CRTC shutting down pirate radio station operating out of Surrey
Posted November 13, 2014 10:06 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
SURREY (NEWS1130) – A pirate radio station operating out of Surrey is being shut down by the federal broadcasting regulator. The CRTC has given Radio India until midnight tonight to stop transmitting.
The station’s studio is in Surrey but it broadcasts into the Lower Mainland from an AM transmitter just over the border in Blaine, Washington and gets most of its revenue from Canadian advertisers.
The CRTC order states “We will not tolerate any business or individual that is broadcasting illegally in Canada.”
If Radio India doesn’t stop transmitting, the CRTC says it will apply for a Federal Court of Canada enforcement order.
The station is also prohibited from carrying on a broadcasting undertaking at Surrey or anywhere else in Canada unless it complies with the Broadcasting Act.
However, this order doesn’t affect Radio India’s programming that is streamed online, as long as the company complies with the CRTC’s exemption order for digital media.
Two other mostly Punjabi-language operations using the same approach earlier agreed to stop over-the-air broadcasting.
