About Us

VankleekFM is a privately owned Ultra Low Power FM transmitter located in the village of Vankleek Hill, Ontario.

The owner of the service, Jean Sarrazin, maintains a license with Industry Canada to use the frequency, 88.7 as an unprotected, "local public information service".

As a low power station the service is exempt from most CRTC content requirements as long as it respects the CRTS's exemption order defined by the following criteria:

1. operates between 88 -107.5 MHZ,
2. Field strength measurements at 30 metres must not exceed 100 uv/m
3. meets all technical requirements of Industry Canada,
4. Originates all programming,
5. does not rebroadcast the programming
6. of another (broadcast) undertaking,
7. does not broadcast religious or political programming,
8. does not broadcast the same message on more than one transmitter.

Sarrazin, who retired from CBC Radio in 2001 after almost 27 years with the corporation, decided to keep his finger "in the radio pie" by purchasing a very low-powered FM transmitter from a Sherbrooke, Quebec company called Decade Transmitters and airing information about events going on in and around his community.
"Vankleek Hill has a reputation for being at the centre of many artistic and cultural events from a Bluegrass festival to an International Food Festival to a Victorian Promenade," says Sarrazin. "I wanted people driving through our village to get an appreciation for just how much is going on here - it's really very impressive!"

Currently VankleekFM carries coming events as they are published in the local weekly newspaper, "The Review" -- the newspaper's publisher, Louise Sproule, is a major supporter of VankleekFM -- but eventually the plan is to expand the service to be able to broadcast "live" from events happening in and around Vankleek Hill. Sarrazin is also exploring the possibility of offering advertising slots to local businesses who would like to reach Vankleek FM listeners, on-air or on-line.

If you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to communicate them to us via our Suggestions page. To get your community event on the air, send it or call it in to The Review at (613) 678-3327 or by fax (613) 678-2700 or by e-mail at review@thereview.on.ca