CIMN-FM

CIMN was a Canadian campus radio station at the University of Prince Edward Island in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.

The station began as a "very low power broadcast station", known as Radio UPEI and operated from the top floor of the administrative building in 1970. The transmitters were home-made and of solid state design. In 1972, the UPEI Student Union funded upgrades to a carrier current system operating on 700 kHz using the callsign CSUR. This conflicted with international callsign allocations (the ITU prefix CS is assigned to Portugal, not Canada), so a new application was made for the callsign CIMN (Campus Information Music & News).

A series of transmitters, using the electrical wiring of buildings as the antenna system, were located in the various residences. A set of control rooms and production studios located on the 4th floor of Main Building remained in operation for a number of years. The station also began to simulcast audio via the local cable television system into homes in the area.

In 1982, the studios were moved to the Barn, which housed student union offices and student activity areas on campus.

The station received a full FM license in 1995 to broadcast at 90.3 FM,[1] and at this point, legal problems began. CIMN became the first Canadian station without a full time staff person to be granted a broadcast licence by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).

Finally, the station was closed down in 1999-2000 after a conflict with the UPEI Student Union. Shortly thereafter, the ageing 'Barn' was condemned, and subsequently slated for demolition. CIMN's archived music collection, including some 10,000 rare vinyl records and compact discs, was housed in two locked storage rooms on the third floor of the building. It has been surmised that the collection was likely destroyed as the building fell.

Since that time, interest has remained high in reopening the facility, but recent innovations in Internet media, in particular podcasting, seem to have diverted interest. In the event the station was to resume operations, the station would need to re-apply for a licence, as its previous licence expired in August 2000 and was not renewed.[1]

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