Star Ray TV

Infobox_Broadcast
call_letters = Star Ray TV
station_
station_slogan =
station_branding = Star Ray TV
analog = 15 (UHF)
digital =
other_chs =
affiliations = Independent
founded = 1997
location = Toronto, Ontario
callsign_meaning =
former_callsigns = VX9AMK (experimental; late-1990s)
owner = Jan Pachul
former_affiliations =
effective_radiated_power =
HAAT =
class = pirate station| homepage = [http://www.srtv.on.ca/ Star Ray TV]

Star Ray TV is a community television station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The station, which broadcasts on channel 15 in Toronto's Beaches neighbourhood, was launched in 1997 when Jan Pachul, an amateur radio operator, applied to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission for licence to serve the community. When it was licensed as an experimental low-power station, it had the callsign VX9AMK.

On August 21, 2000, after five interventions from established broadcasters, the CRTC turned down Pachul's application, on the grounds that it did not meet with the CRTC's LPTV policy. It was soon revealed, however, that the CRTC didn't even "have" an LPTV policy, and Pachul alleged that the CRTC was simply protecting established corporate broadcasters who had already failed in their responsibility to provide programming of community interest. On September 9, the station began broadcasting illegally as a pirate station.

Pachul appeared before the CRTC on September 19, 2001, and was ordered to shut the station down by November 15 of that year. In December, the CRTC finally published a policy permitting the development of community stations on LPTV.

In recent years, the station has broadcast over the Internet. Pachul applied for another broadcasting licence on June 3, 2004, but as of 2006 the CRTC has not published a decision either approving or denying the 2004 licence application.

External links

* [http://www.srtv.on.ca/ Star Ray TV]
* [http://www.friends.ca/News/Friends_News/archives/articles08060101.asp Friends of Canadian Broadcasting responds to Star Ray]