Update 7/28: Newcap has closed on its purchase of 88.9 CHNI Saint John and flipped it to Classic Rock as “Rock 88.9“.
The station is launching with 30 days commercial free and promoting core artists such as AC/DC, Guns N Roses, Led Zeppelin, Pearl Jam, Tragically Hip, and Van Halen.
GM David Newbury told the CBC, “The plan with Saint John is no different than any of our other radio stations really. It’s going to be a fully-staffed radio station, serving the community the same way we are here in Fredericton, Charlottetown, Moncton, Kentville, St. John’s, Sydney. It’s not going to be different in any significant way from any of those stations really.”
Original Report 7/8: Newcap is inching closer to taking control and flipping News/Talk “News 88.9” CHNI Saint John, NB.
Newcap announced the acquisition of CHNI from Rogers Media on July 4, 2014 and gained CRTC approval in March to flip the format to an Adult Contemporary format “appealing to listeners between 25 and 54 years of age”.
Now Newcap has registered nine domains for CHNI all utilizing brand names used by the company in other markets: Amp889.com, BigDog889.com, Country889.com, Hits889.com, KixxCountry889.com, KRock889.com, the pair of Ocean889.com and Ocean889.ca, and Radio889.com. Of those brand names the only social media profile we could find is a private Facebook page for “Radio 88.9“. Such a move would likely bring an Adult Alternative format similar to sister “Radio 96.5” CKUL Halifax.