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“We have listeners in those communities who have complained and said, ‘Geez guys. What can you do for me?’ and the only solution we’ve had for them up to this point was they could listen online,” Broderick said. “This is way better.”

He said that over the years he’d been told there was no way to increase the signal strength, but the engineers came through for the station.

“They had to be really creative to come up with this solution,” Broderick said.

The changes mean that nearly 276,000 more people will have consistent access to the signal, boosting the potential audience to more than one million. At the moment, the station reaches only about 70 per cent of the population but is competing with stations that reach everyone.

Broderick said the actual changes won’t be final until Industry Canada signs off on them. After that, there should be about a three-month period before the changeover in transmitters occurs, because a custom antenna must be built. He’s optimistic that it’ll be up and running by fall. No downtime is expected, though if there is, Broderick expects it would be late at night so as to minimally affect listeners.

While the cost is expected to be at least $500,000, that is rapidly offset by advertising, Broderick said.

“This is a no-brainer for us.”

tdawson@ottawacitizen.com

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