By Gary McKenna - The Tri-City News - May 30, 2008
Tri-City residents will soon have another option — a local option — when turning their radio dial.
Local broadcast developer Matthew McBride has been approved for a CRTC licence allowing him to start his own radio station serving the Tri-Cities.
McBride has described the station's music format as "adult album contemporary" but said songs will be just a small part of what the station will offer.
"I have always said it is about what you put between the songs," McBride said. "There is going to be a lot more of that local content."
One of the ideas he is currently discussing is a talk show that would focus on Tri-City news and issues.
In the long term, he said he hopes to be local residents' station for sports, opening the door for potential play-by-play opportunities for teams such as the Western Lacrosse Association's Coquitlam Adanacs.
McBride has been anxiously awaiting word from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission since his public hearing in February. He said when he got the news Friday, he was ecstatic.
"First of all, we celebrate," he said. "You work like a dog to get these things and then one day your whole life changes."
But McBride will be back at work tomorrow, ordering equipment, looking into potential promotions and preparing for the job applications he expects will be coming in the next few weeks.
There is also the matter of setting up the station's location and acquiring what McBride expects will be six figures worth of equipment.
With all that work ahead of him, it is difficult for him to pinpoint an exact date when the station will go on the air.
"I am hesitant to throw a dart on the wall but I would like to see us on the air by the end of the year," he said.
The Tri-City station, which will be known as CKPM FM ( http://www.ckpmfm.com , which is under construction), will be based out of Port Moody but will cover the area west of the Pitt River bridge and east of Austin Avenue.
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