QUEBEC CITY – The Quebec City market has enough listeners and advertisers to support two more private radio stations, the CRTC was told on Tuesday by Evanov Communications Inc., one of three broadcasters applying for four radio licenses in the provincial capital.
The city is bucking a national trend because its economic outlook is “bright,” the company told commissioners at a hearing in Quebec City. The city’s GDP will grow by an expected 2.7% in 2010, retail sales this year will increase by a forecast 5%, and unemployment is expected to stabilize from this year onwards. The CRTC’s recently updated financial summary for 2008 shows that Quebec City radio stations’ profit before interest and taxes was over 17%.
Not only can the market support two new commercial stations, the broadcaster argued, but the city’s radio market is “underdeveloped” for the older demographic, with existing stations going after a younger and younger audience, said Evanov Communications, which has applied for one English and one French FM station – both of which would have a contemporary easy listening format targeting the over-45 demo.
The company said that both stations would have minimal impact on listening to existing stations, since tuning among older listeners has fallen steadily in Quebec City in recent years. The stations would “draw listeners back to radio,” the company argued.
The company surveyed Quebec City residents, both francophones and anglophones, and found strong interest in the easy-listening format in both languages. Evanov Communications says people want something new, since 40% of tracks played on existing stations can be heard on two or more stations in the market. Only 5% of its proposed playlist for its French station, for example, is currently on the air. About 12% of that station’s programming would consist of new and emerging artists, the broadcaster said.
When pressed to state the company’s preference if granted only one licence, president Bill Evanov said he’d rather have the English station, since “the lack of local English-language media here is truly astounding,” noting that there is no local English TV or commercial radio station, or daily newspaper. While there are only 12,000 Quebec City residents with English as a mother tongue, the market includes hundreds of thousands of francophones and immigrants, not to mention tourists, who can understand English, the company argued.
With a native-speaking anglophone population of just 2% of Quebec City residents, Commissioner Timothy Denton asked, “is it really significant enough for you to make a go of it?” The company believes the English community is a “viable market” that is larger than that of Hawkesbury, Ont., where the company’s new radio station is doing well with local listeners and advertisers in its first year.
If granted an English station in Quebec City, the company expects it would grab a 3.7 share, making it the eighth-ranked station in the market. If granted both licences, “together, they would thrive,” the president said. It would be the broadcaster’s first French-language station.
Evanov Communications is a “well-financed company” with the resources and experience to do the easy-listening format justice, since it already operates three such stations across the country, the company argued. It currently operates seven stations in Toronto (Z103.5, Jewel 88.5, Proud FM 103.9, AM530), Ottawa (Jewel 98.5), Hawkesbury Ont. (Jewel 107.7), Halifax (Z103.5) and has another yet-to-be-launched license for Winnipeg (Jewel 106.1).
CRTC vice-chairman of broadcasting, Michel Arpin, who is chairing this hearing, questioned Quebec City’s ability to support more radio advertising. He cited figures showing that the Canadian average was $3.56 spent on radio advertising for every $1,000 in retail sales, whereas the Quebec City average is $3.10. Evanov replied that the company would apply the strategy it uses in other markets, which is to go after retailers that don’t advertise anywhere else, and deliver a niche market of consumers. The broadcaster said that 90% of retailers it has approached in the city had never advertised and many expressed interest in reaching the proposed target listenership.
Arpin also asked the broadcaster how it will meet its prediction of being profitable at the end of the second year. The company said its projected audience share and revenue are modest, and it focuses on keeping costs down.
The vice-chair also said given the proposed stations’ signal strengths of 1,200 watts for French and 1,400 watts for English versus the incumbents’ 30,000 watts or more, the profitability projections were optimistic. “You are very aggressive, Mr. Evanov, and I’m trying to convince myself that you will be able to do what you are projecting,” Arpin said.
Evanov said the English station would have a directional antenna to boost its power to 5,000 watts. “The signal in Quebec City will be very good,” the president said. A company engineer said that licences awarded to other broadcasters recently of around 1,000 watts in Toronto and Vancouver are doing well in those markets.
The Commission began this hearing on Tuesday to consider the applications from Evanov, along with a proposal from Michel Cloutier on behalf of a corporation to be incorporated for an 80-watt FM station in nearby Lévis, as well as a bid by Radio communautaire de Lévis for a 79-watt Type B community FM station in Lévis.
It’s Cloutier’s fourth try to get a station to serve Lévis. The signal can only reach the Quebec City suburb, which Cloutier’s team says needs a station with a heavy local news component, including reporters working weekends and volunteer “citizen journalists.” In addition to spoken-word programming, the station would play 40% jazz and blues, and 50% pop music. Spots would come mainly from local businesses that don’t currently advertise on radio. The station would take only an estimated $30,000 a year in revenues from competitors, Cloutier said.
News also figures large in the bid by Radio communautaire de Lévis, which has been broadcasting on the Internet, to get an over-the-air frequency. President Francis-Daniel Lévesque, who has lived in Lévis for over 30 years, said, “I feel that we have been left out from the news.” The non-profit station would have two-thirds music and one-third spoken word, with five paid full-time staff. While it would accept advertising, the station’s priority would be to serve the community and not advertisers, Lévesque said. The group feels there’s room in the suburb for both the community station and the one proposed by Cloutier.
The hearing, which will later this week consider bids for licence renewals from existing radio broadcasters throughout Quebec, and which we listened in on via the web, is slated to finish on Friday.
– Laurel Hyatt
