Vegreville and Hinton Get New Stations

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Vegreville and Hinton Get New Stations

Postby jon » Fri Feb 21, 2014 10:34 pm

Yesterday, the CRTC approved Newcap for a new FM station in Hinton, and CAB-K for Vegreville's first local station. CAB-K currently owns and operates a station in Olds. They've promised a country music format for Vegreville.

It should also cover the surrounding area fairly well: "The station would operate on frequency 106.5 MHz (channel 293B1) with an effective radiated power of 13,000 watts (non-directional antenna with an effective height of antenna above average terrain of 107.8 metres)."

Hinton will only be powered at 1100 watts.

For more details:
Vegreville - http://crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2014/2014-74.htm
Hinton - http://crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2014/2014-75.htm
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Re: Vegreville and Hinton Get New Stations

Postby freqfreak2 » Sat Feb 22, 2014 12:34 pm

Wow!

Lucky Hintonians: they'll now have two Newcap stations (the other being CFXH The Eagle - Classic Hits at 97.5 MHz).

Can't wait to see the competition between these two heat up the market. :violent1:
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Re: Vegreville and Hinton Get New Stations

Postby jon » Sat Feb 22, 2014 2:24 pm

Digging through the documents, Newcap refers to a local repeater, now silent, of CFOX-FM Vancouver that had been run by one of the local mines, as part of their evidence that a Rock format is needed and wanted in the Hinton market.

Appendix 8C of the original application gives a sample day of music. Classic Rock is probably the best description. Take a look for yourself:
http://radiowest.ca/news/hintonmusic.pdf
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Re: Vegreville and Hinton Get New Stations

Postby freqfreak2 » Sat Feb 22, 2014 2:43 pm

Classic Hits ... Classic Rock ... classic concentrated media ownership and market throttling more like.

Wonder if anyone else stepped up to the plate when the original call was made (was there one?).

At least the locals still have CBXI-FM CBC Radio One, CHFA-FM Première Chaîne and CKUA-FM to choose from.

Just sayin' ...

BTW, thanks Jon for the warning in the pdf - I'd think I'd drive off the road if I ever heard The Who's "Summertime Blues" on the car radio.
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Re: Vegreville and Hinton Get New Stations

Postby jon » Sat Feb 22, 2014 2:52 pm

freqfreak2 wrote:Wonder if anyone else stepped up to the plate when the original call was made (was there one?).

"The Commission did not receive any interventions in connection with this application."
"Public hearing in the National Capital Region - 5 November 2013"
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Re: Vegreville and Hinton Get New Stations

Postby freqfreak2 » Sat Feb 22, 2014 2:59 pm

Thanks for that Jon.

At the end of the day, one could say Hinton is lucky to at least have a local radio presence of some kind.
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Re: Vegreville and Hinton Get New Stations

Postby jon » Sat Feb 22, 2014 3:14 pm

I remember when the Hinton pulp mill was going strong, and Newfoundland's Pulp industry was in the dumps, so local Hinton cable was just full of Newfoundland radio and TV stations. In an odd way, that was "local" for much of the audience.
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Re: Vegreville and Hinton Get New Stations

Postby freqfreak2 » Sat Feb 22, 2014 3:26 pm

I heard some time ago that a Fort McMurray morning radio show was actually hosted from Newfoundland (nice hours for the jocks). Wonder if that's still the case.
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Re: Vegreville and Hinton Get New Stations

Postby Aaron » Sat Feb 22, 2014 3:30 pm

No. That was K-ROCK 100.5. They moved the show back to Ft Mac and then sold the station.

The jock actually did two shows, one for Ft Mac, then moved next door and did a local one for St John's.
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Re: Vegreville and Hinton Get New Stations

Postby freqfreak2 » Sat Feb 22, 2014 3:37 pm

Aaron wrote:The jock actually did two shows

Must have taken great mental discipline to remember which market you were pitching to. Almost like voice tracking live.
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Re: Vegreville and Hinton Get New Stations

Postby Aaron » Sat Feb 22, 2014 4:00 pm

From what I understand, he had "local" webcams displayed on big screens, local posters, and plenty of clocks with the "correct" time. There's plenty negative to say about that setup, but it was really interesting in a way.
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Re: Vegreville and Hinton Get New Stations

Postby freqfreak2 » Sat Feb 22, 2014 4:10 pm

I guess if you're in an already isolated control room it really doesn't matter where you.

And these days, watching a twitter hashtag will give you a really good feeling of what the local water cooler talks is all about.
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Re: Vegreville and Hinton Get New Stations

Postby Bigbangboom » Sat Feb 22, 2014 7:58 pm

freqfreak2 wrote:Wonder if anyone else stepped up to the plate when the original call was made (was there one?).


There would not have been a call - monopoly/first service markets do not require a call
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Re: Vegreville and Hinton Get New Stations

Postby freqfreak2 » Sat Feb 22, 2014 8:05 pm

Bizarre - that makes it tough for a newcomer to get into markets this small when there are already "two" outlets in play.
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