GATINEAU – Much was made last week during the hearing into Bell Canada buying Astral Media about the combined company needing an exemption from the CRTC’s radio station ownership policy in order to keep TSN690 (CKGM) open – and an English language all-sports radio station.
Bell Media executives said it had not yet tried to find any buyers for it and that it doubted any that came forward would be able or interested in keeping it as a sports station, since it owns the rights to important Montreal sports content. It said the station might have to be closed. Rogers changed those assumptions with its final reply to the CRTC Wednesday on the proposed Bell/Astral deal.
“We understand that Bell Media was concerned that if an exception to the common ownership policy was not granted, then radio listeners in Montreal would be denied access to sports radio in that city,” reads the Rogers submission.
“With that concern in mind, Rogers Media is informing the Commission that it would be prepared to make Bell a reasonable offer to acquire CKGM-AM and that we would be prepared to operate it as an English sports radio service. Given our sports properties (which include the Fan 590 in Toronto) and the fact that we now have a presence in the Montreal market with our recent acquisition of [TV station] CJNT-DT, Rogers Media is confident that it has the infrastructure in place to operate the station profitably.
“If there are concerns that there would be no buyers for CKGM-AM and that Montreal radio listeners would be deprived of a sports service, we believe that our commitment to make a reasonable offer for the station should allay them,” the company writes.
– Greg O’Brien
