Tag Archives: CRTC

| Radio

CRTC approves Arsenal Media’s acquisition of BPM Sports

Arsenal Media, already Quebec’s largest radio broadcaster by number of stations, has been given the green light by the CRTC to acquire BPM Sports, the network of French-language sports talk stations in Montreal, Gatineau and Quebec City.

The transaction, worth $1.45 million for all three stations, can now go ahead and should close in the coming weeks, Arsenal Media said in a press release. The result will see Arsenal owning 29 stations, while RNC Media’s radio family, which once numbered 15, will be down to two: CHOI Radio X in Quebec City and CHLX-FM, its Rhythme FM affiliate in Gatineau. (It also owns TVA and Noovo affiliate TV stations in Gatineau and the Abitibi region.)

The good (or maybe bad) news for listeners is that Arsenal is not planning major changes. The stations will retain the BPM Sports branding and continue to have most of their programming originate from Montreal, though there would be some local programming on weekends at the Quebec City and Gatineau stations.

“This acquisition is fully aligned with our strategy to strengthen the presence of sports across all our platforms and stations. Our ambition is clear: to quickly propel the BPM Sports brand throughout Quebec and offer fans an essential sports destination, both on radio and on our digital platforms,” Arsenal CEO Sylvain Chamberland is quoted as saying in the company statement.

The one change mentioned in the application adds some music programming, particularly on the non-Montreal stations. CFTX-FM (96.5 in Gatineau) would broadcast country music on weeknights and weekends (Arsenal owns the Hit Country network, which doesn’t have a station in the Outaouais), while CHXX-FM (100.9 in Quebec City) would broadcast adult pop music. CKLX-FM (91.9 in Montreal) would also have some unspecified music on weekend evenings.

While Arsenal is not planning to take away much from the stations, it also isn’t planning to add much either. It made no commitments to increased programming or new investments. Instead, it argued it was saving the stations from being shut down, and for that reason it should not have to pay tangible benefits, one of a few issues the commission had to look at with this sale, and that prompted a dissenting opinion from a commissioner.

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| Radio

CRTC approves plan to turn Quebec City’s 92.7 FM into a country station

Fans of country music in Quebec will have reason to celebrate today, though it will be at the expense of fans of classical music in the provincial capital.

On Wednesday, the CRTC approved the sale of CJSQ-FM 92.7 to Arsenal Media, and its proposed licence change from a specialty classical music format to a mainstream format, which Arsenal says it will use to turn the station into a country music station.

Arsenal currently has four country stations under its Hit Country brand — CKGS-FM 105.5 in La Baie, CKYQ-FM 95.7 in Plessisville, CHCT-FM 105.3 in Sainte-Marie and CJIT-FM 106.7 in Lac-Mégantic, plus CRTC approval for a fifth station at 107.9 in Joliette. The Quebec City station will be its largest market for country, though the station’s transmitter is in the mid range at 2,840 watts.

It wasn’t long ago that Quebec was a wasteland for country radio, with a few independent stations and a few time slots on community stations like CKRK in Kahnawake. The biggest reason for this was CRTC regulations that require French-language songs on French-language stations. There just weren’t enough popular francophone country music songs to make that format work.

But Arsenal has decided it can work, and is investing in it. And in an era where even major-market radio stations are being thrown in the trash, that’s worth acknowledging.

The company, which is less than 15 years old, has grown through various acquisitions to become Quebec’s largest radio broadcaster by number of stations. And it isn’t done. It’s also waiting for approval to buy BPM Sports from RNC Media (a CRTC hearing was held in April). And it’s always ready to pounce on other opportunities.

But what’s great for Arsenal and country music sucks for classical music fans in the Capitale-Nationale region. The writing has been on the wall ever since Radio Classique’s sister station in Montreal (CJPX-FM 99.5) was sold to Leclerc in 2020. Even owner Gregory Charles’s love of classical music can only sustain a money-losing station for so long. And so with the $525,000 purchase price, he’s out.

| Radio

CRTC validates Quebecor’s QUB Radio loophole

Quebecor’s QUB Radio can stay on FM radio in Montreal.

On Friday, the CRTC finally issued a ruling on a joint complaint from Cogeco and Bell Media against an arrangement whereby CJPX-FM 99.5, the Montreal station that once broadcast classical music, then tried a pop music format, now outsources its programming for 12 hours a day weekdays to Quebecor’s QUB Radio.

In the ruling, the CRTC finds that the station, owned by Quebec City-based Leclerc Communication, does not give Quebecor de facto control over the station and does not violate a cross-media ownership policy. And so it can continue.

Cogeco, which went so far as to begin court proceedings to force the CRTC to rule on its complaint, arguing the commission was taking too long, wasn’t happy about the final ruling, even issuing a press release denouncing it.

But as I said a year ago, this ruling should have been expected, because the letter of the law, if maybe not the spirit, is being respected.

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| Montreal, Radio

TTP Media is dead, AM radio stations get approval for sale

From left: Paul Tietolman, Nicolas Tétrault and Rajiv Pancholy, partners in 7954689 Canada Inc., aka Tietolman-Tétrault-Pancholy Media, in 2011.

Paul Tietolman, Nicolas Tétrault and Rajiv Pancholy came on the scene a decade and a half ago and promised to revolutionize AM radio in Montreal. The critics were skeptical, saying their pie-in-the-sky dreams weren’t realistic and their promised radio stations either wouldn’t materialize the way they promised or wouldn’t succeed financially if they did.

Those critics were right.

This week, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission approved the sale of their company, 7954689 Canada Inc. (TTP Media), to Ronald Richards Realty Inc., for a total value of about $822,000.

While the stations they promised are on the air — CFQR 600 AM in English and CFNV 940 AM in French — they aren’t nearly what the group had promised in 2011.

Here’s what led to this.

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| Opinion, TV

The CRTC puts another patch on its mess of broken policies to keep local TV alive

Is the CRTC biased?

Is it captured by the telecom industry? Is it too inclined to bow to the demands of special interest groups? Is it too consumer-focused? Is it too liberal? Too conservative? Too bureaucratic? Too arbitrary? Too micromanaging?

The answer to all these questions is yes. Or at least very good arguments can be made for each of these, and some very good arguments can be made that on the whole, it tries its best to balance competing interests.

But one way the commission shows bias that really gets me is its deference to the status quo, how it will bend over backwards to keep things the way they are, to keep everyone happy, to resist changes in business models that might threaten industries.

That instinct isn’t all bad. The Canadian broadcasting system needs supports, and a well-regulated system is better than a chaotic one that can’t sustain itself or its many jobs.

But the desperation to prop up failing business models leads to some very inelegant policies that have glaring holes in them. And the way the CRTC subsidizes local television is a prime example of that.

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| Radio

Bell’s radio station sales show declining value of FM outside major cities

Updated July 30 with info on remaining 10 stations.

It would be an exaggeration to say that radio is dead. There’s definitely a case to be made that AM radio is on the way out, and interest in that century-old technology is pretty low, at least for mainstream commercial enterprises.

But FM is still popular, and the bands are still pretty packed in Canada’s largest markets. In smaller markets, there are fewer stations, but still a lot of value.

At least there used to be.

Two weeks ago, the CRTC published applications for the sale of 35 of the 45 radio stations Bell Media announced in February it was offloading, and for the first time we have their sale prices listed. (On July 30, it added the other 10 stations)

It’s $12.9 million. For 35 radio stations. Or about $369,000 each.

Update: With the newly announced stations, it’s now $40.9 million for 45 radio stations, or about $908,889 each.

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| Radio

CRTC approves new country music station in Joliette on 107.9 FM

Arsenal Media is still growing. On Monday, the CRTC approved its application for a new French-language country music station in Joliette, which will act as a sister station to its O103.5 there.

The new station will be branded Hit Country, using a format Arsenal has used in stations in Lac-Mégantic, Beauce, Saguenay and Plessisville.

The transmitter will be at 107.9 MHz, and 25kW. According to one document in its application, Arsenal is looking at using the callsign CJOL-FM for the station.

Theoretical listening area of Arsenal Media’s new FM station in Joliette. Areas in purple would expect interference from WVPS in Vermont.

The frequency chosen, effectively the only one remaining suitable for the station, might be frustrating for some listeners of Vermont Public’s radio station WVPS, broadcasting from the top of Mount Mansfield and getting a decent signal into the Montreal area.

For listeners in and around Joliette, the new country station will effectively replace Vermont Public on that frequency. For those further south, including in Montreal, it might depend on which direction you or your antenna is facing, and you could find yourself listening to both.

Because WVPS is an American station, it does not have any protection north of the border. A Canadian station can stomp all over its signal, provided it does not interfere with reception in the U.S.

Also on Monday, the CRTC approved an application by Radio Nord-Joli, owner of French-language community station CFNJ-FM in nearby St-Gabriel-de-Brandon. They proposed to replace the St-Gabriel station with one in Joliette, on the same 99.1 FM frequency, while keeping a retransmitter in St-Zénon. This follows the denial of an application to extend the St-Gabriel transmitter’s coverage area to include Joliette, which the commission found to be a back door to setting up a Joliette station.

Update: On May 31, Vermont Public announced the licence approval to its audience, saying “Vermont Public is the only broadcast source of NPR news in Montreal, as well as the only source of programming from the BBC and American Public Media.”

| Radio

Rogers blames CRTC bureaucracy for decision to shut down CityNews Ottawa

This week, the CRTC published a decision officially confirming that Rogers Media Inc. has surrendered the broadcasting licence of CIWW 1310 AM in Ottawa, the city’s oldest radio station.

The letter from Rogers requesting the revocation of its licence is dated Oct. 26, the same day the company announced the shutdown of CityNews Ottawa, which at the time was being simulcast on both CIWW 1310 and CJET-FM 101.1 in nearby Smiths Falls.

While normally these letters are short and to the point, Rogers took the opportunity to lay out the reasonings for its decision, and complaining that the CRTC’s processes played a major role in it.

Saying the radio broadcasting industry is “subject to stringent and outdated regulations that offer little to no flexibility for allowing broadcasters to pivot and adjust accordingly to their new competitive reality,” Rogers explained that the issue was with its decision in 2020 to simulcast programming on both AM and FM stations without prior CRTC approval.

While the CRTC doesn’t regulate content or formats on radio stations generally, the regulations require approval before an FM station can switch to or from a specialty format, and spoken word programming, when it represents more than 50% of programming on a station, is considered a specialty format. (This rule does not apply to AM stations like CIWW.)

Before it became a CityNews station, 101.1 was a country music station (as CKBY-FM), so it would have needed approval to switch to a talk format.

What’s more, the CRTC also requires approval before a transmitter can be converted from a station to a retransmitter of another station.

“Rogers received a request for information from the Commission in February 2023 regarding the simulcast of the news/talk programming originating from CIWW on CJET-FM (101.1). In subsequent correspondence between the Commission and Rogers, Commission staff shared its view that both stations were in apparent non- compliance with the Radio Regulations, 1986 (Regulations),” Rogers writes in its letter.

Rogers says it “did not believe that its stations were in non-compliance” (it doesn’t explain why it felt this way), but it filed an application to change the licence of CJET-FM 101.1 to allow the simulcast, at least until the current licence expires in 2026.

Unfortunately for Rogers, the CRTC announced on Aug. 22 a two-year moratorium on new applications related to radio, “unless exceptional circumstances can be demonstrated that would justify, with supporting evidence when filing the request, the need to process them.”

“After several rounds of correspondence and performance evaluation analyses of both CJET-FM and CIWW,” Rogers writes, it chose to withdraw the application the next day. “The risk of non-compliance and the operational burden of the Commission’s review of the stations’ performance and financial situation coupled with the continued decline in revenues since the launch of the simulcast led us to make this decision much earlier than we were planning and were contemplating in our Application.”

“Unfortunately, the regulatory framework did not provide us with the tools to experiment and innovate without facing an untenable level of scrutiny and evaluation that we can ill afford given the competitive environment in which we are operating,” the letter continues. “For these reasons, we urge the Commission to prioritize the review of the Regulations impacting AM radio including the provisions related to simulcasting and the operation of a specialty format. These rules must be relaxed to ensure a viable path forward for AM news content on the FM band, which represents the only way to maintain audiences to local terrestrial radio and support our ability to deliver local news.”

In urging the CRTC to review its rules on AM radio, Rogers said “we remain concerned that, without a modernized and flexible approach, the future of other AM stations is at risk.”

Rogers owns eight other AM radio stations in Canada:

  • CFTR CityNews 680 in Toronto
  • CKGL CityNews 570 in Kitchener, Ont.
  • CFFR CityNews 660 in Calgary
  • CKWX CityNews 1130 in Vancouver
  • CJCL Sportsnet 590 in Toronto
  • CFAC Sportsnet 960 in Calgary
  • CISL Sportsnet 650 in Vancouver
  • CKAT 600 Country in North Bay, Ont.

I understand Rogers’ frustration with the CRTC’s rules, and in particular the commission’s baffling decision to just not do its job in terms of radio for a couple of years, but Rogers also must have been aware of the rules. And the implication that this is a simple bureaucratic matter holding up progress is not how I would describe it. Rogers took a radio station off the air for this to happen, and decided it should have the same content on two frequencies in a market that doesn’t have a lot of spare radio spectrum. Maybe that’s what’s best for the market, but it should at least have required approval.

Unfortunately, with everything going on, the result is the shutdown of another news radio station in Canada, and one more AM signal in the country going dark.

If you have a good idea for a radio station, a 50kW signal on 1310 AM in Ottawa is now available. Unfortunately you’ll have to wait two years before you can apply for it.

More call letter switching fun

Rogers also confirmed in its letter it is once again switching call letters for its FM stations in Smiths Falls. CKBY-FM, which belonged to Country 101 and was then switched to the Country 92.3 station, will go back to Country 101, while CJET-FM, which was Jack FM on 92.3 and then CityNews 101.1, is going back to 92.3. Rogers told the CRTC it would adopt a country music format separate from 101.1, but on Nov. 1 it switched to “Santa Radio Canada“, which has a very Jack-like branding to it, suggesting a move back to Jack FM might be in the cards in the new year.

| TV

CRTC adds Natyf TV to Quebec basic packages with 13 hours notice

If you’re a digital TV subscriber in Quebec, you’re soon going to start seeing a new TV channel in your basic package. Last week, the CRTC announced it was giving Quebec ethnic TV channel Natyf TV a broadcasting licence and ordering all providers to add it to their basic service and pay $0.12 per subscriber per month.

The order took effect Sept. 1, 2023, and lasts five years. The decision was announced at 11am on Aug. 31, 13 hours before the order came into effect. It was one of several decisions the commission put out in the days before the end of the broadcasting year as it rushed to meet its deadlines.

The next day, realizing that this may be a bit short notice, the CRTC wrote a letter saying providers should add the channel “as soon as reasonably possible.”

(For context, Natyf’s application was filed in April 2021 and the hearing to discuss it was held in January.)

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| TV

It’s not just Bell: Here’s how Canadian TV broadcasters are begging the CRTC for relief

There’s been a lot of uproar since Bell Media applied to the CRTC seeking rather drastic relief on its conditions of licence for conventional television stations. But it would be a mistake to think this is just a Bell thing. Just about every major TV broadcaster, including the CBC, has recently asked the commission to give some relief or flexibility. Some of those requests are reasonable, even logical. Others are exceptional. But all of them have the same underlying purpose: finding ways to save money because of economic forces that are pushing people away from traditional television.

Here’s what they’re asking for.

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