Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

  Going With The Flow. Neeti Ray's CINA Radio Group Eyes Acquisition of Bell Media's AM Stations in Windsor and Hamilton In a significant development for the Canadian radio landscape, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has announced a pending application by Neeti P. Ray's CINA Radio Group to acquire three AM stations from Bell Media. The stations in question are CHAM and CKOC in Hamilton and CKWW in Windsor, for the bargain basement total price of $445,000. The CRTC disclosed the application on November 16, 2023, stating that CINA Radio Group, led by Neeti P. Ray, aims to continue operating the stations under the same terms and conditions as the existing licenses. CINA Radio Group already owns several stations across central Canada, including FLOW in Toronto. The application is scheduled for final consideration in early 2024. Bell Media had previously expressed its intention to sell the three AM stations in Hamilton and Windsor back in Ju

  Flow Radio. Who? Where? Why? By Stephen Weir A Big swap has just been made between the two commercial Black FM music stations in Toronto. As of Monday, this week radio station   G-98.7   now calls itself FLOW  98.7 FM, Toronto’s Hip Hop R&B.  Also on Monday, radio station   CFXJ  which used to call itself as FLOW, is now   93.5 Today Radio . Confusing? You bet. Radio listeners all across the city have been trying to find their favourite stations and their equality favourite DJs sometimes will little success.  To help clear the air so to speak,  93.5 Today Radio  has been running commercials to tell loyal listeners they have to turn their radios to G 98.7 to catch the sounds of FLO When you do turn that dial, it does play the FLOW style music, but It isn’t the same DJ’s you are used to hearing.  This week the morning hosts at Flow were  Red  and comedian  Jay Martin , long-time voices on G-98.7.  Missing in action at  93.5  are the two popular FLOW hosts  Blake   Carter and Peter

  PARANG MUSIC HERALDS THE BOXING DAY RETURN OF JAI! By Stephen Weir:  On December 26 Jai Ojah-Maharaj ( pictured above ) will be back. His return comes just in time to bring Parang music back to the airwaves. The godfather of Soca and Parang on Toronto radio will soon be heard on CHIN radio, the station where it all began for him over 30 years ago!  His  Caribbean Connection  Saturday night show will be a huge Boxing Day present for FM listeners from Toronto to Buffalo and beyond. “ I have been talking to Lenny Lombardo (the owner of CHIN radio) on and off for quite sometime now,” said Jai yesterday. “ Things began to heat up about three weeks ago, when we learned the Saturday night  South Asian Show  was giving up its weekly time slot.  They have had that (time slot) since I left CHIN in 2011 (to join the just launched G-98.7), and of course I want it back!” “ Because of the Pandemic the community is missing the joy of Parang,” he continued. “So when we come on the air next Saturday,

  No Black Owners To Groove On Toronto’s FM Airwaves By Stephen Weir: There used to be two, but now there are none.  Despite written pleas from the Prime Minister, the mayor, community groups and a listeners’ petition, the financially stressed radio station G-98.7 is no longer in Black hands. On Monday morning a court spent just an hour reviewing the purchase offer of the last Black owned station in the country (Flow, Canada’s first Black FM station was sold off years ago).  Pending a licence review by the Canadian Radio and Television Commission, Mississauga broadcaster Neeti P. Ray is now the proud owner of a station that bills itself as one “that Grooves.” Ray already owns and operates multi-cultural stations CINA-FM in Windsor and CINA 1650 AM in Mississauga. The two stations air programming in a variety of language including: Assyrian, Cantonese, Hindi, Serbian, Spanish and Ukrainian. According to Wikipedia 80% of their daily programming is in Arabic. “While I prepare to undertak

Not the way Fitzroy Gordon would want it to Groove   By Stephen Weir The first time a grieving Marvette Gordon knew there was serious trouble at her late husband’s radio station was when a letter appeared in her mailbox a few weeks ago. She learned that the Ontario Supreme Court of Justice had placed G98.7 FM under investigative receivership and a Toronto law firm was temporarily running the ship. The late Fitzroy Gordon’s FM station is now under attack. A former shareholder has convinced the Provincial Courts that there are serious financial problems at the only Caribbean Canadian owned radio station. The law firm Farber and Associates is, for now, managing the affairs of the FM station and examining closely its books. The Insolvency Insider news-site first reported that Gordon’s Intercity Broadcasting Network, the company that operates radio station G98.7 “was placed in investigative receivership on June 3 on application by Jamrock Broadcasting and Delford Blythe.” As a