MARKHAM – The CRTC has approved Bhupinder Bola’s application to air a commercial FM radio station in Markham with an Adult Album Alternative/Adult Contemporary musical format. The commission denied an application for a broadcasting licence to operate an ethnic commercial AM radio station in Markham by Canada Inc.
The station will operate on frequency 105.9 MHz with an average effective radiated power (ERP) of 618 watts. Bola currently owns and operates Bolson Consulting Inc., a company offering technical and business development services to the broadcasting industry.
“[The proposal] to operate a predominantly English-language commercial FM radio station best meets the needs of the Markham radio market,” said the CRTC in its decision.
“The applicant’s proposal for an Adult Album Alternative/Adult Contemporary musical format commercial FM station offering local programming, as well as a significant portion (36.9%) of ethnic and third-language programming primarily targeted at the South Asian and Chinese communities, will enhance the diversity of editorial voices available both to Markham and the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).”
Bola has committed the station to provide 126 hours of local programming each broadcast week, including approximately 10 hours of local news and surveillance with eight hours of pure news. As a condition of licence it is required to serve a minimum of five ethnic groups in a minimum of nine languages. The commission added that the “proposed station’s broad format, the local nature of its programming and its limited coverage area will likely limit any financial impact on existing ethnic and music radio stations in the wider GTA radio market and that any impact would be spread among several stations.”
