Controversial Quebec radio station CHOI-FM has been given a reprieve and can keep broadcasting while the CRTC, the country's broadcast regulator, considers its appeal.

A Federal Appeals Court made the ruling Thursday, citing legal precedent.

CHOI is appealing the CRTC's decision last month to not renew its license after Aug. 31.

The CRTC found that CHOI repeatedly broadcast insulting and offensive comments that were in violation of the Broadcasting Act.

The court had been asked to grant an injunction on the shutdown. The ruling likely means CHOI can remain on the air for at least several more months.

The CRTC's move to take CHOI off the air was a rare one. This was the first time since its creation in 1968 that it decided not to renew the licence of a Canadian radio station because of controversial comments by on-air staff.

In its ruling, the CRTC said the "station's hosts were relentless in their use of the public airwaves to insult and ridicule people."

CHOI has been the target of 92 complaints since it was purchased by Genex Communications in 1997.

Most were focused on a weekday morning show hosted by Jean-Francois Fillion that included a segment by controversial radio personality Andre Arthur.

Among the show's more explosive comments were remarks by the pair harassing a rival radio host implicated in a teen prostitution ring, making disparaging comments about African students at Laval University, and calling for the gassing of psychiatric patients.

"Why don't they just pull the plug on him?" The Globe and Mail reported Fillion saying. "He doesn't deserve to live. The guy's a freaking burden on society."

The Globe also reported Arthur saying: "in Muslim countries and countries in Black Africa, the ones who are sent abroad to study are the sons of people who are disgusting . . . the sons of plunderers, cannibals."

Fillion also discussed the size of a female TV host's breasts.

"The size of the brain is not directly proportional to the size of the bra."

Fans of the station and its workers insist the federal agency doesn't have the right to censor the airwaves. Thousands of the station's supporters held rallies in Ottawa and Quebec City this summer to protest the CRTC's decision.

CHOI-FM's owner, Patrice Demers had called the CRTC decision "a death sentence."

The CRTC said Genex has ignored its repeated warnings.

"The seriousness and frequency of the violations noted, the fact that they were not first violations, the licensee's general attitude of denial, and the stall tactics that the licensee used in dealing with complaints throughout the current licence term have persuaded the Commission that Genex does not accept its regulatory obligations and is not committed to meeting them," the commission said at the time of its ruling last month.