Fagstein » CRTC

An English commercial radio station in Hudson/St. Lazare?

Fagstein — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 07:53:22 +0000

Coverage area of proposed FM station in Hudson/St. Lazare provided by Dufferin Communications

Is Hudson part of Montreal?

I'm not asking on a technical level, but more on a psychological one. Do people in that triangle between Montreal and the Ontario border consider themselves part of the metropolitan area, or part of their own region? There's a train that comes once a day to bring commuters into the city, and plenty of people who work on the island live in this region. But is it enough to say that these towns are mere suburbs of greater Montreal?

One Toronto-based company is arguing that it doesn't, and that forms part of the basis for an application they have submitted to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission for a commercial FM radio station to serve the Hudson/St. Lazare area.

The company is Dufferin Communications. You might recognize them as the company that recently got CRTC approval to setup an AM radio station in Montreal with programming targeted at the region's LGBT community. That station will be running on 990 AM after CKGM vacates the frequency to move to 690 - hopefully to be up and running by the fall.

I spoke to Dufferin VP Carmela Laurignano for an article that appears in the West Island section of Wednesday's Gazette about the Hudson application.

This application, for an FM music station, actually predates the AM one, even though the CRTC heard the other one first. Much of the application dates from as far back as 2009. Laurignano said she didn't know why the CRTC waited so long to hear this application, but that she understands they have a lot on their plate and such long waits are not unusual for matters that aren't pressing.

Laurignano said the big reason behind this application is the sense that this is an underserved market. The region has a French-language commercial music station, CJVD-FM 100.1 in Vaudreuil, but no corresponding English station yet, even though its English-speaking population is large and getting larger.

The frequency

The application, which can be downloaded from the CRTC's website here, is for an FM station at 106.7 MHz, with a 500 watt transmitter at a Bell tower on Route Harwood in Hudson. As you can see from the coverage map above, it would cover Hudson, St. Lazare, Rigaud, Vaudreuil-Dorion and the area around Oka, but wouldn't reach much beyond that before it started seeing interference from WIZN 106.7 FM in Burlington, Vt., and to a lesser extent the adjacent-channel station CKQB 106.9 FM (The Bear) in Ottawa. There's also a reserved but unused channel of 106.5 for a CBC station in Cornwall.

The frequency is important, because it's considered the last really desirable one in the Montreal area. It was the former frequency of Aboriginal Voices Radio and was subsequently used by the pirate KKIC radio in Kahnawake before it got CRTC approval for a licensed station at 89.9.

And there's another application pending for this frequency, too. Canadian Hellenic Cable Radio Ltd., the company behind CKDG (Mike) 105.1 FM and CKIN-FM 106.3, has applied to move the former to 106.7, keeping its transmitter location on Mount Royal but increasing its power. Because the coverage areas of CKDG and the proposed Hudson station would overlap, it's unlikely the CRTC would allow both on the same frequency. UPDATE: CHCR withdrew its application to change CKDG's frequency this week. Thanks to ATSC for spotting that through an update to the station's Wikipedia page.

Dufferin's application includes a backup frequency should the CRTC judge 106.7 improper. It's 107.9FM. Assigning that frequency might anger National Public Radio fans in Montreal, as that's the frequency used by the closest transmitter, in Burlington, Vt. Its reception here is quite good for a border station, but it would be hard to see it overcoming a much closer transmitter on the same frequency in Hudson.

The frequency is also less desirable for Dufferin because it's adjacent to its own Jewel station at 107.7FM in Hawkesbury.

The format

The proposal calls for a format of adult contemporary/easy listening music, similar to what can be heard at The Jewel, a network of radio stations Dufferin owns in cities including Ottawa, Toronto and Hawkesbury, Ont. This means a lot of Céline Dion, Barbra Streisand, Sarah McLachlan, Michael Bublé and Frank Sinatra.

Dufferin estimates in its application that only about 14% of its Jewel playlist (200 of 1,400 songs) can be heard on Montreal English and French music stations, which it uses as part of its argument for fulfilling a niche.

The station would also be committed to local news and information programming seven days a week, including regular newscasts during the morning and afternoon drive periods on weekdays. A total of four hours a week would be "pure news" - and half of its newscasts would be news local to the Hudson/St. Lazare area - with other talk programming representing almost 12 hours a week.

Unlike the bigger Montreal radio stations, this one wouldn't have a live announcer all day. The morning and afternoon drive programs would be live, but Dufferin says in its application that mid-day and evening programs will be voice-tracked (meaning that the announcer breaks between songs will be recorded in advance), and late night and overnight programming completely automated.

The budget

The proposed station's financial projections show revenue gradually growing from $480,000 the first year to $1 million in the seventh year of its license. Expenses would start at $700,000 (including a $90,000 startup cost) and reach $850,000 in the seventh year.

Under these projections, the station would start making money in Year 4 and pay for itself in the seventh year.

About 95% of its advertising revenue is expected to be local, with 20-30,000 minutes sold a year at an average rate of between $22 and $34 a minute.

The hearing

Those who have opinions on this application can share them with the CRTC by submitting an intervention or comment. The deadline is Feb. 21. A hearing is scheduled March 21 in Gatineau.

If approved quickly, Laurignano says Dufferin would get on the application right away, and hopefully get it on the air by fall 2012.

Sherbrooke radio station shuts down

Fagstein — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 06:15:35 +0000

On Tuesday morning, Cogeco announced that CJTS-FM 104.5, the station in Sherbrooke it was forced to sell as part of its acquisition of Corus Quebec assets, has been shut down because it hasn't found a buyer. The station, along with two in Quebec City that have found buyers, were under the management of a trustee.

The closing leaves 12 people out of work, and Cogeco is not offering them jobs elsewhere.

Coverage at the Journal de Sherbrooke, La Tribune and Cogeco Nouvelles.

CJTS-FM used to be CKOY-FM, and a sister station of Montreal's CKOI. When the Cogeco deal closed on Feb. 1, it moved the CKOI format and branding to CHLT-FM 107.7. That station is now CKOY-FM. CJTS picked up the Souvenirs Garantis format, which it held until noon on Tuesday when it shut down.

Cogeco's original plan for the station, which they hoped would satisfy CRTC commissioners, was to turn it into a retransmitter of CKAC Sports. That would have made things interesting when CKAC was turned into an all-Montreal-traffic station.

The other two stations Cogeco was forced to sell, CJEC-FM (Rythme FM 91.9) and CFEL-FM (CKOI 102.1) in Quebec City, were sold to businessman Jacques Leclerc.

Cogeco also announced on Tuesday that it purchased Métromédia CMR Plus Inc., a company that does advertising for public transit systems, including Montreal. (It's not to be confused with Métromédia CMR Montréal Inc. or Métromédia CMR Broadcasting Inc., which were holding companies for Corus Quebec radio stations including CFQR, CKOI and CHMP, and have since been amalgamated as Cogeco Diffusion Acquisitions Inc. Both Métromédias were started in the early 90s by Pierre Beland and Pierre Arcand.)

UPDATE (Dec. 15): Quebecor's Pierre Karl Péladeau confirms (after Agence QMI somehow managed to "learn" about it) that Groupe TVA submitted a bid to buy the station. Normally the CRTC doesn't allow the same company to own a major newspaper, a TV station and a radio station in the same market. Quebecor does own a weekly, the Journal de Sherbrooke, but no daily paper there, which I suppose Quebecor would use to argue it should be allowed to own it. Still, it would have been the media giant's first radio station.

Cogeco wouldn't confirm it, because such bids are confidential, but it says no bids met the criteria set by the liquidator. It would be interesting to see which one it didn't meet.

Rejected AM radio stations preparing Plan B

Fagstein — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 22:59:39 +0000

Two weeks after the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission issued a decision that awarded licenses for two new AM radio stations and rejected two others for lack of available frequencies, the two groups who had applications rejected are studying their options.

Cogeco: No final decision

Metromedia (owned by Cogeco Diffusion), which in September launched a French-language all-traffic station on CKAC 730, had its application for an English station on 940 kHz rejected because "the Commission is not satisfied that the proposed service would represent the best use of a high-power AM frequency in Montréal," and the group said it would not accept the other frequency that was available as part of the hearing, 990 kHz. Still, the commission suggested Cogeco reapply for another frequency.

Now Cogeco is planning what to do next. Mark Dickie, who is the general manager for CKBE The Beat and part of the committee planning the anglophone traffic station, said he's been in regular meetings since, but no final decision has been made on whether to reapply. Another meeting is scheduled for Tuesday.

There are many factors that suggest Cogeco will reapply for another frequency despite its earlier assertion that only a clear channel would work. For one thing, the station is part of an agreement between Cogeco and the Ministry of Transport, which would pay the broadcaster $1.5 million a year to operate the station. Though the agreement requires the station to have coverage around the Montreal area, how that's determined is not clearly defined.

A similar agreement governs the French all-traffic station, which is also worth $1.5 million a year for Cogeco. Because the agreements are the same for both languages (meaning their value is based on the cost of providing the service, not the potential audience) and because there are no guaranteed minimums in terms of audience reach, it's clear the ministry doesn't actually care how many people listen to the station, just that it's there.

Guilaume Paradis, spokesperson for Transport Quebec, told me they are awaiting another submission from Cogeco, and that "we will study it," but that they still want to see an English all-traffic station in Montreal.

When asked about specifics, Paradis said that they are not experts in radio broadcasting, which is why they hired Cogeco to do the job in the first place, and they will leave the details of how such a station would reach the Montreal area to Cogeco.

The agreement between Cogeco and the government originally called for both stations to be operational by Oct. 31. That was amended with a new deadline of Feb. 29 in light of the elongated CRTC process. Clearly that will need to be amended again if the project is to continue.

Tietolman-Tétrault-Pancholy will reapply

The other group, 7954689 Canada Inc., known as Tietolman-Tétrault-Pancholy Media, scored a half-victory at the CRTC, getting clear-channel 940 kHz for a French-language news-talk station, but the English station was rejected for lack of available frequencies (like Cogeco, the TTP group rejected 990 as an option).

One of the group's partners, Paul Tietolman, originally wouldn't comment on their plans, but now says the group will make an application for another frequency. He wouldn't say what frequency that is, but did suggest it would be a unique technical setup (perhaps not limited to one frequency or one transmitter), without going into details.

Tietolman said many people have already approached the group expressing an interest in joining them. They are currently in the process of setting up their management team, who will then hire talent.

He said the goal is still to have the station running by fall of 2012.

Asked whether the group is sticking to its stance that it would not proceed with a radio station in one language without getting approval for the other, Tietolman would say only that he expects everything will work out, and that a solution has been found that will make everyone happy.

Meanwhile, the group has applied for an FM radio station in Calgary, one of 11 applications for FM stations on a few remaining vacant frequencies in that city. The application is for a music station that would be based on current and classic hits (from Katy Perry to the Beach Boys), based on requests, and with commitments to promote emerging Canadian artists as well as comedians. It would also hire 12 journalists and have newscasts 24 hours a day.

Tietolman said other applications are coming for other cities.

CRTC limits musical montages on French radio stations

Fagstein — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 19:58:26 +0000

It's no secret that Canadian radio stations don't like the content requirements imposed on them by the CRTC. For stations that broadcast popular music, 35% of the songs they play must be Canadian (that term being defined by meeting certain criteria). That's why we hear a lot of Nickelback or Kim Mitchell.

For French-language radio stations playing popular music, there's an additional and more serious limit the CRTC imposes: 65% of their songs must be in French (55% during the day, to prevent them from getting around this by playing all their French songs at 3am).

A few years ago, some genius found a way to get around this requirement: montages.

Because the CRTC counts "musical selections" by number, and not by length, a two-minute song and a 20-minute song have the same weight. And because the CRTC specifically counts music montages as one selection, you can have large (but not complete) parts of 20 songs in there and have it counted as one selection for the purpose of French-language minimums.

ADISQ, Quebec's musical industry group, objected to the abuse of this by radio stations, and complained to the CRTC, which held hearings into the issue, specifically focusing on CKOI-FM Montreal, owned by Cogeco, CKTF-FM (NRJ) Gatineau, owned by Astral, and CFTX-FM (Capitale Rock) Gatineau, owned by RNC Media.

The statistics are pretty telling. The CKOI and NRJ stations were found to be using montages to a significant part of their broadcast week. CKOI was the worst, using 101 montages in the studied week, representing 17.9% of its total broadcasting time (this works out to an average of about 20 minutes per montage, though one case was found that was 55 minutes long). The NRJ Gatineau case was only slightly less, with 75 montages representing 14.5% of their 126 hours of broadcasting.

The study found these montages were almost all English-language American songs.

Astral and Cogeco argued they were not breaking the rules as they were written, which is true. They also presented public opinion polls showing that francophone audiences want to hear more English music, and in many cases francophones are tuning in to English stations.

There's some irony in all this: 13 years ago, the CRTC set definitions of montages as they are to prevent the reverse from happening: radio stations using short clips from French-language songs in a montage and counting each one individually.

On Thursday, the CRTC addressed this, and imposed limits on the use of music montages. CKOI and CKTF can use montages for only 10% of their broadcast week. (CFTX was already well below this limit, so the CRTC did not impose one.) It also said it would study this matter further, and possibly impose new regulation generally.

The most obvious solution, to me, is to count musical selections based on length, not number. Under such a system, a four-minute song would count for twice as much as a two-minute song, and musical montages would be split up for the purposes of counting French-language or Canadian content requirements.

This is obviously more complicated for the station, but it would eliminate the problem.

The CRTC says it will begin looking into this issue in 2012.

Other coverage:

The Globe and Mail (includes reaction from Astral and Cogeco)
Canadian Press
Presse Canadienne
Agence QMI

UPDATE: Cogeco Diffusion has issued a statement saying it will comply with the ruling, and suggesting the whole montage thing was Corus's idea, that it's using less of them, and its other radio stations don't do it. Astral and RNC Media issued a joint statement also saying they would comply with the decision. Both said they would participate in hearings about French-language requirements, undoubtedly in an effort to get the CRTC to lower them.

ADISQ also issued a statement, praising the decision as a victory for francophone artists.

CRTC gives clear channels to TSN, Tietolman-Tétrault-Pancholy

Fagstein — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 16:46:28 +0000

The CRTC's decision on Montreal AM radio stations came out this morning. Here's the skinny:

690 AM goes to TSN Radio (CKGM), which will change frequency to improve its signal
940 AM goes to Tietolman-Tétrault-Pancholy (7954689 Canada Inc.), which will use it for a French-language news-talk station
990 AM, vacated by TSN Radio, will go to Dufferin Communications, which will setup Radio Fierté, a music and talk station aimed at the LGBT community

The two other applications, TTP's English-language news-talk station and Cogeco's English all-traffic station, are denied, not because the CRTC feels they are without merit, but because the other applicants made better cases for the two clear-channel frequencies and neither would accept 990 as a backup. The CRTC hints that the two might be approved if they reapplied for other vacant AM frequencies (like 600 or 850), but that these applications would have to be reconsidered on their own merits.

Also Monday, the CRTC denied four applications for low-powered AM radio stations in Montreal, three of which would target ethnic communities and the fourth a religious station. The CRTC felt they would negatively impact the five existing ethnic stations, notably CKIN-FM 106.3 (Mike FM's sister station), which has programming targeting the South Asian and Latin American communities, and religious station Radio Ville-Marie (CIRA-FM 91.3).

The second decision has an impact on the first, in that one of the stations had applied to use 600 kHz. The denial of that application means the frequency is available to the big commercial players. Tietolman-Tétrault-Pancholy has hinted that it might be interested in that frequency, provided it can use a tower or get space for one to build themselves. The only one capable of doing that frequency right now is Cogeco's towers, which will continue to go unused, but Paul Tietolman says he has no intention of asking Cogeco for them.

You can read a summary of what's going on in this article I wrote for Tuesday's Gazette. Below, I go into a bit more analysis.

The hierarchy

Reading the decision, it becomes clear how the CRTC judged the applications based on hierarchy:

CKGM's frequency change clearly made the strongest case, because it was an already-existing station and because moving it would offer another frequency for another applicant. (The CRTC likes to make as many people happy as possible.) Its content - sports - is also better suited to a signal that carries farther into the regions. So CKGM wins the biggest prize, 690 kHz.
Tietolman-Tétrault-Pancholy's application was taken seriously, and the CRTC believes enough in its business plan that it is willing to give them a chance. But it wasn't going to give the one applicant both clear-channel frequencies. So TTP gets 940. And since they said they would not accept 990, one application has to be denied. The French market is stronger in Montreal and its surrounding regions, and there isn't as much direct competition for a French news-talk station as their is in English with CJAD, so the French station gets approved.
Cogeco's application for an English all-traffic station couldn't convince the CRTC that it required a signal so powerful that it can reach into Gaspé. They made a valiant effort, saying that they need to be heard across the Ontario border for people who commute from that far, and that their application should be approved because otherwise the existence of the French all-traffic station would create an imbalance in services to different languages. But the CRTC remained unconvinced. And since Cogeco wouldn't accept anything but 690 and 940, that application had to be denied.
Dufferin's Radio Fierté gets 990 more by process of elimination than anything else. Two applications were approved for clear channels, and the other two wouldn't accept 990, so Dufferin gets it. That isn't to say the CRTC wasn't excited about their application and eager to increase the diversity of the radio industry in Montreal. But it seems pretty clear that if TTP would have accepted 990 for its English station, it probably would have gotten it.

Calling their bluff

One thing I like about the CRTC decision is that it calls a lot of bluffs from the applicants.

Cogeco went all in, saying it's 690, 940 or nothing. I find it hard to believe they're just going to walk away from $1.5 million a year, and their deal with the Quebec government was already modified once when they decided to make CKAC an all-traffic station. Because that $1.5 million is based on costs instead of audience (otherwise it would be more for the French station), there's no reason to believe they couldn't reach a deal for another frequency like 600 or 850. Cogeco's Mark Dickie told me before the decision that there is no Plan B. If that's true, they either have to come up with one or walk away from this project.

The latter option would be particularly embarrassing because both parties have been acting as if this was a done deal. The government has been advertising a coming English traffic station, and Cogeco has even asked for applications for potential traffic hosts, with only a footnote at the bottom pointing out that these jobs might not actually ever exist.

Is Cogeco willing to walk away from $1.5 million a year? Is the Transport Ministry willing to walk away from their promise of all-traffic radio in English? We'll see.

The CRTC also called the bluff of Tietolman-Tétrault-Pancholy, which originally said it wanted both clear channels or nothing, then softened that stance suggesting the English station could find another alternative frequency. They continue to insist that they need both stations for the business plan to be viable, but say the English station might not need to be a clear channel if they can get adequate coverage in Montreal and the West Island. So far 600 kHz seems to be the only one able to do this, but that would require either expanding the site they were planning to use or using Cogeco's CINW/CINF site in Kahnawake. The latter option is very distasteful to Tietolman and his partners.

When I finally reached Tietolman on Monday, he said he wouldn't comment (other than to point out that TSN said it would be fine with 940, which I guess means TTP felt the CRTC should have given 690 to them and given 940 to TSN). Tietolman said he and his partners are going to study the decision carefully and decide where to go from there.

Though nobody's pointing this out, the CRTC decision combined with TTP's position should mean that the group will decline the license. I highly doubt that will happen, but if TTP doesn't get a decent frequency for its proposed English station, or if the application takes too long, they might face the choice of going with just the French station or going home.

Six months to a year

The big question for the winning applicants is when they're going to be on the air. Bell Media says it'll be "within six months" for CKGM, which would mean by the end of May (maybe just before the playoffs start, or just after the Canadiens are eliminated). It's unclear at this point whether it will operate for any length of time on both frequencies, though that has been the practice in the past.

Evanov/Dufferin hopes to have its station up within a year, but has to wait for CKGM to vacate its frequency first. The decision gives the group a second choice in terms of transmission site. It already had a letter showing it could enter into negotiations for use of the CJAD site, but as part of the hearing Bell Media committed to negotiating use of the CKGM site for another station on 990, and even said it would submit to binding arbitration concerning a transmitter sharing deal. Evanov tells me they will look at both possibilities.

Other coverage

The Gazette (an article written by yours truly)
Canadian Press
Presse Canadienne
Agence QMI
CTV Montreal (a two-minute live standup from Rob Lurie)

Clear Channel Cagematch: Tietolman-Tétrault-Pancholy

Fagstein — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 19:14:57 +0000

Over the past week, I have been taking a closer look at the applications for Montreal's AM clear-channel frequencies 690 and 940 kHz that were presented at CRTC hearings in October. In today's final installment, I look at the application from Paul Tietolman, Nicolas Tétrault and Rajiv Pancholy for a French news-talk station on 690 and an English news-talk station on 940. Though these are technically two separate applications, they are virtually identical in format and are being treated as one application here.

The would-be station owners at the CRTC hearing (from left): Nicolas Tétrault, Rajiv Pancholy and Paul Tietolman

Do you believe in radio? Do you believe that corporate greed and ineptitude has more to do with the decline of media than the Internet or changing habits? Do you think the thing the media sphere needs right now more than anything else is an owner with the heart of a mom-and-pop operation and the bank account of a Fortune 500 executive?

If so, the three men pictured above are here to be your saviours.

If you don't believe, if you think investing in talent has already been proven not to work, and that rigorous cost-cutting is the only thing that keeps radio profitable these days, then these three men will seem like morons willing to flush tens of millions of dollars right down the toilet.

Despite how closely I've followed radio, I can't honestly say which of these is true. I want to hope for the former, but the latter just seems more realistic.

And the success of these applications will depend, more than anything else, on which side of that fence three CRTC commissioners sit.

The application

Tietolman, Tétrault and Pancholy have applied, under a company officially known as 7954689 Canada inc., for a French news-talk station at 690 and an English one at 940.

The proposal is bold, to say the least. The annual budget for each station would rise over the license term from $6 million to $10 million a year (from $5 million to $7 million for the English station), half of which would go into programming. It would start with $25 million in financing for each station, $4.5 million of which is in cash and the rest from a bank loan. The two stations combined would have a staff of 150-200 people, including 8-10 journalists. It projects it would have a 5% market share the first year, increasing to 15% by the fourth year and holding at that level. Advertising would reach $12 million a year for the English station and $18 million a year for the French station by the seventh year.

Most of these numbers are an order of magnitude, or at least 3-5 times, higher than the other applicants for these frequencies.

And that's why critics - including those who work at the big existing players - say it's not feasible.

The station's programming would be mainly talk, most in the form of what Tietolman calls "face-à-face", where two hosts with wildly divergent opinions debate each other on a daily basis. A hippie, David-Suzuki-worshipping leftist with a libertarian free-market capitalist. A hardened separatist with a guy who wears maple leaf underwear.

Tietolman tells me he thinks the problem with talk radio these days is that it's one-sided. For him, the "face-à-face" format is a winner.

Some blocks of the schedule would be devoted to culture, some to politics and crime, a few hours for style and leisure on the weekends, a block for the "female perspective" (with two female hosts), a block for investigative journalism, and shows devoted to nightlife and shift work overnights. Open-line call-ins take up a significant part of the schedule.

Under the applications, both stations would have local programming 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The players

Paul Tietolman

Paul Tietolman: Most of my communication with this group has been through Tietolman. He was the one I met for lunch to discuss the application before the hearing, and I've had some conversations with him over the phone since then.

Tietolman is the son of Jack Tietolman, the man who started CKVL radio and later its sister FM station CKVL-FM, which would eventually change its callsign to CKOI.

The elder Tietolman sold those stations to a company called Metromedia, owned by Pierre Arcand and Pierre Béland. (Arcand is now Quebec's environment minister.) Metromedia was sold to Corus in 2001, and then to Cogeco in 2011. While CKOI was kept running, CKVL was turned into Info 690 in 1999, where it ran an all-news format until the plug was pulled in January 2010.

So there's some irony in the fact that Paul Tietolman is using 690 to try to rebuild, and that one of his competitors is Cogeco, which owns what used to be his father's assets.

Paul Tietolman (pronounced "title-man") is ... well ... let's just come out and say this: He looks and sounds like a 70s record executive. He's a smooth talker and a gifted salesman. He winks a lot. He's not at all lacking in confidence. He's filled with stories about radio and can tell you tales of things done and things tried. A discussion with him elicits the names of the biggest stars in music (both in Quebec and abroad), and how his family brought innovations to radio, among them their belief that FM radio would take off, at a time when nobody wanted an FM station.

Nicolas Tétrault: Tétrault is listed as a businessman and real estate agent. He is also a former Montreal city councillor, elected as part of Pierre Bourque's Vision Montreal team in 2001, then switching to Gérald Tremblay's Union Montreal in 2004. He was defeated by a Vision Montreal candidate in the 2005 municipal election.

Though he said in 2004 that he was tired of the sovereignty debate, Tétrault ran for both the Parti Québécois and Bloc Québécois, losing both times. In 1994, at the age of 19, Tétrault was the sacrificial lamb for the PQ in the northern West Island riding of Robert-Baldwin. He lost (83% to 10%) to Liberal Pierre Marsan, who still holds that seat. In 2000, he ran federally for he BQ in South Shore Brossard-La-Prairie, coming a distant second to Liberal Jacques Saada.

Nowadays, Tétrault is more interested in business than politics. Last year, he teamed up with Tietolman to present a counter offer to Cogeco's proposed $80-million purchase of Corus's Quebec assets. The counter-offer of $81 million included a promise to bring 690 and 940 back on the air. It was rejected, Corus saying the deal with Cogeco was already done and it was too late for counter offers.

Rajiv Pancholy: Pancholy's background is in telecom. He worked at Nortel, then was president and CEO of Microcell, a wireless company better known for the brand name Fido, which was eventually sold to Rogers. From there Pancholy went to Mitec Telecom. Now he's chairman at something called TenXc Wireless.

Among the experts brought in: Jim Connell (centre) and Steve Kowch (right)

Supporting characters: Tietolman, Tétrault and Pancholy came to the CRTC meeting with plenty of backup. Wanting to show they were serious about their plans, they brought in experts:

Yves Guérard, former president of Radio Mutuel (another company whose assets eventually went to Corus and now Cogeco)
Steve Kowch, former program director at CJAD and Toronto's CFRB talk radio stations
Jim Connell, radio announcer and the last on-air guy at 940 AM
Christian Bourque and other representatives of Léger Marketing, to present a study showing audiences support the idea of new news-talk stations
Marco Perron and other representatives of Raymond Chabot Grand Thornton Consulting, to show the company's financial plan is sound
Stuart Hahn, broadcasting engineer

It was an impressive lineup. Kowch and Connell may both be looking for work, but their presence here gave an air of credibility to the proposal. Having marketers and accountants on hand was a big step in convincing the CRTC that the stations' business plan was viable.

The sell

"We're not shareholders, we're broadcasters," Tietolman told me. And everything I've seen from this group suggests its ultimate goal is to bring back quality talk radio, even if that means less profit for themselves. (That said, they expect the quality will bring more audience and more ads, hence more profit.)

Their presentation to the CRTC was slick. While the other applicants had stapled documents out of a photocopier, Tietolman Tétrault Pancholy Media had a colour document in coloured duotangs (red for English, blue for French) with clear plastic covers. It's a minor thing, but another indication of how serious they are.

A large part of the case for this station is that existing talk radio in Montreal isn't doing enough. Tietolman didn't want to slam CJAD, saying he has respect for what they're doing, but he and his partners complained in their application that stations like 98.5FM and CBC Radio aren't doing enough breaking news, particularly over the weekend.

They used as an example Hurricane Irene, a storm that hit higher on the U.S. East Coast than usual and, as a tropical storm, caused a large amount of damage to New York City and New England. As a post-tropical storm, it affected Quebec and the Atlantic provinces, causing thousands to go without power.

But Irene hit over the weekend, when CBC has little local programming, CJAD has fewer journalists and 98.5 plays music instead of talk. As a result, they said, Montrealers (and Quebecers) had nothing to tune to for news about the storm.

"The lack of competition, the lack of choice and the lack of diversity of radio voices resulted in what could have been a very stressful and nervous time for hundreds of thousands of Montrealers," Jim Connell said at the hearing.

Kowch then made it perfectly clear: "Our management team makes this promise of performance to the CRTC and to Montreal's Anglophone and Allophone communities: 940 Talk will be ready and able 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to be there live for our listeners when unexpected events, disasters and storms threaten the health and security of our listeners."

The group also has other ideas to improve their connection with the community, including airing town hall meetings and applying for a low-power TV broadcast license so they can introduce something called "radio-vision". They also plan to stream live video on their website.

The opposition

Privately, the response from the competition to these applications was: These guys are nuts.

Publicly, the response was ... well, actually it was about the same, though said in more polite terms.

"With respect to Mr. Tietolman and Mr. Tétrault's application, it must be understood that 690 and 940 were previously dedicated to the same formats for many years, with some of the best available talent in the city and it did not work," said Wayne Bews of CKGM.

Cogeco chose not to comment on competing applications at the hearing, but Mark Dickie, who ran 940 News, agrees with the sentiment.

The commissioners also focused most of their questions on the viability of the station. They don't really care what these guys do with their own money, but they don't want to award a license for a station that is just going to fail.

The fact that the last incarnation of 690 and 940 were news and news-talk stations that failed financially is the clearest evidence that this might not work. CINF and CINW, like CIQC and CKVL before them, tried various formats of news and talk, constantly reinventing themselves, but eventually failed. CINW in particular started off as all-news, then tried a personality-based opinionated talk format, and finally gave up and played music.

Management at Metromedia at the time said they tried their best at those stations, investing millions into them, but the high price of journalism and local programming couldn't be sustained with advertising revenue, particularly on the English side where CJAD has a 25% market share.

Tietolman-Tétrault-Pancholy has a response to that, as it does most criticisms of its application. It says the plan is nothing like 940 News/Info 690, which had a 15-minute news loop. Instead, its stations would be controversial talk designed to engage an audience.

Tietolman points to other markets in North America, where talk radio stations are often the ratings leaders. On the French side, he sees a giant gap in the market for a talk station, particularly now that 98.5 has to share its schedule with sports talk and Alouettes and Canadiens games. On the English side, he sees CJAD's market share as huge and needing competition, even if he thinks much of the audience for his stations will come from people who don't normally listen to the radio.

The marketers and accountants made the strongest case for the viability of the stations, showing there is an audience interest for news-talk stations and that the business plan was sound.

But the certification of the financials was based on assumptions about audience, costs and advertising sales. It's a big step from people looking at a spreadsheet with a calculator in hand to seeing if this will actually work.

The alternatives

When asked at the hearing what would happen if the CRTC approved the license for one station but not the other, Tietolman-Tétrault-Pancholy was clear: It wouldn't accept that. Despite the rosy projections for revenue and profit, the partners said their business plan wouldn't work unless they could share costs (such as administrative and technical costs) between the stations. If offered one license but not the other, they would refuse it.

They also made clear that their plan would only work with 690 and 940. No other frequencies would do.

After the hearing, there was concern among the team about whether they had taken that position too far. Was it a bluff, a strategic decision to try to force the CRTC's hand into giving them what they want? And would it backfire, giving them nothing to show for all this effort in the end?

Given a week to think about it, the position softened somewhat. They still require both stations, Tétrault wrote to the commission, and 690 is the only one that would work for the French station, but the English station could move to an alternative frequency if they could find one that is sufficient.

990 and 850 are inadequate to the task because of their poor coverage in the West Island, Tétrault wrote. (It's a position that differs with their contention that CKGM is exaggerating its signal issues in the West Island, though that position is also based on the assumption that CKGM is not properly switching to its night pattern.)

Another alternative frequency, 600 kHz (the old CIQC frequency), might be sufficient, but their transmission site can't be modified to use it without buying adjacent land and building new towers, Tétrault wrote. Only the former CINW/CINF site owned by Cogeco could be used for the task, and they could use it under "commercially reasonable terms."

Here, Tétrault seems to be opening the door to using 600 for the English station, provided the CRTC requires Cogeco to commit to reasonable negotiation like Bell Media has committed to should they be awarded a frequency change.

Tétrault's response also reiterates an argument that the group is making in favour of its 690 application: Language politics.

If we discount Radio Fierté, the French news-talk station is the only one for a French-language station, and the frequency has been used by French-language stations for more than half a century. Awarding the clear channels to two English stations might be seen by some as politically problematic, even moreso than the idea that two of three clear channels in Quebec would go to local Montreal traffic information.

"We are firmly of the opinion that 690 kHz should continue to be used for broadcasting in the French language," Tétrault writes in his letter.

I don't know whether the commissioners will keep this in mind when it makes its decision, but my impression is that the applications will be judged on their merits rather than political impact.

The team of Tietolman-Tétrault-Pancholy at the CRTC hearing (there's a smaller second row of people behind them, making it 15 in total)

The transmitter

If approved for 690 and 940, both stations would be broadcast from a two-tower transmitting site near the interchange of Highway 30 and 730 just east of Kahnawake. That site is currently being used to transmit CJMS at 1040AM, a station that has no relation to the previous CJMS even though it shares the same call letters.

The bottom line

Everyone who loves radio, even the CRTC, would love for these stations to succeed. But the scale of this proposal, combined with the realities of declining audience in radio and AM in particular (nationally, AM radio loses money, according to CRTC figures), put the odds heavily against them.

To make it worse, Tietolman, Tétrault and Pancholy have doubled down, saying they won't accept one license without the other. It's a curious position looking at their business plan, and seems more like a bluff designed to force what they want. If the CRTC calls them on it and, say, offers just 690, I'm not convinced they'll say no.

Whether the CRTC approves one or both of these applications depends more than anything else on whether they believe the business plan could be successful. If they're denied, we'll know they didn't.

The chances

The applications are undeniably strong and bold, but are they realistic? I don't know. But I sense in the CRTC a willingness to let them try, and I think they would prefer to see a good station fail after a few years than risk closing the door to people who want to revitalize radio for the sole reason that their plan was too optimistic.

The double-station gamble makes things more difficult for the CRTC to say yes, but I will still rate this application's chances good.

Start date

Tietolman said the two stations would take about nine months to a year to setup, putting their launch date around fall 2012 or January 2013.

Other coverage

The Suburban's Mike Cohen offers his own take on the Tietolman-Tétrault-Pancholy application on his blog.

Steve Kowch, who was part of these applications, offers another perspective on his blog.

The stations even have websites already (English, French), though it's just a page with information on how to submit interventions supporting the station.

Clear Channel Cagematch: Radio Fierté

Fagstein — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 09:28:55 +0000

This week, I'm taking a closer look at the applications for Montreal's AM clear-channel frequencies 690 and 940 kHz that were presented at CRTC hearings in October. Today, I'm looking at the application from Dufferin Communications for a music-talk station for the gay community on 690.

Representatives of Dufferin Communications (Evanov Communications) and Proud FM in Toronto. Carmela Laurignano is in the foreground.

I didn't get a chance to talk to representatives of Dufferin Communications (a subsidiary of Evanov Communications - the two names were used interchangeably) during the CRTC hearing. I feel a bit guilty about that, but it's hard to see their proposal for a music/talk station geared toward the gay community as anything more than an also-ran in this battle between the heavyweights.

Evanov is an established but small player in the radio market. It owns 13 radio stations (including two whose purchase was approved a week after the hearing), mostly in small-market Ontario, but also two in Halifax and three in Winnipeg. It does not own any French-language stations.

Its proposal for 690 AM in Montreal is based on Proud FM in Toronto, a station of only 128 watts (up from 50) that airs programming of interest to the gay community (well, LGBT and whatever other letters you want to add to that). The programming would be mainly talk and music, with a bit of news of special interest to the community.

Characterizing Toronto's Proud FM as "very successful," Evanov VP Carmela Laurignano pointed out it's the only commercial radio station of its kind in Canada during a phone interview before the hearing.

Considering Montreal's vibrant gay community, it made sense for them to want to try that format here.

"We had been looking at it and studying it a little bit," she said. "We had been planning to do it anyway, but there was a call for applications."

Seeing a CRTC notice for applications for 690 and 940, Evanov put in its application for Radio Fierté.

The controversy

Commissioner Tom Pentefountas hesitated to bring it up, and kind of apologized for doing so afterward, but he couldn't help but notice that an application for a French-language radio station was being done mostly in English. There's no rule against that, of course, but it's kind of a strike against them. How well do they really understand the Montreal (or Quebec) radio market?

"Une suggestion, à l'avenir de faire un plus grand effort de faire vos présentations et vos mémoires dans la langue dans laquelle vous voulez diffuser," Pentefountas said.

Evanov was apologetic for its language troubles, blaming the short notice and their lack of experience in French stations.

Whether any of this will impact their chances is anyone's guess.

Representatives of Evanov Communications debrief after their presentation to the CRTC

The sell

Radio Fierté's main selling point is diversity. This station would not only bring a new commercial player into the Montreal radio scene, but provide programming for an audience that isn't served currently.

The station would be about 50-50 music and talk, which is more than the Toronto station because the Montreal one would be on AM. Still, that leaves a lot of music, which tends not to be successful on the AM band.

"It's not going to be all ABBA all the time," Laurignano told me with a laugh during our conversation, reassuring me about the musical content that would not differ so much from other stations because gays and lesbians aren't so much different from the rest of us.

Which brings up the basic question: Do gays and lesbians need their own radio station? Radio Fierté is obviously banking that they do, based on their experience with Proud FM.

It also promises original programming on the talk side, with "news and information that you would not hear on other radio stations, but not to the exclusion of regular news," Laurignano told me.

The station also thinks it can bring in new advertisers to Montreal radio, again based on its experience with Proud FM.

The opposition

There wasn't a lot of opposition to the application to Radio Fierté, probably because the other players knew their chances were slim. The others welcomed the idea, but described it as a "niche" station with a niche audience that didn't really deserve a clear channel.

Evanov's representatives responded that their audience isn't limited to the Gay Village, and that gays and lesbians live all across the region.

The alternatives

Evanov was the most receptive to suggestions of alternative frequencies, in that it never said it would refuse an alternative frequency. But its proposed transmission site - shared with CJAD - would require an exemption from Industry Canada in order to work on 940. If CKGM moves off of 990, Evanov said it would accept that frequency (using CKGM's site) under an alternative proposal that would see their financial projections and financial contributions reduced.

The transmitter

Astral has agreed to negotiate with Evanov for shared use of the CJAD transmitter site about 20 km south of Candiac. If given 990, it would negotiate with Bell Media for shared use of the CKGM site southeast of Mercier.

The bottom line

Evanov applied for this frequency because it was there. It doesn't make a compelling case for a clear channel, and would probably accept a Class B or even a Class C or low-power FM frequency. Its proposal to be half-music hurts the application significantly.

It's been suggested political correctness might have a role to play here, that the station might get approved just to avoid seeming homophobic. I find that hard to believe, especially considering the struggles at Proud FM in Toronto. The commissioners have been very professional so far, and seem to judge each application on its merits. I don't think the "gay card" will work either in favour or against the station.

The chances

I would be very surprised if Radio Fierté gets either 690 or 940. I think it's a good idea for a station, and think they'll probably get some alternative frequency or be asked to reapply, but not on a clear channel.

I rate this application's chances slim.

Start date

If approved for 690, Evanov would see Radio Fierté on the air within a year.

Clear Channel Cagematch: CKGM frequency change

Fagstein — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 08:24:24 +0000

This week, I'm taking a closer look at the applications for Montreal's AM clear-channel frequencies 690 and 940 kHz that were presented at CRTC hearings in October. Today, I'm looking at CKGM's application to change the frequency of TSN Radio Montreal (formerly The Team 990) from 990 to 690.

What used to be called Team 990 hopes that number will change

Unlike the other applicants for stations on 690 and 940, the one from CKGM is to move an already existing station. It's a perfectly legitimate request, but it makes writing articles about this hearing difficult. You can't refer to "five new radio stations", because one already exists. Oh well, that's my problem.

The biggest strength of this application is that it's an established station with an existing audience. It's been on the air forever, but more significantly it has had just over a decade of experience as an all-sports station.

So why change frequencies? Coverage:

Propagation patterns for CKGM (Team 990AM) in red (day) and black (night) vs. CINW (940AM) in purple and CINF (690AM) in blue, as provided in Bell's CRTC intervention

Because 990 isn't a clear channel, it has to ensure it doesn't interfere with clear channels on the same frequency, namely CBW in Winnipeg and CBY in Corner Brook, N.L., both CBC Radio One stations.

This is only an issue at night, when skywave propagation carries signals in the AM band farther. During the day, it can broadcast 50,000 watts and cover most of the region (the red line in the map above). But when the sun goes down, CKGM has to alter its signal, making it highly directional, essentially pointing it due north-northeast toward downtown (the black line). This is the problem.

Two things make this problem even worse: The nighttime pattern is awful for the West Island and areas west of Montreal, where a lot of anglos live. And the biggest new feature of the station - Canadiens games - air at night.

These lines aren't absolute, of course, The signals don't disappear when you cross them. But they're an indication of relative strength of the stations. The station estimates it loses 30% of its potential audience as a result of the change to a nighttime pattern.

Because 690 (blue) and 940 (purple) are clear channels, they don't require nighttime pattern changes.

Bell Media, which owns CKGM, is so convinced that this change is necessary that it painted a doomsday scenario if the application fails.

"CKGM has been unprofitable for more than a decade, and Bell expects that the station – if it remains at its current operating frequency – has little probability of being profitable for the foreseeable future," it writes in its application (it specified at the hearing that it has lost $4.9 million since 2007). "We are confident that the better signal quality will make CKGM financially viable for the long term, while having no material impact on the other stations in the market."

The application talks about how they've tried to cut costs to make themselves profitable - they're down to 14 full-time and four part-time employees. It also talks about investments to increase its audience, notably the acquisition of Canadiens broadcast rights.

The station says it tried to also acquire Alouettes rights, but was turned down specifically because of its signal:

... several years ago when the broadcast rights for the Montréal Alouettes were up for renewal, CKGM was not invited to bid for the rights. The station was explicitly told by Alouettes management that to be considered, the station would need a stronger signal.

All told, CKGM predicts that if given the 690 frequency it would be profitable in five years. At the hearing, it said the frequency change would mean about $200,000 a year in additional ad revenue.

To bolster its case, Bell Media brought in audio recordings taken of a radio tuned to the station from just off Highway 40 in Vaudreuil-Dorion, during the day (4:45pm) and at night (10:50pm). It's a cherry-picked spot, for sure, but it showed the situation pretty clearly. The day recording was clear as a bell. The night recording sounded like it was taken from the bottom of the sea.

It didn't stop there. The station also encouraged listeners to write to the CRTC directly, resulting in dozens of interventions directly from the public. Four intervenors - all businesspeople - appeared at the hearing to support the application.

Sheldon Harvey speaks to commissioners at the CRTC hearing

The controversy

CKGM had a wrench thrown at it at the hearing by Sheldon Harvey, the Radio in Montreal forum moderator, shortwave radio listener and co-host of CKUT's International Radio Report.

Harvey filed interventions against the applications from Cogeco for an all-traffic station and from Dufferin Communications for a gay-themed station. He also filed interventions in favour of the applications for news-talk stations from Tietolman-Tétrault-Pancholy, saying clear channels should be reserved for such stations.

Harvey didn't file an intervention for or against the application from CKGM. But at the hearing, he did mention something about the station that seemed to surprise the commissioners:

I have monitoring reports from listening colleagues west of Montreal and far beyond which appear to indicate that the station may not, in fact, be currently switching power or patterns at night.

Harvey produced a handful of reports from near and far that suggests "more than regularly" the station seems to fail to adjust its signal at night.

Wayne Bews, the station's manager, said he had no information to suggest the claim was true, saying he would have gotten phone calls if this was the case. But he said he couldn't be absolutely certain that the night adjustments are being made. He referred me to Bell Media's Dave Simon (no relation to Ringside Report host Dave Simon). I emailed Simon to ask him about whether CKGM was making the required changes. I didn't get a response.

The sell

Bell's argument in favour of the CKGM frequency change is mainly a simple question of getting more West Island listeners, translating them into higher ad revenue and maybe becoming profitable.

To sweeten the deal, Bell is promising more local programming at the station. They say their goal is to have it be all local from 6am to midnight or 1am, seven days a week. They also want to expand their Canadiens postgame show from two to four hours.

Otherwise, the biggest selling point for CKGM is the station itself. It doesn't need to project what its programming will be, it's already there.

What's more, a change in frequency would free up 990 for another station, and Bell Media said if they got 690 they could host a 990 station at their transmitter site using the same antenna.

TSN Radio 990 General Manager Wayne Bews (centre)

Another radio station?

It was mentioned in passing, and Bell didn't get specific, but they hinted that they want to "expand our radio presence" here:

We want to contribute more to radio broadcasting in Quebec, but first we must stabilize TSN Radio Montreal and put it on a strong financial footing. Once done, we can look to expand our radio presence in Montreal, and indeed Quebec.

The most obvious option for them would be a French-language all-sports station. Bell owns RDS, so it has plenty of talented sports analysts. The only issue is that Bell would need to acquire the rights to Canadiens, Alouettes and other sports matches (and, of course, they'd need a radio broadcasting license).

The opposition

Though the applications aren't directly competitive - one was for 690 and the other for 940 - much of the back and forth was between Cogeco and Bell. Bell suggested that Cogeco be assigned 990 when it moved to 690, arguing the all-traffic station would do fine with the 990 pattern, particularly since traffic is a daytime thing.

But Cogeco called Bell on its argument. Bell said specifically that its morning and and afternoon shows were affected by its nighttime signal reduction, because some of the morning show was before sunrise and some of the afternoon show after sunset. As Cogeco points out, these are also prime traffic hours, and if it's unacceptable for Bell it should be unacceptable for Cogeco as well.

Bell responded that it didn't really care who got 940, and that it was just offering 990 as an option for another broadcaster. It even agreed that it would submit to binding arbitration if negotiation for use of its site didn't produce an agreement in a reasonable timeframe.

One thing brought up by independent intervenors though not much during the hearing is that 690 was a French-language frequency for decades. Of the three applications for 690 being heard here, the two others are French-language stations. Both applications for 940 are English-language. (Though the CRTC has suggested it could give people frequencies they didn't apply for.) It has been suggested that the CRTC awarding both channels to English-language stations might anger francophones in Quebec, who will then see three (or even four) English AM stations and only one French one.

The alternatives

Like the other applicants, Bell was asked about alternative frequencies. Bell said it could take 940, but that would exclude the possibility of having another station on 990 at the same site (the two frequencies are too close to make the necessary filtering practical). It also said it could take 940 from Cogeco's site, if Cogeco will let them.

It also looked at 600 AM, but concluded the frequency would require building a whole new set of towers, at a prohibitive cost of $2 million. Otherwise, it's already on 990, so other frequencies are moot.

The transmitter

Bell said it tried to negotiate a deal for the former CINW and CINF transmitters in Kahnawake, but Corus (and later Cogeco) wouldn't speak to them. It says it can reconfigure its current site southeast of Mercier to function on 690 or 940. For 600, the only site capable of using that frequency is the Cogeco site.

The bottom line

Bell Media makes a strong case for CKGM being clear-channel worthy. Because it covers sports, its audience extends across the region. People in Sherbrooke and Quebec City won't be interested in Champlain Bridge traffic, but they will be interested in listening to Canadiens games.

Its financial projections are a bit suspect. It feels like Bell Media is exaggerating how bleak the prospects are without the change and how good they are with it. It's hard to see an improved pattern, even as significant as this one, is going to make such a huge difference in profitability.

The chances

The commissioners seemed swayed by Bell's argument, but whether the application is approved will probably depend more on the other applications, particularly Tietolman-Tétrault-Pancholy. If the CRTC decides the big-budget news-talk stations are worthy of the channels, The Team might get stuck where they are now. If not, it has a good chance of getting the frequency.

I rate this application's chances good.

Start date

Bell Media says the frequency change could happen in as little as three months after approval if 690 is awarded to them. For 940, they would expect double, about six months.

Clear Channel Cagematch: Cogeco’s all-traffic station

Fagstein — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 08:13:31 +0000

Over the coming days, I'm taking a closer look at the applications for Montreal's AM clear-channel frequencies 690 and 940 kHz that were presented at CRTC hearings in October. We'll start with the first one: Metromedia (Cogeco), which applied for an English-language all-traffic station on 940.

Mark Dickie, General Manager of The Beat 92.5 and part of the organizing committee for Cogeco's English all-traffic station

"We didn't expect this," Mark Dickie said. "Where was everybody in February or March of 2010? Nobody was really interested in those frequencies then."

It's a perfectly reasonable argument from the group that first applied to reactivate 690 and 940 AM. The frequencies have been unused since January 2010, when CINW 940 and CINF 690 were shut down. The licenses for those two stations were officially revoked on June 8, 2010. For almost a year, anyone could have applied for those frequencies, but nobody did.

So when Cogeco, which acquired Metromedia from Corus on Feb. 1, struck a deal with the Quebec government to setup two all-traffic stations on those unused (and seemingly unwanted) frequencies, there was no reason to think the regulatory step was anything more than a formality. The CRTC originally scheduled the applications to be heard along with a bunch of others in a rubber-stamp hearing (it ended up lasting 15 minutes, with no presentations or questions).

But then everyone decided they wanted in, too. Interventions were filed by competitors Astral Media and Bell Media, and would-be competitor Tietolman-Tétrault Media. They demanded that there be an open call for applications, questioned giving clear channels to local all-traffic stations, and in the latter two cases said they would apply for one or both of those frequencies instead. They also pointed out how Cogeco asked for - and received - an exception to the CRTC's ownership concentration rules by having a third French-language FM station in Montreal, and that another French-language radio station would give them a total of five in this market.

The CRTC responded by pulling the two applications from that hearing and issuing an open call for applications for those two frequencies with an Oct. 17 hearing date in Montreal. The call prompted four other applications.

Cogeco, whose deal with the Quebec government initially had an Oct. 31 deadline for the stations to go on the air, decided it couldn't wait for the full process to complete itself, and transformed CKAC Sports 730 into a French all-traffic station on Sept. 6.

It subsequently withdrew its application for a French all-traffic station on 690.

I asked Dickie why, if Cogeco considered the CKAC shutdown regrettable, Cogeco didn't maintain its application and either switch the all-traffic station to 690 or put sports on it. He said they felt, in light of the interventions and the concern about how many stations Cogeco owns, that it was unlikely such an application would be successful.

The proposal

It isn't too difficult to imagine what an English-language all-traffic station would sound like. Just tune into 730 AM and translate.

The plan for the English-language station would be virtually identical to the French-language one, except for the language. You can get a sense of what the French station is like in this blog post.

Essentially, it would be all-traffic, live from 4:30am to 1am on weekdays and 6am to 1am on weekends and holidays. Two people work at a time, one acting as on-air announcer and the other taking phone calls from listeners reporting traffic problems, and they periodically switch to give the other a break. Traffic reports come about every five minutes, some shorter, with weather, some longer. The reports are much more thorough than what you hear on other radio stations, particularly in terms of giving traffic information for areas outside of downtown or the highways toward it.

The controversy

The most controversial part of this proposal isn't Cogeco's radio empire in Montreal continuing to grow. It's not even that another clear channel would be used for traffic reports. It's that this station, like CKAC, would be funded mainly by the provincial government, which would hand over $1.5 million per station per year to Cogeco to run the stations. In exchange, the government gets 25 minutes of advertising a day, which works out to about $164 a minute for advertising. I'm told this is high even for commercial radio stations during high listening hours (though not necessarily outrageously so).

By contrast, commercial ad revenue isn't expected to reach even half of what they get from the government. This is, essentially, a government-funded radio station. But Cogeco talked about the agreement during the hearing as if this was just an advertising contract.

The Quebec Transport Ministry is engaged in a public relations battle, trying to keep motorists happy while the department is under fire for everything from corruption in the construction industry to crumbling overpasses and bridges. The upcoming rebuilding of the Turcot Interchange is going to make traffic hell, and this is part of their solution to it.

(Whether drivers knowing about traffic problems will help solve them is a good question.)

It seems outrageous (and I certainly thought so), but what the Quebec government decides to do with its money is no concern of the CRTC, which is a federal body. Its concern is whether this would be the best use of these airwaves, and whether their content would be Canadian enough and local enough.

The commissioners did express a concern that programming changes would have to be approved by the Quebec government, making it a de facto controller of the station. The agreement between the two specifically states that this is not the case, but it's really a semantic argument. The agreement sets very specific criteria for what's on the station (from the operating hours to the length of its commercials), and Cogeco said clearly that the station would not be feasible if it wasn't for the government money.

Cogeco's team at the CRTC hearing. From left: Melanie Begnoche, Director, Marketing Research; Yves Mayrand, Vice-President, Corporate Affairs; Richard Lachance, Senior Vice-President, Radio; Mark Dickie, General Manager, The Beat; Michel Lorrain, Assistant General Manager, 98.5 and Traffic Radio.

The sell

Cogeco's argument in favour of an all-traffic station is simple: Traffic affects hundreds of thousands of drivers every day, and they need traffic information. They have polling data showing a vast majority of radio listeners would listen to an all-traffic station at least on occasion. It points to a similar station in Vancouver, AM730, which the format is based on.

Though at first it may seem as though an all-traffic station is redundant to just about every other radio station (even the CBC does traffic reports during rush hour), Cogeco argues that the depth of traffic information would be far higher than you could get in a 30-second report, and that information on traffic issues needs to be available faster than every 10-15 minutes, and more often than just during rush hour.

As proof, they point out that their French all-traffic station receives about 500 calls a day from motorists and has 440,000 listeners (!)

Asked why they need a clear channel for all this, Cogeco points out the poor reception of other channels like 990 in the West Island and western off-island areas, which are rich in anglophones. It says a wide coverage area is needed because of long commutes of some people. It specifically says it needs to cover eastern Ontario, because some people commute from that far into the city every day.

Finally, Cogeco plays the language card, saying that it would be unfair - and against the CRTC's mandate - for a French all-traffic station to operate on a clear channel but an English station be denied.

The opposition

Astral Media, which expressed concerns about Cogeco's application the first time, didn't submit an intervention after the open call for applications and didn't appear at the CRTC hearing. But Bell Media and Tietolman-Tétrault, which had applications at the hearing, echoed their arguments against the idea. Radio listener, CIDX Club president and Radio in Montreal moderator Sheldon Harvey did as well in opposing the application.

Opponents said the service is a niche one, that people would listen to for short periods if at all, and that it's local to Montreal and doesn't need to be heard from as far away as the Gaspé or Val d'Or with a good antenna.

They also added some common-sense technical arguments for having this station be awarded another frequency. They said most traffic information is acquired during daylight hours (except when the days are really short), so a traffic station could deal better with a reduced signal at night.

They also pointed out that car radios tend to have better reception than tabletop ones because they're built better and have better antennas. And since people who want traffic information tend to drive cars, having a strong signal becomes less important.

Alternatives

The CRTC commissioners asked all the applicants to consider alternate frequencies. There are plenty available: 600, 850, and 990 if CKGM changes frequency. All are Class B, which requires a reduction in coverage area at night. The commission even gave everyone a week to think about it.

For Cogeco, this was a non-starter. None of the alternative frequencies would be adequate. Only 690 and 940 would do, both because they already have the equipment to begin operating on those frequencies, and because their coverage area would include the West Island and southwestern Quebec.

The letter sent a week later was unequivocal: "...we cannot and will not accept a licence that is not based on the use of either 940 kHz, for which we have applied, or 690 kHz"

Bottom line

The usefulness of an all-traffic station is clear, and though there are concerns about the contract with the government, like how much control Cogeco really has (it says it has enough) and whether the station would continue if the contract wasn't renewed (Cogeco says it would, albeit with significantly less means), neither is likely to be a dealbreaker for the CRTC.

The bigger question is over having a clear channel. Cogeco is absolute, which is a bit puzzling. Their agreement with the government says the station has to cover the metropolitan area, but it doesn't define what that means exactly. I see no reason to believe the government wouldn't let give them their $1.5 million a year if the station was on 600, 850 or 990.

Refusing to consider alternatives is, I think, more of a strategic move to try to force the commission's hand. (Tietolman-Tétrault-Pancholy tried something similar, saying they wanted two stations or none.)

The bilingualism argument - that the English station must be approved because the French station is running - might work with the CBC but is unlikely to sway the commissioners, I think.

Chances

Since Cogeco has refused alternative frequencies, the commission will have to either judge it superior to (at most all but one of) the others, or just say no. The technical arguments about car radio reception being better and traffic being more useful during the day than at night are good ones. But whether this application gets approved will probably depend more on how the CRTC feels about the competing applications, particularly Tietolman-Tétrault-Pancholy.

I rate this application's chances fair.

Start date

The revised contract with the Quebec government says the station must be operational within 60 days of approval by the CRTC (the CRTC says a decision should come "by Christmas"), and no later than Feb. 29, 2012.

Coming soon: A reborn (and legal) KKIC Radio

Fagstein — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 08:11:26 +0000

Saturday's Gazette features an article by yours truly about new radio station KKIC.

KKIC owner Brian Moon at the microphone

KKIC (Kahnawake Keeps It Country) was born out of frustration: Montreal is the largest market in North America without a (full-time) country music station. And while that style of music might not be that popular among the hip urbanites of Quebec's métropole, it's very popular among the closely-knit population of the Mohawk reserve of Kahnawake.

It began as a pirate radio station in December 2009 on 106.7 MHz, the frequency formerly occupied by Aboriginal Voices Radio's Montreal station. Its goal - then and now - is to fill the need for country music in the region but in the Kahnawake community in particular.

Montreal has only two other stations that carry country music: CJMS 1040 AM, a French station that is mostly talk during peak hours, and CKRK 103.7 FM, Kahnawake's community station, which plays country music only on the weekends.

The latter helped raise KKIC's profile in 2010, when it followed up on the hiring of Ted Bird by bringing on board CJAD castoffs Laurie and Olga on the weekends and ditching country music. The decision was more financial than anything else - there wasn't advertising with the country music, and K103 hoped Laurie and Olga's following would bring in some ad money on the weekends. And it did, at first, with the Bar B Barn remaining loyal to the long-time on-air duo.

But killing country ended up backfiring, with the community up in arms about the disappearance of country music. Many were driven to KKIC, even if it was mostly automated and broadcast with less power. There was even a "passing of the country music torch" from K103 to KKIC.

By the end of 2010, the outrage drummed up sponsorship for country music weekends on K103, and Laurie and Olga were out the door.

Still, for Moon, weekends weren't enough. KKIC would keep on.

While K103 was experimenting with more lucrative programming, Industry Canada had taken interest in the pirate transmitter on 106.7 MHz. An inspector was sent in January 2010 to take readings, and though there are conflicting stories circulating about what exactly happened, the parties involved (Moon, the Peacekeepers and Industry Canada) all say there was full cooperation afterward. KKIC, which says it had no intention of operating as a pirate station, was guided through the process of obtaining a CRTC license and proper authorization for broadcasting.

Politics in Kahnawake being what they are, Moon at first approached the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake instead of the Canadian government for authorization, and in the initial CRTC application Moon asked for an exclusion from its Canadian content requirements because Kahnawake doesn't treat international borders the same way the Canadian and U.S. governments do.

In the end, Moon relented and accepted the 35% CanCon minimum (he wants to spotlight local artists in particular, so he expects to easily meet this requirement), as well as a change in frequency from 106.7 MHz to 89.9 MHz, and the CRTC approved the license on Sept. 29.

The approval came the day after I visited the station on Route 207.

KKIC occupies a house, with its transmitting antenna (left) on a tower in the back yard.

It's a house. Or at least, that's what it used to be. Nobody lives there anymore, and Moon, with partners Don Patrick Martin and Patrick Periard, plan to reconfigure it for use as a radio station, including setting up a studio where live performances can be recorded.

The transmitter sits in a small rack next to the computer desk in the living room. The songs are stored on the computer, and there's a sound board and some professional microphones. It's usable as a radio studio, even though it feels like you're in someone's home.

The antenna is on a freshly-installed tower in the back yard. According to the Industry Canada database, it's 26 metres high, and when it begins operating on its assigned frequency it will be running with an average effective radiated power of 360 watts. That's about three times what it has now, and even a bit better than K103, but its coverage area will still be limited to the reserve and neighbouring communities (including, they hope, neighbouring areas on the island like Lachine and LaSalle).

Switching frequencies requires installing a new transmitter, and Moon confirmed this week that it's on track to launch on Tuesday, Nov. 1. Their callsign will be CKKI-FM.

Morning hiccup

KKIC has big plans for the station. It's still going to be mostly music, and a lot of it will be animated, but they're adding people to the schedule. Cornbread Country on Sundays. A weekly show tied with the Eastern Door newspaper. Not much, but others are planned.

The big thing to start Nov. 1 was supposed to be a new morning man, Lance Delisle, who used to work at K103. But the deal with Delisle fell through, for reasons that aren't entirely clear. Moon said Delisle had decided on a better offer elsewhere. Delisle made a somewhat cryptic remark about how the station still had some things to work out first but that he wished them the best.

Moon says the station will still relaunch on Nov. 1, even if he has to be the one doing the morning show himself.

Can Kahnawake afford two stations?

For a community of only about 8,000 residents, its seems astonishing that they would have not one but two radio stations. But Kahnawake has plenty of media, some in more competition than others. I'm not sure if it's a sign of a healthy commitment to supporting not only local media but diversity in local media, or if it's a bad sign that anything designed to bring the community together will inevitably drive it apart.

For what it's worth, KKIC doesn't see itself as competing with K103. It's a commercial country music station, while K103 is a community station. Each has its role, and the two complement more than they clash.

The proof will be in whether the station can stay on its feet financially. Periard, whose fancy shirt, styled hair and BlackBerry was just about the opposite look of Moon's long hair and T-shirt when I met them at KKIC's studio last month, sees them hiring about a dozen people, including ad salespeople, who he thinks can help the station break even, particularly if it develops an audience just across the river. In any case, airing mostly music ("we get calls and emails from our listeners when we talk too much", Moon says) means their overhead is low.

The group wouldn't get into their finances much, except to say they have private investors.

I'm a bit more skeptical about their chances for financial survival. K103 isn't exactly drowning in cash, and this second station is going to divide the community's advertising budgets even further. And even at 300 watts KKIC has a long way to go before being considered a powerhouse in the region. Even mostly automated, there's a lot of overhead for a radio station.

But it's nice to see someone try.

CKKI-FM (re)launches Nov. 1 at 89.9 MHz FM. You can also stream it live at kkicradio.com

CRTC hears applications for 690 and 940 AM

Fagstein — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 19:33:45 +0000

In what is believe it or not considered an expedited process, the CRTC begins hearings Monday on five applications for the vacant frequencies of 690 and 940 kHz for commercial radio stations.

This story, in The Gazette on Saturday, gives the skinny on what the CRTC will be deciding. (Bonus points if you correctly point out that the file photo attached to the story is of the Mount Royal tower, which has no AM transmitters. Now get a life.)

Quick history lesson: These frequencies belonged to Radio-Canada (690) and CBC radio (940) for more than half a century, until both stations moved to FM (95.1 and 88.5, respectively) in 1998. A year later, what was then Metromedia launched Info 690 and 940 News on those frequencies. Both stations struggled, 940 in particular, for the next decade. Two format changes (news-talk with "940 Montreal" and then automated music with "940 Hits") later, then-owner Corus put both out of their misery, shutting them down. They've been silent ever since.

Fast-forward a year and a half, and Cogeco, which bought Corus Quebec - including the unused transmitters - announces a deal with the Quebec government to run all-traffic stations in French and English, to the tune of $1.5 million per station per year. The deal requires the stations to be running by Oct. 31.

The CRTC application was supposed to be a simple thing, with approval easily acquired by the deadline. The frequencies had been unused for a year and a half, and it had been a year since the licenses for CINW and CINF were revoked, but there were no applications to use them. While the FM band is saturated in Montreal, there are plenty of AM frequencies that sit silent (600 and 850 are two other examples) because nobody wants them.

But the CRTC got quite a few interventions demanding an open call for applications. The CRTC agreed, and set a hearing date for Oct. 17.

Judging that far too late, Cogeco shut down CKAC Sports and replaced it with their French all-traffic station on Sept. 6. They subsequently withdrew their application for 690 AM, figuring they're unlikely to be awarded a fifth French-language radio station in Montreal.

That leaves five applications for the two frequencies. You can download and read the applications from the CRTC's website. Here they are in brief:

For 690 kHz:

Radio Fierté, a French-language music and talk station targeted at Montreal's gay community, owned by Dufferin Communications/Evanov Communications, which runs PROUD FM in Toronto.
TSN Radio, currently at 990 kHz. The Bell Media all-sports station wants to change frequency to improve its coverage, particularly at night, when it has to modify its signal to avoid interference with other stations on that frequency. Bell says the former Team 990 has never been profitable, and probably won't unless it gets better coverage.
7954689 Canada inc., a company formed by businessmen Paul Tietolman, Nicolas Tétrault and Rajiv Pancholy, which wants to start a French-language news-talk station. Tietolman (the son of CKVL/CKOI founder Jack Tietolman) and Tétrault (former city councillor and PQ/BQ candidate) unsuccessfully tried to present a counter-offer to Cogeco's $80-million purchase of Corus Quebec, and part of their offer would have been to revive 690 and 940.

For 940 kHz:

7954689 Canada inc., a corresponding English-language news-talk station with what is so far a nearly identical format.
Cogeco's English all-traffic station, which it says would be operational by "mid-winter" if approved.

The agenda for the meeting has presentations from all these applicants on Monday, and support/opposition debates on Tuesday.

Scheduled to appear are, among others:

For Bell Media (TSN Radio), General Manager Wayne Bews, host Denis Casavant, ~~Ringside Report host Dave Simon~~ Bell Media Radio Engineering Director Dave Simon* as well as Bell Media Radio president Chris Gordon and Bell Media regulatory affairs bosses Mirko Bibic and Lenore Gibson
For Tietolman/Tétrault/Pancholy, the three owners, representatives of Léger Marketing as well as former CJAD program director Steve Kowch and morning host Jim Connell
For Dufferin Communications (Radio Fierté), Proud FM operations manager Bruce Campbell, sales manager John Kenyon, Evanov sales VP Ky Joseph, Proud FM announcer Bob Willette, Dufferin VP marketing Carmela Laurignano, Evanov VP finance Michael Kilbride, and lawyers Chad Skinner and Andrée Wylie
For Cogeco (Metromedia CMR), Richard Lachance, VPs Yves Mayrand, Daniel Dubois, and Mélanie Bégnoche, 98.5/CKAC assistant GM Michel Lorrain, The Beat 92.5 GM Mark Dickie and consultants Serge Bellerose and Maurice Beauséjour

On Tuesday, the presentations will get responses, mostly from the other applicants. (Astral Media, which owns CJAD and four music stations in the city, is certainly following this, but isn't appearing at the hearing.) Radio Fierté and TSN Radio each have four supporters offering testimony to the hearing.

You can read all 226 interventions (many are repetitive, thanks to campaigns by TSN Radio, Cogeco and Dufferin to have people write to the CRTC, in many cases using form letters). All are on the record even if the writers aren't appearing at the hearing.

The only intervenor appearing independently is Sheldon Harvey, the moderator of the Radio in Montreal group. Harvey submitted multiple interventions, supporting the applications by Tietolman-Tétrault-Pancholy and opposing those of Cogeco and Dufferin (he didn't submit an intervention regarding TSN Radio). Harvey deemed the 50,000 watt clear channels "overkill" for an all-traffic station, and proposed Cogeco operate CKAC 730 bilingually instead. He also said a clear channel was "overkill" for Radio Fierté, and recommended they use another vacant frequency.

The deadline for interventions passed weeks ago, so the CRTC won't be hearing any new opinions on these applications, but

The hearing takes place Monday and Tuesday, starting at 9am, at Delta Centre-Ville, 777 University St., room Régence AB. Audio from the hearing can be streamed online via the CRTC website. You can listen to the direct floor audio here or an English translation here.

*CORRECTION: Dave Simon of Ringside Report emails me to say it's not him who's appearing at the hearing. It's actually another Dave Simon who works at Bell Media Radio. That is, unless there's a third Dave Simon associated with TSN Radio. Only Cogeco provided titles for the people appearing with them (Tietolman/Tétrault/Pancholy has what companies they work for), hence the possibility of confusion in case there are other cases of people with the same name.

Specialty channel war is screwing customers

Fagstein — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 19:51:09 +0000

UPDATE (Nov. 23): We have a truce! RDS2 has come to Videotron, while TVA's channels including TVA Sports and Sun News are coming to Bell TV.

This fall, two new all-sports networks are being launched. One, RDS2, is owned by Bell Media. The other, TVA Sports, is owned by Quebecor's Groupe TVA.

Personally, I think this is good news. Competition for viewers will do good things, like bring Montreal Impact games to the TV screen. And the CRTC has determined that sports channels - currently the most profitable format - are healthy enough that they shouldn't be restricted from competition. (Not healthy enough for Radio-Canada and Rogers to jump in the fray, but still healthy).

But you can't get TVA Sports if you're a subscriber to Bell TV. And it's not clear if you'll be able to get RDS2 if you subscribe to Videotron (it has deals with only Bell and Shaw so far). That may change (RDS2 is most likely doomed to failure if it can't get Videotron carriage), but even if it's just a delay, this is yet another example of two companies whose affiliated television distribution services are giving undue preference to their affiliated specialty channels.

Another example in the sports sphere is TSN Habs, a part-time regional offshoot of the TSN channel that has regional English-language broadcast rights to some Canadiens games. It's available on Bell TV, but not on Videotron, despite Videotron's huge subscriber base in Quebec, where I understand the Canadiens are popular - even among anglophones.

Sports isn't the only type of channel where this problem exists. In the past few years, broadcasters have applied for and received dozens of licenses for unregulated specialty channels - the so-called "Category 2" channels that aren't protected from competition and have low requirements for Canadian and original content. In exchange for some liberties in programming, the channels have no guaranteed carriage, so cable and satellite companies can choose whether or not to include them in their lineups, and the broadcasters can choose to charge whatever they would like.

Quebecor has been particularly active in this field, launching a bunch of new channels (including TVA Sports), many of them in high definition. In all cases, those channels are immediately carried on Quebecor-owned Videotron's cable system~~, but few of them are on Bell TV~~.

To give you an idea of what's going on here, I've compiled a table below of specialty channels owned by the big cable and satellite companies (Cogeco is included for reference, but doesn't own any specialty channels). I've limited the list to those channels that are either Category 2 (unregulated, with no guaranteed carriage) or that have high-definition feeds available.

I've marked in bold where a service is offered by the affiliated distributor that is not offered by at least two of its competitors, suggesting undue preference. I've marked in red where the opposite is true, where a service is not offered by the affiliated company but is offered by at least one competitor.

Channel	Owner	Bell TV	Videotron	Shaw Direct	Cogeco	Rogers Cable
Discovery	Bell Media (64%)	SD/HD	SD*	SD	SD	SD*
Space	Bell Media	SD/HD	SD	SD	SD	SD
MuchMusic	Bell Media	SD/HD	SD	SD	SD	SD/HD
MuchMoreRetro	Bell Media	X	SD	X	SD(O)	SD
MuchLOUD	Bell Media	X	SD	X	SD(O)	SD
Much Vibe	Bell Media	SD	SD	X	SD(O)	SD
PunchMuch	Bell Media	SD	SD	X	SD(O)	SD
Comedy Gold	Bell Media	SD	SD	X	SD(O)	SD
Investigation Discovery	Bell Media	SD	SD	X	SD(O)	SD
Discovery World	Bell Media (64%)	HD	HD	HD	HD	HD
ESPN Classic	Bell Media (80%)	SD	SD	SD	SD	SD
NHL Network	Bell Media (17%)	SD	SD	SD	SD	SD
TSN2	Bell Media (80%)	SD/HD	SD/HD	SD/HD	SD/HD	SD/HD
TSN Habs	Bell Media (80%)	SD/HD	X	SD/HD	X	X
LCN	Groupe TVA	SD	SD/HD	SD	SD/HD(Q)	SD
CASA	Groupe TVA	SD	SD	SD	SD(Q)	SD
Prise 2	Groupe TVA	SD	SD	SD	SD(Q)	SD
Mlle	Groupe TVA	Dec. 15	SD/HD	SD	SD/HD(Q)	X
TVA Sports	Groupe TVA	Dec. 15	SD/HD	SD/HD	X	X
Sun News	Groupe TVA	Dec. 15**	SD/HD	SD	SD/HD(O)**	SD**
Yoopa	Groupe TVA	Dec. 15	SD/HD	SD	SD/HD(Q)	X
Showcase	Shaw Media	SD/HD	SD	SD/HD	SD/HD(O)	SD/HD
Showcase Diva	Shaw Media	SD	SD	SD	SD	SD
Action	Shaw Media	SD	SD	SD	SD	SD
BBC Canada	Shaw Media (80%)	SD	SD	SD	SD	SD
DejaView	Shaw Media	SD	SD	SD	SD	SD
DIY Network	Shaw Media (80%)	SD	SD	SD	SD(O)	SD
Dusk	Shaw Media	SD	SD	SD	SD	SD
Fox Sports World Canada	Shaw Media (58%)	X	SD	SD	SD	SD
Global Reality	Shaw Media	X	X	X	X	SD
Food Network	Shaw Media	SD/HD	SD	SD	SD	SD
History Television	Shaw Media	SD/HD	SD	SD/HD	SD/HD(O)	SD/HD
HGTV Canada	Shaw Media	SD/HD	SD	SD/HD	SD	SD
Movietime	Shaw Media	SD	SD	SD	SD/HD(O)	SD/HD
Rogers Sportsnet One	Rogers	SD/HD	X	SD/HD	SD(O)/HD(O)	SD/HD
Sportsnet Sens/Flames/ Oilers/Vancouver Hockey	Rogers	SD/HD	X	X	SD(O)	SD/HD
OLN	Rogers	SD	SD	SD	SD	SD/HD
Setanta Sports	Rogers	SD/HD	SD	SD/HD	SD(O)	SD/HD

(Q)/(O): Denotes channels that Cogeco carries in Quebec or Ontario only.

*Discovery World HD, a separately licensed channel, is available on Videotron.

**The situation with Sun News is complicated by the fact that a conventional TV station was broadcasting its content. Rogers, Cogeco and Bell carried the conventional signal, but Sun News asked Bell to pull the channel or start paying for it.

You can see in the chart 12 instances among the 37 channels where there is evidence of undue preference. This does not necessarily prove such a thing - there could be all sorts of reasons to choose whether or not to carry a channel - but it's annoying nonetheless for customers who want a certain channel and can't get it for no apparent reason other than it's owned by the wrong cable company.

You'll also see ~~four~~ (UPDATE: five) instances where a service isn't offered by the affiliated company. It's worth noting that all of those services predate their ownership by the affiliated cable/satellite company.

The CRTC actually has a rule against this sort of thing. It's called "undue preference", and it is supposed to prevent just this sort of thing. The problem is that it's hard to prove. Negotiations between broadcasters and distributors are secret, and we don't know how much each distributor is paying for each channel.

Still, this may come to a head soon. Sun News has filed a complaint with the CRTC alleging undue preference on the part of Bell when it pulled the station's signal and refused to pay for it.

Hopefully the CRTC will take a close look at this issue and do something about it before the flood of new channels makes the problem - and viewers' frustrations - even worse.

Quebecor begins hypocritical outrage campaign

UPDATE (Sept. 20): QMI Agency has published a joke of a news article by Raphaël Gendron-Martin. It quotes only TVA's Pierre Dion bashing Bell and Cogeco for not carrying TVA Sports, and makes no apparent attempt to contact Cogeco or Bell for comment. The hit piece appears in the Journal de Montréal (on the front page), 24 Heures, TVA Nouvelles and Argent (twice). Dion also appeared on LCN and TVA's Salut Bonjour, where again no apparent attempt was made to contact Cogeco or Bell for comment, no mention was made of RDS2 or TSN's Habs channel not being on Videotron, and Dion went unchallenged on anything he said. (In the case of Salut Bonjour, it's clear host Gino Chouinard is being fed his questions and even refers to Dion as "boss" at the end.)

Despite what I am unfortunately forced to conclude (to use Dion's logic) was an organized misinformation campaign from Quebecor that abused its media power, Cogeco did respond by way of an open letter (PDF) that was also published on Facebook. Cogeco said it was interested in carrying TVA Sports and even made an offer that TVA refused.

No (public) word yet from Bell.

I sent an email to Gendron-Martin asking him about his article. He responded by pointing to full-page piece in Tuesday's paper by Danny Joncas, which quotes representatives of Bell and Cogeco. Gendron-Martin did not respond to questions about why he didn't contact Bell or Cogeco before writing his piece, nor why he didn't mention Videotron not carrying RDS2, nor whether he was ordered by his employer to write this article in this way.

Joncas's reaction piece was not posted online, either by the Journal or by any other QMI website. The original article from Gendron-Martin still appears on those websites unaltered, with no indication that there has since been a response.

Joncas's piece quotes both Bell and Cogeco saying these negotiations should be conducted privately instead of in the media, and that both are negotiating with TVA. It also says TVA rejected Cogeco's offer because it wanted better placement in Cogeco's specialty channel packages.

UPDATE (Sept. 23): The CRTC has released new rules concerning this issue (press release, decision, Globe and Mail story). It offers some specific rules (no mobile/Internet exclusivity deals for TV programs), but also includes a lot of rules barring things that are "unreasonable" or "excessive", which leaves a lot of room for disagreement over what qualifies as unreasonable.

It also pushes off a lot of decisions until later, including whether cable and satellite companies should be required to offer à la carte subscriptions (though they seem to be moving in that direction).

Whether those new rules will change how these big telecom companies deal with each other is to be seen.

Highlights from the CRTC’s 2011 Communications Monitoring Report

Fagstein — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 07:38:20 +0000

A few weeks back, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission released its regular Communications Monitoring Report. It's a long list of tables and charts and graphs created from data it gathers about the industries it regulates (broadcasting and telecommunications), compiled from surveys, studies and information reported from the companies themselves.

You can read the report here (PDF), but it's about 200 pages. I went through it looking for tidbits of interesting information, and here are some highlights that caused me to raise an eyebrow or two, presented Harper's Index style.

Radio

Number of new AM stations approved by the CRTC in 2008, 2009 and 2010: 1

Number of existing AM stations approved for conversion to FM by the CRTC in those same years: 19

Satellite radio listening hours per week for anglophones and francophones in 2007: 11

Listening hours in 2010: Anglophones 8.4, francophones 5.6

Rank of Canada among eight developed countries (U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Australia) for radio revenue per capita: 8

Rank of Canada for radio listening minutes per day per person: 7

Television

Percentage of French-language television viewers who watch Canadian-made television shows: 99%
Profit margin for conventional television in 2010: 1%
Profit margin for specialty and pay television in 2010: 25%
Spending on sports programming by private conventional television in 2010 (includes Vancouver Olympics): $141 million.

Spending in the previous four years combined: $29 million
Increase in 2010: 3,608%

Percentage drop in spending on non-Canadian programming by private conventional television in 2010: 8.2%

Spending on non-Canadian programming as a fraction of revenues in 2009: 42.9%
In 2010: 36.19%

Percentage of Canadian households using antennas to receive television signals in 2007: 8%

In 2010: 8%
Proportion of households worldwide receiving analog over-the-air signals: 38%
Proportion worldwide, when including digital: 46%
Proportion worldwide receiving over-the-air signals in 2005: 59%

Rank of Canada among eight developed countries (U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Australia) for subscription TV revenue per user: 8

Rank of Canada for TV viewing minutes per day per person: 4
Rank of Canada in proportion of households who pay for TV service: 1

Price the average household pays for television service, compared to 2002 (not including bundle discounts): 143%

Price of Internet service: 96%
Consumer price index over the same period: 117%

Internet

Average weekly hours spent online by anglophone Internet users: 17.1

Average by francophone Internet users: 12.7

Number of anglophones who have listened to a podcast in the past month: 17%

Number of francophones: 7%

Average download per month of a Canadian residential Internet customer, in 2010: 14.8 GB.

Average in 2009: 12.0 GB

Revenues from dial-up, nationwide, in 2010: $96 million. Growth in revenues from dial-up from 2009 to 2010: -31.7%
Rank of Canada among eight developed countries (U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Australia) for mobile broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: 7

Rank for fixed broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: 2
Rank of Canada among the same eight countries for average fixed broadband speeds in 2010: 2
Rank for average mobile broadband speed in 2010: 3
Rank for average revenue per mobile user in 2010: 1 (tied with Japan)

Wired telephony

Change in telecom revenues from wireline long distance charges and calling cards between 2009 and 2010: -11%
Change in telecom revenues from wireline long distance charges to businesses, between 2007 and 2010: -30%
Change in number of residential phone lines using alternative providers (excluding cable companies), from 2007 to 2010: 200%

Change for cable companies between 2006 and 2010: 248%

Percentage of residential phone lines using incumbent providers (Bell, Telus, Rogers, etc.) in 2006: 80%

Percentage in 2010: 65%

Rank of Quebec among Canada's 10 provinces for lowest use of major incumbent telephone providers in 2010: 1

Wireless

Amount of telecom revenues from wireless in 2002: 23%

Amount in 2010: 43%

Percentage of Canadian households with only wireless telephone service in 2009: 10
Best region in terms of market share for wireless providers:

Bell (and related companies): The territories (90%)
Rogers: Ontario (47%)
Telus: Alberta (50%)
Other: Manitoba (MTS Allstream): (78%)
New entrants: Quebec (Videotron) (3%)

Increase in total number of text messages sent in 2010 vs. 2009: 50%
Estimated savings from switching to a new entrant in the wireless business (in this case, Wind Mobile, Primus or Mobilicity) for high-volume users (1,200 minutes, 1GB data) in Toronto and Vancouver: 49%

Estimated savings from switching to a new entrant (in this case, Videotron) for high users in Montreal: 0%

Savings for mobile data use in general for new entrants in Toronto and Vancouver: 24%

Savings in Montreal: 34%

Rank of Canada among six studied countries (U.S., U.K., France, Australia, Japan) for average price of mobile data plans, most expensive first: 3rd
Rank of Canada among eight developed countries (U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Australia) in mobile subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: 8
Mobile advertising revenue in 2008: $12 million

Revenue in 2009: $32 million

Pager subscribers in 2010: 187,500

In 2006: 504,600

Multiple services

Percentage of subscribers to telecom services with two or more services bundled, in 2006: 15

In 2010: 48

Government pays for Cogeco to shut down CKAC Sports

Fagstein — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 17:37:21 +0000

Following two days of rumours (thanks mainly to Pierre Trudel), Cogeco this morning confirmed that it is switching formats for CKAC 730AM, Montreal's only major commercial French-language AM station. It will go from being an all-sports station to an all-traffic station effective Tuesday morning. After the announcement, Cogeco immediately pulled the plug on sports broadcasting, and is running music until then, interrupted every half hour by a three-minute announcement by Cogeco VP Richard Lachance.

Listen to the announcement running on CKAC during the weekend (MP3)

Live sports broadcasts will be carried on Cogeco's news-talk 98.5FM, and some (but not all) personalities will move there as well. Lachance tells LCN that seven employees will be affected, four of whom will find new functions at 98.5. Michel Villeneuve and Ron Fournier, notably, will have shows on 98.5, in the evening (when the station currently rebroadcasts shows from earlier in the day).

In a bitter and ridiculous press release, Cogeco mainly blamed its competitors, who opposed a fast-track process for Cogeco's all-traffic licenses to be approved by the CRTC. It complained that nobody was interested in the vacant 690 and 940 frequencies formerly held by Corus's all-news stations and purchased by Cogeco when it bought Corus Quebec, without addressing the claims by competitors like Bell Media that Cogeco was unwilling to negotiate selling the former stations' transmission towers and other facilities.

But mostly it stresses that it had to establish an all-traffic station by the day after Labour Day, when supposedly the fall traffic season will begin. Waiting until October (or later) would be unacceptable. It's "urgent" that it has to be up by September, Cogeco says. People relying on traffic reports every 10 minutes just isn't enough.

What's not said in the press release is that this is all about money. Cogeco's not in a rush to get this all-traffic station on the air because it cares about Montreal drivers. It's in a rush because it cares about the $1.5 million subsidy from the Quebec government. The agreement between Cogeco and the Ministry of Transport says the stations must be operating by Oct. 31, but the contract actually begins Sept. 1. (It doesn't make clear what happens if Cogeco misses its deadline.) Once that happens, the station begins collecting $125,000 a month from the government to pay its staff.

Thankfully Cogeco doesn't own a popular English-language AM station, so it can't shut that down to turn it into an all-traffic station. Instead, it will wait for the CRTC to decide on 940AM, and is asking them to hurry in making a decision (they are hurrying, and had already tightened deadlines for applications for that frequency).

When this all-traffic station idea was announced in May, I panned it as a waste of $9 million of government money over three years for something that just about every radio station already provided for free ad nauseam. Cogeco's competitors agreed, and demanded an open call for applications for those frequencies, which the CRTC granted.

Now it seems even more obvious how bad an idea it is. Cogeco has compared its $1.5-million subsidy against the ad revenue from CKAC and decided it would rather the government subsidy. The Quebec government is essentially using public money to push Cogeco into shutting down a popular all-sports radio station and replace it with something that is redundant to every other station in the market.

(One might ask if Cogeco didn't want to shut down CKAC, why not apply for an all-sports radio station on 690AM and bring it back? The press release is silent on this.)

It's a sad day for Montreal radio, and an even sadder day for common sense and government spending.

CKAC 730AM will go all-traffic Tuesday, Sept. 6 at 4:30am. The CRTC hears applications for 690 and 940AM (Cogeco has withdrawn its application for 690) on Oct. 17.

A Facebook page has been setup to protest the decision. CKAC Sports's Facebook page has a brief note from the station: "Merci à chacun d'entre vous de nous avoir suivi, lu, et d'être venu commenter ainsi que partager votre passion pour le sport", followed by a lot of angry comments.

You can also watch video of CKAC's empty studio while listening to Céline Dion and other awful music.

Other coverage

TVA interviews Michel Langevin, who will be moving to TVA Sports
Benoît Dutrizac on 98.5FM interviews Lachance about the changes
Hockey Inside/Out's Mike Boone doesn't understand how Montreal can support an anglo all-sports station but not a franco one
Sports commentary satirists at Sportnographe say they're sad about CKAC leaving (though with TVA Sports, RDS and others, they won't be struggling for content)
Radio-Canada
The Gazette
CTV
Agence QMI quotes some Twitter posts

CBC gets to keep some analog TV running

Fagstein — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 03:20:10 +0000

José Breton must be happy.*

He's the guy in Quebec City who protested that CBC was going to shut down its TV transmitter there and not replace it with a digital one. Being a hockey fan, his main issue was that he wouldn't be able to get Hockey Night in Canada without cable.

In a decision published Tuesday morning, the CRTC decided to give the CBC another year to make the conversion in 22 markets that are large enough that the CRTC designated them for mandatory conversion but small enough that they do not have original programming and the CBC was prepared to pull the plug on them rather than spend millions on new transmitters.

These include transmitters in Quebec City, Sherbrooke, Trois-Rivières and Chicoutimi that rebroadcast CBC Montreal. They also include a large number of Radio-Canada's transmitters outside Quebec. The Globe and Mail has a map here.

Breton wasn't the only one trying to stop his city from falling through the cracks. The city of London, Ont., actually passed a resolution demanding the CBC save its transmitter there.

Since Radio-Canada transmitters in Quebec are shutting down, the CBC is going to use the old Radio-Canada analog transmitters in Trois Rivières and Quebec City for CBC programming, taking advantage of the better coverage of those transmitters. On the flip side, its transmitter in Chicoutimi (Saguenay) will see its power drop significantly because it's on a channel that is supposed to be vacated.

Here's what's going on for each transmitter:

CBMT Montreal must still terminate analog transmission on Channel 6 by Aug. 31. Its transitional digital transmitter on Channel 20 will move to Channel 21.
CBJET Saguenay will drop in power significantly, going from 12,000 watts to just 496. Because it's running on Channel 58, which is one the government is forcing all television stations to move off of (big cities or small), it drops to low-power unprotected status. This also means that Industry Canada (which regulates frequency allocations) can force it to move frequencies if it wants to give it to someone else.
CBMT-1 Trois-Rivières switches from Channel 28 to Radio-Canada's old spot on Channel 13, and gets a power boost from 33,000 to 47,000 watts, in order to increase its coverage area.
CBVE-TV Quebec City switches from Channel 5 to Radio-Canada's old spot on Channel 11, and gets a power boost from 13,850 to 33,000 watts, increasing its coverage.
CBMT-3 Sherbrooke remains operational, unchanged at 14,000 watts on Channel 50.
Other retransmitters in Quebec (there are about 40 of them from Kuujuaq to Îles de la Madeleine) are not in mandatory markets and will remain running as they were before.

The CRTC's decision is understandable. It was backed into a corner by the CBC. Not allowing the extension would have meant forcing the CBC to shut down these transmitters - many of which are in minority-language markets - and would have meant, some have argued, failing in its mandate.

It's also the latest compromise on the digital transition. Originally the CRTC wanted every TV transmitter in Canada to be converted to digital. Then in 2009 it said only "mandatory markets" - capital cities, those with multiple stations and those with populations above 300,000. Then in March it removed the territorial capitals from the list of mandatory markets. And now CBC and Radio-Canada retransmitters won't have to make the transition.

In 2009, I argued that the digital TV transition is a counterproductive waste of money. Two years later, with the deadline only two weeks away, this seems even more clear. Broadcasters are waiting in some cases until literally the last minute (midnight from Aug. 31 to Sept. 1) to switch their analog transmitters with digital ones, because they know that the analog transmitters reach a larger audience. The fact that the CBC is pushing for a delay and that so few transmitters are being changed outside of mandatory markets is a clear indication that market forces aren't pushing hard in the direction of digital TV.

And why should they? Having high definition is nice, but the vast majority of people rich enough to have purchased high-definition TVs also have cable or satellite service. Most of those on analog TV are either too poor to afford a subscription service or are too disinterested in TV to spend the money.

Digital television is being forced on us for reasons that still elude me. The government wants to auction off TV channels 52-69 for wireless services, but analog transmitters in those frequencies can be reassigned lower channels without converting them to digital (there certainly aren't more than 50 television transmitters operating within range of Quebec City or Moncton).

Analog over-the-air television has existed using roughly the same technology for more than half a century. Forcing broadcasters to spend millions on hundreds of new transmitters and consumers to spend hundreds on millions of new televisions (or digital converters for their existing sets) without a clear need seems ridiculous.

UPDATE (Aug. 17): Actually, Breton isn't happy. He's calling the decision a "false compromise", says the CRTC should have forced the CBC to install a digital transmitter in all mandatory markets, and points out that because most digital converter boxes don't pick up analog signals, people won't be able to easily switch between CBC and other channels in these markets.

The Team 940? Bell proposes frequency swap

Fagstein — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 04:08:49 +0000

Cogeco's CRTC application to bring two Montreal AM radio stations back to life has prompted interventions from the owners of the other AM stations in the city - Astral (which owns CJAD) and Bell Media (which owns CKGM/The Team 990) - as well as Paul Tietolman, who has been trying for some time to start up his own AM station at 940 kHz.

The interventions (two are opposed to the application, while Astral is negative but not quite so categorical) are based on these main points, which have been responded to by Cogeco:

Concentration of ownership: The interventions point to the fact that Cogeco asked for and received an exemption to a CRTC policy that forbids any owner from having more than two stations on the same band in the same language in the same market. This allowed them to purchase all of Corus Quebec's radio assets in Montreal, adding CKOI and CHMP 98.5FM to CFGL Rythme FM, giving them three French-language FM stations. Now they want to add two more stations to their empire, giving them five French-language stations (they also own CKAC) and two English-language stations (with CFQR). Cogeco responds by saying that exception was, well, exceptional, and that owning two French-language AM stations would not be a further exception to CRTC policy. Cogeco also says it doesn't believe an all-traffic station (even one that solicits advertising) would be a significant competitive threat to existing broadcasters.
Use of clear channels: The interventions agree with me and other radio watchers that 50,000 watts and a signal pattern that stretches into the Maritimes and northeastern Ontario is overkill for a Montreal traffic station. They say that if the application is approved, it should be for two frequencies that are not clear channels. Cogeco responds that the frequencies have been vacant since June 2010 (when the CRTC announced it had revoked the licenses) and no one has applied for them.
Unfair competitive advantage: The interventions question the entire point of a publicly-funded all-traffic station. And while there's nothing the CRTC can do to change how the Quebec government spends its money, the incumbents object because the funding would give the traffic stations an unfair competitive advantage. The funding "will allow Metromedia (the Cogeco subsidiary that owns the stations) to aggressively sell advertising in the marketplace, potentially offering lower rates than what is offered by the incumbents. This potential strategy will only serve to further undermine an already weak market," writes Bell Media VP Kevin Goldstein in his intervention. Cogeco responds by quoting news articles demanding better communication about road conditions from the government and says they only expect about a quarter of its advertising revenue ($600,000 for the first year) will come at the expense of their competition.
Guarantee of format: The interventions say there's no guarantee that their all-traffic format would be maintained once the contract with the Quebec government runs out. Cogeco responds that it would accept a condition of license making such a guarantee.
No public bidding: The interventions feel this project should have been open to a public bidding process. Cogeco responds that any broadcaster could have responded to the notice from the transport ministry that it intended to award this contract to Cogeco, but none ever did. The lack of demand meant the government did not have to open bidding on the project.

Here's where the intervention from Bell gets interesting: They state that they have been trying, since Corus shut down CINW (940 Hits) and CINF (Info 690) in January 2010, to purchase the transmitter and antenna from them, to no avail. Bell says that if the CRTC wants to approve this application, it would be prepared to perform a frequency swap, taking either 690 or 940 kHz and taking up a clear channel that allows them to broadcast 50,000 watts day and night.

Propagation patterns for CKGM (Team 990AM) in red (day) and black (night) vs. CINW (940AM) in purple and CINF (690AM) in blue, as provided in Bell's CRTC intervention

As Team 990 gains broadcast rights to Canadiens games in the fall, nighttime propagation becomes more important. As a Class B frequency, 990 requires the transmitter to modify its signal at night, reducing its coverage. Switching to 940 would give CKGM a much larger coverage area.

The idea makes a lot of sense. Montreal sports teams - and the Canadiens in particular - are going to have a lot more interest in the outlying regions than Montreal traffic information. It makes sense for that station to have a larger coverage area. And, of course, most people interested in traffic will listen to the radio in their cars, which should not have trouble picking up a giant transmitter just a few kilometres away.

But Cogeco responds by criticizing Bell's suggestion that it would have been too expensive to retune its existing transmitter and antenna from 990 to 940 kHz. It quotes an engineering expert it hired that said in the worst case scenario of having to replace everything, it would cost less than $250,000.

We'll take them: Tietolman

Tietolman Tétrault, in its intervention (PDF), suggested the stations use frequencies of 600 and 850 kHz (formerly of CIQC and CKVL, respectively) and said the 690 and 940 frequencies should be open to applications. It said it would be willing to apply for both:

Tietolman Tétrault Média est déjà prêt, intéressé et apte à appliquer pour l’obtention de ces fréquences. Nous avons en main un plan d’action que nous estimons bénéfique pour la diversité radiophonique nécessitant ces deux fréquences-clés. Évidemment, ces deux fréquences seraient en ondes peu de temps après l’obtention des licences.

Tietolman, whose family once owned CKVL, had tried to offer a competing $81-million bid for Corus Quebec, including 690 and 940. They've indicated for a while now that they'd like to bring back 690 and 940, though they haven't said what kind of format the stations would have.

Other interventions

A few other smaller groups and individuals also filed interventions in this application.

Jacques Blais of S.O.S. Québec Radio filed a handwritten note (PDF) - he wrote that he had computer problems - in which he called the project useless and a waste of public money, and appealed to common sense in rejecting it. He also repeated that 50,000 watts was too much for this station, and said the 690 and 940 frequencies should be reserved for French-language stations only, because the French language is threatened in Quebec.

That last part is kind of funny because his supporting documentation was my previous blog post and an article from The Suburban.

Marc St-Hilaire of the Syndicat général de la radio union said (PDF) endorsed the new station but said it was worried that Cogeco would deduct the number of people it hires for these stations from its commitment to hire journalists for its Cogeco Nouvelles news agency. Cogeco made the commitment as part of the deal that got it to own three francophone FM stations in Montreal.

Chantale Larouche of its parent union the FNC expressed similar thoughts in a separate intervention (PDF).

Cogeco says each station would have six full-time announcers, plus a full-time traffic journalist, and that these would be in addition to the commitments they already made for the creation of Cogeco Nouvelles and the hiring of journalists.

Finally, Miguel Therriault of Quebec City filed a very brief intervention (HTML), saying, in its totality: "Les coûts sont outrageusement exagérés. De plus ce service est complètement inutile. Les stations de radio actuelles répondre très bien à la demande. C'est une dépense inutile."

You can read the interventions here:

The hearing to discuss Cogeco's application was supposed to happen next Monday, but the CRTC announced last week that the items have been withdrawn from the agenda and will return as part of a later hearing. No explanation was given and no date has been set yet.

UPDATE: An open call has been issued for the two frequencies, with a deadline of Aug. 29. Cogeco maintains it still wants to setup all-traffic radio stations and will go through this process if necessary.

All-traffic radio: A $9-million waste

Fagstein — Tue, 24 May 2011 23:40:22 +0000

Coverage map for CINW 940AM at 50,000 watts, as submitted to CRTC

Last week, news came out that Cogeco and the Quebec government have reached a deal that will see the creation of two new all-traffic AM radio stations in Montreal set to open in the fall. The project will cost taxpayers $9 million over three years.

It's the most ridiculous use of $9 million I've seen in a while.

The history of 690 and 940 AM

Montreal has had two giant holes in its radio spectrum since January 2010. Both frequencies - 690 and 940 kHz - started out as CBC stations. CBM (CBC Montreal) moved to 940 and CBF (Radio-Canada Montreal) moved to 690 in 1941. They were among Canada's oldest AM radio stations and each had clear-channel status, meaning that they could operate at 50,000 watts and did not have to reduce power overnight to avoid interference.

Clear-channel status is highly sought - or at least it was. There are only about a dozen such stations in Canada (CKAC is the only active one in Montreal), and the clear-channel status means they can be heard from very far away with a good enough antenna.

Despite this seemingly huge advantage, CBC decided in the late 90s to move its AM stations in Montreal to FM - 88.5 and 95.1 MHz - where they remain today as CBC Radio One and Première Chaîne). The argument was that FM provided better quality audio and the signal would be easier to capture in the city. The tradeoff - that the signal would no longer be carried by skywave to neighbouring provinces and territories - didn't seem to be such a big deal. It was a controversial move at the time, particularly for CBC Radio listeners who had better reception with AM than FM.

In 1999, the decades-old CBC transmitters were shut down and the frequencies vacated. Métromédia (later Corus Quebec), which owned CIQC 600 AM and CKVL 850 AM, wasted no time in snapping the clear channels up, and moved those two stations to the vacated frequencies. They were reborn as all-news stations CINW (940 News) and CINF (Info 690).

We all know how that turned out. The anglo all-news station didn't work out financially, so they changed it up into a news-talk format in 2005. When that didn't work either, they fired everyone and started played music in 2008. (Info 690, meanwhile, kept going with their news format). Then, in January 2010, Corus pulled the plug on both stations and gave up. They returned their licenses to the CRTC.

Since then, the frequencies have remained vacant. Clear AM channels that it seems anyone could have had just by asking. But no takers.

In 2010, Corus agreed to sell its Quebec assets to Cogeco. This included the transmitters for CINW and CINF, even though they were inoperative and had no broadcast license. The deal was approved in December, giving Cogeco the equipment (and a lease on the transmitter site in Kahnawake until 2021) but no idea how to use it in a way that could make it profitable.

And here's where the Quebec government comes in.

Congrats, Cogeco lobbyists

According to documents they submitted to the CRTC (you can download them yourself from here), Cogeco found out about the Quebec transport ministry wanting to improve the way it communicates information about traffic disruptions to the public. With all the construction work expected to come (the Turcot Interchange, for example), they wanted to minimize the pain to drivers by keeping them as well informed as possible.

Cogeco went to them and proposed a ... let's call it a partnership. Cogeco would provide the transmitter, the programming, the staff. The government would provide access to traffic information and lots and lots of money.

The government thought it was a great idea, and on April 14 they published their intention to award a contract to Cogeco. The deal was finally announced last week by the government and Cogeco (PDF) and the CRTC announced it would hold a hearing on the proposal to give the licenses back to CINW and CINF. News coverage was brief, most just regurgitating the press release:

The station, which according to the deal must be operational by Oct. 31 (though the target date is Sept. 1 pending CRTC approval), would broadcast live from 4:30am to 1am weekdays and 6am to 1am weekends and holidays. This information includes:

Traffic status on highways and bridges
Road conditions
Information on road work sites (it's unclear if this is just those run by the transport ministry or all municipal sites as well)
Highway safety tips
Weather conditions

In other words, the kind of stuff you'd expect from any traffic information radio station. Missing from this list is an item about providing information on public transit service. It's unclear why both sides left this out of their press releases, but it's contained in their CRTC submission and in the contract between the government and Cogeco, and I would imagine the intention is to include such information in their broadcasts.

The deal also includes promotion of the station by Cogeco and 25 minutes a day of airtime for the ministry.

Cogeco says it plans to use CHMJ in Vancouver (owned by Corus) as a template. That's also an all-traffic radio station, but with one major difference: It's not funded by the government.

You could also compare it to The Weather Network and MétéoMédia, which provide all-weather programming, funded mainly by subscriber fees that all cable subscribers must pay for the channels.

Why this is a bad idea

I appreciate that the ministry wants to improve communication about traffic and road work. But they're doing this by getting into the broadcast business. The figure of $3 million a year might not be much, but it represents about three-quarters of the stations' proposed budgets. Cogeco also predicts that figure will rise if the contract is renewed beyond three years (the CRTC asks for seven-year projections for a station's finances) to $3.3 million a year for the next three years.

Put simply, this is a solution to a problem that does not exist. I mean, seriously, is the biggest complaint about commercial radio that there aren't enough traffic reports? Just about every station does traffic reports every 10 minutes during rush hours. CJAD does it all day. All this without any specific funding by the government to do so. Even CBC Radio One does traffic reports, including public transit updates. (The CBC is funded by the federal government, but that funding doesn't come with a requirement to do traffic updates. CBC Radio does traffic reports because it knows that's what rush-hour listeners want to hear.)

This isn't to say an all-traffic radio station wouldn't make sense. CHMJ is trying that format. And it's a good idea for AM radio, because most portable music devices these days can't receive AM radio, but most cars can. But if there's a demand for it, then it can be done without government funding. And if there isn't a demand for it, why bother?

Cogeco's own submission to the CRTC says there are about 1.3 million vehicles travelling in the Montreal area during the afternoon rush hour (less in the morning), which means more than $2 per vehicle per year spent on these stations. They expect their market share will be 1.5% for the anglo station and 1.6% for the francophone station. Based on their estimated total weekly hours of listening, the English station would expect about 1,000 listeners on average (more, obviously, during rush hour) and the French station about 3,000 listeners.

And CRTC submissions are usually pretty optimistic.

Why this is overkill

The other thing that bugs me about this is the choice of channel. Cogeco wants to put both these stations on clear channels, and have both running 50,000 watts day and night. The reach of these stations, as you can see from the map at the top of this post, is not just the greater Montreal area, but as far as Gaspé, Moncton, southern Maine, Kingston, northern Ontario and even Labrador. The vast majority of its listening area couldn't care less what happens on the Champlain Bridge.

Then again, if nobody else wants the frequency, I guess it's better to do that than nothing at all. But surely we can find a better use for such a powerful signal than traffic reports for one city.

There are also some strange proposals, like having a roving reporter patrol the city to report from the scenes of major traffic events. Compare this to the private sector that has helicopters flying overhead to report on traffic and other issues. It's a government employee doing a job that the private sector is already doing better.

What the government should spend its money on

In the grand scheme of things, $9 million isn't a lot of money. But rather than spend it on duplicating a service the private sector already does for free, how about the transport ministry use it more wisely. Spend it on adding more traffic cameras, providing better real-time information to traffic reporters, better ways of getting information to smartphones and other portable devices, improving the Quebec 511 service. Create a database of road work (both provincial and municipal) that can be integrated into Google Maps and used to suggest better routes to drivers.

Or, you know, they could use it to improve the province's highways. At least repave the kilometre or two closest to the Ontario border, which will give the most psychological bang for the buck and end those silly anecdotal cross-border comparisons.

The CRTC will be hearing the two applications for all-traffic radio stations on July 18 in Gatineau. Comments and interventions are being accepted until June 20. The contract is contingent on CRTC approval and would be cancelled if CRTC approval doesn't materialize before Oct. 31.

UPDATE (May 31): A Gazette piece says that there was a call for bids in this deal. That's not entirely accurate. On April 14, the transport ministry published its intent to give a contract to Cogeco (a document that starts off by saying "this is not a call for bids"), and gave competitors 10 days to indicate that they could provide a competing offer for the deal - something that if accepted would have led to a formal call for bids. After the deadline passed, the ministry gave the deal to Cogeco.

CRTC caves in to Cogeco

Fagstein — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 08:22:38 +0000

The CRTC, which sets rules regarding concentration of ownership in broadcast media, decided it could simply ignore them in a ruling on Friday that gave Cogeco the right to buy almost all the assets of Corus Quebec.

Specifically, Cogeco would buy 11 stations for $80 million, including Montreal's 92.5 the Q (formerly Q92), CFQR-FM.

In Montreal:

Elsewhere:

CJRC-FM Souvenirs Garantis 104.7 in Gatineau
CIME-FM 103.9 in St-Jerome
CHLT-FM Souvenirs Garantis 107.7 in Sherbrooke
CKOY-FM 104.5 in Sherbrooke
CHLN-FM Souvenirs Garantis 106.9 in Trois-Rivières
CFOM-FM Souvenirs Garantis 102.9 in Quebec City
CFEL-FM ("CKOI") 102.1 in Quebec City

The biggest problem with the acquisition is that it would violate a CRTC rule that says one company can't own more than two stations in each language on each band in each market. Cogeco was willing to get around this by selling stations in Quebec City and converting one in Sherbrooke into a retransmitter of Montreal's CKAC sports station.

But it wanted an exception in Montreal. CHMP 98.5 is the flagship station of the Corus talk radio network, and Rythme FM (CFGL) and CKOI are the No. 1 and No. 2 music stations, making them a whole lot of money. Cogeco said that a requirement to sell one of those stations would torpedo the whole deal (CKOI alone represents half the cost of the acquisition), and promised that in exchange for this special consideration they would hire journalists throughout Quebec and create a talk-radio news agency.

And the CRTC caved. Well, mostly.

They didn't buy the idea of turning Sherbrooke's CKOY FM into a retransmitter of Montreal's CKAC sports station, and gave Cogeco a year to find a buyer for it. They also made a strict condition that Cogeco's plan for a news agency continue, so they can't pull a bait and switch.

That part is good news. The idea of Cogeco Nouvelles sounds good. At least the part about them hiring 33 full-time journalists and spending $3 million a year on news sounds good. The part about sharing content sounds a lot like the regional stations will all take the majority of their content from Montreal and insert a bare minimum of local stories just to justify their license.

But still, considering how little actual journalism comes out of private radio in Quebec, on the whole this is good.

There are also a few additional incentives to sweeten the deal, like this: Cogeco will "provide its services free-of-charge to groups operating fewer than three French-language radio stations in Quebec’s small markets as long as they agree to supply COGECO Nouvelles with news from their markets. The service’s content will also be available free-of-charge to community radio stations."

Oligopoly

But as nice as all that is, and I hope Cogeco Nouvelles succeeds, the problem of radio competition remains. Instead of three players in the Quebec francophone (popular) music scene in Montreal, there would be two, representing an astonishing 95% of advertising revenue in the biggest market in Quebec. And that's true for both the French and English-language markets in Montreal. If you discount jazz, classical and CBC/Radio-Canada's stations, the two will own all seven music stations (four francophone, three anglophone) in Montreal.

Much of the debate at the CRTC seemed to be about Astral Media, which owns the NRJ and Rock Détente networks and is seen as a major player in the regions. But rather than acknowledge that there's a serious problem with Astral Media owning stations that should be competing with each other (this is particularly true in Montreal's anglophone market, where Astral owns CHOM 97.7, CJFM 95.9 Virgin Radio and CJAD 800), the CRTC decided that the best response was to create an even bigger behemoth in Cogeco.

With the acquisition, Cogeco stations would have an astounding 46.6% market share in the Montreal francophone market and 22.4% in the anglophone market, or 41.3% total. Astral, meanwhile, has a 31.4% share in the francophone market and a 55.4% share in the anglophone market. Note that all these numbers don't exclude CBC/Radio-Canada stations. When you consider just commercial stations, or as a share of ad revenues, those numbers are even higher.

The suggestion that this would somehow "restore a competitive balance" is silly.

The Montreal-less network

There's also a problem that isn't being considered very well here: While Cogeco argues that regional talk-radio stations need the resources and "expertise" of Montreal's 98.5 FM, it also plans to sell stations in the regions to a third party that won't be able to setup a Montreal station if they want to build a network.

For example, CKOI is a brand network in Montreal, Sherbrooke and Quebec City. As part of the acquisition, Cogeco will have to sell the Sherbrooke and Quebec City stations in this network, but not the Montreal one. And there isn't exactly a lot of extra space on the dial for someone to setup a new francophone music station in Montreal. So not only would anyone who wants to buy these stations have to change their brands (along with the Rythme FM station in Quebec City), but they wouldn't be able to take advantage of whatever efficiencies Astral and Corus/Cogeco think they have found with multi-region brands.

Personally, I think music radio stations can do fine without needing to belong to a Montreal-network (some names are already popping up as potential buyers). But it's funny that Cogeco puts such a strong emphasis on the need for a Montreal flagship station for its talk radio network but has no problem with other people having radio stations in the regions without a Montreal-based moneymaker to keep them afloat.

In conclusion: Good for radio, bad for radio choice

I'm happy that the CRTC handled some of the issues I brought up in my criticism of Cogeco's plan. And I'm happy that Cogeco is planning to setup a regional radio news network and hire journalists.

But this is a step backwards for radio diversity in Montreal, at a time when the city desperately needs more competition in commercial radio.

The CRTC should review its rules for media concentration, particularly because the public seems to be abandoning the AM band and because Montreal's numbers suggest that commercial music stations aren't strictly segregated on the basis of language.

Montreal has seven commercial radio stations that all play popular music that sounds a lot alike. It should have more than two companies running them.

More coverage in:

UPDATE (Jan. 12): Almost a month after the CRTC's decision, and weeks before the transaction is set to close, Astral decides to appeal to the federal court to overturn it, saying it was "arbitrary and unreasonable" to change the rules at the last minute just for Cogeco. VP Claude Laflamme makes the point in the statement that "the sudden lack of predictability in the application of the CRTC policy penalizes all broadcasters which in the past decided not to pursue business opportunities in order to abide by the policy as formulated and as consistently applied."

La Presse quotes Cogeco as counter-arguing that Astral controls 75% of the anglophone market (they own CJAD, CHOM and CJFM, but that doesn't violate the CRTC's rules), and they shouldn't be pointing fingers about media concentration.

Note that while Astral suggests that Cogeco should have been forced to sell one of the music stations, it doesn't have its eyes on them because it already owns two francophone FM stations in Montreal (CITE Rock Détente 107.3 and CKMF NRJ 94.3)

UPDATE (Jan. 14): Corus says it will, of course, fight this appeal, and that the Cogeco deal is still set to close on Feb. 1.

Some truth about Sun TV News

Fagstein — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 03:32:00 +0000

Sun TV News, the new specialty channel being proposed by Quebecor, is in the news again because their second attempt at CRTC approval has been released to the public.

After the previous application for a Category 1 specialty channel was outright rejected by the CRTC, Quebecor has decided to put forward an application for a Category 2 channel, just like almost every new specialty channel in the past few years.

Both categories are digital channels, meaning they won't be on analog cable and aren't part of the basic package. The difference is that Category 1 channels must have a minimum of 50% Canadian content, and in return all digital cable and satellite providers must make the channel available on a discretionary basis. For Category 2 channels, the dealings with television providers are mostly unregulated. They negotiate carriage fees with each other, and the providers can choose whether or not to make the channel available.

But while the Sun TV News application is technically a Category 2 channel, Quebecor is asking for an exception that grants it the biggest advantage of Category 1: mandatory availability, at least for the first three years.

In both the previous and current applications, media coverage and left-wing reaction has confused the nature of what Quebecor is asking for. That's partially understandable. CRTC's regulations can be overly complicated sometimes, particularly when it comes to what channels providers have to carry.

This Canadian Press article, for example, states three times that the new channel would be "funded with money from cable TV fees", even though that's not what the application is requesting. The statements are attributed to activists, but aren't challenged in the article, leaving readers to assume they are true. This report uses the term "must-carry", which has a special meaning at the CRTC that doesn't apply in this case. Quebecor isn't asking for must-carry status. This Globe and Mail story also uses the term "must carry", as does this National Post report.

"Must carry" vs. "must offer"

In an effort to reduce the confusion, let me explain a bit how this works.

There is a list of channels that all cable and satellite providers must provide as part of their basic packages. In addition to the local television channels, this also includes things like CPAC and APTN. Other channels like CBC News Network and the Weather Network are also included in basic packages. Fees, set by the CRTC, are charged to all subscribers to pay for these channels.

Beyond that, there are levels of discretionary tiers that have different statuses at the CRTC. Some are allowed on analog cable on a discretionary basis or can be part of the basic package. Some, like Category 1 channels, are offered only on a digital basis unless an exception is warranted.

Category 2 channels are the least regulated type, and the one preferred by both the CRTC and new channel applicants because of how easy it is and how low the minimum requirements are.

Though it might seem like your cable or satellite company has every channel in existence, it doesn't. Bell TV, for example, doesn't carry MuchMoreRetro. Videotron doesn't carry Fox News Channel (somewhat ironically, if you think Quebecor is an evil right-wing empire). Shaw Direct doesn't carry Court TV (now Investigation Discovery) or TFO. There is no regulation requiring these companies to make these channels available. They decide what their users might be interested in, based on what the channels offer and what they want to charge the TV provider. The channels, meanwhile, ask people to "call your cable or satellite provider" to pressure them into adding the channel to their lineup.

What Quebecor wants with Sun TV News is to bypass this process, and require that all digital TV providers have the channel in their lineups. The wholesale price would still be negotiated between the provider and the network, and the provider could package the channel and charge for it however it feels.

Kory Teneycke, the former Harper aide who is behind this application, calls it "must offer" to distinguish it from "must carry". I'll use that expression for lack of a better one.

In short, Quebecor is asking that this channel be available on all digital cable and satellite providers, but the choice to take it would be entirely up to the consumer. Nobody would be forced to pay for the channel if they didn't want it.

The package exception

One scenario that might see people paying for Sun TV News without wanting to would be if they got it as part of a package. It would make sense for a news channel theme pack to include Sun TV News with CTV News Channel, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News Channel, BNN, CNBC, Al Jazeera English and BBC World News. Someone might select that wanting all the news channels but having moral objections to Sun TV (and, presumably, Fox News).

But this packaging is entirely up to the TV provider. It's not regulated by the CRTC and isn't negotiated with the channels.

The CRTC only regulates packaging to ensure that porn channels and single-view religious channels aren't forced on consumers as part of packages. Theoretically, the CRTC could require the same thing for Sun TV News that it requires for Playboy TV, but that seems a bit excessive.

Of course, if cable and satellite providers did away with such packages, or offered people à la carte options, this wouldn't be an issue. But so far, only one major TV provider offers that kind of à la carte service: Quebecor-owned Videotron.

Ignorance breeds fear

What gets me most about the reaction to this application is how much people are willing to oppose it without knowing what it is. There has been no proposed program grid, not even any confirmed hosts. All we know about Sun TV News is that it wants to be a mix of news and opinion, that its creators consider the other news channels "boring", and that those creators are Conservatives who want to create a channel based partially on Fox News.

A group of activists has already started a petition that has 68,000 signatures on it (we're not sure how many of those are real people). It repeats the non-truth about forcing people to pay for the channel, and throws in some drama that makes it seem as if Stephen Harper is trying to force his ideological agenda into our brains through the CRTC.

Sun Media had a field day with this, saying that the petition is based out of New York and that author Margaret Atwood and her cronies are trying to suppress free speech. Even Teneycke himself weighed in.

Fox News Cheap

It's hard to judge something like this until you've seen it. Sun TV News could become a quality all-news network that bring much-needed competition to the industry. It could become a Fox News North, as critics have called it, providing news coverage to make people think it's objective, but loading primetime hours with fearmongering blowhards who care more about expressing their opinions than seeking the truth.

The arguments from Quebecor that this isn't Fox News North are contradicted by statements in the CRTC appliction, particularly this one:

The most comparable channel to STN is located in the USA, Fox News. Both channels’ strategy is to focus hard news and commentary that raise public debates and reactions on different topics. Fox News has been USA’s most watched All News channel for years and still is. In 2008-2009, Fox News’s audience was as high as CNN’s and MSNBC’s combined. Fox News does not have extensive distribution in Canada. Therefore, this represents a true opportunity for STN.

But while their goal is to replicate Fox News, I think the more likely scenario is that Sun TV News will be an experiment in cheap newsgathering that will quickly become a laughing stock because of its horribly small budget. According to the CRTC application, the channel plans to have a budget of about $25 million, of which $15 million would go to programming and technical costs. Though it's hard to directly compare this to CBC and CTV, since they take advantage of their local stations and national newscasts (I'm trying hard not to use the word "synergies" here), it's still very little money. We're looking at a staff of maybe 100 people, including journalists, anchors, producers and technicians, advertising salespeople, marketers, etc. Anyone who thinks he can run a national news network on that kind of budget is probably kidding himself.

The feared scenario, that they'll spend little money on news budget and focus all their efforts on opinion, makes more sense considering how little they have to spend. But even then, the big-name blowhards come at a high price, and a $25 million total budget isn't enough to get a Canadian Glenn Beck on the air if you want anything more than a webcam and laptop in front of him.

How Sun TV News describes itself

Though it's obviously self-serving, we really can't judge Sun TV News based on anything other than the statements of the people behind it.

Here, verbatim from the CRTC application, is how Sun TV News describes its "hard news" and "straight talk":

“Hard News” will almost exclusively rely on live reporting and real-time conversations with journalists covering breaking news – as opposed to the more traditional news wheel format that features a revolving set of news stories. But these headlines will be analysed, commented upon and discussed at length. The host will question the reporter and will have an intelligent exchange that will often open to further debate.

News will not be read like in a news bulletin. Daytime “hard news” will be covering a broad range of political, economic and lifestyle stories that matter to Canadians both rural and urban. So even its “hard news” portion will not be “all news” like it has traditionally been done in Canada. Short traditional news bulletin may be programmed but not more than once an hour.

“Straight Talk” will be programs featuring hosts and guests that deliver strong opinions and analysis of stories that are important to Canadians that day. “Straight talk” opinion journalism at night will be clear, intelligent and engaging – featuring a broader array of television personalities and signature hosts who will challenge viewers to think – and decide – for themselves. The challenging of ideas in itself may feed the news but at least will attempt to have Canadians make their own mind on the events occurring every day in Canada.

That could easily describe either Fox News Channel or MSNBC. Or a bunch of other networks. But it gives a bit of an idea what they're going for.

What the CRTC should do

The CRTC doesn't have the luxury of watching this network and judging whether it's good for Canadian TV watchers. It has to go on the application itself.

Based on that application, I would argue the CRTC should accept the network, maybe even with the exception they're requesting (particularly since it's only temporary).

The reason is simple: The channel proposes to create all its content. It says it will have zero foreign content. That alone should put it on a level higher than those Category 2 channels that air little but Family Guy reruns, 80s music videos, Star Trek movie marathons and ancient sitcoms.

The fact that Sun TV News wants to add to both news coverage and political debate in this country should certainly count for something as well, even though we may not agree with it.

The potential for abuse is there, but the CRTC already requires broadcasters to adhere to a code of ethics through the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council. Sun TV News has already accepted that it would be subject to those rules. The CRTC can't prohibit someone from starting up a channel because fearmongers disagree with the political leanings of its creator.

Sun TV News made sure to suggest in its application that without mandatory availability for at least the first three years on air, its business case would fall apart:

If mandatory access for a maximum period of three years is not granted to Sun TV News, one or more major cable or satellite providers might decide to not offer this service. This would be fatal to our business case as shown in Appendix 1, and would likely result in the cancellation of the Sun TV News project.

The CRTC shouldn't let itself get bullied. But it should set policy encouraging new channels to include as much original, Canadian content as possible. Sun TV News, which seems to put this figure at 100%, should be rewarded for that, just like any other channel should.

Sun TV News's suggestion that it get a break from closed-captioning requirements, though, should be ignored. Broadcasters routinely request exemptions from obligations to CC programming, like a high school student who wants an extension on a term paper.

Though it doesn't specifically request relief from CC requirements, it gives this quote: "However commendable this obligation is, the sums that need to be invested in such an amount of closed captioning means a lower amount is left for Canadian programs."

I'm pretty sure everyone else could make a similar argument.

By the numbers

Looking through Sun TV News's CRTC application, I found some interesting financial projections I thought would be worth sharing.

Though the wholesale fee would be negotiated between the broadcaster and TV provider, Sun TV News uses a base fee of $0.25 per subscriber per month in its analysis, and seems to suggest that they would aim for this. (That doesn't mean the channel would cost $0.25 to consumers though - providers charge consumers far above the wholesale rate.)
If the mandatory availability or "must offer" requirement is given, Sun TV News expects 17% penetration in the first year and up to 50% penetration by the end of the seven-year license at $0.25 per month. ("Penetration" defined as the number of cable/satellite subscribers who pay for the channel.)
Based on this analysis, the channel would get $15 million a year in subscriber revenue, which would be combined with $10 million a year in advertising to reach the $25 million budget.

Quebecor survey shows Sun TV News wouldn't be popular

The CRTC application includes some survey data from polling they conducted. Though they do a good job of spinning it, the survey shows only 41% of Canadian TV watchers would be somewhat (36%) or very (5%) likely to subscribe to the channel. This makes its 50% penetration rate seem a bit far-fetched.

Similarly, a survey showed "Canadians do not find reporters to have an inherent bias in the news they report" (52% vs 7%), contradicting claims by Quebecor that Canadians are tired of the "lamestream" media's biases.

When asked about their satisfaction with current news choices, 67% in Quebecor's survey rate it six or higher on a scale of 1-10. Quebecor spins this as saying Canadians are "not extremely satisfied", but when almost half are rating seven or eight on a scale of 1-10, I would argue that's pretty satisfied. Postmedia's Andrew Mayeda agrees.

Finally, even though Teneycke and company are pushing this as a competitor to CBC and CTV news channels, the application softens the stance and even argues that those networks won't be seriously affected by the appearance of Sun TV News. Instead, it argues that it will bring Canadians back from CNN (which it simultaneously argues is winning Canadian viewers from CBC and CTV because it has more opinionative programming in primetime, and is losing American viewers to Fox News because its primetime programming isn't opinionative enough).

"In the long run, we believe the impact on the existing Canadian all-news services will be negligible," it says.

I'm sure that comes as a relief to them.

TV gets shut down for maintenance

Fagstein — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 09:12:02 +0000

CBC antenna atop Mount Royal, and the giant crane working on it

A lot of people who rely on old-fashioned antennas to get their television service have noticed this summer that all the TV stations in Montreal disappear after midnight.

The reason is simple: The transmitters are being shut off for maintenance work.

For the past couple of months, workers have been busy replacing antennas and doing other work on the 50-year-old CBC transmission tower atop Mount Royal (just northwest of the Belvedere, at the mountain summit, in case you've never seen it before).

Old antennas laying on the path of Olmstead Rd.

One of the main purposes of the maintenance is to replace antennas as television broadcasters make the switch to digital. An antenna that CFCF-12 has been using since it launched in 1961 has been replaced with a new one that will be used for digital transmission. The station even did a news piece on it (skip to the 8:40 mark). Though the station got approval today to operate a 10,600-Watt digital transmitter, it looks like it won't be put into service until after the transition deadline of Aug. 31, 2011.

For safety reasons (we're talking about transmission power in the hundreds of thousands of watts), all the transmitters have to be shut down while the maintenance takes place. To minimize disruption, this work is taking place overnight, when Mount Royal Park is closed and when TV viewing is at its lowest.

But the TV viewing isn't zero. Just after midnight is when CFCF airs The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. And many of its fans are annoyed that they can't watch the show over the air (or even more annoyed that they can watch the show but get cut off midsentence, as you can see in the clip below).

There is a workaround if your antenna is strong enough and you're on the north or west sides of the mountain - tune your TV to channel 8 and try to pick up the Cornwall retransmitter of CJOH Ottawa, which also airs the Daily Show at 12:05 and Colbert Report at 12:35. Or, if you don't mind waiting a day, you can watch the Daily Show and Colbert Report online.

The CBC tower stands next to a building at the end of a driveway at the summit of the mountain.

CFCF isn't the only affected station. Just about every television and FM radio transmitter in Montreal is located on this tower:

CBFT-2 (Radio-Canada)
CBMT-6 (CBC)
CFTM-10 (TVA)
CFCF-12 (CTV)
CIVM-17 (Télé-Québec)
CFJP-35 (V)
CKMI-46 (Global)
CJNT-62*
CBME-FM 88.5 (CBC Radio One)
CISM-FM 89.3 (Université de Montréal)
CKUT-FM 90.3 (Radio McGill)
CIRA-FM 91.3 (Radio Ville-Marie)
CFQR-FM 92.5 (the Q)
CBM-FM 93.5 (CBC Radio Two)
CKMF-FM 94.3 (NRJ)
CJFM-FM 95.9 (Virgin Radio)
CHOM-FM 97.7
CHMP-FM 98.5
CJPX-FM 99.5 (Radio Classique)
CBFX-FM 100.7 (Espace musique)
CFGL-FM 105.7 (Rythme FM)
CITE-FM 107.3 (Rock Détente)

*CJNT's transmitter seems to be unaffected by the maintenance. It continues to transmit during the blackouts.

In fact, it's easier to make a list of those FM and TV stations not transmitting from atop Mount Royal: CKOI 96.9FM (CIBC tower), CIBL 101.5FM (Olympic Stadium), CINQ 102.3FM (Rosemont and St-Denis) and Canal Savoir CFTU-29 (Université de Montréal), as well as community stations around the city like CKRK in Kahnawake CJVD in Vaudreuil.

Because AM transmitters require much larger antennas and height isn't as much of an issue, they aren't located on top of the mountain.

TV and radio transmission antennas atop the CBC tower, including new antenna for CFCF-12 and CFTM-10 at centre

With each transmitter putting out transmissions in the tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of watts, I can only imagine what the power bill must be like.

There is so much RF coming out of the antennas that the top of Mount Royal is actually a cellphone dead spot. It's not because the transmissions can't reach the cell towers, it's because there's so much radio noise there that your tiny cellphone can't make heads or tails out of it.

A sign for passers-by explains what's going on

Knowing that people would be curious about all the equipment in the middle of the park, the CBC put up signs around the work site explaining what's going on, and has a website with an FAQ.

The individual broadcasters have also been letting people know about the service interruptions. CTV's website has a little animated graphic, while Global's has a very short story. CFCF has also mentioned the work repeatedly in its newscasts, as you see in the above video.

That hasn't stopped casual TV watchers (as you would imagine most people without cable would be) from wondering what's going on, going on to online forums, or just emailing me.

The work is supposed to be complete by the end of August, at which point the disruptions will stop.

But that will only last a year. The CRTC is still set on an Aug. 31, 2011 deadline for a transition to digital. Those people with analog sets have already lost the American channels (I'd forgotten that the other day when I tried to tune them in to test my antenna), and they're now a year away from losing the Canadian ones as well.

One giant crane to move giant antennas around

Fagstein » CRTC

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