OTTAWA – After considering 11 different radio station applications for Calgary, the CRTC handed out licences to Jim Pattison Broadcast Group and Multicultural Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) this week.
The decision, which shut out radio bigwigs such as Bell Media and Corus, granted Jim Pattison Broadcast Group an English-language commercial FM licence for the 95.3 MHz slot. The station’s format will be Adult Album Alternative (AAA) music, with a primary focus on new and emerging artists, and a secondary focus on alternative music from the last decade.
Targeting women from 25-49 years of age, the station plans to air 40% of Canadian content. Its licence will expire on August 31, 2018.
MBC was awarded the 106.7 MHz position for an ethnic commercial FM radio station that will air programming directed to a minimum of 23 cultural groups in at least 19 different languages. With a target audience of the South Asian community, its licence will also expire on August 31, 2018.
CRTC Commissioner Peter Menzies voiced his objection to how the panel chose to prioritize the use of spectrum in the city.
Noting that the 106.7MHz frequency serves about two-thirds of Calgary’s current geographic area, Menzies said that the decision means that Punjabi-speaking Calgarians will be forced to live in specific neighbourhoods in order to hear the new station’s programming, unlike the city’s Chinese-speaking audience which can listen to the current ethnic broadcaster in any part of the city.
“They will be children of a lesser spectrum god”, reads his dissenting opinion. “In a city that prides itself on being open to all, this is an unfortunate development that is inconsistent with a culture of equal access and opportunity.”
“Clearly, if the panel had shared this Commissioner’s view that Calgary’s ethno-cultural/social needs – as defined in the hearing – should be given priority over the commercial industry’s wants (a legitimate debate), the appropriate decision would have been to license the applicant with the proposal containing the most programming to be made available to the greatest number of people interested in that programming.”
Menzies added that the application by Unison Media for 95.3 FM, a frequency that is available for reception throughout Calgary, offered the most hours of Punjabi-language broadcasting.
As the largest city in the province of Alberta, Calgary is currently served by 17 radio stations, 13 of which are FM stations (including one ethnic and one religious station), and 4 of which are AM stations.
