CHIN (1540 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is owned by CHIN Radio/TV International, and broadcasts a multilingual radio format, with programs in Mandarin, Cantonese, Portuguese and other languages. It formerly utilized an FM rebroadcaster at 91.9 MHz, CHIN-1-FM, originally used to fill in reception gaps in parts of Greater Toronto; CHIN-1-FM now broadcasts a separate schedule of ethnic programming, no longer simulcasting CHIN . In addition, there is a full-power FM station on 100.7 MHz, CHIN-FM, which offers a third ethnic programme schedule. CHIN, CHIN-1-FM and CHIN-FM have their radio studios on College Street in the Palmerston-Little Italy neighbourhood of Toronto. By day, CHIN broadcasts at 50,000 watts, the maximum power for Canadian AM stations. Because 1540 AM is a clear-channel frequency reserved for the U.S. and Bahamas, CHIN reduces power at night to 30,000 watts to avoid interference. It uses a directional antenna with a four-tower array. The AM transmitter site is on Lakeshore Avenue on the Toronto Islands. The transmitter for CHIN-1-FM is atop an apartment tower complex near Bathurst and Sheppard in Toronto's Clanton Park neighbourhood. History Early Years CHIN is one of Canada's first multilingual broadcast outlets along with Montreal's CFMB. Toronto broadcaster Johnny Lombardi and lawyer and North York mayor James Ditson Service signed on the station in 1966. The 1540 AM frequency had originally been used by CHFI-FM to simulcast on the AM band, but owner Ted Rogers was dissatisfied with the frequency. At the time, it was only licensed as a daytimer, required to sign off at sunset to protect U.S. and Bahamian clear-channel stations that also broadcast on the frequency. Lombardi and Service bought Radio 1540 Limited from Rogers in 1965. They used the frequency to launch CHIN the next year, while Rogers shifted CHFI-AM to 680 kHz, where it became CFTR. In 1967, CHIN launched a sister station, 100.7 CHIN-FM. Both stations are licensed by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to carry a schedule of programs in numerous languages aimed at Toronto's many ethnic groups. Loss and recovery of license Lombardi was summoned to appear before the CRTC in 1970 after a Serbian-language programme aired on CHIN, calling for the assassination of Yugoslavia's consul in Toronto. Due to this incident, and other issues, the CRTC refused to renew CHIN's license and ordered the station off the air by the end of the