By Ahmad Hathout
Akash Broadcasting Inc. has filed a notice of discontinuance at the Federal Court of Appeal on Tuesday to pull back its case challenging a CRTC decision to deny its buy of AM radio station CKMX in Calgary.
The operator of ethnic stations was granted a hearing at the high court in December and was supposed to file a requisition for a hearing date by tomorrow.
A question to Akash and its law firm as to why it discontinued the application was not returned.
Akash entered into an agreement with Bell in 2024 to acquire the assets of the station, which has been off-air since June 2023. It then went to the CRTC for approval of the transaction. In October, the CRTC denied the application because it came while the commission reviewed applications for another commercial radio station in the city. Akash’s application came approximately two months after the CRTC made a call for applications, which Akash answered, to serve that market with one additional station.
Akash alleged that the CRTC made two errors: it treated CKMX as a new radio station application instead a dormant one with an existing licence that had not been properly revoked; and applied “improper and irrelevant” considerations from the Calgary call, which it argued departed from established regulatory policy of making such transfer decisions on their own merits.
Last month, the attorney general, on behalf of the CRTC, argued that Akash did not have a case because there was no reviewable error. The regulator had ruled that Akash failed to show why the proposed transfer was the best possible proposal considering the circumstances, the AG argued.
“The Commission did not de facto treat the broadcasting licence as revoked, suspended, or otherwise call its status into question,” the AG said, emphasis theirs. “Instead, the Commission conformed with the established test, applied its long-standing policy, and assessed the unique circumstances to come to its conclusion. That evaluative judgment lies at the core of the Commission’s regulatory role.
“The Appellant was provided a procedurally fair process and could have no expectation that the relevant circumstances, including an ongoing process to assess whether additional radio services should be introduced in the same market, would not be considered by the Commission.”
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