City Montreal, Quebec Frequency 106.3 MHz (FM) Format multilingual | Branding 106.3 FM CINA Radio First air date August 2010 | |
Slogan La nouvelle voix Arabe de Montréal | ||
CKIN-FM is a FM commercial (multilingual) radio station which operates at 106.3 MHz (FM) in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Its studios are located on Avenue du Parc in Montreal, with its transmitter located atop Mount Royal. The station's multiethnic programming is primarily in Arabic, with evening blocks in Spanish, and hour-long blocks with other third languages including Assyrian, Berber, Cantonese, Italian, Hindi and Urdu.
History
On August 20, 2009, Canadian Hellenic Cable Radio Ltd. (CHCR) received Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) approval to operate a new multilingual specialty radio station at Montreal. The station would serve as a sister to CKDG-FM and use a similar format with a focus on various ethnic groups throughout the day, but focusing on different ethnicities than CKDG, and broadcasting drive time programming in French in contrast to CKDG's English.
On May 20, 2015, Canadian Hellenic Cable Radio announced that they intend to sell CKIN-FM to Neeti P. Ray, who owns similarly-formatted stations CINA in Mississauga, Ontario, and CINA-FM in Windsor, Ontario. Ray previously sought licenses for a new station in Montreal twice (in 2007 and 2011), but was turned down in both instances. CHCR intended to use the sale to fund improvements to CKDG. Following the closure of the acquisition, CKIN was rebranded as CINA Radio (a brand shared by Ray's other multilingual stations), and launched a revamped schedule with a larger focus on Arabic and Spanish-language programming. Arabic programming constitutes the majority of its schedule on weekdays and weekends, while Spanish-language programming is aired during the evening hours on weekdays. Hour-long blocks with programming in other languages are carried on weekend mornings to comply with the requirement that CKIN air programming in at least eight languages other than English and French per-week.
The change resulted in a complaint to the CRTC by the owners of competing Arabic station CHOU, who demanded that the station be restricted in how much Arabic programming it can air in a broadcast week. CHOU complained that the shift contradicted Ray's stated plan for the station in his CRTC application, in which CKIN would maintain the existing mix of multicultural programming, but increase its production of local South Asian programming. CHOU stated that it would have filed an objection during the approval process had Ray mentioned the plan to switch primarily to Arabic programming in the application. Ray defended the complaints, pointing out that CKIN's license contained no such restriction on the exact mix of minority languages it must broadcast. He also stated that the changes were meant to improve the viability of the station, as the Arab and Latin communities are among the largest ethnic groups in Montreal, and that its Arabic programming was aimed towards a younger audience than that of CHOU.
The CRTC dismissed the complaint on October 14, 2016, ruling that the station was in compliance with its mandate to broadcast programming "targeting a minimum of six different cultural groups in a minimum of eight distinct languages", and affirming that neither the station's license, or the approval of the acquisition, contained any specific requirement for CKIN-FM to broadcast programming for specific cultural groups.