GATINEAU – The CRTC has approved two of 13 competing applications for new radio stations and retransmitters in the Vancouver area. But the decision wasn’t unanimous, and the dissenting commissioner believes one of the approvals puts the Regulator’s licensing process itself into question.
In the decision issued Wednesday, the Commission approved an application from 0971197 B.C. Ltd., a.k.a. Roundhouse Radio, for a spoken-word station in downtown Vancouver at 98.3 FM, and an adult contemporary music station in Surrey at 107.7 FM owned by Sukhvinder Badh’s South Fraser Broadcasting Inc. It denied the other nine applications for 107.7 — four ethnic stations, three English music stations and two retransmitters of Vancouver stations.
It also denied two applications for use of 600 AM — one from Toronto-based Channel Zero Inc., proposing a business-news station (similar to a failed bid for one in Toronto in 2012), and an ethnic station by Sher-E-Punjab Radio Broadcasting Inc.
Sher-E-Punjab’s application was controversial because it owns KPRI, an ethnic station licensed for Ferndale, Wash., but that targets Vancouver. At the hearing, the company said it would agree to shut down its U.S. station once the Vancouver one was approved. Ferndale is about an hour’s drive from Vancouver.
The CRTC was not impressed by this, and said it would “examine the issue of broadcasting services transmitted from locations outside Canada and which appear to serve Canadian markets.” That statement could raise eyebrows for other cross-border broadcasters like KARI, which also targets Vancouver, and WYUL, which targets Montreal.
Raj Shoan, one of three commissioners on the panel at the hearing in Surrey back in January, objected to South Fraser’s application, arguing in his dissenting opinion that an application by Surdel Broadcasting for an English-language music station would have better served the rapidly growing South Asian community in Surrey.
Shoan’s objection relates to Mr. Badh’s involvement in KRPI. While Badh (South Fraser’s owner) said he has not been involved in the U.S.-based station since 2007, he admitted he owns the land its transmitter sits on. Sher-E-Punjab’s application also stated that the Badh family is actively involved in the operation of the U.S. station.
“The direct and indirect involvement of the owner and CEO of South Fraser… in the management and operations of a broadcasting service that may be broadcasting from the U.S. into Canada without a licence raises questions about his suitability to hold a licence absent a full examination by the Commission into the undertaking in question." Raj Shoan, CRTC commissioner
“In my view, the direct and indirect involvement of the owner and CEO of South Fraser, Sukhvinder Badh, in the management and operations of a broadcasting service that may be broadcasting from the U.S. into Canada without a licence raises questions about his suitability to hold a licence absent a full examination by the Commission into the undertaking in question,” Shoan wrote in his opinion.
Commissioners Tom Pentefountas and Stephen Simpson formed the majority on the CRTC panel awarding the license to South Fraser.
The station promised to focus exclusively on Surrey, devote 40% of its music to Canadian music, and contribute $100,000 a year to developing Canadian content. Its signal of 3,400 watts from a building on Whalley Blvd., is pointed away from Vancouver, limiting its coverage there.
Roundhouse Radio, owned by a group of local businessmen, promises a spoken-word format “hyper-targeted to the residents of downtown Vancouver” with discussion, documentaries, radio plays, slam poetry and debates. It projects a full-time staff of 27, including eight in its newsroom. The station will have a six kilowatt transmitter from 97 E 2nd Ave., with a signal covering downtown but little more.
