The 88.1 FM signal Indie 88 broadcasts on today did not start as a blank slate. It belonged to a campus radio station that Canada's broadcast regulator forcibly shut down, and the station that eventually replaced it announced its arrival with one of the most-talked-about pranks in Toronto radio history.
A Frequency Freed Up by a Shutdown
Before Indie 88 existed, 88.1 FM belonged to CKLN-FM, a Ryerson University campus community station that had broadcast since 1983. In January 2011 the CRTC revoked CKLN's licence entirely, citing years of governance breakdowns, infighting among staff and volunteers, and a failure to involve the student body it was meant to serve, ordering the station off the air within weeks. Central Ontario Broadcasting won the newly available frequency in 2012 and used it to launch something built almost entirely around the genre CKLN had never focused on: indie rock.
A Week of Rickrolling Before Going Live
Rather than launch quietly, the new station spent the week of 25 July 2013 test-broadcasting a single song on a continuous loop: Rick Astley's 1987 hit "Never Gonna Give You Up," a deliberate Rickroll played out over live FM radio. The stunt worked exactly as intended, drawing coverage from bloggers and mainstream outlets and getting Toronto listeners talking about a station that had not technically launched yet.
Listeners Picked the First Real Song
When Indie 88 officially went live on 31 July 2013 at noon, the first song was not chosen internally. According to program director Adam Thompson, the station asked listeners to vote on the launch track, and the overwhelming choice was Arcade Fire's "Ready to Start," a fitting pick for a station whose entire premise was starting fresh on a frequency that had just gone silent.
Built With Help From a CFNY Veteran
Long-time CFNY-FM music director Alan Cross came on as a music consultant for the new station, lending it institutional credibility from Toronto's alternative radio scene, while Raina Douris took on the role of music director and afternoon host. That combination of an insider's ear for the genre and a launch built on public goodwill from the Rickroll stunt gave Indie 88 an unusually strong foothold for a brand-new format entering a market its predecessor had just been forced to leave.