ORILLIA, ON – The radio dial in Ontraio’s cottage country is about to get a little more crowded.
The CRTC has granted broadcasting licences to Bayshore Broadcasting Corporation for a new FM station in Orillia, and Instant Information Services to operate a new low-power, tourist information FM radio station in the area.
The Commission considered eight applications for new radio programming in Orillia at a public hearing that began on January 26, 2009 in the community, located approximately 120 kilometres north of Toronto. Orillia is currently served by one local commercial station, (CICX-FM), owned by Larche Communications Inc.
The Commission said that Bayshore’s experience as an established small-market operator in the region, where it owns CHGB-FM Wasaga Beach, CFOS Owen Sound, CFPS-FM Port Elgin and CHWC-FM Goderich, would “prove valuable in the Orillia radio market”.
The new station will offer a ‘soft adult’ contemporary format targeted to listeners aged 35-64 years, at 89.1 MHz, with an effective radiated power of 2,100 watts.
The English-language tourist information FM station will operate at 98.5 MHz with an effective radiated power of 27 watts. It is limited to broadcasting six minutes of advertising material per hour, and will air repeated loops of information on current weather, road conditions, and the Bank of Canada exchange rate, plus tourist and community information about local events and attractions. The station will also have the capacity to serve as an emergency broadcast system in the event of an emergency in the Orillia area.
The CRTC denied applications by Debra McLaughlin, on behalf of a corporation to be incorporated; Frank Torres, on behalf of a corporation to be incorporated; Larche Communications; Newcap; Nick Montague, on behalf of a corporation to be incorporated; and Rock 95 Broadcasting Ltd.
Approximately 70 km further up the road in Ontario’s Muskoka region, the CRTC approved an additional low-power tourist information FM radio station by Instant Information Services to serve the towns of Bracebridge and Gravenhurst, but denied applications for an additional FM commercial station in the area.
Basing its decision “on its general concerns regarding small-market radio stations set out in Broadcasting Public Notice 2006-159” in addition to the current economic slowdown and the small size of the market, the Commission said it was “not convinced” that the Bracebridge/Gravenhurst radio market could support a new mainstream commercial radio service at this time "without an undue negative impact on the one existing station”.
The market is currently served by local commercial station CFBG-FM Bracebridge, owned by Haliburton Broadcasting Group, and offers a ‘hot adult’ contemporary music format.
The CRTC received applications from Bayshore Broadcasting Corporation; Bill (William) Wrightsell, on behalf of a corporation to be incorporated; Evanov Communications Inc., on behalf of a corporation to be incorporated; and two applications from Joco Communications Inc., all of which were denied.
Commissioner Marc Patrone offered a dissenting opinion to the decision, saying the move “will hurt the market’s capacity to add diversity and as a result undercut its potential to generate listener and business interest over the long term”.
He also questioned the rationale of adding a new station to Orillia, but not applying the same factors to the Bracebridge/Gravenhurst market, and speculated that the Commission may have “lost its way by succumbing to recessionary fears”.
“While the CRTC is no stranger to being second guessed, decisions like these are bound to frustrate businesses and radio listeners who believe, as do I, that radio enterprises are undertakings that will weather economic ups and downs with a view to prospering over the long term,” his opinion read.
Patrone also was critical of the Commission’s “small market policy”, which was cited among the guiding principles used in justifying the decision not to license Bracebridge/Gravenhurst, as well as London and St. Thomas, ON.
“Further, and perhaps more importantly, should any regulatory action whose aim, in effect, is to try to ‘save broadcasters from themselves’, override the concerns of communities that could very well benefit from competition and diversity? I would strongly suggest the answer to both those questions is a resounding no”, Patrone continued.
The Commission also approved an application by Muskoka-Parry Sound Broadcasting Ltd. to change the authorized contours of the English-language commercial station CFBK-FM Huntsville, by increasing the effective radiated power from 5,000 to 43,400 watts and by decreasing the effective height of the antenna above average terrain to 147 metres.
For more on the decision, click here.
