By Mike Cohen
Tribune Correspondent
MONTREAL - The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) last week granted the first license to an all-Jewish radio station in the western hemisphere to a Montreal group.
Radio Shalom has been broadcasting for the past five years on the Internet (www.radio-shalom.ca) and via a subcarrier FM band, which required a radio specially adapted to get the broadcasts.
Stanley Asher, a retired Montreal college professor and specialist in Jewish walking tours, will serve as the station’s English programming director. He expects that the station could be on the air by this summer at 1650 on the AM dial. Initially, it will only be broadcasting at 1,000 watts.
“Because it is on a new, empty channel, there’s no interference, and it can travel far,” assures Asher. “We have good equipment and it all depends on the placement and height of the antenna.”
Under the terms of the CRTC decision, Radio Shalom is being called upon to operate a commercial religious AM radio station in French (60 per cent), English (30 per cent) and Hebrew (10 per cent).
“We’ve been waiting, impatiently, for five years but at long last, Radio Shalom Montreal will be on the AM dial,” said Asher.
“Broadcasting 24 hours a day in French, English, Hebrew and perhaps a few other languages Jews speak, we will provide a unique service for the Jewish community in greater Montreal. Radio Shalom will also be of interest to anyone who wants to listen to vibrant, lively and timely programming and news from a Jewish perspective. There will also be many hours of exciting music from a variety of Jewish and other sources, including the latest pop hits from Israel and the Diaspora, klezmer and other music.”
Asher says that English-speaking listeners can enjoy special daily and weekly features on Jewish history, religion and philosophy, on the Shoah, and a wealth of interviews with newsmakers, authors, cineastes and artists, most of them with a Jewish point of view.
Radio Shalom plans to form a board of directors that will include representatives of major Jewish organizations who will help design the station’s present and future.
Asher welcomes those interested in serving on the board to email him at productionradioshalom@bellnet.ca.
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