1050 CJNB is on the air again. (file photo/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Angela Brown

Technical issues resolved

CJNB radio back up and on the air again

Jun 15, 2023 | 8:47 AM

1050 CJNB is announcing it is now back up and running again, after being down for the past week or so due to transmitter issues.

The station was plagued with technical challenges after lightning storms caused the radio transmitter to fail.

Program Director Nic Fransoo said the lightning storm went through the area and resulted in an immense power surge that struck the station’s main transmitter in early June.

“What happens with the transmitter is that lots of its different components have dependencies,” he explained. “There are different parts of the transmitter that rely on other parts that are working. So, when that surge hit, it cooked many different dependent parts.”

As the transmitter was being repaired, it became apparent that a number of different components were not working. In essence, all the various parts need to be working in unison for the transmitter to be able to do its job.

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“If part A is working, then part A won’t put us back on the air if part B isn’t working,” Fransoo said. “But we won’t know if part B isn’t working until part A is replaced… Once we know the last part we put in is working with the next part in the dependency chain, then we know we’re done. We’ve fixed all that we need to fix.”

Another issue is the transmitter parts need to be manufactured in a factory in eastern Canada. Unfortunately, at the time the transmitter started acting up, the factory was closed due to the wildfires burning in that area, which compounded the problem.

“That put a massive delay on the parts that we ordered,” Fransoo said. “So we made do with our backup transmitter. Then, our backup transmitter, which is significantly older than our main transmitter at a much lower power, encountered issues as well. It went down, and has to be manually repaired by fabricating parts within Saskatchewan, to put back into that transmitter to get it up back in the air.”

The station’s foremost priority was fixing its main transmitter.

Now that the transmitter has finally been repaired and is working again, Fransoo said it’s a great relief to everyone involved.

“The transmitter is repaired and we’re back to full power,” he said. “We’re happy to be back on the air.”

Fransoo took the opportunity to commend the station’s listeners over the past week while 1050 CJNB was temporarily down.

“We definitely thank our listeners for their patience and their understanding through this,” he said.

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Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow