The radio station where I first uttered words over the air, not counting the on-campus station at Niagara College, is about to shut down by orders from the CRTC.
710 CJRN Niagara Falls used to be a talk station. When I was there during my time as a college student it also had some music programming and over the years it evolved – or devolved – into a tourism information station. But it also obviously had serious issues with management. I was surprised to read in the CRTC’s decision that 710 is still in the hands of a Dancy. The Dancy family owned it back when I was there, more than 3 decades ago. How they let this happen is beyond me.
The Commission says management repeatedly ignored requests for programming details, logger tapes (tapes of programming as it aired) and other documentation of its business operations. It says 710 constantly broke its agreement to broadcast only tourism information by airing spoken-word, ethnic programs and promos and newscasts that had nothing to do with tourism. Its manager bailed on appearances before the Commission at the last-minute and then eventually, simply didn’t show up. Now the station’s broadcasting license has been pulled and it must cease operations by the end of November.
I can’t imagine that anyone would be so disorganized and irresponsible as to allow this to happen against their will. Could this happen simply out of neglect? I have to believe there are other reasons and I’m not going to speculate on them. It’s just a shame that soon there will only be static where 710 used to broadcast for so long on the AM dial.
I remember listening to CJRN to get the weather because I live about 20 miles east of Niagara Falls, USA and their weather forecasts and reports were much more accurate than the Buffalo stations to the South. Too bad they lost their way.