CJWE-FM (88.1 FM) is a

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radi ...

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, maki ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

. Owned by the

Aboriginal Multi-Media Society The Aboriginal Multi-Media Society (AMMSA) is an Aboriginal publisher in Canada dedicated to serving the needs of Aboriginal people throughout Canada. AMMSA was established in 1983 under the Alberta Societies Act and launched its first publicatio ...

, it broadcasts programming targeting southern Alberta's First Nations communities, including mainstream

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, o ...

, and specialty shows featuring indigenous music or presented in native languages such as

Stoney Stoney may refer to: Places * Stoney, Kansas, an unincorporated community in the United States * Stoney Creek (disambiguation) * Stoney Pond, a man-made lake located by Bucks Corners, New York * Stoney (lunar crater) * Stoney (Martian crater) A ...

. It is similar in format to its sister radio network

CFWE CFWE is a radio network based in Edmonton, Alberta. Owned by the Aboriginal Multi-Media Society, it broadcasts programming targeting northern Alberta's First Nations communities, including mainstream country music, and specialty shows featuring ...

, which focuses primarily on

northern Alberta Northern Alberta is a geographic region located in the Canadian province of Alberta. An informally defined cultural region, the boundaries of Northern Alberta are not fixed. Under some schemes, the region encompasses everything north of the ce ...

's First Nations communities.

History

Following the collapse of the Aboriginal Voices Radio Network (which broadcast on 88.1 MHz in Calgary as CKAV-FM-3), the CRTC pursued new applicants for indigenous radio stations to fill its frequencies. The

(owner of the indigenous network

) was granted stations in Calgary and Edmonton. The Calgary station, named CJWE-FM, began testing its signal in April 2018, and officially launched in June. The station features similar programming to its Edmonton-based counterpart

, including a mix of mainstream

, and specialty programs targeting Southern Alberta's indigenous communities in the

Blackfoot The Blackfoot Confederacy, ''Niitsitapi'' or ''Siksikaitsitapi'' (ᖹᐟᒧᐧᒣᑯ, meaning "the people" or " Blackfoot-speaking real people"), is a historic collective name for linguistically related groups that make up the Blackfoot or Bla ...

, Cree, Nakoda, and T'suutina languages. In December 2018, the CRTC granted approval for the AMMSA to convert the CFWE rebroadcaster CFWE-FM-2 ( Piikani 147) to a rebroadcaster of CJWE, as it would broadcast content of greater relevance to the region. In May 2022, the CRTC granted approval for the AMMSA to add a new, 100,000-watt rebroadcaster in Lethbridge on 103.5 FM.Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2022-125
CJWE-FM Calgary – New transmitter in Lethbridge, ''CRTC'', May 10, 2022

References

External links

*
CJWE-FM history
-

Canadian Communications Foundation The Canadian Communications Foundation (CCF) is a Canadian nonprofit organization which documents the history of broadcasting in Canada, particularly radio and television. Since 1995, the organization has distributed its collection via an intern ...

* {{Calgary Radio JWE JWE Radio stations established in 2018 2018 establishments in Alberta