Found This Story About Port Moody Radio From Way Back In2011

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Found This Story About Port Moody Radio From Way Back In2011

Postby PicturesForYourEars » Tue Aug 22, 2017 12:41 am

Heavy-hitting names jumped out June 2, when the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission approved three new FM broadcasters to compete in Metro Vancouver's $131-million-per-year advertising market.

Everybody knows billionaire Jimmy Pattison, who'll close his CKBD 600 AM station and open one with an FM frequency of 100.5 MHz. That will entail dumping CKBD's older audience and going for the age-25-to-49 "adult album alternative" listeners broadcasters want today.

Two other biggies, restaurateur David Aisenstat and music-biz mogul Sam Feldman, also got CRTC approval to address the Triple A market, in their case at 104.1 MHz. They'll be partnered by former city disc jockey Roy Hennessey.



Then there's Matthew McBride. He's a Halifax-born on-air veteran of radio stations in Smithers, Prince Rupert. Moose Jaw, Winnipeg, Calgary and Vancouver who snagged the 98.7 MHz frequency to air from Port Moody. It's the fourth link in a broadcasting chain he began with CHMZ-FM Tofino in 2002. CIMM-FM Ucluelet came three years later. McBride's third station, CFPV-FM, began broadcasting from Pemberton May 27 with a signal reaching Mount Currie, Darcy and maybe -- with a favourable bounce and some technical tweaks -- Whistler.

McBride likes small-town radio "because it's visible, it's tactile, it's an integrated part of daily life. If something happens on radio, everybody knows it."

Port Moody is a step up, though. Covering 270,000 potential listeners in the Tri-Cities area, CKPM-FM will be McBride Communications & Media Inc.'s biggest operation by far. Likewise its costliest, with start-up costs of $250,000.

"I have no idea where the money's going to come from, but it will come," non-connoisseur McBride allowed while quaffing "the cheapest white wine you have" at pal Gerry Biggar's Shady Island Seafood Bar & Grill in Steveston. That means debt financing for a chap whose personal income "is over a hundred [thousand], under two. But lenders don't want to loan a quarter-million. They want to loan 10 million."

It's not exactly a replay of 2002, when McBride told wife Caroline: "Honey, I'd like to take all the money we have, borrow a whole bunch on our credit cards, and start a radio station out on the west coast of Vancouver Island." Still, "If you're an entrepreneur, you can't but help to do what you do. And Caroline has never stood in my way."

McBride's aw-shucks delivery is complemented by a mustachioed mug, post-military haircut and an upper skull that looks like it endured over-tight helmets during his six years as a Canadian navy diver. He also wears short-sleeve Hawaiian shirts that, as Sammy the Time Salmon, let him slap his folded forearms to beat out time announcements on-air. The rhythmic precision betrays the seasoned musician, notably on the $2,500 Rickenbacker bass guitar that was his best-ever Christmas present.

"The thing about radio is that, whatever I dream up happens," said McBride. That's why Sammy could become Tommy the Time Trout or Bobby the Time Beaver for stations far from salt water. But microphone goofing ends at his station-owner's desk: "I sign on at the least cost to generate a reliable cash flow, and return every penny to the station until I am satisfied it is properly built -- toys, logo, stationery. That's a pretty simple business idea, isn't it? Then, as soon as possible, start building again."

With a target of?

"Twenty stations by 2015," the seaplane-endorsed six-year pilot replied as crisply as though requesting landing clearance for his Cessna 172.

All in B.C.?

"I didn't say that."

All in Canada?

"I didn't say that, either."

As for his business plan: "If there's a community with 2,000 people and no radio station, there will be."
...LEFT PLACES I SHOULDA STAYED,
STAYED PLACES I SHOULDA LEFT...
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