OTTAWA — In two harshly worded decisions on Friday, the CRTC denied the licence renewal applications of CFPV-FM in Pemberton, B.C., and CKPM-FM in Port Moody, B.C.
“Given the severity and recurrence of the current instances of non-compliance; the station’s history and the licensee’s actions, which clearly demonstrate its poor understanding of its conditions of licence and regulatory obligations, or a lack of willingness to respect them; the licensee’s demonstrated inability to implement the necessary measures to ensure compliance; and its disregard for the Commission’s authority and for its responsibilities as a broadcaster, the Commission is not convinced that the imposition of conditions of licence, the imposition of a mandatory order, a suspension of the licence or a short-term licence would be effective measures,” reads the decision.
“Consequently, the Commission finds that not renewing the licence is the only appropriate measure in the circumstances,” writes the Commission in both CRTC 2020-77 and CRTC 2020-78.
In its decision denying the licence renewal for Port Moody’s CKPM-FM, the Commission went a little further, noting: “CKPM-FM is currently off the air and has been so for several months. The Commission is of the view that the station contributes nothing towards meeting the objectives set out in the Broadcasting Act and does not provide a service to the residents of the community that it is licensed to serve.”
In both cases, the radio stations’ licensee was instructed by the CRTC to appear at a public hearing in Gatineau on November 5, 2019, where he was to address the issues of non-compliance. The current licences of both radio stations are set to expire on March 31, 2020.
Pemberton’s CFPV-FM and Port Moody’s CKPM-FM are both owned and operated by Matthew McBride, who also currently owns two other English-language commercial radio stations in British Columbia — CIMM-FM in Ucluelet and CHMZ-FM in Tofino, which the Commission approved to have their ownership transferred to 1193833 B.C. Ltd., a company owned by Cameron Randall Dennison. The CRTC also granted each of those two radio stations a short-term renewed licence to expire August 31, 2022, subject to certain conditions.
As for McBride’s remaining radio station properties, CFPV-FM in Pemberton had been in non-compliance several times over the years, regarding the broadcasting of Canadian content and local programming, the filing of annual returns and the filing of program logs, plus it had been previously asked by the Commission to rectify a shortfall in additional Canadian content development (CCD) contributions as a condition of licence.
CKPM-FM in Port Moody had been most recently in non-compliance regarding the broadcasting of Canadian content, the filing of program logs and music lists, and with its conditions of licence related to making CCD contributions and to devoting programming to content subcategories 33 (World beat and international) and 34 (Jazz and blues) musical selections.
During the licence renewal process for all four of McBride’s radio stations, the Commission received an intervention from a former employee, who appeared at the public hearing and said he had held a management position with the company. He submitted concerns about the four stations were often brought to his attention and that the stations had a “legacy of non-compliance”. During the hearing, McBride stated that the intervener never held a management position with the company and was hired to provide piecework for a very brief period of time.
Given the radio stations’ history of several instances of non-compliance over the years, the CRTC says in today’s decisions “the Commission is not convinced that a change in the licensee’s behaviour in regard to its regulatory obligations will occur.”
As such, the Commission denied the licence renewals for CFPV-FM Pemberton and CKPM-FM Port Moody, and approved the transfer of ownership for CIMM-FM Ucluelet and CHMZ-FM Tofino.
