OTTAWA – Moses Znaimer has now officially returned to broadcasting.
Today the CRTC approved his company’s purchase of classical music radio station CFMX Toronto from Trumar Communications, which is owned by Martin Rosenthal. MZ Media will pay $12 million for the station, it’s digital license and Cobourg repeater.
Znaimer, as most will know, is an accomplished Canadian broadcaster best known for his many years shaping the TV brands of CHUM Ltd. He was a co-founder of Citytv after starting his career with CBC.
Since the station has never been profitable, said Znaimer’s submission, he asked that the transaction not be subject to paying benefits in the form of a direct financial contribution to Canadian talent development, but would rather redirect the 6% of the purchase price ($720,000) to youth concerts and outreach groups.
The Commission disagreed with MZ Media’s assertion that CFMX was unprofitable and said the tangible benefits will be paid to Radio Starmaker Fund ($360,000), FACTOR or MusicAction ($240,000) and other development initiatives ($120,000)
No intervenors opposed the application.
MZ Media has also submitted an application to the CRTC for a new category two digital specialty service in the same genre as his new radio station – classical music. Classical Digital will be dedicated to classical music videos and related fine arts programming.
The hearing for that is set for October 30th.
