GATINEAU – The CRTC has approved applications for three English-language FMs in Charlottetown. Maritime Broadcasting System and Newcap will convert existing AM stations to the FM band, and Newcap will launch a new FM.
The commission turned down an application for a new station from Coast Broadcasting. The Coast application was to use the same frequency as the Maritime station, playing an adult pop music format targeting listeners 35 to 54.
Maritime will be able to convert its AM station CFCY to the FM band, at 95.1 MHz, maintaining its current country music format and local programming, aimed at…
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OTTAWA – The federal government should open up broadcasting to market forces if it does the same for telecommunications, Cogeco Cable says.
The cableco says it welcomes the telecom policy review panel report issued Wednesday that recommends the feds reduce government and regulatory interference in telecommunications as much as possible. But that should extend to broadcasting, Cogeco says. While the panel’s mandate did not include examining broadcasting, its report did strongly urge the government to conduct a similar review of the broadcasting industry.
Cogeco agrees. “The report of the policy review panel is thought-provoking. However, it does not provide…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC has approved an application by Hector Broadcasting for a new English FM station in New Glasgow, NS, to replace its AM station CKEC, which is the only local private station in the community.
The commission denied proposals from Astral Media Radio Atlantic Inc., Atlantic Broadcasters Ltd., and Acadia Broadcasting Ltd. for new English FMs. All four proposals were to use 94.1 MHz.
Hector has operated CKEC since 1953. It wanted to flip to FM in part to ease night-time technical difficulties. The new FM station will keep the AM’s existing format of a broad-based AC…
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By Greg O’Brien
I REMEMBER WHEN THEN-CRTC broadcasting vice-chair Andrée Wylie told the 1999 CCTA convention in Vancouver that the Commission had no intention of trying to regulate the Internet.
Because of it’s very nature, it’s impossible to regulate the Internet itself (unless you’re China or some other repressive government that deploys some painful cyber-clamps and doesn’t mind tossing people in jail for reading the New York Times or somesuch online), which the CRTC recognized early on. Plus, 1999 was pre tech-bubble and the opportunities of the ‘net seemed endless. Why toss up regulations in front of such potential?
That Commission…
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DARTMOUTH, NS – The CRTC has approved Newcap’s purchase of CKJS Limited, which owns the licence for CKJS-AM radio in Winnipeg, the company announced today.
It will be the broadcaster’s second station in Winnipeg. Last December, Newcap launched CKFE FM as Café 100.7, playing adult album alternative.
CKJS is a 30-year-old multicultural and multilingual station, airing programming in 19 languages. Its operations will be combined in the CKFE studios. The advertising and promotional activities will also be combined.
The sale is expected to close within 60 days. The company announced its intention to buy CKJS last fall for $1.8…
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OTTAWA – Reaction to Wednesday’s report of the federal government’s telecom policy review panel was mixed, including polar opposite opinions from two incumbent phone companies.
MTS Allstream said the recommendations were “hopelessly complicated and impractical,” while Bell Canada called the document “a detailed blueprint for change.”
The CRTC, apparently befuddled by a report that, at 400 pages, is even longer than one of its own policy review documents, said virtually nothing at all.
“The recommendations in this report do not bode well for the pace of competition or innovation in Canada’s telecom sector,” said Chris Peirce, Chief Regulatory Officer…
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CALGARY and FT. LAUDERDALE – American voice over IP provider Zingotel has filed a $1.2 million civil suit in Alberta against Shaw Communications.
Zingo, Inc. warned in January it would file a lawsuit, which it did late last week. It also said the CRTC can expect to hear from it as well. Zingo alleges that Shaw Communications CEO Jim Shaw personally told Corus Entertainment executives not to run ads for Zingotel’s service on any Corus channels, after Zingotel had booked the ads. The statement does not say which channels had the ads booked. Shaw and Corus are owned and…
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OTTAWA – In a submission which generally backs a cable company’s request to use the local avail ad time to market its telephony and high speed Internet products along with programming services, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters has also asked the CRTC for more cost clarity.
An intervention filed with the Commission last week mostly supports an application made by Halifax-based MSO EastLink to expand what the broadcast distribution regulations say can be promoted during the so-called "local availability" time on American cable channels. Those channels (like CNN, A&E and The Golf Channel) make two minutes per hour of…
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ON FRIDAY, ONE YEAR TO THE DAY after his last morning show on Quebec City’s top-rated CHOI-FM, controversial host Jean-Francois "Jeff" Fillion opened his microphone again, letting a few thousand listeners back into “le monde parallèle de Jeff”.
But this time, they weren’t listening to him on CHOI, the rebel station without a cause anymore and reduced to fighting legal battles to keep its licence, they were listening on RadioPirate.com, his own pay-radio web site.
His inaugural show wasn’t vintage Jeff Fillion. With his loft-like studio, located in a new commercial strip mall in suburban…
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TORONTO – If Canadians want their MTV, they’ll be getting it in spades starting this evening.
CTV is bringing the long-entrenched American brand back to the Great White North on six platforms, delivering MTV content “with a distinctly Canadian attitude.”
Calling it “the single-biggest multi-platform launch in the history of Canadian television,” CTV will flip on the MTV switch at 6 p.m. ET Tuesday in six ways.
First, it will change the talktv analog specialty service into MTV, featuring lifestyle, talk, and documentary programming, along with “distinct and interactive Canadian series.” It’s subscribed to by some 6 million Canadian…
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