Radio for Bedroom Communities: CRTC Approval Trend?

Radio News from Ontario

Radio for Bedroom Communities: CRTC Approval Trend?

Postby jon » Wed Nov 23, 2011 12:14 pm

Yesterday's CRTC approval of a new AM station for Mississauga, Ontario hits me as a significant change in CRTC attitude towards stations with goals of serving specific local communities. What is different about this station is that the community it serves is well within what is generally considered part of Toronto or, in radio terms, the Central Market. Just as North Vancouver, West Vancouver and Richmond are part of the (most) Central part of the Vancouver market.

There has been some discussion in the past that approval of a station in Port Moody would not have happened if Ottawa was close to Vancouver, not Toronto. In other words, ignorance of the Greater Vancouver area was often "blamed" for the CRTC's supposed mistaken understanding that Port Moody was "not part of" the Vancouver market.

The new Mississauga station has been assigned 960 KHz with 2000 watts day and 280 watts night, with a coverage area designed to serve Mississauga well, but other parts of Toronto poorly.

Here are the key points:

3. The applicant proposed to offer a news/talk format dedicated to Mississauga. The station would provide Mississauga residents with local news and information, including coverage of city council, local business issues, and community related political and social events. The station would also provide sports, weather and traffic, as well as a community forum for public discourse and debate during its mid-morning program Mississauga Voices.

4. [Owner Elliot] Kerr would broadcast 126 hours of spoken word programming each broadcast week, of which at least 101 hours would be local. A maximum of 25 hours would be automated programming. Programming would include 28.5 hours of structured newscasts and news programs per broadcast week, 80% of which would focus on local Mississauga news stories.

15. The Commission further notes that the 5 mV/m secondary daytime contour would cover a radius of approximately 18 to 25 km from the transmitting antenna site, which would include Mississauga and a portion of Brampton.

Expectation

The Commission expects the licensee to adhere to its commitment to not direct marketing activities to Toronto, Brampton or Oakville.
ref. - http://crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2011/2011-722.htm

Given this decision, and assuming the applications are not somehow flawed, I foresee approvals of new licenses for Fort Saskatchewan and Leduc, both bedroom communities to Edmonton, though Fort Saskatchewan has so much industry that Edmonton is also a bedroom community to Fort Saskatchewan.
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Re: Radio for Bedroom Communities: CRTC Approval Trend?

Postby freqfreak2 » Wed Nov 23, 2011 12:19 pm

jon wrote:though Fort Saskatchewan has so much industry that Edmonton is also a bedroom community to Fort Saskatchewan.


Same could be said for the Beaumont/Leduc/Nisku tri-burb area.
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