About STOKE 92.5 FM

STOKE 92.5 FM

Overview

Stoke FM, licensed under the call sign VF2590 and also branded Big Mountain Radio, is a very low-power community radio station broadcasting at 92.5 FM in Revelstoke, British Columbia. Transmitting with just four watts, it is one of the smallest licensed radio stations in Canada — a signal designed to cover a single mountain town and nothing more. It is owned and operated by the Stoke FM Radio Society, a not-for-profit society that runs on volunteers, donations, grants and support from local business partners, with no campus affiliation and no student levy behind it.

What the station lacks in power it makes up in local specificity. Its programming has included local and regional news, tourist information, shows featuring local artists and local politics, world music, and the snow, avalanche and snowmobile reports that matter daily in a ski and sledding town. Stoke FM went on the air in 2011 and, through funding squeezes and a complete turnover of its small paid staff, has remained Revelstoke's community voice. Its licence currently runs to 31 August 2029.

History

Stoke FM was founded by Revelstoke resident Scott Duke, who started the station to offer a local alternative and listening variety in the town, to give local businesses a partner and to keep the community informed. On 26 October 2011, in Broadcasting Decision 2011-669, the CRTC approved the Stoke FM Radio Society's application for a very low-power developmental community FM station at 92.5 MHz with an effective radiated power of four watts. The station went on the air in December 2011; as Kootenay Business reported the following March, response in the community was strong, the station counted some 70 business partners, and it had broken even on its initial start-up costs on its seventy-third day of operation. A tower extension was acquired early on to clear up the signal, the station's acknowledged weak point in Revelstoke's mountainous terrain.

The developmental years established the station's pattern, and its fragility. In August 2015 the Revelstoke Review reported major changes: Mike Murphy, a Humber College radio broadcasting graduate who had been co-hosting the morning show, took over as executive director, while founder Scott Duke moved to a background position. The changes were driven by money — the station had not received a key grant that year, and its two key employees, Sarah Peterson and Annie Hewitt, who had handled day-to-day operations, were let go, with their functions becoming volunteer work. Duke explained the station's economics plainly: it was normally supported by two means, grant funding and support from business partners in the community.

On 3 June 2016, in Broadcasting Decision 2016-215, the CRTC converted Stoke FM from the developmental class to a regular very low-power community licence on the same technical parameters. An administrative renewal in 2021 (Broadcasting Decision 2021-299) carried the licence to 31 August 2023, and in Broadcasting Decision 2023-251 the Commission renewed it again, from 1 September 2023 to 31 August 2029 — but on a short-term basis, to allow an earlier review of the licensee's compliance. The reason was administrative rather than editorial: the society's annual returns for the 2019-2020 broadcast year were filed on 30 November 2022, two years late, after a changeover in the executive director position in October 2020 left the incoming director, who started in February 2021, unaware the returns were outstanding. The society told the Commission it had reorganized its files into a database, written a responsibilities manifesto for the executive director position that includes filing annual returns, put board oversight in place, and used the National Campus and Community Radio Association's tools for its filings; the Commission recorded that it was satisfied with the response and the measures taken.

Programming and Content

Stoke FM's licence commitments describe a full community service: 126 hours of programming a week, all of it local and station-produced, including two hours of French-language programming, and 7.5 hours of newscasts each week, of which 6.5 hours would be pure news. Spoken-word programming covers local and regional news, educational programs, tourist information, local artists, local politics and a program featuring local Aboriginal artists, while the music side draws on popular and special-interest categories, including world music and musicians from British Columbia. Local bands and artists have performed live on the station's morning show, and in winter the station built part of its identity around practical mountain information — snow, avalanche and snowmobile reports that were not otherwise on the airwaves in Revelstoke.

The station's best-known program was Mountains, Lakes, and Streams, hosted by Mike Watson, known on air as "Mountain Mike," who began broadcasting from his basement on Revelstoke's CP Hill. Local reporting describes it as the longest-running radio program in the city without interruption; it evolved from its original focus on local and regional environmental issues and policy into a program shaped by Watson's love of alternative music. It aired its final instalment, its 167th episode, on 26 June 2025, closing a fourteen-year run, although Watson indicated at the time that it would not be the last time Revelstoke heard him on the air. The Revelstoke Review included the sign-off among the town's top stories of 2025.

Audience and Reach

Stoke FM's four-watt signal serves Revelstoke itself — the downtown and the neighbourhoods of the small city in the Columbia Mountains — and by design reaches little beyond it. Its audience is therefore the town's residents and, seasonally, the skiers, snowmobilers and other visitors its tourist information serves. No audience figures are published for the station, and none are claimed here. Its online stream, available through its website and streaming services such as TuneIn, has long let former residents and the Revelstoke diaspora listen from anywhere, and gives the tiny signal a second, unlimited contour.

Digital Presence

The station's website is stokefm.com, which carries its live stream, program information and its fundraising appeals. Stoke FM has also been available through streaming directories and apps. Its digital footprint is that of a volunteer society rather than a broadcaster with a digital department: the site's most visible role in recent years, alongside the stream itself, has been community fundraising, including the 2020 campaign (below) run through GoFundMe.

Ownership and Organisation

Stoke FM is owned by the Stoke FM Radio Society, a not-for-profit society governed by a board of directors. Unlike most Canadian community stations, it is not attached to a university or college and receives no student levy or fees; it runs on volunteer power and community support, supplemented by grants and business partnerships. Its staffing history reflects that precarious model: founder Scott Duke led the station from its 2011 launch until 2015, when executive director duties passed to Mike Murphy and paid positions were converted to volunteer roles after a grant did not come through. A further change of executive director in October 2020, and a new director starting in February 2021, caused the paperwork lapse behind the short-term 2023 licence renewal; the society has since formalized the role's compliance duties and board oversight. In March 2020 the society ran a community fundraiser, coordinated by Hilary Zeeuwen, seeking $10,000 by the end of that month to pay for broadcasting and licensing fees, rent, utilities, equipment and software upgrades and its local music programs — an unusually transparent picture of what it costs, and what it takes, to keep a four-watt station alive.

Contact and Availability

Stoke FM broadcasts at 92.5 FM in Revelstoke, British Columbia, and streams online at stokefm.com. Directory listings for the Stoke FM Radio Society give its address as 96 Cartier Street, Revelstoke, BC, and its phone number as 250-837-7475. The society welcomes volunteers from the community, and its published fundraiser contact in 2020 was fundraiser coordinator Hilary Zeeuwen at hilary@stokefm.com.