CANADIAN RADIO NEWS –Jon Pearkins
jon@pearkins.com
Last week, Bell Canada (BCE) announced layoffs of 9% of its staff, 4800 employees, with less than 500 of those layoffs in its Bell Media subsidiary. At the same time, it announced agreements to sell 45 of its 103 regional radio stations in BC, ON, QC and Atlantic Canada. The AM stations, including repeater transmitters, are listed below.
There is some doubt about when the CRTC will consider Bell’s applications to sell these stations given the CRTC’s current moratorium on radio applications. Which could explain why the Bell announcement of the agreement to sell the stations ended with an assurance that it would be business as usual at each radio
station until the ownership transfer occurs.
590 BC Terrace CFTK Bell Media has agreed to sell the station to Vista Radio, subject to CRTC approval.
NB Sussex CJCW The CRTC has approved the station’s move to FM on 92.9 with 1400 watts utilizing a
directional pattern at 320 feet above average terrain (EHAAT). No change in the Adult Contemporary music format is planned. Traditionally, once the FM transmitter completes its Test Phase, there is a three month simulcast period. This is normally voluntary, but the CRTC made it mandatory in CJCW’s case since some communities served by the AM signal will be unable to receive a listenable signal from CJCW-FM.
610 ON St Catharines CKTB Bell Media has agreed to sell the station to Whiteoaks Communications Group, a company founded in 1956 solely to launch CHWO-1250 Oakville ON.
800 BC Penticton CKOR Bell Media has agreed to sell the station to Vista Radio, subject to CRTC approval.
870 BC Invermere CKIR Bell Media has agreed to sell CKGR-FM and its CKIR repeater transmitter to Vista Radio, subject to CRTC approval.
890 BC Dawson Creek CJDC Bell Media has agreed to sell the station to Vista Radio, subject to CRTC approval.
910 AB Drumheller CKDQ The CRTC has approved the station’s move to FM on 92.5 with 36,600 watts utilizing a directional pattern at 125 feet above average terrain (EHAAT). No change in the Country music format is planned. The station is the last Alberta AM not serving the Edmonton or Calgary markets and even CKDQ targeted Calgary listeners when they first were granted 50KW. The traditional three month AM-FM simulcast period once the FM transmitter completes its Test Phase was made mandatory by the CRTC.
1150 BC Kelowna CKFR Bell Media has agreed to sell the station to Vista Radio, subject to CRTC approval.
1240 BC Osoyoos CJOR Bell Media has agreed to sell the station to Vista Radio, subject to CRTC approval.
1400 BC Princeton CIOR Bell Media has agreed to sell CJOR-1240 and its CIOR repeater transmitter to Vista Radio, subject to CRTC approval.
Canadian Radio News (CRN) posts on https://radiowest.ca by Dan Sys provide much of the information for this column.
IRCA DX Monitor items Feb 17 via WOR iog (2024-02-13)