

Such is the fate of CJRI-FM, a religious station in Fredericton, New Brunswick. The outlet, which was first granted a licence in 2004, had an unauthorized ownership change, and then proceeded to violate at least three conditions of that licence, which even after numerous warnings, it failed to correct. Worse, it almost seems those in charge of the place didn't care at all. 

Which made the results released Tuesday almost inevitable. 

So what happened? First, the new guys never notified the Commission of the ownership change, as required by law. Then, as their licence renewal date came up, they failed to disclose their financial information, were found not to have met their Canadian Content Development fund obligations, didn't institute the required Emergency Alert system and didn't even bother to respond to repeated questions and warnings from the regulator, which at first issued a shorter than normal renewal period, hoping they would get their act together. 

They didn't. 

The tipping point came in May, when the CRTC called the station's owners to appear at a hearing - and they never showed up. 

The rest, as outlined in the Commission's release, reads like a middle finger to the CRTC, leading to the inevitable outcome:

"Commission staff contacted Faithway by phone and email multiple times, before and after the deadline, to remind it of the obligation to submit a licence renewal application. On 3 November 2022, Commission staff sent the licensee a letter by registered mail as well as by email to inform it that the deadline to file a renewal application had passed and that the application had to be filed as soon as possible. Commission staff also requested a response to the questions set out in a request for information letter.

"On 23 November 2022, the licensee submitted a licence renewal application for CJRI-FM, over two months late, but did not respond to the questions set out in the 3 November 2022 request for information letter.

"On 6 December 2022, Commission staff again sent the licensee a request for information letter and requested a response by 19 December 2022. The licensee did not reply to that letter.

"On 31 January 2023, Commission staff sent the licensee another request for information letter and requested a response by 6 February 2023. The licensee did not reply to that letter.

"Further, the licensee did not appear at the hearing to respond to the Commission’s request for information to complete the record for the licence renewal application and explain the apparent instances of non-compliance, despite the efforts by the Commission to facilitate participation including by offering the option to appear virtually."

They even failed to respond to an intervention from a disgruntled shareholder, asking for their licence to be pulled. 

And on Tuesday, their fate was sealed, with authorities concluding they simply lost the right to keep the station on the air and ordered them to cease broadcasting by August 31st. 

I'm sure it's happened before (CHSC in St Catharines comes to mind) but I can't recall circumstances this egregious that would lead to an outcome like this. It's a pretty amazing CRTC release, which you can read here.