QUEBEC CITY – Genex Communications, owner of controversial CHOI-FM, has reached an agreement to sell CKNU-FM of Donnacona, just outside Quebec City, to Radio Nord Communications.
Terms of the deal, subject to CRTC approval, were not disclosed.
If the sale is approved, Radio Nord would have a presence in the greater Quebec City market for the first time. It currently operates 13 radio stations and five TV stations in other regions of Quebec and eastern Ontario.
Radio Nord, though, has another chance to break into the city. It already has an application before the CRTC for a license to set up a new jazz and blues specialty radio station in Quebec City. The CRTC will consider the application at public hearings Nov. 14th.
At the same time, the CRTC is scheduled to hear an application for CKNU’s license renewal and a modification of its license allowing it to broadcast into the Quebec City market. It’s not known yet whether the CRTC will consider the license renewal and the proposed sale all at once.
In a statement, Radio Nord President Raynald Brière said the acquisition is "part of Radio Nord’s growth strategy to extend our presence into a new market at the same time that we’re developing specialty niches, such as in jazz".
For Genex, getting rid of CKNU at a time when it’s fighting a legal battle to hold onto its license for CHOI represents "an effort to concentrate efforts on other priorities,” it said.
"Given the context and the situation of our business, and particularly that of CHOI Radio X, we necessarily must prioritize certain issues, even if that means selling off one of our divisions," said GENEX president Patrice Demers in a statement. "In this context, the sale of CKNU became inevitable."
Meanwhile, Genex has another application of its own, to be heard Nov. 14th, to set up an FM English-language commercial station with a top 40 musical format in Quebec City, a city that is about 90% francophone.
Glenn Wanamaker is www.cartt.ca’s Quebec Editor. E-mail him at glenn.wanamaker@cartt.ca.
