Swan River radio station struck by arson

Winnipeg Free Press

11-07-2025

Mounties are searching for a suspect seen outside a Swan River radio station, shortly before the building caught fire early Thursday.
Police in the town some 375 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg responded to reports of a fire at a business on the 500 block of Main Street around 5:20 a.m., Manitoba RCMP said in a news release Friday.
Officers encountered heavy smoke and the building's interior was significantly damaged, police said. 'With assistance of a fire investigator, the preliminary investigation has determined the cause of the fire to be incendiary.'
Investigators recovered video surveillance from nearby cameras that shows an unknown man riding a bike past the business right before the fire broke out.
In a social media post, Bill Gade, owner of CJ104 Swan River, wrote: 'Security video shows that at about 5:20 a.m. on Thursday, an individual riding a bicycle approached our Main Street Swan River location. They parked their bike and lit a fire bomb they were carrying. They then threw the fire bomb through the glass window of our studio. Fire crews responded minutes later to extinguish the flames.'
He said the studio is where the Mark and Bill morning show is produced each weekday and aired on stations in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
'On a typical morning, our staff would already be in the studio preparing for the broadcast. Due to a scheduling change for July 10, the staff had not yet walked into the studio,' said the post by Gade, who is also reeve of Swan Valley West.
Had staff been in the studio, there would have been fatalities, the message said.
'To be clear, from the amount of accelerant used and the method of which it was thrown into the studio, had our staff been inside that room, they would have been covered in burning accelerant and would have not been able to exit the studio.'
The studio and master control facilities for stations in Neepawa, Gimli, Virden and Esterhazy, Sask., were destroyed.
The post said computer servers for Parkland Tourism, the Swan Valley Chamber of Commerce and non-profit groups had also been destroyed.
Gade promises to rebuild the network of radio stations. 'Work on this began while the fire crews were still extinguishing the flames and it will continue until each station is again operational.'
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