107.5 Bolt FM plays hot adult contemporary music across Humboldt and central Saskatchewan, running under the call sign CHBO-FM at 100,000 watts. It holds a specific distinction in town history: before it signed on, Humboldt had never had a radio station of its own.
Humboldt's First Local Signal
Golden West Broadcasting received CRTC approval for CHBO-FM on January 25, 2011, and the station officially launched that October 12, backed by the local outlet DiscoverHumboldt.com. For a town of roughly 6,000 people, having a dedicated local station meant local news, local weather and, from the very beginning, local sports coverage that no outside broadcaster was going to provide with the same attention.
The Voice of the Broncos
That sports coverage centered heavily on the Humboldt Broncos, the town's junior hockey team and a genuine focal point of community life. Play-by-play announcer Tyler Bieber became closely identified with both the team and the station, described by station manager Brian Kusch as "the heartbeat of the station." Bieber mentored a young stats intern named Brody Hinz, who compiled game statistics for the Broncos while learning the broadcasting side of the business at Bolt FM.
April 6, 2018
On April 6, 2018, the bus carrying the Broncos to a playoff game collided with a transport truck near a highway intersection in Saskatchewan. Sixteen people died, including both Tyler Bieber and Brody Hinz. For a station whose entire identity was built around calling this team's games, the loss was not an abstract community tragedy. It took two of Bolt FM's own.
A Pause Every Year Since
The station has kept a standing tribute in the years since. Each April, 107.5 Bolt FM pauses regular programming at 4:50 p.m., the approximate time of the crash, for a moment of silence shared with listeners across the region. It is a small piece of programming, thirty seconds or so of dead air, but it is one built directly into the station's yearly rhythm rather than treated as a one-time gesture.
Still Humboldt's Station
107.5 Bolt FM continues on as central Saskatchewan's adult contemporary outlet, still the town's only local signal more than a decade after it first went on air. It plays the hits, covers the news, and every April, for about half a minute, it goes quiet for the two people who used to be on the other side of the microphone.