About Radio Humsafar (CIRF)

Radio Humsafar (CIRF)

Radio Humsafar, broadcasting on 1350 kHz as CIRF, is a multilingual South Asian radio station licensed to Brampton, Ontario, and serving the Greater Toronto Area. Owned by Radio Humsafar, the station airs ethnic programming mostly in South Asian languages, with Punjabi prominent in the schedule. It signed on in 2020 after a licensing process that began in 2015, becoming the Toronto-area outlet of the Radio Humsafar network — a South Asian broadcasting service that launched in Montreal in 2000 and now reaches audiences in Canada, the United States, India, and Australia.

Overview

CIRF operates on 1350 kHz with 1,000 watts of power by day and just 40 watts at night, using a non-directional antenna. The transmitter is located on Atlantic Drive near East Britannia Road in Mississauga. The sharp day-night power difference reflects the interference protections required on the regional 1350 frequency, giving the station a solid daytime signal across the GTA while limiting its after-dark reach.

The station's format is multilingual and South Asian, aimed at the large South Asian communities of Brampton, Mississauga, and the wider Toronto area. As part of the Radio Humsafar network, it draws on a programming service that describes itself as family-oriented, offering news, music, current issues, comedy, children's programs, and talk shows around the clock. The network's evening talk show hosted by Jasvir Sandhu is identified as its most popular program.

History

On October 21, 2015, the CRTC approved Radio Humsafar's application to operate a new ethnic commercial AM radio station in Brampton on 1350 kHz, under Broadcasting Decision 2015-471. The approved undertaking would offer 100 percent ethnic programming directed to at least 14 cultural groups in a minimum of 11 languages, with 80 percent of programming in third languages. The target audience was listeners aged 12 and up, with a core of 18 to 54; 20 percent of programming — English-language ethnic content — was aimed at second-generation English-speaking South Asians, while the third-language majority targeted the South Asian population directly. Spoken word would make up 60 percent of the broadcast week, including 7 hours and 35 minutes of news and related programming: nearly five hours of it local and regional, plus national and international segments. The licence was set to expire August 31, 2022.

The road to sign-on was longer and more complicated than expected. The station's original callsign was to be CFKA, but it became CIRF when it went on air. A December 2016 CRTC letter decision had already approved relocating the transmitter site and trimming nighttime power from 45 to 40 watts, after the originally approved site proved unviable — and that was only the beginning of a protracted site search. In October 2018 the CRTC denied an application to move the unlaunched station's transmitter to an existing telecommunications tower in Mississauga, nearly seven kilometres south-east of the approved Brampton site, and to change the transmitter class from C to B. Radio Humsafar argued that the previously approved site was no longer viable because it could not achieve all necessary coordination there, and that the Mississauga tower would still serve its licensed community without altering the grounds on which the licence had been granted. That November, the commission extended the station's deadline to commence operations to October 21, 2019.

In July 2019 the CRTC denied a near-identical application to relocate to the Mississauga site and change the transmitter class. The applicant submitted that neither of the previously approved transmitter sites was still available, and that the Mississauga tower would let it commence operations easily. Radio Humsafar acknowledged the move would decrease the Brampton population served, but argued that its target South-Asian listeners were concentrated in the southern half of Brampton, on the Mississauga border, and that the signal within the secondary contour would be acceptably clear for most Brampton listeners. The commission was unpersuaded. Finally, in October 2019, the CRTC approved a different site change — a new transmitter location only about 1.5 kilometres from the original 2015 site, which the commission noted would actually increase coverage of Brampton and decrease coverage of neighbouring Mississauga — along with another extension of the launch deadline, this time to October 21, 2020. CIRF began test broadcasts on December 19, 2019, and signed on fully a few months later in 2020, bringing the Brampton transmitter saga to an end.

The Radio Humsafar network

CIRF is the Toronto voice of a network with deep roots in Canadian South Asian broadcasting. Radio Humsafar launched in Montreal in July 2000 and built a South Asian programming service heard on stations across Canada, India, Australia, and the United States, as well as worldwide over the internet. The network broadcasts family-oriented programming 24 hours a day, seven days a week — a mix of news, music, current issues, comedy shows, children's programs, and talk shows — and is also distributed by satellite across North America via a DVB receiver on the Telesat Anik F1 satellite.

The network's station portfolio includes CJLV 1570 AM in Laval, Quebec, which carries a French-language full-service format of oldies, talk, and news. Radio Humsafar's Montreal expansion history illustrates its persistence: a 2011 application for a 1400 kHz ethnic station was withdrawn, but a reapplication at 1610 kHz was approved on May 16, 2014, creating CHRN as the network's Montreal flagship. The Brampton licence, granted in 2015, extended that footprint into the Toronto market, home to one of the largest South Asian diasporas in the world.

Programming

CIRF's schedule is built around South Asian multilingual programming, with Punjabi as a leading language alongside other South Asian languages. The network format blends news and current-affairs programming with music, comedy, children's shows, and talk — designed as family listening for South Asian households. The evening talk show hosted by Jasvir Sandhu anchors the schedule as the network's most popular program. The licensing commitments envisioned a schedule that was 60 percent spoken word, with substantial local and regional news, reflecting the station's mandate to serve Brampton's and the GTA's South Asian communities with information as well as entertainment. Specific current program titles beyond the network's flagship shows are not independently confirmed.

Coverage and audience

As a 1,000-watt daytime station on 1350 kHz with a non-directional antenna from Mississauga, CIRF's signal serves Brampton, Mississauga, and the central GTA during daylight hours. The 40-watt nighttime authorization sharply constrains its after-dark coverage — a common profile for regional AM stations protecting co-channel outlets elsewhere. The station's audience is the GTA's South Asian community, concentrated in Brampton and Mississauga, and its reach is extended by the Radio Humsafar network's internet streaming and satellite distribution. Current audience figures are not publicly confirmed.

Ownership

CIRF is owned by Radio Humsafar Inc., the operator of the Radio Humsafar South Asian broadcasting network founded in Montreal in 2000. The company's holdings include the Brampton station, the Montreal flagship CHRN, and Laval's CJLV. The station operates under CRTC commercial ethnic radio licence conditions, including its commitments to serve at least 14 cultural groups across a minimum of 11 languages.

Digital presence

The station streams through the Radio Humsafar network's online platforms, with radiohumsafar.com as its web home. The network's programming is also available worldwide via internet streaming and by satellite across North America. The station maintains social media profiles under the Radio Humsafar branding. A dedicated standalone mobile app for the Brampton station is not publicly confirmed.