Cabin Radio is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

independent

hyperlocal Hyperlocal (also reckoned Hyper-local) is an adjective used to describe something as being "limited to a very small geographical area", and in particular, to anything " tremely or excessively local", in particular with regard to media (commu ...

web media organization based in

Yellowknife Yellowknife is the capital, largest community, and the only city in the Northwest Territories, Canada. It is on the northern shore of Great Slave Lake, about south of the Arctic Circle, on the west side of Yellowknife Bay near the outlet of t ...

Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories is a federal Provinces and territories of Canada, territory of Canada. At a land area of approximately and a 2021 census population of 41,070, it is the second-largest and the most populous of Provinces and territorie ...

."Former BBC reporter keeps NWT local news alive with Cabin Radio"
''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...

'', August 22, 2023. Launched in 2017 by Ollie Williams, a former

BBC Sport BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC BBC Television, television, BBC Radio, radio and BBC Online, online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadc ...

reporter who moved to Yellowknife in the 2010s after marrying a Canadian woman he met while covering the

2010 Winter Olympics The 2010 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXI Olympic Winter Games () and also known as Vancouver 2010 (), were an international winter multi-sport event held from February 12 to 28, 2010 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with ...

, the organization currently operates a news website and an

Internet radio Internet radio, also known as online radio, web radio, net radio, streaming radio, e-radio and IP radio, is a digital audio service transmitted via the Internet. Broadcasting on the Internet is usually referred to as webcasting since it is not ...

stream, as well as posting news updates to various

social networking A social network is a social structure consisting of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), networks of Dyad (sociology), dyadic ties, and other Social relation, social interactions between actors. The social network per ...

sites. The website grew from three million page views in its first year in operation to over 13 million annual views by 2024. In 2025, the Michener Award foundation awarded Cabin Radio a $125,000 Norman Webster Fellowship grant for a journalistic investigation into failures in the circuit court system of the Territorial Court of the Northwest Territories.

Community radio

In 2019 the company submitted an application to the

Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC; ) is a public organization in Canada tasked with the mandate as a regulatory agency tribunal for various electronic communications, covering broadcasting and telecommunic ...

for a

community radio Community radio is a radio service offering a third model of radio broadcasting in addition to commercial broadcasting, commercial and public broadcasting. Community broadcasting, Community stations serve geographic communities and communities o ...

license. The CRTC did not issue a decision until 2023, denying the company's application on the grounds that the Yellowknife market could not support a new radio station. However, following widespread community opposition to the decision, the CRTC announced in 2024 that it would reopen the process, stating that the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

and the

2023 Canadian wildfires Beginning in March 2023, and with increased intensity starting in June, Canada was affected by a record-setting series of wildfires. All 13 Provinces and territories of Canada, provinces and territories were affected, with large fires in Alberta ...

had highlighted the critical importance of reliable community-based news and information services in times of emergency. A new round of hearings started in February 2025, with the CRTC considering Cabin Radio's application alongside a competing application by Vista Radio.Jocelyn Shepel
"Cabin Radio, Vista Radio each seek new FM licence at CRTC hearing in Yellowknife"

CBC North CBC North (; ; ) is the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's radio and television service for the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon of Northern Canada as well as Eeyou Istchee and Nunavik in the Nord-du-Québec region of Quebec. Hist ...

, February 12, 2025.

References

External links

* 2017 establishments in Canada Mass media in Yellowknife Internet radio stations in Canada Canadian news websites {{Canada-media-stub