Punjabi speakers will soon be hearing local news and music programming in their own language broadcast across Winnipeg’s airwaves, as a western Canadian network of Punjabi-language radio stations is set to launch its newest station in the city next week. 

Connect Media Network, based in Surrey, B.C., is officially launching Connect Winnipeg 1290 AM on Monday. The media group also has radio stations in Surrey, Edmonton and Calgary. 

Tejinder Singh, Connect’s director of operations and strategy, said the growing Punjabi-speaking community in Winnipeg needs to be represented within local media. 

“I think at this point, Winnipeg does need an editorial voice that is actually talking about our community in our language,” Singh said during a Saturday open house event at Connect Winnipeg’s station, located on the Pembina Highway.

The 24/7 radio station’s programming will include Punjabi-language news, talk shows and international music, Singh said. Some programming will also be presented in English.

Connect Media Network’s news director Pervez Sandhu said the station’s staff will bring hard-hitting news to listeners, with experienced journalists doing a lot of community field reporting. 

“It’s going to be the community stories told by community people,” Sandhu said, adding Connect Winnipeg’s programming will be produced locally. 

“To have those conversations and to tell their stories and their demands in Punjabi … and getting those questions answered from people in authority in the same language, that really, really matters to the community,” he said. 

Sandhu said the media company feels “proud” and “lucky” that they’ll be able to serve the community in their own language. The new station is expected to have between 50,000 to 60,000 listeners in Winnipeg, he said, but more people across the country will be able to tune in online and via the network’s app.

Taransh Bhatnagar, who has been living in Winnipeg for about three years, said the new radio station will “impact the community in a big way” because it means a lot to hear your own language and familiar music being broadcast over the airwaves. 

“It’s really good to have something like this here and it really excites me,” he said. 

Prachi Saini — a host with the station who has worked as a journalist in Winnipeg, Toronto and Vancouver — said she’s looking forward to highlighting important and often-overlooked issues affecting Punjabi-speaking Winnipeggers. 

“The main thing that we would be doing from the mic here is addressing issues for the community that have long been not even looked at. There was not enough light to a lot of issues that should have been addressed long ago,” Saini said, pointing to reports of extortion crimes targeting local South Asian communities and a young woman from India who was attacked in Winnipeg last year. 

“We could have gone to a lot of cities, but Winnipeg needed it,” she said. 

When Saini first moved to Winnipeg several years ago, she said she couldn’t find any radio stations that covered local news in her own language. Now she’s part of the team changing that. 

Saini said she and other staff at Connect Winnipeg will “be there for the community, be a voice for the community, of the community and from the community.”

CFRW (1290 AM) has been revamped several times over the years, previously hosting sports and comedy content. Akash Broadcasting Inc., which owns Connect Media Network, got approval from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to buy the station last October.