CHLW 93.1 The Bear is Barriere's very own radio station and officially started broadcasting on the 6th of January 2014 . We have designed and programmed our station to zero in and cater to the those that live in our community and to those that visit Barriere.
The Bear plays a variety of music that spans six decades and our weekly line up of Radio features and Radio shows are community focussed . Due to the well seasoned and extensive broadcast backgrounds of our presenters we offer a big city radio sound with the unique warmth that is found only in a small town like Barriere. We thank you for listening to 93.1 The Bear and we thank you for supporting our sponsors.
From The Bear
As one would expect, CHLW is a local station, with a transmitted power of less that 15 watts. This is enough to cover Barriere, and possibly Louis Creek, 10 km. south, maybe even McClure, 20km. south. The name,
The Bear, is a sort of homophone of the town, Barriere.
CHLW is near the centre of town on the west side of Barriere Town Road, directly south of the local Fire Department, partially hidden behind mature trees. The station is a small, flat roofed rectangular building with
CHLW 93.1 THE BEAR lettered on the cornice facing the road. Out front stands a brown bear, waving at passersby and clenching a Canadian flag in his teeth. Atop the station is the non directional transmitting antenna.
The station's format is music (with news, weather, road reports and sports thrown in occasionally): pop, easy rock, folk jazz, easy listening, blues, as well as locally produced, "community focussed", programming. Not entirely anonymous, the station has garnered a fairly comprehensive Wiki writeup.
CHLW-FM is a commercial community radio station which operates at 93.1 MHz/FM in Barriere, British Columbia, Canada. HAAT (Height above average terrain): -144.5 m, Ground Level at Tower Base: 384 m, Overall Height Above Ground: 6 m.
The station is owned by veteran broadcaster Stephen Guay, who received approval from the CRTC on December 10, 2013. The station broadcasts with an average effective radiated power of 13.5 watts (non-directional antenna with an effective height of antenna above average terrain of -144.5 metres). The proposed music format will primarily consist of pop, light rock, country and standard hits, plus world beat, experimental, acoustic, easy listening, folk, and jazz and blues music, as well as special music programming. The station brands its station as "THE BEAR". It was sold to Kenneth Collin Brown in 2017.
Guay is a retired broadcaster with 43 years of experience in the industry, most notably in the Montreal area as Steve Shannon.
From Wiki
Though it's possible, we doubt that an easy listening music station has many enemies. Along the lines of notoriety, the station gained even more regionally when it lost its news car to a local arsonist. Witness the following.
Barriere Radio station
news car destroyed
A molotov cocktail is suspected of causing the fire that destroyed the CHLW radio news car
BC Local News | Feb. 1, 2017
Barriere’s radio station, CHLW, reports they were the target of a molotov cocktail attack early Saturday morning.
At approximately 2:10 a.m., owner Steve Shannon, who was doing late night production in the station at the time, says he “heard a pop” and went outside to investigate.
As Shannon walked outside he immediately saw that the CHLW news car was on fire, so quickly made a call for the fire department.
Shannon says once the Barriere volunteer firefighters were on site a plastic container containing a mixture of diesel and gasoline was discovered.
RCMP attended a short time later, and Shannon says police have started an arson investigation into the incident. The destroyed news car was taken by the police to allow arson investigators from Kamloops to further their inspection.
Shannon says the radio station’s mobile broadcast unit (an older motorhome) was also set ablaze. Fortunately though, thanks to a quick response from Shannon and the Barriere Fire Department, the flames were quickly doused with only minimal damage done to the unit.
“It was a good thing that I was awake at the time,” said Shannon. “The car and motorhome were parked close to the wood framed radio studio and a larger fire could have been the result.”
The investigation into who destroyed the news car, and why, continues.
From the BC Local News