GATINEAU – The Ottawa radio market is already well-served musically and would have been better off adding another news/talk station, according to CRTC commissioner Michel Morin.
On Tuesday, the Commission granted licenses to Astral Media and to Frank Torres (Captain Frank of the Toronto-based Skywords Traffic service) for new English FM radio stations serving the Ottawa-Gatineau region. According to the applications, Astral’s station is to be a soft A/C format while the Torres station will be a blues/blues-rock station. The Ottawa application is one of several Torres has made in a number of Canadian centres for blues station licenses. Other tries in Vancouver and London have been denied.
Morin did not quibble with the Astral approval, but did disagree with vice-chair, broadcasting Michel Arpin and vice-chair telecom Len Katz, the other two commissioners on the panel who approved the Torres application.
Morin noted that only two FM frequencies were available in the market and that eight other applicants (including a news/talk one from Corus, and an alt/pop one from former Newcap executive Mark Maheu) had to be turned down.
However, Morin, a former broadcast journalist, wrote that the Ottawa-Gatineau market is already well-served musically and, “I feel that we should have opted without hesitation for a talk station for the sake of diversity, the competition that we must attempt to encourage and the lack of talk stations on the FM band available to the 700,000 English-language consumers in the Ottawa Gatineau region.”
“The Ottawa-Gatineau English-language radio market is largely dominated by music and sports, with 12 out of 14 stations offering these formats (not counting ethnic, religious, community and student stations),” Morin continued. “Today, following the Commission’s decision, two new music stations will be added to the 12 existing stations, which will result in 14 music stations out of a total of 16.
“Why must we limit the talk radio market to two stations: the CBC’s public station Radio One on the FM band and private commercial station CFRA, owned by CTVglobemedia, on the AM band? Why should 2 undertakings out of 16 comfortably rule over a quarter of the region’s total listenership and dominate the FM and AM bands without having to face competition from a new talk station?” he asked.
The CBC station and CFRA share 26% of the total listenership in the region, at 14% and 12% respectively (according to BBM data quoted by Morin), coming in first and second place out of the 14 radio stations in the region, noted Morin. “What a great deal these two highly successful talk stations share! What a comfort on the FM band for the public station and what a windfall on the AM band for the lone commercial station CFRA! Thank you regulators, thank you CRTC!” he wrote.
Since just CFRA relies on advertising for support in the news/talk format and that the Commission has said in the very recent past it is committed to diversity of voices so that the Canadian public can hear editorial from numerous voices, “How can this position be reconciled with the monopoly that the CBC’s talk station enjoys on the FM band and the absence of other FM News/Talk stations?” asks Morin.
“How, given the desired perspective of a diversity of voices, can we not establish a commercial station on the FM band to challenge the CBC? Especially when the Broadcasting Act sets out in paragraph 3(1)(i)(iv) that programming should “provide a reasonable opportunity for the public to be exposed to the expression of differing views on matters of public concern,’” writes Morin.
(Ed Note: The Commission often talks about diversity of ownership, too, and granting a license to a newcomer like Torres falls in line with that goal.)
When it comes to the blues or blues/rock format, Morin also noted: “there are no other music stations of this type in Canada. In the United States, it is possible (it cannot be verified with the Federal Communications Commission) that some of the 6,000 commercial stations offer, as in Canada, Blues content, but it is not possible to obtain information as accurate as in Canada. According to my information, none of the 6,000 U.S. commercial stations have a Blues-Rock format. Public Radio offers Blues programming on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evening.
“For example, KPLU Seattle offers weekend programming with their ‘NPR News’ and a Jazz format. Incidentally, is it not telling that the proponent of this station for the Ottawa-Gatineau region made no references at the hearings to any other Blues station with this format in North America?” added Morin.
“But there was no lack of references to festivals! To say the least, the Commission certainly made a bold move in choosing Torres!”
– Greg O’Brien
