Anyone know about the new AM station licensed on 960 for Mississauga?

[Bob1370]

Anyone know details about the new station that Tom Taylor in Radio-Info reports is on its way to Mississauga? Here's what's online about it...

"Outside of Toronto, a news/talk AM is signing on to serve the city of Mississauga. Elliot Kerr convinces the CRTC regulator that Mississauga is indeed “an underserved and distinct market within the Greater Toronto Area” – and once he accomplished that feat, he pushed past objections from Astral Media to obtain authorization for an AM facility at 960 kHz. It will run 2,000 watts daytime and 280 watts at night."

Looked up some further info and found out it'll be non-directional 24/7 and use a tower only 86 feet (26 meters) tall. Evidently the CRTC doesn't require as efficient an antenna as the FCC does, since its efficiency is only equivalent to a one-mile field strength of 160 mv/m at 1 kW, or about 10% less than the FCC minimum for a class B station.

 

[Dan Sys]

Call letters will be CKNT.

 

[Bob1370]

CKNT? Unfortunate callsign...the repeatable interpretation is "C-Can't" but the others that come to mind immediately cannot be repeated in polite company. I'd rethink that callsign if I were in Mr. Kerr's place...

 

[mjlarochelle]

CKNT? Unfortunate callsign...the repeatable interpretation is "C-Can't" but the others that come to mind immediately cannot be repeated in polite company. I'd rethink that callsign if I were in Mr. Kerr's place...

Not as bad as the former CKKK in Peterborough, which was ironically a religious station. Current owner Andy McNabb changed the callsign almost immediately after taking over.

I spoke with the previous owner and the choice of callsign was completely accidental. It was suggested by Industry Canada, and he chose it without thinking, and then realized his error when it was too late.

 

[Yeziknoradio]

Yes, I agree. A C J N T would have been better if it were available.
CK News Talk is the intent, obviously. Hopefully when the station launches, it'll have a name like
News/Talk 960 or something, so the calls won't be heard as often.

 

[w9wi]

They don't allow cross-market use of the same calls in Canada, do they?

Most of the C-NT calls are already called for --

CFNT-FM: belongs to a First Nation in New Brunswick
CHNT-FM: belongs to a LP station in Quebec
CJNT-TV: belongs to a station in Montreal

That leaves CKNT and CINT. Agreed that the latter probably would have been a better choice!

 

[Dan Sys]

w9wi said:

They don't allow cross-market use of the same calls in Canada, do they?

One that does come to mind occurred back in 2000 when CKIS 96.9 Calgary changed calls to CHRK. Rogers planted the CKIS calls in Hope, B.C. on 1240. In 2001 Rogers changed the calls at their recently flipped (from 940 AM) CJIB 107.5 in Vernon, B.C. to CKIS (Kiss FM). For about a year the CKIS calls were on both AM in Hope and on FM in Vernon (communities about 150 miles apart from each other), until 1240 Hope itself flipped to FM and obviously had to find a new set of calls.

For the record CHRK 96.9 Calgary reverted back to CKIS in 2003 and 107.5 in Vernon became CKIZ. The CKIS calls have been in a lot of places over the years: 97.5 Winnipeg, 990 Montreal, 96.9 Calgary, 1240 Hope, 107.5 Vernon, back to 96.9 Calgary, and now 92.5 Toronto. Did I miss any?

 

[Yeziknoradio]

I don't think you missed any.
Note that the reason why CKIS is in Toronto is because Kiss 92 was a Jack FM for a few years. The CISS calls were moved by Rogers over to the Kiss station in Ottawa. With CISS still in use, and the Ottawa station still being a Kiss FM, that left Rogers with CKIS as the best option for Toronto's return to Kiss 92 FM.
Now, if KISS Ottawa were to change to something new, CISS would most likely have been fully restored in Toronto. (and CKIS would not have landed in Toronto...)