CALGARY – A group of Calgary-based businesses calling themselves the Calgary Local Ethnic Petitioners is challenging last month’s CRTC decision that awarded two radio licences to serve that city.
South Asian SCMO operators Unison Media and Punjabi – World Network Ltd., along with the not-for-profit organization Diversified Society of Alberta, have submitted a joint petition requesting that the Governor in Council make an order to either set aside or refer the decision back for reconsideration and hearing.
Citing CRTC Commissioner Peter Menzies’ dissenting opinion, (which Cartt.ca detailed here), the group took issue with a CRTC requirement that applicants would only be considered for a specific radio frequency if they explicitly applied for it and submitted a technical brief for that frequency. Noting that most applicants therefore applied for the only available full power frequency, 95.3 MHz, the group claims that “the Commission put commercial interests ahead of the needs of the local ethnic community” by awarding this frequency to Pattison and 106.7 MHz to the only ethnic applicant that had specifically applied for it, Multicultural Broadcasting Corporation (MBC).
The petition also claims that the CRTC “fettered its discretion” by adopting this “restrictive policy”, contrary to its previous practices, and consequently refused to consider other applicants for the 106.7 MHz frequency eventually granted to MBC.
“In doing so, it voluntarily and unnecessarily made itself incapable of considering the “best use” of radio frequencies to fulfill the goals of the Broadcasting Act”, the petition reads. “As a result of this new practice, MBC was awarded the licence “by default” as the only Applicant for 106.7 MHz.
“This refusal to employ its legitimate discretion to achieve the best use of frequencies was an ill-considered change in the Commission’s historic practice, and it is an unjustifiable practice which derogates from the goals of the Act.”
The group also maintains that awarding a new ethnic radio licence to an out of-market operator (MBC is based in Surrey, BC) is contrary to decades of CRTC precedent in supporting local players.
– Lesley Hunter
