Bayshore Broadcasting is signal testing two new radio stations in Northern Bruce Peninsula.
Bayshore Broadcasting Managing Director Kevin Brown says they flipped the switch on the two new stations, 91.9 FM the Bruce and 104.3 FM on Jan. 10 at 9 a.m., bringing the first radio service online directly serving Tobermory.
Brown says 91.9 FM will get the same programming from its other station in Port Elgin, 97.9 FM the Bruce.
While 104.3 FM will operate as the Tobermory Information Station, which is the result of a partnership with the Municipality of Northern Bruce Peninsula. It will strictly broadcast various messages including fire safety and community events.
For the next three weeks the company will be testing the signal in the area, which people are able to listen to.
“You have to be specifically broadcasting exactly how the CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission) has licensed you to do,” says Brown.
The CRTC issued its decision in mid-2019, allowing the Owen Sound-based radio broadcaster to put up a transmitter for the new stations in Northern Bruce Peninsula.
“This has been in the works for a few years. We got approval from the CRTC a few years ago but with the pandemic, and the problem with getting steel to build it during the pandemic and then there was the problem with hydro because of the ice storm, there were no hydro transformers. It took a long time with a series of delays, but it is on the air now,” says Brown.
Brown says Northern Bruce Peninsula is an underserved area of Grey-Bruce.
“We’ve heard from different listeners over the years that they wish they could get one of our stations up here and get local news, local weather,” says Brown.
With the new stations, Bayshore Broadcasting has 10 radio services under its banner.
