Broadcasting Notice of Consultation CRTC 2025-72

Gatineau, 6 March 2025

Public record: 1011-NOC2025-0072

Call for comments on market capacity and the appropriateness of issuing a call for radio applications to serve Wingham, Ontario, and surrounding areas

Deadline for submission of comments: 7 April 2025

Deadline for submission of replies: 22 April 2025

[Submit an intervention/comment/answer or view related documents]

Summary

The Commission received an application for a commercial radio station to serve Wingham, Ontario, and surrounding areas^{Footnote 1}. The applicant requested to operate an English-language commercial FM radio station to replace an existing AM station in Wingham, which would use one of the last known FM frequencies available in this area. As a result, the Commission is seeking comments on market capacity and the appropriateness of issuing a call for radio applications to serve Wingham. The Commission encourages the public, as well as the applicant, to submit interventions to provide additional information.

The deadline for the receipt of interventions is 7 April 2025. Only parties that file interventions may file a reply to matters raised during the intervention phase. This requirement applies to all interested persons, including the applicant. The deadline to file replies is 22 April 2025.

The Commission expects persons interested in serving the Wingham radio market to express their interest during the intervention period. Should little or no interest be expressed to serve that radio market, the Commission may publish the application for consideration during the non-appearing phase of a public hearing rather than issue a call for applications.

Background

According to Broadcasting Regulatory Policy 2014-554 (the Radio Call Policy), when the Commission receives an application for a new radio station or a licence amendment to an existing service that is proposing to use one of the last known frequencies, it will generally publish a notice of consultation to seek comments on market capacity and the appropriateness of issuing a call for radio applications. While the Radio Call Policy includes a list of exceptions to the issuance of a call, applications that propose to use one of the last known frequencies in a market will not be eligible for an exception.
The Commission does so to ensure that new radio stations are introduced to the market in a transparent and efficient manner and that the ability of existing radio stations to serve their communities is not compromised. It also aims to provide interested persons with an opportunity to express their views on introducing new radio services prior to a call being issued.
On 22 August 2023, in Broadcasting Information Bulletin 2023-278, the Commission announced the suspension of the consideration of new applications and complaints relating to radio undertakings during the implementation of its regulatory plan for modernizing the Canadian broadcasting framework. In this case, the applicant has asked the Commission to make an exception to this rule due to failing equipment and infrastructure at its AM facility, along with the significant costs to maintain its AM towers. For this reason, the Commission finds it is in the public interest to move forward with this proceeding as well as issue a call for radio applications, if necessary, following this notice of consultation.

Application for Wingham

The Commission received the following application for a broadcasting licence to operate an English-language commercial FM radio station to replace an existing AM station in Wingham, Ontario:

Applicant	Type of Service	Technical Parameters	Main communities included in the primary contour
Blackburn Media Inc.	English-language commercial FM station	104.3 MHz (channel 282B) with an average radiated power (ERP) of 16,700 watts (maximum ERP of 28,000 watts)	Wingham and surrounding areas^{Footnote 2}

Given that the applicant proposed to use one of the last known frequencies available in Wingham, the Commission is publishing a notice of consultation to seek comments on market capacity and the appropriateness of issuing a call for radio applications.

Call for comments

In light of the above, the Commission is seeking comments on the capacity of Wingham and surrounding areas to support a new service and on whether it should issue a call for applications for new radio stations to serve this community. The Commission also encourages the public, as well as the applicant, to submit information on how this market is currently being served, the diversity of programming, and the availability of services in this area.
Aggregated commercial and non-commercial financial information relating to the radio market in Ontario can be found in the Commission’s Broadcasting Financial Summaries and on the Open Data Portal. For commercial radio stations, information for the Wingham market is grouped with the “Southern Ontario” region under the non-designated radio market section. For non-commercial stations, information for the Wingham market can be found under the “Ontario” region.
Following receipt of comments, the Commission will conduct an assessment of the capacity of Wingham to support an additional station, taking into account economic and financial data as well as the comments received in the public consultation.
As indicated in the Radio Call Policy, the Commission will weigh factors such as market capacity, spectrum availability or scarcity, comments from the public and interest by other parties in serving the market when deciding whether to:
- publish the application for consideration during the non-appearing phase of a public hearing (for example, in instances where there is capacity in the market, a number of frequencies of comparable quality [or coverage] are available or there is a low probability of other applications to serve the market);
- issue a call for applications (for example, in instances where there is capacity in the market, a limited number of frequencies available or a high probability of multiple applications to serve the market); or
- make a determination that the market cannot sustain additional stations, return the application and issue a decision setting out this determination.

Procedure

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission Rules of Practice and Procedure (the Rules of Procedure) apply to the present proceeding. The Rules of Procedure set out, among other things, the rules for content, format, filing and service of interventions, answers, replies and requests for information; the procedure for filing confidential information and requesting its disclosure; and the conduct of public hearings. Accordingly, the procedure set out below must be read in conjunction with the Rules of Procedure and related documents, which can be found on the Commission’s website under “Statutes and Regulations”. The guidelines set out in Broadcasting and Telecom Information Bulletin 2010-959 provide information to help interested persons and parties understand the Rules of Procedure so that they can more effectively participate in Commission proceedings.
The Commission invites interventions that address the issues and questions set out above. The Commission will accept interventions that it receives on or before 7 April 2025. Only parties that file interventions may file a reply to matters raised during the intervention phase. This requirement applies to all interested persons, including the applicant. The deadline for the filing of replies is 22 April 2025.
The Commission encourages interested persons and parties to monitor the record of the proceeding, available on the Commission’s website, for additional information that they may find useful when preparing their submissions.
Submissions longer than five pages should include a summary. Each paragraph of all submissions should be numbered, and the line ***End of document*** should follow the last paragraph. This will help the Commission verify that the document has not been damaged during electronic transmission.
Pursuant to Broadcasting and Telecom Information Bulletin 2015-242, the Commission expects incorporated entities and associations, and encourages all interested persons and parties, to file submissions for Commission proceedings in accessible formats (for example, text-based file formats that allow text to be enlarged or modified, or read by screen readers). To provide assistance in this regard, the Commission has posted on its website guidelines for preparing documents in accessible formats.
Submissions must be filed by sending them to the Secretary General of the Commission using only one of the following means:

by completing the
[Intervention/comment/answer form]

or

by mail to
CRTC, Gatineau, Quebec K1A 0N2

or

by fax at
819-994-0218
Parties who send documents electronically must ensure that they will be able to prove, upon Commission request, that filing, or where required, service of a particular document was completed. Accordingly, parties must keep proof of the sending and receipt of each document for 180 days after the date on which the document is filed or served. The Commission advises parties who file or serve documents by electronic means to exercise caution when using email for the service of documents, as it may be difficult to establish that service has occurred.
In accordance with the Rules of Procedure, a document must be received by the Commission and all relevant parties by 5 p.m. Vancouver time (8 p.m. Gatineau time) on the date it is due. Parties are responsible for ensuring the timely delivery of their submissions and will not be notified if their submissions are received after the deadline. Late submissions, including those due to postal delays, will not be considered by the Commission and will not be made part of the public record.
The Commission will not formally acknowledge submissions. It will, however, fully consider all submissions, which will form part of the public record of the proceeding, provided that the procedure for filing set out above has been followed.

Important notice

All information that parties provide as part of this public process, except information designated confidential, whether sent by postal mail, fax, email or through the Commission’s website at www.crtc.gc.ca, becomes part of a publicly accessible file and will be posted on the Commission’s website. This information includes personal information, such as full names, email addresses, postal/street addresses, telephone and fax numbers, etc.
The personal information that parties provide will be used and may be disclosed for the purpose for which the information was obtained or compiled by the Commission, or for a use consistent with that purpose.
Documents received electronically or otherwise will be put on the Commission’s website in their entirety exactly as received, including any personal information contained therein, in the official language and format in which they are received. Documents not received electronically will be available in PDF format.
The information that parties provide to the Commission as part of this public process is entered into an unsearchable database dedicated to this specific public process. This database is accessible only from the web page of this particular public process. As a result, a general search of the Commission’s website with the help of either its own search engine or a third-party search engine will not provide access to the information that was provided as part of this public process.

Availability of documents

Links to interventions, replies and answers/final replies filed for this proceeding, as well as other documents referred to in this notice, are available on the Commission’s “Consultations and hearings: have your say” page.
Documents are available upon request during normal business hours by contacting:

Documentation Centre
Examinationroom@crtc.gc.ca
Tel.: 819-997-4389
Fax: 819-994-0218

Client Services
Toll-free telephone: 1-877-249-2782
Toll-free TTY: 1-877-909-2782

Secretary General

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