Canada airs its
first commercial radio station for gay audiences

Toronto launched Canada's first commercial radio station for gay and lesbian audiences on Monday, reports CBC Arts Online.

The programmers at 103.9 Proud FM hope to promote diversity on the radio by giving a voice to the gay and lesbian community in Canada. The hosts are Ken Kostick and Mary Jo Eustace, who are well-known for their CBC-TV cooking show What's for Dinner? and will host Proud FM's morning show, What's for Breakfast?

The station is run by Rainbow Media group and hopes to bring in more than 400,00 local listeners around Toronto as well as others elsewhere via live streaming on the Internet.

Proud FM has been in the works for about 10 years and was granted a license by Canada's broadcast regulator last year. Some have criticized the project already, claiming the station's employees may not represent the entire LGBT community. (The Advocate)