I Was the News Today - Oh boy...

CKLN host Paul Corby breaks the news to his audience that CKLN's license has been revoked.
PHOTO BY: KEVIN MISENER/680NEWS

CRTC revokes licence of community radio station
Kevin Misener and The Canadian Press Jan 28, 2011 15:07:23 PM

TORONTO, Ont. - Canada's broadcast regulator is pulling the plug on a Toronto radio station.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission announced it revoked the licence of the community-based station, CKLN-FM.

The CRTC said the station breached numerous regulations and condition of its licence.
It also said it began investigating the radio station July 2009 after receiving numerous complaints about its governance structure, day-to-day management and operations, programming and ability to remain on air.

The CRTC said "significant infighting" plagued the station and the building manager on campus eventually locked out staff and management for a period of seven months, during which intermittent loops of programming went over the airwaves.
Listeners to Paul Corby's show on CKLN, "Corby's Orbit" were the first to hear the news as he explained the station's license was being pulled as of February 12.

In between playing songs, Corby told 680News the volunteer board was fixing CKLN's financial and management problems.

"I thought we presented a pretty good case to the CRTC to keep us going with maybe some sort of a warning but they've taken a rather strong step. I think it's unwarranted." said Corby

Independent musician Mike Evin was in the studio, Friday, for an interview and told 680News he was shocked the station could soon go silent.

"Community radio is such a big part of a lot of peoples lives. For that to be taken away from them is just a big shame." said Evin.

The station, which runs operates out of Ryerson University, could not maintain a significant quality-control mechanism once regular broadcasting resumed, the CRTC ruled, and cited limited involvement from Ryerson's student body.

The station management was not able to comply with licence requirements, including submission of on-air tapes, program logs and complete annual returns.

While the decision passed by majority vote, one CRTC commissioner, Louise Poirier, "firmly opposed" revoking CKLN's licence and said intermediate steps should have been taken before taking the station off the air.

She said the decision is "unwarranted and inequitable" and creates a precedent regarding how to deal with stations that are non-compliant.