Category Archives: Montreal

| Montreal, Radio

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

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

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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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

| Montreal, Radio

Terry DiMonte returns to CHOM Jan. 9

Five months after the announcement that Terry DiMonte will be returning to CHOM-FM, not much has happened publicly. DiMonte is still in Calgary, co-hosting the morning show at Corus-owned Q107.

Corus is making DiMonte work all of the six-month obligation he triggered when he gave his notice in June. DiMonte has no trouble fulfilling his obligation as his contract stipulates, but it’s clear from his comments on social media that he’s eager to return to Montreal.

While those comments are pleasing his Montreal-based fans, they’re also disappointing his Calgary-based ones, some Montreal expats who share with him a connection to this city they once lived in before economic factors brought them out west, but many just classic rock fans who have been loyal to the station and woken up with him every weekday morning since 2007.

DiMonte tells me his last day at Q107 will be Dec. 9. After that he returns to Montreal and prepares to go back on the air at CHOM. His first day back in his old chair is almost certainly going to be Jan. 9. Astral VP Martin Spalding, who courted DiMonte back to CHOM, says this was considered a better date than a week earlier, when many people are still on holiday.

Spalding’s hands are tied in terms of marketing DiMonte. Not only is DiMonte still physically in Calgary, except for occasional trips here during his time off, but because DiMonte is still under contract with Corus, his brand still belongs to them. Astral can’t market DiMonte until his contract expires, which will happen on Dec. 22, six months after DiMonte gave his notice.

Terry and …

The biggest question for the past five months remains: Who will be DiMonte’s partner on the CHOM morning show?

Spalding and DiMonte said they’ve met a lot of potential candidates – some in person, some by phone, with more still to talk to – but no decision has been made yet. (The decision will be a joint one between DiMonte and the station.) They don’t even know if it’s going to be one or two people. But they will have to make a call within the next few weeks.

“As you’re probably aware, I am QUITE gunshy and very careful now after a certain time period in my old life…so I will be taking some time,” DiMonte writes. Spalding echoes those thoughts, telling me that “this is a five-year play, so we want to make it right.”

Spalding also said that there have been a lot of candidates, some they sought out, and some who offered to come on board. “It’s amazing how many people have come out of the woodwork and want to work with Terry,” Spalding said.

For those wondering, Ted Bird said he’s not one of them. There have been no discussions between him and CHOM about a possible return, and he remains the big name at the K103 morning show in Kahnawake.

Two obvious candidates for the job are the ones currently holding it now: Rob Kemp and Chantal Desjardins.

Kemp might be headed back to an early afternoon shift if he’s not on the morning show (currently Tootall does 10am to 3pm), though any reshuffling of shifts won’t be decided until after the morning team is in place, Spalding said.

The outlook for Desjardins is less certain. Spalding said she’s a “clear candidate” for the morning show co-host, but there’s no lock on it. She might end up somewhere else at the station, perhaps at another Astral station in Montreal, either CJAD or CJFM.

Desjardins clearly wants to get the job with DiMonte, though.

“I really enjoy working for Astral and I hope to continue in the morning show co-host position when Terry arrives,” she told me. “Seriously…who wouldn’t want to wake up at 4am every morning? ;)” (her emoticon, not mine).

TV viewers might have noticed that Desjardins has been doing sports stories for CTV Montreal. (UPDATE Nov. 23 – She even got a turn behind the anchor desk, as you can see from the video above.)

She said she’s “thoroughly enjoying the experience” and likes the work environment at CTV.

“But I still love the energy and immediacy of morning radio so I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how everything plays out!”

I feel bad for Desjardins. I know the saying that in radio it’s not if you get fired but when. Not getting the morning show gig doesn’t mean she’ll be fired, but to have your employment future be so uncertain for so long can’t be a fun thing to experience. I know, because it happens fairly often for me. (The main difference being thousands of people don’t notice what happens to me unless I tell them.)

Desjardins would make a welcome addition to the CTV sports team. That department is tiny (though still bigger than its competitors combined), and right now it’s 100% male. And she seems very comfortable in front of the camera.

But radio is what she wants to do, and it’s where people know her from. And Desjardins’s ability to match (or even surpass) wits with the boys is probably more valuable at the classic rock station than the TV station. Aside from Desjardins, Sharon Hyland is the only woman with a shift at 97.7FM, and she’s on weekends now.

It’s possible DiMonte and Spalding will come up with a name so fantastic it will have fans going “Chantal who?”, but it would have to be pretty fantastic to make me forget that these kinds of decisions have effects on the lives of real people.

| Montreal, My articles, Radio

Behind the scenes with Tasso and Patrick at Mike FM

Patrick Henry Charles (left) and Paul Zakaib (aka Tasso Patsikakis)

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Big local radio personality decides he’s had enough of how faceless corporations have micromanaged what happens on air, taking all the fun out of it. So instead, he’s moving to a low-power station few of his fans have ever heard of, becoming a big fish in a smaller pond, sacrificing a big paycheque for more creative freedom. The small station, not licensed in a way that would normally make it a competitor to the big commercial stations, decides it’s going to go after a bigger mainstream crowd to attract more advertising revenue.

It’s easy to see the parallels with Ted Bird here. Give me another example of this happening and I can write a trend story about it.

I went by Mike FM (CKDG) last week to sit in on a broadcast of the Tasso and Patrick show, which debuted on Oct. 24. It stars Paul Zakaib, who has been better known as Tasso since the 80s and has been mostly off the air since he was sacked from the CFQR morning show he shared with long-time partner Aaron Rand in 2009. With him is Patrick Henry Charles, who worked on the Aaron and Tasso show from 2001 until he got a better offer from competitor Astral to be part of CJFM’s morning team, but about a year later was moved into a position that gave him less airtime and far less exposure.

I talk about Mike FM and Tasso and Patrick in an article that appeared in The Gazette on Tuesday. It reveals, among other things, that there were talks about bringing an Aaron and Tasso show to the station, but they fell through the cracks when Rand was hired to do an afternoon show at CJAD.

So Zakaib called up his old pal Charles, who had recently left Astral because he felt his talents were being wasted there. They met with CKDG GM Marie Griffiths, and before long the Tasso and Patrick show was born.

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| Fun, Montreal

Scavenge: Impossible

I like scavenger hunts. I’ve participated in one or two, and provided the items on the list don’t involve doing anything illegal, too embarrassing or too impossible (University of Chicago, I’m looking at you), I look forward to participating in future ones.

I missed one last weekend, the Impossible Montreal scavenger hunt, which was actually far from it.

Three teams participated, making videos and taking pictures to complete their tasks. As an example, here are each of the three groups performing their own haka:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YRr1ftziWA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAiCgzMyklg

There were other fun things, like doing a Rick Mercer-style rant about Rick Mercer or eating as many steamies as possible. Another one was Peter Mansbridge/Wendy Mesley slash fiction, that’s just too good an idea not to link to, so here they are: The Sub-Librarians, The Flying Feltchions, #swag (bonus pointless references to Mutsumi Takahashi, Debra Arbec and Lori Graham in the latter).

The full list is here (PDF, after some humourously-crafted rules). Each of the participating teams used Tumblr accounts to upload pictures, video and text of their exploits, which you can find here:

  1. First place: The Sub-Librarians
  2. Second place: The Flying Feltchions
  3. Third place: #swag (pronounced “hashtag-swag”)
| Montreal, Opinion, Radio

Clear Channel Cagematch: Tietolman-Tétrault-Pancholy

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.

Continue reading →

| Montreal, Radio

Clear Channel Cagematch: Radio Fierté

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.

Continue reading →

| Montreal, Radio

Clear Channel Cagematch: CKGM frequency change

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:

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| Montreal, Radio

Clear Channel Cagematch: Cogeco’s all-traffic station

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.

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| Montreal, Radio

Coming soon: A reborn (and legal) KKIC Radio

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

| Montreal, Technology

Montreal, where data is becoming free

This post has also been published at openfile.ca

The City of Montreal has jumped on the open data bandwagon, setting up a website with raw data available for download.

There isn’t that much there right now (a full list is available in their press release), but the fact that the city even acknowledges the use of this is a huge step forward, and means we should expect much more in the months to come.

The idea behind open data is that information be made publicly available in its purest form. Instead of charts or long reports, the actual spreadsheet tables or map files are posted online so that application developers can find new and interesting ways of presenting information for public consumption.

For an example, here’s a Google map of the city’s major construction projects currently under way.

Now, this map doesn’t include highway projects that are done by the Ministère de Transport du Québec, or bridge projects under federal jurisdiction. But if those organizations had similar raw data available, a mashup of them together would be trivial. That information could then be used by GPS devices or trip planners to plan around construction sites. Or they could be used by radio station traffic reporters, or by investigative journalists, or by FTQ union thugs.

The best part is that the best use of this data might be something the people who put it online never even considered. The limits are not technological in nature, but merely the limits of the imaginations of thousands of computer geeks.

Another example: This XLS file of bike path counters. A few seconds in the spreadsheet and I find the busiest day for cyclists so far this year was Tuesday, June 21. And the top 25 days are all between May 30 and July 10. Without the raw data, I would have needed to wait for some bureaucrat to create an annual report, if they even bothered at all.

The STM should follow this example

One organization that I think could substantially benefit from an open data policy is the Société de transport de Montréal. Somewhere, it has a huge database of thousands of bus stops and schedules. It uses that data to feed its website, to give to Google Maps, and to create its printed schedules. But the data isn’t available directly to developers. So independent apps that help people know when the bus stops have to scrape the STM’s website for the information.

Giving the data away could help significantly in making these applications better, and in finding new ways of getting information to people that would encourage them to take public transit.

I look forward to seeing what data gets released through this website, and particularly how developers can take that data and do interesting and useful things with it.

If this kind of thing interests you, by the way, Montréal Ouvert is holding a hackathon on Nov. 19. Hopefully the city can put some more stuff online by then that can be played with there.

UPDATE: A congratulatory post from Montréal Ouvert, and more coverage from:

And here’s Projet Montréal shitting all over it because it’s not transparent enough for their liking.

UPDATE (Nov. 1): The city is launching the portal on Nov. 15. And a new iPhone app, NaviCone, is already making use of the city’s construction site mapping data.

| Montreal, Radio

Paul (Tasso) Zakaib, Patrick Charles to do afternoon show on Mike FM

Paul Zakaib (aka Tasso Patsikakis, left) and Patrick Charles (photo: Mike FM)

While I was busy yesterday at CRTC hearings for AM frequencies, Mike FM was announcing its new afternoon show stars, and give them points for scoring recognizable names. Paul Zakaib, the Tasso of Aaron and Tasso, will join Patrick Henry Charles (formerly of both CFQR 92.5 and CJFM 95.9) as the afternoon drive hosts starting next Monday.

Tasso, as we all know, was unceremoniously dumped from Q92’s morning show in August 2009 along with co-host Suzanne Desautels, leaving Aaron Rand in an uncomfortable position for almost two years until he finally left in May. Tasso has barely been heard from since (a notable exception being a guest appearance on Rand’s show to say goodbye).

Charles worked for seven years at Q92 until he jumped to CJFM and then was dumped from its morning show into a lower-profile job until he left completely last month. He also contributes a pop culture segment weekly on CFCF’s noon newscast. He’s known mostly for his musical parodies, and even created one for this announcement.

As The Gazette notes, Tasso’s timeslot will put him in a competing position with his long-time partner Aaron Rand, who is now doing afternoons at CJAD.

I asked Rand about this. He’s not taking the bait that this is some epic war. He writes:

Above all I’m happy for Paul, and glad to see he’s going to go back to work. I know it hasn’t been easy for the past couple of years.

As for being “pitted” against each other, I’m not sure what the format there is going to be, but I’ll go out on a limb and guess it’s not news/talk.

Now, you might be wondering: What the hell is Mike FM?

It’s a legitimate question to ask. The station, CKDG-FM 105.1, launched in 2004 after being on cable radio for decades. It is technically licensed as a multilingual station, and is limited to only having 35% of its broadcast hours in English or French. Still, it brands itself as an English station with English morning and afternoon programs, with Greek taking up most of the rest of the schedule. (I guess that makes a name like Tasso Patsikakis a good fit here.)

It has an average effective radiated power of 141 watts, which is tiny when you compare it to, say, The Beat’s 41,400 watts. It also broadcasts from a lower height on Mount Royal, from the Bell tower on Remembrance Road (the same one used by CFCF television’s temporary digital transmitter).

Current (inner circle) and proposed (outer circle) contours of CKDG-FM (Images from REC Networks maps)

The station has applied to the CRTC to improve its signal. The antenna would remain at the same place, but the station would change frequency from 105.1 to 106.7, the one formerly used by Aboriginal Voices Radio. It would also increase its power from 141 watts to 407 watts. This would put inside its contours areas like the West Island, east end and north and south shores, but would still be far from commercial rivals and very difficult to capture with cheap portable radios.

Even though the deadline for comments was more than a year ago, the CRTC hasn’t yet made a decision. One complication is that 106.7 is being used by pirate radio station KKIC in Kahnawake. That station has been given an actual broadcast license for 89.9FM, but hasn’t switched frequencies yet.

Paul Zakaib and Patrick Henry Charles begin on CKDG-FM 105.1 on Monday, Oct. 24. Their show runs weekdays from 3 to 6 p.m. A Facebook page is already setup. The station streams live via mikefm.ca.

| Montreal, My articles, Radio

CRTC hears applications for 690 and 940 AM

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.

| Montreal, Radio

Nat Lauzon back on the air with The Beat

Nat Lauzon, the former daytime DJ at Mix 96/Virgin Radio until she left to join what was then called the Q, began her first shift as the weekend afternoon host Saturday on CKBE, 92.5 The Beat.

The first day of one of Montreal’s biggest (and yet perhaps most underrated) radio personalities was remarkably low-key. Her first words on air, just after noon, sounded like this. Another few words at 12:37pm, but otherwise it was all about the music, following The Beat’s 10-in-a-row-to-start-each-hour thing.

Off air, she announced the new job this morning on her Twitter account and her Facebook page, and got a congratulatory tweet from fellow-Virgin-to-Beat-turncoat Cat Spencer, along with a bunch of messages from fans (some only finding out now that she’s switching stations).

Part of the low-keyness was necessary, Beat General Manager Mark Dickie said this week, because Lauzon’s contractual obligations to Astral expired only at midnight, exactly three months after her last day at Virgin (that’s why she’s only starting now when the “new station” launched more than a month ago). So the station couldn’t put her on air or do much to advertise her before today. Even the web page for her show isn’t done yet.

Dickie promised he won’t let her go unnoticed though, and said a marketing campaign featuring Lauzon will begin on Monday. Combined with the one-woman Lauzon marketing machine that is her mother, we expect people will be seeing that adorable face around over the next little while.

As previously reported, Lauzon left Virgin on good terms, mainly because she wanted to devote more time to her other passions, her freelance voice-over work and her Montreal Dog Blog. Dickie jumped at the chance to hire Lauzon when he learned of her desire for a part-time job, and though he said he’s spending far more on her than he planned to for a weekend DJ, he has absolutely no regrets about doing so.

Let her talk

UPDATE: I listened to Lauzon’s first show as I did errands on Saturday afternoon (why oh why did I choose then to do grocery shopping?), and I was struck with one thought: Why am I not hearing her talk?

I know there’s a difference between talk and music radio. And I know there’s a lot less talking during the day than during morning shows when you need to throw in news, weather, traffic and contests. But Lauzon’s on-air bits were short and infrequent. Maybe a minute and a half each hour.

I’m hardly one to complain that there’s too much music. But why spend money hiring someone like Lauzon for such little on-air exposure? I just don’t get it. (Now I do, see below.)

I’m reminded of the experiment that this same station did with Terry DiMonte in 2008, not long after he moved to Calgary. DiMonte went to work for a Corus station, Q107, and since Corus also owned Q92 at the time, they figured they’d make use of his following in this city and give him a noon-hour show here that he’d do from there.

It made sense, but it was stopped after less than a year for the simple reason that Q92 was paying DiMonte a lot of money to talk for just six minutes a day. His connection to the Montreal audience is important, but if you’re going to hire him, have him actually work instead of just sitting around during non-stop music marathons.

Lauzon has far too much talent for the amount of airtime she has, if that first show is any indication. Hopefully The Beat can find a formula for it that allows Montrealers to hear her voice and appreciate her quirky sense of humour without making it feel like talk radio. Even just a few seconds between every couple of songs can go a long way toward making the audience feel like they’re listening to the music with someone.

UPDATE (Oct. 17): Lauzon responds to me thusly about her talk time: “[It] was my choice to keep it simple. Getting used to new software/equipment and I really wanted to just keep ‘er on the rails and keep it simple while I get my bearings. Things will widen up over time (that’s what she said).”

That’s good to hear. We need more time for crude jokes like that on weekend afternoons.

Dickie confirms Lauzon will get more airtime, saying we should expect to hear her voice on The Beat as much every hour as we heard her on CJFM.

I personally think there could have been a stronger first impression, maybe a better introduction on her first show, but having a soft launch instead of a hard one isn’t going to discourage people from listening to her.

Lauzon has posted on her blog about her new job, and is asking listeners to take pictures of themselves next to billboards of her that are going up, and email those pictures to her.

Nat Lauzon hosts Feel Good Weekends from noon to 5pm Saturdays and Sundays on CKBE 92.5FM The Beat.

| Montreal, Radio, TV

CBC open house this weekend

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWDpVqqVPTs

As part of its 75th anniversary, and on the weekend of Culture Days/Journées de la culture, CBC and Radio-Canada stations across the country are opening their doors to the public and showing them around.

Among locations in Quebec are:

Pretty well everywhere that creates programming.

Specific crowd-pleasers are planned in various large cities, though on the English side it’s mostly in Toronto, Ottawa and Vancouver.

At Maison Radio-Canada, where understandably most of the interesting stuff will be in French, there’s still plenty of interest for anglos. Besides the tours and personalities, a Hockey Night in Canada display is promised, as well as opportunities for kids who are fans of CBC Television’s children’s programming.

The Montreal building on René-Lévesque Blvd. will offer guided tours, one a short one of about an hour and another a longer one of an hour and 45 minutes. The CBC Montreal and Radio Canada International portions are included only in the longer tour. (See a full list of attractions in this PDF flyer)

Doors are open from 10am to 4pm on Saturday and Sunday. On-air TV stars like Debra Arbec, Andrew Chang and Amanda Margison have said they’ll be around for about lunch time on Saturday.

You might recall that CTV Montreal held open houses in 2009 and 2010. In both cases the studio considered the events a huge success, and though there is definitely a desire to repeat the process in the future, there aren’t any specific plans yet for another one.

| Montreal, TV

Mike Le Couteur is going to Ottawa

Mike Le Couteur, Global's new Ottawa correspondent (Global News file photo)

They may have an inferior hockey team, but there’s something about Ottawa that is seducing our anglo TV journalists. CTV’s Daniele Hamamdjian a year and a half ago and CBC’s Amanda Pfeffer earlier this month have both headed west for new jobs with their networks in the nation’s capital.

In hindsight, the trifecta was inevitable. Global National announced via Twitter on Friday night that Mike Le Couteur will become its new Ottawa correspondent. Le Couteur effectively replaces Peter Harris, who left in August to become executive producer of Power and Politics at CBC.

“There’s not too much behind the move except for the cookie-cutter response of I wanted a new challenge,” Le Couteur wrote to me in an email, displaying the matter-of-fact honesty he’s been known for. “I’ve been at Global Montreal for about 13 years (almost the start of the station).”

“Every reporter’s goal is to do the big stories and work on the national scene. So when Peter Harris left about a month ago, I saw it as a great chance to move up but not move too far from home. I had spent seven weeks in Ottawa replacing Harris in 2010, so I have a good idea of the challenge which awaits me, and I’m really excited!”

Le Couteur doesn’t have a start date yet. He’s still in Montreal, doing stories based on opinion polls as part of Global’s “Canada’s Pulse” series. He’ll also be filling in for Montreal-based national reporter Mike Armstrong over Thanksgiving.

“So I figure that I’ll be heading down (or up, I never really know) the 417 in about 3 weeks or so,” Le Couteur says.

I asked him if I could relay a message to his viewers (insert joke here about Global Montreal’s ratings). His response was this:

“If there’s one thing I’d love for you to tell our viewers (across the province), it would be thank you. It’s extremely cliché to thank people for allowing me into their homes as the 11pm anchor and reporter, but it really has been an honour.  And you can bet I’ll be bringing my Habs jersey with me to bug all those Senators fans!”

You can follow Mike Le Couteur on Twitter at @MikeLeCouteur