Aboriginal Voices Radio Network (AVR) was founded in 1998 by a group of high-profile aboriginal Canadians, including actor
Gary Farmer, playwright, novelist and author
Tomson Highway, filmmaker
Alanis Obomsawin and actress/producer
Jennifer Podemski. The brand descended from
Aboriginal Voices magazine, edited by Farmer, which published from 1993 to 1999, and Aboriginal Voices Festival which ran annually in Toronto from 1998 to 2000. Other founders and key contributors to creation of the network included project manager and training coordinator Brian Wright-McLeod, Christopher Spence and Andre Morriseau (production and programming), John Matthews and Mark MacLeod (licensing), Robert Templeton and J. Robert Wood (corporate funding), Elaine Bomberry, David Deleary, Sherman Maness, Nicole Robertson, Minnie Two Shoes and Doug Bingley (strategic advice). The network's original scope was to feature programming produced primarily by and for
Aboriginal people in Canada, featuring music and personalities from around the world. AVR's first station, CFIE-FM in
Toronto, was licensed by the
CRTC in 2000. CFIE changed its callsign to CKAV in 2006. AVR had previously operated on 106.3 FM (JUMP FM) for a short 6 day period in 1998 during the Aboriginal Voices Festival at
Harbourfront Centre in Toronto. The network faced technical and logistical problems which have prevented it from launching some of its stations; and the original found here and management were forced out by 2004. The network had applied to the CRTC for extensions five or six times as of the end of 2005. Since then, however, the network had moved forward with most of the approved licenses. In 2009, the network surrendered its licenses for transmitters in
Kitchener, Ontario (CKAV-FM-8, 102.5 MHz) and
Montreal (CKAV-FM-10, 106.7 MHz). On August 20, 2009, the CRTC approved an application by Canadian Hellenic Cable Radio (CHCR) to amend the broadcasting licence for its station in Montreal at 106.3 MHz, a second adjacent frequency to CKAV-FM-10 at 106.7 FM, requiring AVR to find an alternative frequency in the event of any interference with the signal of CKAV-FM-10. As of January 2011, CHCR's station,
CKIN-FM, has signed on at 106.3 MHz. Another broadcaster,
Evanov Communications, has since filed an application for a new station at 106.7 serving the western suburb of
Hudson in January 2012; that station, since becoming
CHSV-FM, was approved in October 2012. AVR's outlet in
Ottawa, CKAV-FM-9 95.7 MHz was on air until early October 2014, but has been silent since that time. It never returned to air, though it was still listed on its website among the other stations broadcasting. In December 2014, AVR renamed itself to
Voices Radio, as its scope expanded out of the aboriginal realm and more into music from mainstream artists, generally bent towards adult contemporary. In February 2015, Voices Radio began to air
old-time radio programs from the
United States, nightly from 10 pm to 12 Midnight local time.
Loss of broadcast licensing On March 11, 2015, Voices Radio applied with the CRTC to renew all five station licences (including the closed Ottawa outlet), which were to expire on August 31, 2015. On June 25, 2015, the CRTC denied the renewals, revoked their broadcast licenses, and ordered Voices Radio to cease broadcasting by July 25, 2015. The commission cited repeated, long-term failures by Voices Radio to adhere to the requirements of its licenses, such as a failure to broadcast a sufficient amount of local news content in each of its markets that reflects stories of interest to their respective aboriginal communities, and failing to submit annual financial and business reports, program logs, and tapes of broadcast days to the CRTC. The CRTC intends to hold a call for applications for new aboriginal-focused broadcasters to take on CKAV's frequencies. The CRTC's suspension of license in all the network's cities, except for Ottawa, was suspended on July 23, 2015, pending an application by the station for a leave to appeal the CRTC's decision.
Successors In August 2015, the CRTC issued a call for new licenses to replace Voices Radio in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Ottawa. On February 23, 2016, the CRTC announced that they had received twelve applications for the new stations: two applications for stations in Vancouver, three for Calgary, three for Edmonton, two for Toronto and two for Ottawa. The five organizations that applied were the
Aboriginal Multi-Media Society (owner of Alberta's
CFWE radio network),
Wawatay Native Communications Society,
Northern Native Broadcasting (Terrace), VMS Media Group, and First Peoples Radio—a subsidiary of the
Aboriginal Peoples Television Network). The licenses for Voices Radio remained in effect, pending results of their appeal, though the CRTC subsequently announced that Voices Radio's outlets in Calgary and Edmonton had ceased operations, leaving Toronto and Vancouver as being the only stations in the Voices Radio group still broadcasting as of February 2016. As the license revocation was upheld, the remaining stations surrendered their licenses in November 2016. First Peoples Radio was granted licenses to operate stations in Toronto (
CFPT-FM) and Ottawa (
CFPO-FM) on AVR's former frequencie and went on the air October 2018 branded as ELMNT FM. After years of financial difficulties, both stations ceased operations on September 1, 2025.
Northern Native Broadcasting (Terrace) was awarded AVR's former Vancouver frequency and would broadcast as
CKUR-FM, and AVR's former frequencies in Edmonton and Calgary were awarded to the Aboriginal Multi-Media Society. The new Calgary station,
CJWE-FM, signed on in June 2018 with a similar format to CFWE;
CIWE-FM Edmonton began full broadcasting in February 2021. ==Stations==