{"id":37221,"date":"2025-07-31T16:08:16","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T16:08:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/37221\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T16:08:16","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T16:08:16","slug":"the-crtc-said-yes-to-cabin-radio-what-happens-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/37221\/","title":{"rendered":"The CRTC said yes to Cabin Radio. What happens next?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cabin Radio has been granted the right to broadcast on FM radio in Yellowknife. Now what?<\/p>\n

This week\u2019s decision gives Cabin Radio permission to launch a commercial radio station at 93.9 FM on the Yellowknife dial, but that won\u2019t happen overnight.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a guide to what happens next.<\/p>\n

How soon will broadcasts begin?<\/p>\n

It\u2019ll take some time to get the equipment in place.<\/p>\n

There would have been no point having expensive transmission equipment ready to go if the CRTC had said no.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Now we know the decision is a yes, we\u2019ll go and acquire the final pieces of equipment we need \u2013 and install them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019ll take some time, as some of the equipment is specialized and has to come from other parts of Canada.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re anticipating we\u2019ll need at least a few months, maybe longer. Some of that timeline is out of our control.<\/p>\n

\"InsideInside one of Cabin Radio\u2019s engineering rooms. Ollie Williams\/Cabin Radio<\/p>\n

The good news is that we\u2019ve been a fully operational, round-the-clock broadcast service since 2018 (online and through our app) so we already have studios in place and you can listen online<\/a> until the FM broadcasts begin.<\/p>\n

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Compared to most newly licensed radio stations, we\u2019ve done much more work. We only need the equipment to get our signal onto FM \u2013 everything else already exists.<\/p>\n

How far will the FM signal stretch?<\/p>\n

It\u2019ll cover the Yellowknife area. You should be able to get Cabin Radio\u2019s FM signal roughly anywhere in and around Yellowknife that you can already pick up any other FM station.<\/p>\n

In the future, we\u2019d like to expand our broadcast area to cover the Ingraham Trail and potentially more of Highway 3 west of the city, but our focus for now will be getting on FM in Yellowknife itself.<\/p>\n

We are also excited to expand to other NWT communities in the future, once we have the Yellowknife signal in place.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll have more to say about that once we have Yellowknife figured out and after we\u2019ve spent some time assessing the economics of providing FM broadcasts in other communities.<\/p>\n

Why 93.9?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Unlike most places in southern Canada, large parts of the FM dial in Yellowknife are still open, so we had a lot of choice. 93.9 simply seemed relatively far from other existing frequencies and easy to remember.<\/p>\n

Why the call letters CJFC?<\/p>\n

We will never tell, but it\u2019s a good story.<\/p>\n

Will Cabin Radio sound different on FM?<\/p>\n

Our basic day-to-day programming won\u2019t change. We\u2019ve already been running as though we were an FM station since 2018, so all of the shows and music we already broadcast will be pretty-much the same on FM.<\/p>\n

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The main improvements we\u2019ll look to make are:\u00a0<\/p>\n

adding more news updates throughout the day, so that you can get a quick snapshot of our news coverage at regular intervals; and<\/p>\n

adding more current affairs coverage, mostly meaning more interviews about whatever\u2019s making the news in Yellowknife and the NWT.<\/p>\n

That said, our main reason for existing on FM is to broadcast great music, so you\u2019ll mostly hear a selection of the best tracks from the past 60 years with an emphasis on northern and Indigenous performers and the best new Canadian music.<\/p>\n

We also have on-air hosts with a collective 98 years of experience broadcasting in the NWT, so the voices you\u2019ll hear will be northern and Indigenous broadcasters who know the territory really well and are great at what they do.<\/p>\n

You can already listen to all of this online and through our app to get a taste of what you\u2019ll hear on FM.<\/p>\n

So what kinds of music will you play?<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the 2pm hour broadcast by Jasmine Nasogaluak on Wednesday as an example:<\/p>\n

The Heavy: Curse Me Good<\/p>\n

Reuben and the Dark: Yes<\/p>\n

Ian Thomas: Painted Ladies<\/p>\n

Hozier: Someone New<\/p>\n

Toto: Africa<\/p>\n

Father John Misty: \u201cReal Love Baby\u201d<\/p>\n

The Strumbellas: Wars<\/p>\n

The Strokes: Reptilia<\/p>\n

Sam Cooke: Another Saturday Night<\/p>\n

Jule$ (Tulita artist): What It Seems<\/p>\n

The Band: Chest Fever<\/p>\n

Barns Courtney: Glitter and Gold<\/p>\n

Filter: Take a Picture<\/p>\n

Rob Thomas: Hard to be Happy<\/p>\n

Rush: New World Man<\/p>\n

And here\u2019s Ollie Williams\u2019 10am hour from Monday:<\/p>\n

Justin Bieber: Daisies<\/p>\n

Kings of Leon: Fans<\/p>\n

Space: Female of the Species<\/p>\n

George Ezra: Budapest<\/p>\n

Lana Del Rey: Bluebird<\/p>\n

Nelly Furtado: Honesty<\/p>\n

Riit: ataataga<\/p>\n

Amy Winehouse: You Know I\u2019m No Good<\/p>\n

Lenny Kravitz: Again<\/p>\n

Coldplay: Paradise<\/p>\n

Queen: I Want It All<\/p>\n

Lost in Japan: Won\u2019t Let You<\/p>\n

Love Inc: You\u2019re a Superstar<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll also find classical music, jazz, soul, EDM and metal all have designated homes on Cabin Radio throughout the week, while Jay Bear anchors a show dedicated to new music, Out of the Bear Cave, every Tuesday at 6pm.<\/p>\n

Will you just magically appear on FM one day?<\/p>\n

For the next little while, 93.9 FM will be dead air while we get the transmission equipment in place. Then you\u2019ll hear a test signal on 93.9 first. (We\u2019re figuring out what that test signal will sound like.)<\/p>\n

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After a while, the test signal will become Cabin Radio. We will make it very obvious when that happens and give it a lot of build-up, so you don\u2019t miss it.<\/p>\n

Once you\u2019re on FM, will you still broadcast online?<\/p>\n

Yes, the app and the ability to listen online won\u2019t change at all.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Why is FM so important?<\/p>\n

Yellowknifers still love radio. People \u2013 hundreds of people! \u2013 have told us it\u2019s easier to listen to FM in their car, or at the work site or even in the office or at the store.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some advertisers also prefer the idea of FM broadcasting to online, because they better understand it and are used to it.<\/p>\n

From our perspective, if it helps us reach more people and helps our advertisers reach more people, then it sounds like a good idea.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated Articles<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cabin Radio has been granted the right to broadcast on FM radio in Yellowknife. Now what? This week\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,7692,48,75,341,20172,7693],"class_list":["post-37221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-ca","tag-cabin-radio","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-radio-podcasts","tag-yellowknife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}