CJLO, Concordia’s radio station, may soon be taken to the am waves. The station has applied for a Campus/Community broadcasting license. They will have their long awaited hearing on November 14th in front of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC); the agency that regulates broadcasting in Canada. CJLO has been broadcasting over the Internet, using the server Live365, and to Loyola Campus over a low powered transmitter.
If the application is approved the station will be able to begin broadcasting to the entire island on the 1690 am frequency.
According to Station Manager, David Caporicci-Urovitch, “it doesn’t seem like there will be any problems to get our license and start broadcasting.” Concordia is currently the only major university in the province without a public radio frequency. If the hearing is successful CJLO expects to begin broadcasting by next spring.
Caporicci-Urovitch said the hearing, the last part of the licensing process, “will probably just be a formality.” CJLO applied for the license in the spring of 2003, and the application was delayed due to a CRCT policy to grant only a certain number of licenses at a time in a given city. Due to several Montreal stations being granted licenses in 2002 the CRTC put suspended any further licensing for a period of three years.
In September the CRTC publicly announced the application. After the announcement, members of the public were allowed to submit objections to the license. According to Caporicci-Urovitch the CRTC didn’t receive any objections against CJLO.
The move to becoming a full-fledged radio station will be an expensive one. In order to pay for the extra costs the station is asking students for an additional 15 cents per credit. Students currently pay 10 cents per credit to CJLO. The proposal will appear as a referendum question on the CSU’s November 8-10 bi-elections and referenda ballot.
Caporicci-Urovitch says the extra costs are worth it because, “this is such an important thing to build Concordia culture.” He also said of the station, “We really need to be financially independent.”
The station has been preparing its content for the license and any conditions that may be set by the CRTC. Said Caporicci-Urovitch, “What you hear right now is what you’ll hear then.” One change the station does hope to make is to add more news; Caporicci-Urovitch said that the station intends to set up a full news team. Which he feels will be easier to do once the station starts broadcasting.
He also said the station eventually hopes to move to FM although that will have to wait as Montreal’s FM dial is already full. But he doesn’t expect the move from AM to FM to be difficult once the station has a license, which is part of the reason the station went for an AM spot rather then waiting for an FM frequency to become available.
For more information on CJLO, visit www.cjlo.com.
