The Southern Ontario/WNY Radio-TV Forum / The radio dial in Renfrew County and the Pontiac

**Posted by Forward Power** October 18, 2024 10:59 am

Inspired by the late Dan Sys and radiowest.ca, here's a peek at the all-FM lineup here in my neck of the woods, Renfrew County and, on the Quebec side of the Ottawa River, the Pontiac region. Notable about CHIP-FM is that it's a bilingual station, airing a mix of French and English programming... the Pontiac has one of Quebec's largest anglophone populations outside of the Montreal metropolitan area.

**Posted by andysradio** October 18, 2024 5:11 pm

I often wonder how or why CKQB got away with a repeater while most other Ottawa stations do not. Last time I was through the area (in the spring I think) one of the CHCR repeaters was off. Hopefully they are both running now.

CBC has applied to move CBOF-FM-9 to the Pembroke (Rankin) tower with a massive power increase.

Last edited by andysradio (October 18, 2024 5:13 pm)

**Posted by RadioAaron** October 18, 2024 5:28 pm

andysradio wrote:
I often wonder how or why CKQB got away with a repeater while most other Ottawa stations do not..

I don’t think anyone else tried.

They made the argument that due to being available on the armed forces radio network (and being a rock station) they were quite popular with the military, and should be available to the many members stationed at Petawawa

**Posted by Forward Power** October 18, 2024 7:08 pm

Correct, CHCR had been having some issues with the Wilno repeater but it's all good now... I had been doing a little bit of consulting work for the station around this time last year and the main operations guy was mentioning that 104.5 had been off and on, but their contract engineer got the transmitter fixed.

Had no idea that there were plans for CBOF-9 to move to the Rankin site, but it does make sense... it currently transmits from a tower on a hill just outside of Chapeau QC, likely the same site that originates a Télé-Québec signal. 88.7 comes in loud and clear in Renfrew.