Toronto is Getting an Indie Rock Radio Station – 88.1 FM
Here’s some (3 day old) news for you – Toronto is getting an Indie Rock radio station! The station – Indie Toronto – isn’t live just yet, but it’ll occupy 88.1 FM on the “dial”. This might screw up those iPod FM-frequency users who use 88.1 in their cars to hook up their iPods – oops. However, it’s good news for people who are sick of hearing Nickelback or Billy Talent 18 times an hour on other Toronto rock radio stations.
As noted, the station isn’t live yet, but you can listen to them online at their website on your computer or your mobile, and also follow them on Twitter to sample their playlist. Select recent songs that they have played include Fleet Foxes, Sleigh Bells, Feist, Miike Snow, The Postal Service, and Chilly Gonzalez to name a few. Yup, sounds like it’ll be a pretty good station. Once going live, you will be able to tweet requests to them, too.
So how did all of this come about? Ryerson University previously had the channel, and went off air last year after some struggles with regulators and infighting. 22 groups applied for the license, including Toronto radio legend, Alan Cross, and all presented to the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) back in May.
The winning group belonged to Barrie’s Rock 95 Broadcasting, and they were awarded the license on Tuesday. Dave Carr is the operations manager for Rock 95, and said “It’s explosive . . . it’s going to be incredible. Our mission is to give Canadian indie musicians and their hundreds of thousands of fans their own place on the Toronto FM radio dial. Indie artists are the industry stars of tomorrow and Indie 88.1 will simply help tomorrow come sooner.”
There’s no word on when it will go live to air, but Carr is hoping before the year is out. There are some struggles ahead of time, such as only have 532 watts for their signal, which is about 1% of what the bigger stations have. They also need to find listeners, as well as find an office and construct a studio. We’re hoping we can help spread the word, and you should do the same.
In good news though, Indie Toronto has promised to spend money supporting the Canadian music scene, including:
• $295,000 for the North by Northeast festivals;
• $275,000 supporting the Polaris Prize;
• $275,000 backing Indie Music Week in Toronto;
• $275,000 for The Indies, the awards-show portion of Canadian Music Week; and
• $509,000 to a “Performer of the week” initiative, which would see Canadian indie band would vie for cash support according to fans’ votes.
All of this is positive news for the Canadian music scene as far as I’m concerned. Pop on over to their website and start listening now – they have great taste, just like PeteHatesMusic (nothing like a shameless plug).
