Branding VOAR First air date 1929 | Frequency 1210 kHz (AM) Format Religious | |
City Mount Pearl, Newfoundland and Labrador Power 10,000 watts (day and night) | ||
VOAR (Voice of Adventist Radio) is a Canadian radio station, which airs religious programming in Mount Pearl, Newfoundland and Labrador on 1210 kHz and various FM frequencies.
The station first broadcast in the fall of 1929. Over the years, the station switched from one AM frequency to another, until VOAR moved to its current frequency, which was approved by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) in 1991. Since 2002 it was broadcasting mainly on FM.
VOAR is one of just four broadcast radio stations (all in Newfoundland) in Canada whose call letters do not begin with C. The others, VOWR, VOCM, and VOCM-FM, are based in St. John's, where VOAR initially was based. With the exception of VOCM-FM, these stations first aired before Newfoundland joined the Canadian Confederation in 1949. The ITU prefix VO was originally assigned to Newfoundland and remains in use by Newfoundland and Labrador radioamateurs.
On October 6, 2016, the CRTC received an application from VOAR to convert to the FM band as VOAR-FM on 96.7 MHz at 100 kW of power, and to shut down its AM signal and its Bay Roberts FM repeater, with the remainder becoming repeaters of the new FM signal. Reasons for the conversion request stated in the application were listener confusion with VOWR (both stations receive each other's mail), signal reception issues in portions of the St. John's area, and the AM station's transmitter (installed in 1990) reaching the end of its usable life.
Rebroadcasters
In 2002, VOAR has added several FM rebroadcast transmitters in various parts of the province. VOAR is also carried across Canada on Bell TV Channel 950.
A broadcasting licence up to 2015 was issued in 2008.
In 2008 various transmitters were opened in British Columbia.
The station also had repeaters in Prince George, British Columbia on 107.3 (VF2510); Kamloops 105.1 (VF2525); Kelowna on 98.9 (unknown call-sign); and Oliver on 106.1 (VF2524), but was taken off the air due to licensing issues with the CRTC in January 2009. The station also had applications to expand into 25 additional communities in British Columbia in early 2009.