Short term renewals for CIMM and CHMZ

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Short term renewals for CIMM and CHMZ

Postby Jim Walters » Fri Jul 29, 2016 5:25 pm

The CRTC has granted short term renewals (3 years) to CIMM Ucluelet and CHMZ Tofino.

http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2016/2016-297.htm

With the track records of both of these stations, along with the numerous infractions of CRTC regulations, why even waste the time renewing them?

We've all heard and read about the horror stories of these two Mickey Mouse operations. Why give them a lifeline? Give the licenses to an operator that will do something with these two stations
and live by the CRTC regs.

Likewise with CKPM in Port Moody.

It's quite obvious you don't have to have brains, money or any business smarts to get a license in this country.
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Re: Short term renewals for CIMM and CHMZ

Postby Dave L » Sun Jul 31, 2016 2:06 pm

Jim Walters wrote:The CRTC has granted short term renewals (3 years) to CIMM Ucluelet and CHMZ Tofino.

http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2016/2016-297.htm

With the track records of both of these stations, along with the numerous infractions of CRTC regulations, why even waste the time renewing them?

We've all heard and read about the horror stories of these two Mickey Mouse operations. Why give them a lifeline? Give the licenses to an operator that will do something with these two stations
and live by the CRTC regs.

Likewise with CKPM in Port Moody.

It's quite obvious you don't have to have brains, money or any business smarts to get a license in this country.


It's says more about the CRTC and their inability and unwillingness to enforce the rules they impose than the epic failure that is Matthew McBride. Not one of his stations have been in compliance, ever. In previous non-compliance hearings, the commission was lied to in bold face... numerous times. Is wire fraud, misrepresentation and neglecting federal regulations not illegal anymore? In all of McBrides responses to community complaints, residents were lied to. He lied in those responses stating "at all times in compliance". He accused Tofino of sabotaging his STL, when in reality he didn't pay his bill and was disconnected. In this recent application, the commission was lied to... several times, where getting locked out for not paying rent and letting equipment get rat infested and moldy because the power is disconnected is excused as "restricted access" and "flooding". What nonsense.

The station was off the air for months. Locked out because of his own negligence, an unchanging history of stiffing employees and leaving those covering his expenses holding the bag.

It's the same sick joke that's told over and over again. Nobody laughed the first time, it wasn't funny the second time. Today no one is amused and in three years it will be told again with the same ridiculous excuses and bad examples.

Shame on the CRTC... for imposing that level of "service" on us.
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Re: Short term renewals for CIMM and CHMZ

Postby skyvalleyradio » Tue Aug 02, 2016 11:44 am

I'm dismayed these licenses for this "Mr Microphone" operation were renewed, but not surprised by this lack of enforcement by the useless CRTC. Any time I'm on the west coast, there's either dead air or some technical issue with either one or both of these "radio stations" The owner has been given many breaks by the CRTC yet refuses to operate these within compliance or any reasonable expectation of service by the communities. Does the CRTC staff even LISTEN to logger audio owners are directed to submit?? Monitoring a 24 hour period of either CHMZ or CIMM should be a 'red flag' that all is not well with this operation. truly a head-shaker...
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Re: Short term renewals for CIMM and CHMZ

Postby Aaron » Tue Aug 02, 2016 12:55 pm

Last renewal I went through, they didn't even ask for a logger. That's how backed up they are. (Granted, it was a big station with no history of compliance issues)
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Re: Short term renewals for CIMM and CHMZ

Postby jon » Tue Aug 02, 2016 1:29 pm

From a purely analytical point of view, if you want to understand the CRTC's current thinking on when a license should be revoked, reading everything on the CRTC site about CFSI-FM Saltspring Island, from the last owner's first reported compliance issue all the way up to losing the license, is the best first step. Second step is reading about the same owner's Wetaskiwin FM station on the CRTC site.

The first shows what the CRTC "requires" before pulling a license. The second shows how far you can go and still retain your license, at least "for now".

As for my opinion on what the CRTC should do, that is another matter. I just wanted to share what I think gives a pretty good understanding of current CRTC Mindset on the subject of license cancellations.

Applying that to CIMM, CHMZ, and CKPM, none have racked up the number, severity and duration of license infractions that Wetaskiwin has, so it should not be a surprise to anyone that the CRTC renewed the licenses.
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Re: Short term renewals for CIMM and CHMZ

Postby skyvalleyradio » Tue Aug 02, 2016 2:43 pm

The good, friendly, hard working staff at the CRTC ARE overworked. My experiences with them are nothing short of excellent - they are helpful & will work through problems including non-compliance issues. The commission itself is another matter entirely. It's unlikely they would request logger audio from a compliant broadcaster. However, when a station is specifically directed to submit logger audio (usually within 72 hours of the request) for a SPECIF week & time period, one would hope CRTC staffers would be allotted enough time to do the time-consuming analysis of the requested audio.
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Re: Short term renewals for CIMM and CHMZ

Postby Dave L » Tue Aug 02, 2016 3:39 pm

jon wrote:Applying that to CIMM, CHMZ, and CKPM, none have racked up the number, severity and duration of license infractions that Wetaskiwin has, so it should not be a surprise to anyone that the CRTC renewed the licenses.


It doesn't say much for the commission when the worst case scenario is the industry standard for compliance.

Other than the year or so when Jamie Watson ran CHOO, we've been dealing with non-compliance issues since 1999. From the get-go, it's been a legacy of malfeasance and outright fraud. First the HRDC scandal (one fed fast tracked the application through another fed, in the absence of public hearings), then the AVR scandal, then the foreclosure of the station equipment from the licensee who never applied a dime toward the principle nor produced a minute of programming nor offered direction to anyone other than someone they met in the bar the night before to fill time slots. Then McBride comes along, jumps into bed with First Nations who disassociated themselves before the first renewal (without notifying the commission). Nary a word of traditional "spoken language" programming has been produced, no less presented. Other than claiming to be an employee himself, these stations sat empty for years, Tofino (1 year), Ucluelet (2 years) and Pemberton (3 years). THAT'S SIX YEARS of zero service in a total of nine years service for no reason other than the owner's own undoings. Not one local staffer during those times other than a phone call to a friend of someone (untrained) who rebooted the computers when the power failed (or was cut off). One fellow rebooted the station computer, but was unaware of an open mike and admitted during an aircheck, he was untrained and used several f-bombs. Another told me they did it twice, but never got paid. The building owner (a proverbially promised 20% shareholder) mentioned doing it a few times, but refused to do it again until rent was current. To this day, McBride has not paid one cent of the rental agreed for the lobe space on the CBC tower at Barr's Mountain.

It seems to me an undertaking is supposed to be affirmation of commitment. Not just an empty promise to be excused by deliberate lies, bad debts and labour relations issues that can be dragged out for decades.

Surely our communities deserve better than that.
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Re: Short term renewals for CIMM and CHMZ

Postby Aaron » Tue Aug 02, 2016 4:03 pm

skyvalleyradio wrote:The good, friendly, hard working staff at the CRTC ARE overworked. My experiences with them are nothing short of excellent - they are helpful & will work through problems including non-compliance issues. The commission itself is another matter entirely. It's unlikely they would request logger audio from a compliant broadcaster. However, when a station is specifically directed to submit logger audio (usually within 72 hours of the request) for a SPECIF week & time period, one would hope CRTC staffers would be allotted enough time to do the time-consuming analysis of the requested audio.


Agree completely. The staff are excellent.
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Re: Short term renewals for CIMM and CHMZ

Postby Jim Walters » Tue Aug 02, 2016 10:27 pm

On a visit to Port Moody this past long weekend, I wasn't at all surprised not to see any sign of CKPM at any of the festivities going on in the area.

I visited several retail outlets, and not one of them had CKPM playing. I asked several people if they ever listened to CKPM. The response was usually a puzzled look followed by "What is a CKPM"?

No awareness. No visibility. Numerous ads in the Tri Cities News for concerts and other local long weekend happenings, and NO CKPM sponsor logo on any of them.

Nice to see these people are doing a bang up job when it comes to being a part of the community you're supposed to be serving.

It was a joke that it got licensed. A bigger joke at how long it took to get on the air. Now it's just an invisible laughing matter.
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