Skip to content

Airwaves

The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.

The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.

Canada's largest non-profit radio network is slated to hit the airwaves in the Flin Flon-Creighton area early next summer. Management at Winnipeg-based Native Communications Inc. (NCI) has accepted a lease proposal from the Flin Flon School Division for use of a transmission tower near Hapnot Collegiate. "We're looking forward to being heard in Flin Flon," said David McLeod, general manager of the FM network, which targets aboriginal listeners. He said he had initially hoped to be on the air in January, but admitted the process will take longer than first thought. "We wish it could happen a lot faster, but we have to go through due process," commented McLeod. A mixture of talk, music and news, some of it in Cree and Ojibwa, NCI covers 95 per cent of Manitoba with an around-the-clock broadcast schedule. The network hit the airwaves in 1971 from Thompson and over the years has grown into the nation's largest non-profit radio network. "We're a popular alternative to mainstream radio," commented McLeod. The transmission tower behind Hapnot Collegiate that NCI will utilize has not been active since 2001. The tower was part of the now-defunct Interactive TV system, a distance education network involving high schools in Flin Flon, Cranberry Portage and The Pas. ITV, as it was called, folded two years ago after the Frontier School Division in Cranberry Portage discontinued its involvement, making it impractical for the two other school divisions to continue with the teaching tool. The Flin Flon School Board voted on Tuesday to lease space on the tower and a small amount of room in Hapnot to the radio network. NCI will pay the school division a monthly fee, which has not been disclosed. The station's technical manager, Hoa Bui, first approached Superintendent of Schools Blaine Veitch about use of the tower and school this past summer. McLeod said that NCI is also expected to be on the air in Snow Lake early next summer. A number of residents from both the Flin Flon and Snow Lake areas have contacted NCI over the years to express interest in receiving the station's signal, he said.

push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks