TORONTO – Toronto listeners will soon be able to dial up more ‘Zoomer Radio’ after the CRTC gave MZ Media the go-ahead for a nested FM transmitter in the city’s downtown to rebroadcast English-language commercial AM radio station CFZM Toronto.
Owned by Moses Znaimer, The New AM 740 (aka Zoomer Radio) caters to the 45+ age group, a demographic that Znaimer has coined “Zoomers” (Boomers with Zip).
The Commission said Monday that it agreed with MZ Media’s application that the proposed transmitter is necessary to improve the reception quality of CFZM’s signal in downtown Toronto. The transmitter would operate at 96.7 MHz (channel 244) with an average effective radiated power (ERP) of 22.4 watts (maximum ERP of 82 watts with an effective height of antenna above average terrain of 280.1 metres.
Commissioner Raj Shoan offered a dissenting opinion, not in opposition to MZ Media’s application, but rather to the CRTC’s own policy on nested repeaters which he says “has emerged over time on a piecemeal basis”.
“In my opinion, the Commission needs to address the use of nested FM repeaters through a clean policy process, query whether the Common Ownership Policy should apply to them and, if so, under what circumstances exceptions should be granted”, he wrote. “The Commission is likely to see more of these types of applications in the future. Credible arguments can be made that, given that these nested repeaters are intended to remedy specific signal deficiencies, the Common Ownership Policy should not apply at all in certain instances.”
