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Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2025-104

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Reference: Part 1 application posted on 3 February 2025

Gatineau, 16 May 2025

Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Newfoundland and Labrador
Mount Pearl and Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador

Public record: 2024-0565-4

VOAR-FM Mount Pearl and its transmitter VOAR-11-FM Happy Valley-Goose Bay – Technical amendments

  1. The Commission has the authority, pursuant to subsection 9(1) of the Broadcasting Act (the Act), to issue licences for the carrying on of broadcasting undertakings and to amend those licences.
  2. Consistent with this authority, the Commission approves an application by the Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Newfoundland and Labrador (Seventh-Day) to amend the technical parameters of VOAR-11-FM Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador, a rebroadcasting transmitter of the English-language specialty (Religious music) FM radio programming undertaking VOAR-FM Mount Pearl, Newfoundland and Labrador. Specifically, Seventh-Day proposed to change the power class of the transmitter from A1 to A, increase the effective radiated power (ERP) from 250 to 500 watts, replace the existing non-directional antenna with a new non-directional antenna, decrease the effective height of the antenna above average terrain (EHAAT) from 28 to 24.3 metres, and relocate the transmitter antenna. All other technical parameters will remain unchanged.
  3. The Commission did not receive any interventions in regard to this application.
  4. When a licensee files an application for technical amendments, the Commission requires the licensee to present compelling technical or economic evidence justifying the requested amendments. In this case, Seventh-Day submitted that the proposed amendments are necessary for it to replace the old antenna, as the authorized site is out of service due to a fire. It added that the new FM transmitter would provide greater geographic coverage in Happy Valley-Goose Bay and its vicinity. The Commission is satisfied that the licensee has demonstrated a technical need for the requested amendments.
  5. Pursuant to subsection 22(1) of the Act, this authority will only be effective when the Department of Industry (also known as Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada) notifies the Commission that its technical requirements have been met and that a broadcasting certificate will be issued.
  6. The licensee must implement the technical amendments by no later than 16 May 2027. To request an extension, the licensee must submit a written request to the Commission at least 60 days before that date, using the form available on the Commission’s website.
  7. As set out in section 16 of the Radio Regulations, 1986 (the Regulations), licensees have obligations relating to the broadcast of emergency alert messages received from the National Alert Aggregation and Dissemination System. In regard to the changes to VOAR-11-FM’s authorized contours resulting from the implementation of the technical amendments approved in this decision, the Commission reminds the licensee that continued compliance with section 16 of the Regulations may require that any alert broadcast decoders (e.g., ENDEC) used for the purposes of broadcasting emergency alert messages on VOAR-FM, or on any rebroadcasting transmitters that may appear on the broadcasting licence for that station, be reprogrammed to properly account for the new authorized contours.

Secretary General

This decision is to be appended to the licence.

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