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Toutefois, la publication susmentionnée est un compte rendu textuel des délibérations et, en tant que tel, est transcrite dans l'une ou l'autre des deux langues officielles, compte tenu de la langue utilisée par le participant à l'audience.
TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS BEFORE
THE CANADIAN RADIO‑TELEVISION AND
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
COMMISSION
TRANSCRIPTION
DES AUDIENCES DEVANT
LE
CONSEIL DE LA RADIODIFFUSION
ET
DES TÉLÉCOMMUNICATIONS CANADIENNES
SUBJECT
/ SUJET:
Various broadcasting applications /
Diverses demandes de radiodiffusion
HELD AT: TENUE À:
Quartz Ballroom Quartz Ballroom
Matrix Hotel Matrix Hôtel
10001-107th Street 10001-107th Street
Edmonton, Alberta Edmonton (Alberta)
June 5, 2008 Le 5 juin 2008
Transcripts
In order to meet the requirements of the Official Languages
Act, transcripts of proceedings before the Commission will be
bilingual as to their covers, the listing of the CRTC members
and staff attending the public hearings, and the Table of
Contents.
However, the aforementioned publication is the recorded
verbatim transcript and, as such, is taped and transcribed in
either of the official languages, depending on the language
spoken by the participant at the public hearing.
Transcription
Afin de rencontrer les exigences de la Loi sur
les langues
officielles, les procès‑verbaux pour le
Conseil seront
bilingues en ce qui a trait à la page
couverture, la liste des
membres et du personnel du CRTC participant à
l'audience
publique ainsi que la table des matières.
Toutefois, la publication susmentionnée est un
compte rendu
textuel des délibérations et, en tant que tel,
est enregistrée
et transcrite dans l'une ou l'autre des deux
langues
officielles, compte tenu de la langue utilisée
par le
participant à l'audience publique.
Canadian
Radio‑television and
Telecommunications
Commission
Conseil
de la radiodiffusion et des
télécommunications canadiennes
Transcript / Transcription
Various broadcasting applications /
Diverses demandes de radiodiffusion
BEFORE / DEVANT:
Elizabeth Duncan Chairperson / Présidente
Rita Cugini Commissioner
/ Conseillère
Candice Molnar Commissioner
/ Conseillère
ALSO PRESENT / AUSSI PRÉSENTS:
Cindy Ventura Secretary / Sécretaire
Lyne Cape Hearing Manager /
Gérante de l'audience
Véronique Lehoux Legal Counsel
Conseillère
Juridique
HELD AT: TENUE À:
Quartz Ballroom Quartz Ballroom
Matrix Hotel Matrix Hôtel
10001-107th Street 10001-107th Street
Edmonton, Alberta Edmonton (Alberta)
June 5, 2008 Le 5 juin 2008
- iv -
TABLE
DES MATIÈRES / TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE / PARA
PHASE III (Cont'd)
INTERVENTION BY / INTERVENTION PAR:
ArtStart/E4C 1873 /12105
Slowburn, Blues Band 1877 /12124
Harpdog Brown and the Bloodhounds 1880 /12140
Barrypatch Records 1901 /12281
Sarah Pocklington 1905 /12307
Nestor Pistor Productions Ltd. 1913 /12349
CKUA Radio Network 1930 /12469
Community Radio Fund 1945 /12550
Byron Christopher 1954 /12588
Edmonton Public Schools 1961 /12630
UrbanDNA Events 1973 /12714
Jonny Chung 1980 /12756
Q99 FM 1983 /12773
Peter Kossowan 1986 /12791
Aboriginal Voices Radio 2002 /12910
Laura Vinson 2011 /12949
Canadian Rocky Mountain Festival 2014 /12967
Western Canadian Music Alliance 2020 /12997
Gateway Entertainment 2042 /13131
- v -
TABLE
DES MATIÈRES / TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
/ PARA
PHASE III (Cont'd)
INTERVENTION BY / INTERVENTION PAR:
Hipjoint Music Group 2046 /13152
Shiloh Schramm 2053
/13187
Community Radio Fund / 2064 /13248
Fonds
canadien de la radio communautaire
The Amber Affair 2077 /13338
CIRPA 2091 /13414
Department of Family Medicine, 2099 /13451
University of Alberta
Christian Hansen 2116 /13569
Stew Kirkwood 2121 /13593
Katie Perman 2126 /13617
Sandro Dominelli 2131 /13640
PHASE IV
REPLY BY / RÉPLIQUE PAR:
Rawlco Radio Ltd. 2150 /13743
Evanov Communications Inc. (OBCI) 2151 /13749
Harvard Broadcasting Inc. 2152 /13757
CTV Limited 2153 /13766
Jim Pattison Broadcast Group Limited Partnership 2159 /13795
- vi -
TABLE
DES MATIÈRES / TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
/ PARA
PHASE IV (Cont'd)
REPLY BY / RÉPLIQUE PAR:
John Charles Yerxa (OBCI) 2161 /13809
Rogers Broadcasting Limited 2165 /13831
Don Kay (OBCI) 2183 /13940
Aboriginal Multi-Media Society of Alberta 2189 /13974
Black Gold Broadcasting Inc. (OBCI) 2190 /13983
Frank Torres (OBCI) 2191 /13994
Multicultural Broadcasting Corporation Inc. 2198 /14029
Guldasta Broadcasting Inc. 2200 /14037
Edmonton, Alberta / Edmonton (Alberta)
‑‑‑ Upon
commencing on Thursday, June 5, 2008 à 0905
L'audience
débute le jeudi 5 juin 2008 à 0905
12097 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Good morning, ladies and
gentlemen.
12098 Just before we
start we wanted to make an announcement that today we will break for an
extended lunch hour, probably about two hours, so we are looking at around
12:30, depending on the timing of the interventions, just to give you a little
advance notice.
12099 Thank you.
12100 THE
SECRETARY: Good morning.
12101 Before we begin,
for the record, Aboriginal Multimedia Society of Alberta, AMSA, has filed in
response to undertakings a list of the locations of all transmitter sites
operated by AMSA. This document has been
added to the public record and copies are available in the public examination
room.
12102 I would now call ArtStart/E4C;
Slowburn, Blues Band and Harpdog Brown and the Bloodhounds to appear as a panel
and present their interventions.
12103 We will start with
ArtStart/E4C. Please introduce yourself,
after which you have ten minutes for your presentation.
12104 Thank you.
INTERVENTION
12105 MS KONOPAKI: Thank you.
12106 My name is Cadence
Konopaki and I have been the Program Coordinator for E4C's ArtStart program
over the past year and a half. I came to
ArtStart after several years of working in the health charity field. I loved working with organizations that
promoted community development and contributed to quality of life in our
society. However, I missed the arts in
my life.
12107 I grew up in a
household filled with the arts, as my father was a formerly professional
drummer. He is now a visual artist at
Emily Carr. My mom is a professional
actress. Galleries, concerts, live
theatre and more constantly enriched my life.
I wished I could work in a position where I was able to combine my
passions for community development and the arts and luckily I found ArtStart.
12108 Thousands of
children in Edmonton have no access to the arts. We believe that every child deserves the
opportunity to be exposed to and mentored in the arts. Research shows that the arts aid social and
cognitive development, as well as motivates, engages students in learning and
builds competence. These are clearly
benefits that children from low income families deserve to receive as much as
any other child.
12109 In fact, children
and youth involved in the arts use up to 50 per cent less social, justice and
health services throughout their lifetimes.
Therefore, the arts provide a proactive tool to involve children and
youth in healthy individual and community development.
12110 With this in mind,
ArtStart was created to provide high‑quality lessons, field trips and
performance opportunities for children aged 6 to 14 who come from low income
families. We are multidisciplinary
programs so our classes, field trips and performances are all within visual
art, drama, dance, music and creative writing.
12111 In September 2007
we experienced a 300 per cent growth increase due to demand of parents, social
service workers, teachers and others to have their children involved in healthy
and enriching activities outside of school.
12112 The ArtStart goals
are to reach students who are often ignored or forgotten in ways and with
methods not always used to teach children to work together building healthy
group identity and strong friendships, provide challenges to students at all
levels and reignite their level of learning, teach students to take instruction
and use it in a self‑directed manner and, last but not least, create
lifelong patrons of the arts.
12113 Both myself and
ArtStart as a whole are very excited to support the application of DAWG‑FM
to receive licensing to create the first Blues radio station in Edmonton.
12114 First, Blues is an
amazing form of music that crosses all social demographics in its fan
base. Anyone who knows anything about
music loves the Blues and are clearly missing the opportunity to fully immerse
themselves in the genre through radio play.
12115 Second, radio
stations are becoming more and more generic.
It is hard to find a station that does not play Easy Rock, Alternative
Rock or Top 40 music. This severely
limits the growth of new artists.
Without being within one of those categories, most musicians do not
receive radio play. Without radio play
they will not attract as many new fans, thus limiting their success on a whole.
12116 As an individual,
I strongly support the independent arts and would like to see artists have the
opportunity to attract a larger fan base.
12117 As an ArtStart
representative, I would like to say that the arts do not come in one form, nor
are they for one demographic, nor are they created by one type of person. By diversifying the music on the radio, DAWG‑FM
will not only be promoting Blues music but independent artists and the
diversity of arts and culture in our society.
12118 Last, ArtStart
wants to support DAWG‑FM because they are committed to supporting us in
our mission. Through their financial
support we will be using the money to support our children in the ArtStart
Music Program. These students learn
drums, guitar, piano, violin, to name just a few, and this money will be used
to obtain better instruments, recruit more instructors, provide food to our
students who may not have adequate nutrition at home and much more.
12119 We will also be
working with DAWG‑FM to hopefully create somewhat of a Blues specific
focus. This may mean providing
scholarships to students to work with Blues musicians within the community or
perhaps for students to attend Blues concerts.
12120 In conclusion, I
would like to say that I hope the CRTC will recognize the need for this new
station. You will not only be supporting
musicians and arts and culture, but also hundreds of children in Edmonton who
would otherwise have no access to the arts.
12121 THE
SECRETARY: Thank you.
12122 We will now
proceed with Mr. Phil Wilson‑Birks from Slowburn, Blues Band.
12123 You have ten
minutes for your presentation.
INTERVENTION
12124 MR. WILSON‑BIRKS: My name is Phil. I guess I'm here to let you know that the
Blues in Edmonton is alive and doing very well.
12125 My background, I
just retired about five years ago as a teacher.
I taught for 25 years and decided that it was time to really get
involved in my passion and my passion was Blues. I formed the band at that time.
12126 Today we are proud
to say ‑‑ and I quoting Bruce Stovel, the late Bruce Stovel
from CJSR radio ‑‑ we are proud to be the busiest and hardest
working Blues band in Alberta.
12127 We perform on
average over 100 shows a year, 98 per cent of which are in Alberta, probably 70
per cent of those in the Edmonton area.
We play every weekend. That's our
goal. We love to play.
12128 When I heard about
this radio station possibly coming online, a Blues radio station, myself and
the rest of the band, we just about jumped for joy. We have been waiting for something like this
for a long time and I think there is a real place for it in Edmonton.
12129 There is a good,
solid base of fans, as well as musicians in this community, well enough to
support a radio station of this nature.
12130 We are presently
in the process right now as a band of putting together our second CD for
release in July. Of course we are
independently produced, putting the money up ourselves. The problem that we have had in the past and
we are still having is getting radio play.
Being a local band, trying to get your songs heard on the local
airwaves, there is very little opportunity.
12131 We do have some
exposure. We have been played on other
radio stations, at best very minimally because obviously we don't have 24‑hour
a day Blues in this community yet. So we
are getting airplay, but once a week, twice a week. If you are lucky to turn the radio on at a
specific time in the week on a specific day, you might be fortunate enough to
turn it on to a Blues program on one of the other radio stations and hear our
song, but the odds are very slim.
12132 As a listener
myself, I kind of view the radio as a smorgasbord. I am always changing channels trying to find
the songs that appeal to me.
12133 The Blues programs
that are available in town right now are very specific in their times. We gig every weekend, Friday, Saturday,
sometimes Sunday, sometimes Monday nights, and those are when the Blues
programs happen to be on so we don't even get a chance to hear. We hear that we are played on the radio
because fans come to our shows and say well, we heard you on Friday night. They played one of your songs. They were just fortunate enough to have the
radio on that particular station at that particular time.
12134 I really believe
that this radio station could be a huge success in this community. At present we have three Blues festivals in
this province. As a band that works
every weekend, live music is alive and it is out there.
12135 The genre of
music, we play at clubs that feature all genres of music, all ages of
music. This music spans ages 5 years to
90 years. It has a broad appeal and we
really believe that it could be a very big success.
12136 Thank you.
12137 THE
SECRETARY: Thank you.
12138 We will now
proceed with Harpdog Brown and the Bloodhounds.
12139 You will have ten
minutes for your presentation.
INTERVENTION
12140 MR. BROWN: Thank you.
12141 I'm Harpdog Brown
and I have been that for about 20 years now I think. 1989 is when the name was thrown upon me, so
I predate Snoop Dogg and all the other dogs.
12142 I guess to start
things off, I am really nervous. You
know, I don't usually have to stand ‑‑ although I'm used to
looking at 20,000 people, but it's different when I'm just performing.
12143 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Don't be nervous.
12144 MR. BROWN: Well, you know, okay. Okay, I won't.
‑‑‑ Laughter /
Rires
12145 MR. BROWN: I have to say, the last few nights I didn't
do much sleeping either because I was racking my brain on what to say and how
to say it and not to say too much, you know, like to go on and on and on,
because I have been known to do so.
12146 Just a little bit
of information.
12147 I am an adopted
child and I think thousands of adopted ‑‑ millions of adopted
children on this planet have one thing in common: we don't really feel like we belong. Loved by all and owned by none is kind of how
I felt.
12148 You know, I was
raised here in Edmonton, born in Edmonton, and although I had all this love I
never really felt like I belonged anywhere.
I tell you, I got into the music business primarily because I didn't
want to become another one of these people that I was seeing as robots working
in welding shops. We figured that music
would be the only way to actually not have to conform to that mindless drivel
of going to work and just waiting for the 20‑minute call to play some
cards and then your personality goes back in your back pocket when you go back
to work to grind welds.
12149 So we figured
music would be the way out. I was 18 at
the time.
12150 Now, a few years
later I found the Blues. I stumbled upon
the Blues and that was the first time in my life I really felt like I
belonged. I found a place that
would ‑‑ undeniably a place that I belonged that would never
fail me.
12151 This comes back
to ‑‑ this goes into the need of Blues in the society, in the
schools. In this day and age we have so
many broken families and people, adults, dropping the ball on the children,
letting them down, not being there for them.
12152 Well, the Blues
has never let me down. People do, but
Blues never does. And that is why I have
been really wanting to get Blues in schools and in the youth because, you see,
I think it really saved my life. It gave
me something to stand up for, something to believe in and something that would
not fail me.
12153 The one thing made
by man that is not made to fail, that is Blues music.
12154 Music, all music
from western Canada or the western world is really Blues, because Blues defined
like this, somebody reporting life as they see it. Now, when we report life as we see it, it is
not always good. But when we hear that
I'm not the only one that life is picking on, that he even has it a little
worse than me, then all of a sudden I don't feel like it is not so bad because
the weight of the world is not on my shoulders; it is on all our shoulders.
12155 Another thing is
when I get on the stage and I sing and I play harmonica and I choose the songs
that I perform, it is the message. It is
not because I know you are going to like the song. I do it because it is my therapy. The thing is, I am very fortunate that my
therapy also is therapeutic to others.
12156 So when they hear
what I'm speaking or singing about, they realize that hey, we are all in this
together. That is why the Blues is the
foundation of all Western music.
12157 The Blues are the
baby and they called it Rock 'n Roll, said Muddy Waters, and I've got to admit
that that is really the whole root of it all.
12158 I think it was
Count Basie when he was asked what kind of music you listen to, he said don't
you know there is only two kinds of music, good and bad.
12159 I thought about
that too, yes. Good music is the
performance. It is not the genre so
much; it is the performance. I would
rather hear a good song ‑‑ or a bad song sung well as opposed
to a good song sung bad, you know.
12160 So, I don't know,
to me I was racking my brain all night for the last two nights, so I'm
thinking, you know, this is really a no‑brainer, for me anyhow. I understand the CRTC and all the regulations
and the rules and stuff, but this is something that needs to be done. This is something that Canada needs, that the
world needs.
12161 I have known for
Edmonton, Edmonton has always been on the cutting edge of arts and
culture. We are the City of
Festivals. There is no other city in
Canada that has more festivals than we do.
That's fabulous. Not just music
festivals, that's comedy festivals, and so on.
12162 Our Citadel
Theatre is globally known.
12163 It just makes
sense and it makes me proud that we could be ‑‑ Edmonton could
be the first Canadian city to actually stand up and say yes, Blues 24/7. I think that is very positive.
12164 Now, in the music
business as well, yes, I have recorded three CDs. I have recorded in America. I have won awards in America. I have played from Alaska to San Francisco,
all across Canada and the Pacific Northwest.
And I got into music to travel. I
love to travel. I still live out of a
suitcase. I love it that way.
12165 But Edmonton is
really my home and for me to be able to say that Edmonton is the first
city ‑‑ it was the first city to have American Blues coming to
Canada, or western Canada, The Ambassador Hotel two blocks away. The King Eddy in Calgary picked up on the
slack from what Edmonton was bringing up to western Canada.
12166 Edmonton has
always been the starter and I think it is just a no‑brainer. This really is what Edmonton should be
doing. Then of course all of Canada will
follow suit, I'm sure.
12167 But that will also
help with distribution of getting the word out, you know. I can only play at one place at one time, but
the beauty of radio, that allows you to be heard across the whole country.
12168 And I do get my
airplay, you know Hogart on CBC plays me.
I was talking to a guy I was working for out on the coast driving a
truck last summer and he said, you know, it's funny, I turned on the radio and
I thought that sounded like you. Then
the DJ comes on and says it was Harpdog Brown.
He said well, isn't that cool.
12169 You know, he
didn't know what station it was because, once again, he is on the search dial
to, right.
12170 So, I don't know,
all I can say is that this is really good for society. It is good for humanity. Blues music is a healing power and I think we
really need to heal society.
12171 You know, we have
problems with drugs, we have problems with all kinds of things in our social
structure these days and, you know, I feel the war on drugs is a moot
idea. What we have to do is heal our
society. If we can heal humanity, we
will eliminate the need to erase what we call, you know, reality, and then we
can start embracing reality instead of trying to erase it by gambling or drugs
or alcohol, you know.
12172 The thing is that
all comes from understanding and healing.
So we have to heal ourselves and I think this is the start.
12173 Do I get more
time?
‑‑‑ Laughter /
Rires
12174 THE
SECRETARY: Two minutes.
12175 MR. BROWN: Two minutes?
See, I call my own two‑minute warning.
12176 So you know, the
live industry, I mean the live music industry has really kind of, you know,
been kicked in the teeth and that is all live music.
12177 Well, now we are
really clamping down on drinking, all right.
Winnipeg went down to .05. Even
though .08 is the legal, well they went no, that's not good enough; they went
.05. Well, the live music in Winnipeg is
really hurting because of that.
12178 The smoking bylaws
are hurting the live music industry.
12179 So, you know, it
is eliminating us to actually get out there and do what we do, which is spread
the word of life.
12180 Now, with a 24‑hour
Blues programming station, that allows us to be heard. That's really all it is.
12181 We have churches
on every block, but if you don't listen, the same thing. If you go to school and you don't listen, you
don't learn. You have to pay attention.
12182 So here is a
chance. We have 24 hours. People want to pay attention and learn about
life and maybe heal a little bit.
12183 Thank you.
12184 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much.
12185 Commissioner
Molnar...?
12186 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: Thank you and welcome. I am pleased all of you came and you are all
obviously very, very passionate about what Blues can bring to Edmonton, so I
understand that.
12187 I am hopeful I'm
going to say your name right, Ms Konopaki.
Is that what you said?
12188 MS KONOPAKI: Just Cadence is fine.
12189 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: Cadence?
12190 MS KONOPAKI: Yes.
12191 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: Okay.
12192 Cadence, I had
initially read your letter of support that you sent in and was wondering as to how
you would possibly use this to make it Blues specific. I think you said but maybe you could just
tell me again how you would propose to take this and focus it upon the Blues.
12193 MS KONOPAKI: Yes.
Well, all the money will be directly to our music program, so some of
the money will be allocated to things like new instruments, so violin. You know, you can't guarantee that it is
going to ‑‑ or guitar.
It may be used for other music.
12194 But then what we
hope to do is also do some specific Blues focus within that program such as we
may do workshops with Blues musicians that we otherwise wouldn't be able to
work with.
12195 We also hope to
take our kids ‑‑ we always take our kids on field trips and we
want to take them on more always, and it would be nice to take them to some
Blues concerts.
12196 Again supporting
live music and the arts, we want to pay for those tickets. So this gives us the opportunity to pay for
more tickets to go to more shows.
12197 So those would be
two ways that we would try to do it.
12198 But the most
important thing I think is getting the musicians to work with the kids
directly. Although it may be nice to go
to a concert once or twice a year, all the kids wouldn't be able to get that
opportunity and the impact that comes from our instructors and from the artist
is really the one‑on‑one work or the one‑on‑three or
whatever it is, that work of where their passions come from and the talent and
skills that they can pass on.
12199 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: Thank you.
12200 Are there any
Blues artists within the city who do work with your group today?
12201 MS KONOPAKI: No.
12202 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: No. Okay.
Thank you very much.
12203 I'm going to turn
my questions to ‑‑ is it Mr. Wilson‑Birks or Mr. Birks?
12204 MR. WILSON‑BIRKS: Phil would be good.
12205 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: Phil.
‑‑‑ Laughter /
Rires
12206 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: And I'm just going assume it's
Harpdog and not Mr. Brown.
‑‑‑ Laugher /
Rires
12207 MR. BROWN: Yes.
My friends call me Dog.
12208 COMMISSIONER MOLNAR: Dog?
12209 MR. BROWN: Sure enough, yes. Harp is my instrument, Blues harp, right.
12210 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: Oh, I see.
12211 MR. BROWN: Harmonica.
12212 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: Okay. I'm going to open this
question to both of you to try to help me understand.
12213 I understand your
passion for the music and many, many of us enjoy going to Blues festivals. What I am trying to understand, and maybe you
can help me with, is the scope, the extent to which the audience ‑‑
like who is the audience?
12214 How large is the
audience for Blues here in Edmonton?
12215 MR. BROWN: Here in Edmonton or globally? Because you know I find ‑‑
12216 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: Well, let's talk about
Edmonton ‑‑
12217 MR. BROWN: Okay.
12218 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: ‑‑ because that is of course where we are looking to
bring in this 24/7 station.
12219 MR. BROWN: Yes, sure.
No doubt. No doubt.
12220 If you have been
to any festivals you will see even in the Folk Festival there is Blues arts,
you know, Blues artists there.
12221 All festivals that
I have ever played have children as well as adults, you know, children of all
ages. So I have found that there really
is ‑‑ the requirements to love Blues is have one good ear and
a little bit of heart.
12222 So children of all
ages really stand up and take note and be touched by and moved by the Blues.
12223 You can play
restaurants. I mean we both talked about
this, a little joint on White Avenue called Murireta's, a great little
restaurant, and they have Blues bands on Fridays and Saturday nights. The beauty there is ‑‑ I
have an 11‑year‑old son and opportunity, restaurant, no smoking, he
comes in on a Friday or Saturday, you know, to watch dad work.
12224 But I have seen
babies, you know like actual babies in little carry‑in cases, you know,
that are sitting on the floor in their little carriers, right.
12225 So children of all
ages, big and old, you know, young and old, really do find a draw to the
honesty and the truth of what Blues is.
12226 See, that's the
thing, is it is really ‑‑ it is all about honesty and truth
and we are all drawn to that.
12227 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: Phil, you have said that you
have operated here, you work every weekend, 25 years and now you are doing this
fulltime, I understand.
12228 MR. WILSON‑BIRKS: Yes.
12229 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: Do you have loyal
listeners? Do you have people that
follow you or are you playing to new audiences every time?
12230 MR. WILSON‑BIRKS: I would have to say both, hopefully picking
up new fans everywhere we do play. And I
think everywhere we play we do pick up new fans.
12231 But my
experience ‑‑ and I can only speak for the last five years in
this particular band that I'm in right now ‑‑ I think we are
about 450 shows, so every weekend and then some in midweek. So we play everywhere.
12232 We see people of
all ages. We don't play just Blues clubs
because really there aren't that many Blues specific clubs. It is hard to support live music to have
music seven nights a week in any genre of music.
12233 But I can tell you
that we see ages, like I said before, young kids to older people. We play festivals and it doesn't matter what
the age is. Just the love of the music, what it does to you, what it makes you
feel, how it gets you moving.
12234 I don't think you
can say that about every genre of music over all those age ranges.
12235 But we do have a
following, people do follow us around.
Of course, we can't expect people to come to every gig that we play
every weekend. That would be a big much. Even my family has quit doing that after 400
shows. We will see them once every
little while.
12236 The radio station
really is a bonus in that it gets your music out to that audience on a larger
scale.
12237 We have had radio
play locally and it is a thrill when somebody comes to the show and they have
had the fortunate happenstance to be listening to the radio at a specific time
in the week where your song came on.
12238 I have only
experienced that once myself, driving home and turn it on and here Slowburn
comes on and it is just the biggest thrill you can imagine, but I think it
should happen more than that.
12239 This is a great
band that we have going here. This is
music that should be heard by a lot of people, but it is just not getting out
to as many. You know, every weekend a
few people is fine, but the potential for a radio station to draw people to
your shows, which in turn sells your CDs, and the more CDs you sell the more
chance as a local band struggling to make it, the more chance you will sign a
record deal.
12240 At this present
time we are selling our CDs but basically at the gigs that we play at and
anywhere we can. It is hard to get a
record deal based on that kind of sales.
12241 Throw in the mix
of the radio play and that just opens up a whole new world of possibilities.
12242 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: I just have one more question.
12243 Once again I will
let you both have an opportunity, but it sounds like you have been in the
situation. You worked 25 years and now
have the pleasure of dedicating yourself to your music.
12244 It sounds,
Harpdog, that you have had the opportunity to have music your career.
12245 MR. BROWN: Oh, yes.
12246 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: Is that right?
12247 MR. BROWN: Yes. I
mean I have dabbled in a lot of other
angles. I have driven truck, I have
welded, I have done a lot of things, but I have only committed to ‑‑
you know, in the course of the 28 years I have been in this racket, I have
really consciously tried to get away from the Blues and the life and stuff, you
know.
12248 For the love of a
woman when I was younger and I thought I didn't really need Blues. Well, it turned out I did.
12249 When I became a
father I consciously took 10 years off.
You know, he is 11 now so I'm kind of getting back in the swing of
things again.
12250 But yes, it was a
conscious effort of ‑‑ well, it's a life, right, and in order
to live it you have to actually put all your eggs in one basket and go for
it. Now, luckily I was born this gypsy,
never really belonged anywhere, so I'm comfortable living out of a suitcase and
from motel to motel in town to town.
12251 So you know, it
worked for me and it still works for me.
I'm still planning on global domination, you know, but that is going to
help. The radio station and stuff like
this will help that.
12252 I have sold a lot
of CDs, thousands of CDs. You know, I
have won awards in America. I was up for
Juno in 95 with an American release. I signed ‑‑
a little label in Portland, Oregon, signed me.
I was the first Canadian to play their 20,000 seated festival for two
years, 1992 and 1994.
12253 So I have had a
lot of opportunity and I have really done a lot of ‑‑ I have a
lot of fan base and it seems to be getting bigger and bigger all the time. As there is Internet and everything, the
world is getting smaller.
12254 You know, I almost
gave up on this ‑‑ six years ago I was getting tired, I was
like man, I can't even get arrested in this town but I will get a gig, you
know. But then I ask myself, well, I'm
treating the three main people in this city who are booking live entertainment
the same way as I treat everybody in Ontario or British Columbia and
America. So I thought okay, it's not me,
it's them.
12255 Now, I was going
to just hang her up, you know, and say well, I'm 40 years old back then and
maybe I should look at another career.
12256 And then the
Internet came into my hands and Napster came into my hands. My first download ‑‑ my
first search on Napster was Harpdog Brown.
Lo and behold, I found me. My
first download was a song I wrote.
12257 My first Internet
conversation was with a guy down in San Diego that I was taking my songs out of
his hard drive, and then he told me, man, I know fans of yours all around the
globe.
12258 So that actually
saved my ‑‑ he changed my whole perspective. I said well, maybe I shouldn't give up
yet. Maybe life was just beginning, you
know. Maybe there is more out there. Maybe just because I ‑‑
because at that time I felt like I couldn't get arrested in this city, well,
everybody else wanted me. So with the
world, it's my oyster, right.
12259 So it's a matter
of just keep on keeping on.
12260 The fact of the
matter is we are only here to do what we are here to do, right. If you are here to spread the word, if you
are a teacher, well than you have to have somebody to listen to your thoughts,
right. And I kind of feel that in actual
fact it is a teaching experience. Being
on the stage, choosing what works and what messages you lay out to the people
is really all what it is ‑‑ that's what it's all about.
12261 So that is why I
have people coming to hear me. It is not
because I play the songs that they want to hear, because they don't know they
want to hear them until they hear them. It
takes somebody to kind of cut it out a little bit differently and say, no, no,
no, yeah, you heard that before. Let me
give you something you haven't heard.
12262 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: Thank you. I just wondered which of your models is the
more frequent, if you will, or the most usual model for a Blues musician here
in the local community, somebody who has to work fulltime and do it once they
are financially secure or is it that you can make a lifestyle playing Blues
here in the west?
12263 MR. WILSON‑BIRKS: From my perspective ‑‑
12264 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: Or is it just both?
12265 MR. WILSON‑BIRKS: Yes, it is both. For the 25 years as a teacher the music was
always there, just not as often.
12266 At some point in
your life ‑‑ I loved doing the teaching experience, this whole
concept of bringing Blues into the schools, that is my ultimate fantasy. Sign up Slowburn for that, you know. To be able to go into the schools and bring
the Blues into the schools, back as a teacher that way, that would be just
unbelievable.
12267 But I was always
performing but not quite as often and now the opportunity ‑‑
my kids are grown up and to be able to do that.
I would say at this point I am probably making half my living at playing
and performing every weekend, but I would have to say it is a real mix of
musicians out there. A lot of musicians,
just like actors or any of the arts professions, you need a day job to
supplement because you don't have the record deals, you're not getting the
play.
12268 I think that kind
of thing would open up a lot of people's possibilities with the advent of a
radio station that can promote your music, not only in one station in Edmonton,
but the possibility in other provinces, in sister stations, you know, spreading
the word across the country and getting out that way.
12269 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: I would like the thank you all
for coming. Those are my questions and
thank you again for coming here today.
12270 MR. BROWN: It is a pleasure.
12271 MR. WILSON‑BIRKS: Thank you very much.
12272 THE
CHAIRPERSON: I will just add to the
thanks. It is a pleasure to meet the
three of you. You certainly have added
some insight into our deliberations and we appreciate it.
12273 Thank you very
much.
12274 MR. BROWN: Thank you.
12275 MR. WILSON‑BIRKS: You're welcome.
12276 THE
SECRETARY: I now recall the Community
Radio for Beaumont to come forward to the presentation table.
‑‑‑ Pause
12277 THE
SECRETARY: It appears that Community
Radio for Beaumont is not in the room so we will now proceed with the next one.
12278 I would now call
Barrypatch Records, Sarah Pocklington and Nestor Pistor Productions Ltd. to
come to the presentation table to appear as a panel and present their
interventions.
‑‑‑ Pause
12279 THE
SECRETARY: We will start with Barrypatch
Records.
12280 Please introduce
yourselves and you will have ten minutes for your presentation.
INTERVENTION
12281 MR. POWIS: Thank you.
12282 My name is Barry
Powis. I own and operate a small
independent record label in Edmonton.
12283 First of all I
want to thank you for the opportunity to speak before you.
12284 How I got into the
music industry, by the way, is first of all I am a music fan. When I moved here from Calgary in 1990 I
would hang out at all the local venues and be continually blown away by the
bands that I would see. I mean, I had
not seen talent like this anywhere.
12285 When I would see a
band that would blow me away, on the Monday or the Tuesday after I had
recovered I would call the radio station and ask about this band, where I can
find more music and why I'm not hearing them on the radio.
12286 One example I can
tell you is I saw a band called The Rockin' Highliners at the Sidetrack
Cafe. I called the radio station asking
where I can get music from these guys.
They didn't know who they were and I thought there is something wrong
here. This is a Juno nominated band and
the radio station for that genre did not know who they were.
12287 So I kind of
realized that there was something wrong in the industry.
12288 Excuse me, I am a
little nervous here. I'm not used to
public speaking.
12289 Some of the other
bands that I would see ‑‑ this was before the Internet was
around so I couldn't research them afterwards ‑‑ I would call
the radio stations to try to find again where to find them. They didn't know. I would go to the record stores. They didn't know.
12290 One particular
band I saw, it was at the Sidetrack, I was just so impressed with them. They were so original, so dynamic, so
energetic that I thought, you know what, there is such a problem in this
industry and I want other people to hear this band. So I formed the record company.
12291 When I did that, I
took a course at Grant MacEwan, Record Label Management. I spoke to a number of friends in the
industry, and I thought I did everything right.
I brought the band into Homestead Recorders with Barry Allen, you know,
may as well get the best ear in the industry to work on him, and we did
everything right.
12292 We sent our 200
copies across Canada to all radio stations and we just couldn't get played.
12293 The reason why we
couldn't get played is that couldn't be pigeonholed. We were different. We didn't sound like every other band on the
radio.
12294 So other bands
would come up and ask me, you know, how can I get on your label and can you do
anything for me? The only advice I could
give them is, if you want to make it in this genre in Edmonton, either change
your genre or move away, because you are not going to get played here.
12295 So when I heard
that The Planet 107 with Don Kay was applying for a licence, I thought this is
finally the opportunity we have been looking for.
12296 In doing some
research I found out what they are doing to the industry as far as giving back,
i.e. money to the Edmonton Folk Festival, the various schools, you know, just
supporting the various genres out there.
There is so much good music out there that is falling through the cracks
and no one is playing it because, again, the band doesn't sound like somebody
or ‑‑ I don't know what the cases.
12297 I saw the band The
Smalls in Edmonton quite a while ago and this band again, I was completely
blown away by them. The lead guy, Corb
Lund, in order to get heard, had to change his genre to get his music heard.
12298 There is just
again something wrong with the industry in Edmonton if this kind of talent has
to go away from its roots to get heard.
I don't get it.
12299 So anyway, as you
can tell, I am very frustrated with the radio in Edmonton.
12300 My band has, you
know, they are a Rock band with bagpipes, not your normal thing. Out of the 200 copies we sent to radio across
Canada, we have been played on an AM Country station here in Edmonton, we have
been played on CKUA in Edmonton and we have been played in Colorado, if you can
believe it, and satellite radio.
12301 We can't get
played on the radio stations that are close, the closest match to our
genre. I don't think it is for lack of
talent. The people I talk to in the
industry just love the band.
12302 We now have five
albums out that nobody will hear unless the check out or website and again, my
advice to them now is rather than put a new album out, either change your genre
or move away because, you know, if you don't sound like somebody else, you are
not going to get played.
12303 So anyway, because
of this and for all the other bands out there that continually blow me away in
these live venues that will never be heard, I really ask you to consider
strongly the application by Don Kay and The Planet 107.
12304 Thank you.
12305 THE
SECRETARY: Thank you.
12306 We will now
proceed with Sarah Pocklington. You have
ten minutes for your presentation.
INTERVENTION
12307 MS
POCKLINGTON: Thank you. I am really delighted to have the opportunity
to be here.
12308 As you have
mentioned, my name is Sarah Pocklington, no relation, for anybody who is a
hockey fan.
12309 I have spent the
majority of my life living in Edmonton but I've had the good fortune not only
to live in various cities across Canada but also internationally.
12310 I am a graduate of
the Vocal Performance Program at Grant MacEwan.
I have taken courses on percussion, theatre and dance and I have been
singing professionally since I was 15 years old.
12311 I guess I like
school. I have an Honours B.A., a
Masters in Native Studies and I'm currently working on my Ph.D. focusing on
Contemporary Aboriginal Music in Canada.
12312 I have been
teaching at the post secondary level for almost 20 years, most of that as an
Adjunct Professor for the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of
Alberta.
12313 I have co‑developed
what I have been told by the University is the first course offered by a
Canadian university on contemporary aboriginal music.
12314 I am Cree‑Métis
and actually had ‑‑ when I first met Don, I would say that was
several weeks ago, I found out that Don is also Métis and I think that stands
Don in good stead. He obviously knows a
lot about his heritage, which makes him a person that really understands the
needs of community and what community is about.
12315 I am also a member
of the aboriginal women's trio Asani, and Asani in the Cree language means
rock.
12316 Our music is
really distinct. We carry with us the
traditional influences of First Nations and Métis music accompanied by drums
and rattles, and more recently World Beat rhythms, and we combined that with
our own blend of traditional vocals infused with the sounds of Jazz, Folk and
Blues. We also sing a high percentage of
our songs in indigenous languages, predominantly Cree.
12317 Asani's debut CD
Rattle and Drum ‑‑ and yes, it is a play on U2's Rattle and
Hum ‑‑ was released in 2005.
12318 The thing I found
very interesting about this was we had a lot of people asking us to make a CD
and we really didn't know very much about that.
We ended up receiving a $3,000 grant from the Alberta Foundation from the
Arts and that is what we used to make our CD.
That is all the money we had.
12319 We ended up
recording our CD in one day live from the floor at Convocation Hall at the
University of Alberta. I had the help of
a terrific producer and an engineer who believed in us enough to help us.
12320 I have to say,
initially to our dismay and great delight, this CD has been nominated for 11
music awards across North America, including a 2006 Juno for best aboriginal
recording of the year.
12321 We were the
recipients of the Canadian Aboriginal Music Award for best female traditional
cultural roots album of 2005.
12322 We are currently
in the process of recording our second CD and ‑‑ and this has
been mentioned several times here ‑‑ we are in a position
where we are struggling to complete this CD because of lack of funds.
12323 However, we are
very fortunate to be working with Barry Allen from Homestead Recorders, who has
been mentioned here and has also presented.
I have to say that everybody knows that Barry is a renowned producer‑engineer. He has received many, many awards. But what is astounding about Barry is his
passion and support for aboriginal and Alberta artists and, I have to say, he
has an incredible ear.
12324 So Asani, like so
many artists, especially those who are working in the area of specialized
music, is trying to find funding for our CD.
Our music is so different that I think it often falls between the cracks
even within funding institutions.
12325 Asani has
performed at Carnegie Hall in New York City, the Kennedy Center, as well as the
Smithsonian Folk Life Festival in Washington, D.C., Talent du Sud at Medan,
France.
12326 We have performed
at festivals across Canada, U.S., Finland, Africa. We composed the music for the opening section
of the opening ceremonies of the World Champions in Athletics in Edmonton in
2001, and we have been featured artists at Canada Day celebrations in both
Montréal and on Parliament Hill where we have our own version of O Canada that
has gotten really strong support. We
sing that in three languages, including Cree.
12327 We also received
the prestigious Fleck Fellowship from the Banff Centre in 2003.
12328 I have to say it
can be very discouraging. Asani has
never been invited to perform at any major festival in Edmonton or in Alberta.
12329 Edmonton needs a
radio station that will play music by Edmonton, Alberta and Canadian artists
whose music doesn't fit the format of many of the other commercial radio
stations out there.
12330 As has been
mentioned, there are many great musicians and bands around Edmonton and other
parts of the province that fall through the cracks. Even if their music is fabulous, it isn't
heard on the air. Obviously, if artists'
music isn't heard they don't get offered those opportunities that are out there
to perform at amazing venues. They
struggle.
12331 So not only are
the artists missing out, but the public is missing out, too, because the public
is not having access to this great music.
12332 The Planet's
commitment to playing diverse music styles means there is a greater variety of
artists that will have their music played and I think that is hugely important,
especially for groups that are like Asani.
12333 The Planet and Don
Kay have made a commitment to highlight the music of these artists on their
station. That is a huge bonus for this
city and for the artists.
12334 But further to
this, I have to say I didn't know Don Kay prior to three weeks ago and the fact
that Don Kay took it upon himself to find an artist like myself who creates and
performs this specialized music, and I also happen to be Cree‑Métis, and
then offer me the opportunity to speak here to you today really highlights his
and The Planet's commitment to actually follow through with their mandate to
include these diverse music styles and this greater variety of artists in their
programming.
12335 The fact that The
Planet would be actually located in Edmonton and operated by people who live
here rather than 1,000 miles away, how can you beat that? It gives a voice to Edmontonians. It celebrates all that Edmonton is.
12336 It offers a real
and meaningful way to support the vibrant music and the arts scene, as well as
the artists in and around Edmonton, Alberta, a place where local artists' music
is not just played on the air, but where we have the opportunity to get to
know, in a real sense, the people who are operating the station, a place where
our music, our voices and our opinions can be heard not just through a
telephone call, but through real relationships with real people that have the
opportunity and the authority to make decisions about how this station
operates.
12337 The fact that the
decisions are made right here in Edmonton, that there is no checking with the
head office some place in the eastern part of Canada is a powerful thing.
12338 Under these
circumstances there is a strong likelihood that the decisions that are made by
this radio station will be made in favour of what is in the interests of
Edmonton and Alberta and the artists that live here. I think that is hugely important.
12339 The Planet's
commitment to Alberta's independent artists is backed up with meaningful
financial support, festivals, special programs, sessions that offer emerging
artists information required to build their music career, beginning on how to
access funds through institutions like FACTOR.
12340 This program that
they would have where artists can compete for $10,000 at the beginning of their
music career to make CDs and then have that ramped up for three different
artists or groups so that they have enough money not just to make the CD, but
to actually do promotion and marketing, that is where independent artists
really struggle.
12341 So from my
perspective that is just huge.
12342 On a personal
note, I have to say that Don and I have had several discussions about The
Planet's commitments to get involved with musicians here and help them make
things happen. I can't say enough, quite
honestly, about how I am so impressed with his passion, his dedication and his
ability to pull together the team that you saw present a few days ago.
12343 That speaks a
great deal about his character, his knowledge and his track record, in my
opinion.
12344 I hope that you
will support The Planet's application. I
think that The Planet will become so much more than just a radio station. I think that The Planet can become a viable
component of the fabric of what makes Edmonton and Alberta a great place to be.
12345 Thank you.
12346 THE
SECRETARY: Thank you.
12347 We will now
precede with Nestor Pistor Productions Ltd.
12348 Please introduce
yourself, after which you will have ten minutes to make your presentation.
INTERVENTION
12349 MR. AST: Good morning and welcome to Alberta. My name is Don Ast. I am also known as Nestor Pistor.
12350 I sit on ACTRA's
board as the national representative for Alberta. I have five Juno nominations, five gold
records, two platinum records and this all didn't happen by circumstance.
12351 When I first put
out the record of Winestone Plowboy ‑‑ which is a parody on
Rhinestone Cowboy ‑‑ we needed a vehicle. The vehicle naturally was radio. I am going back a few years now when radio
was really radio, when radio gave the personalities or the DJs on the air licence
to communicate with people.
12352 This doesn't
happen any more. They are tightly
scripted and it has just taken the personage out of radio. But I did get airplay.
12353 I did get airplay
and when my third record came out January 6th, 1976 there was an unprecedented
sale of 78,000 albums on the first day of release. This was because radio gave me the
opportunity of going on the air, talking to DJs, having fun and letting people
know who you are, what you are.
12354 It was a
marvellous trip, and it still is in certain circumstances, because there are
still radio stations that will say, "Oh, Nestor is in town. Let's give him a call and see if we can get
him on the air."
12355 That's a plus to
any artist, because once they know you are in town the phones start ringing at
the venues that you are in and all of a sudden you have SOR on your door. But without that, you don't get that
opportunity to do so. You don't get the
opportunity of reaching people and having them hear you.
12356 Radio is a
communication device and I don't know how many people in the world sit at home
alone and the only people that they can talk to or talk with is the guy on the
radio. I do it myself. I do it myself.
12357 It is a
communication device and with what Planet has in mind it is going to give every
artist of every genre a chance to be heard, to be played, and to make something
of themselves.
12358 It has to
happen. It is a commitment made. And knowing Don, and being on his radio
stations where he welcomed every artist with open arms to sit down and talk for
almost as long as they wanted to, I know that his resolve is going to hold
through right up until the end.
12359 But I have to say
something as my alter ego, Nestor Pistor.
12360 Now Nestor is an
old country guy that speaks with a dialect.
I don't know if you people are familiar with Nestor Pistor or if you
have ever heard of Nestor Pistor, but there are two languages that Nestor
Pistor speaks at home. One is English
and one is broken English.
12361 So I am going to
relate to you a story about my uncle Tom Pratchuk(ph) who was live over here to
Harry Hill, Alberta. It is very true.
12362 One day he was
kind of puttering around the yard, you know, feeding the chickens, throwing the
horse over the fence some hay. Pretty
soon a guy drive up in a nice automobile and say, "You Tom Pratchuk?" He say, "Yeah, that's me." He say, "You live in Rural Route 3,
Harry Hill?" "Yes, that's me,
Rural Route 3." He says,
"Well, listen, I got to do something over here to your land. I'm a Commissioner, you know. I want to go around your land because I have
to find what water levels are and what everything is about, and I need access
to every place of your entire farm."
He said, "Mister, you go do whatever you want, but whatever you do,
whatever you do, don't go to that field over there." He said, "And why can't I go there? I'm Commissioner. You see this piece of paper here?" He say, "Yes." He say, "Well, that's licence. That's licence give me every opportunity to
go where I want to go, to do what I want to do and to see everything and you
can't stop me. You understand
that?" He says, "Sure, but I
got to say, please, be my guest, go wherever the hell you want. You know, what can I say. You got the licence. You do whatever you want."
12363 So that
Commissioner, the first thing he go to that field. Oh‑oh.
Now my uncle, he putter around, do some raking, water the plants. All of a sudden he hears, "Help me! Help me!
Please, Tom, help me!" He
looked and he ran to the field and there is this Commissioner running as fast
as he can and uncle big bull with horns like that chasing him. Every step he take, every step that bull get
closer. He says, "Help me! Please help me! This bull is going to kill me." My uncle look at him and he say, "Ha,
you smart in the pants Commissioner, show him your licence."
‑‑‑ Laughter /
Rires
12364 MR. AST: Well, kind of a two‑way street here
because when you people hear all the wonderful things The Planet has for all
the great artists, Alberta artists, Edmonton artists, what they could do for
them, they need one thing. They need you
to give them that licence because without that licence, none of this great
stuff is going to happen.
12365 So I ask you
humbly and with respect, please, Edmonton needs the station. Give them that licence.
12366 Thank you.
12367 COMMISSIONER CUGINI: (Off microphone)
12368 THE
CHAIRPERSON: You should at least use
your microphone.
12369 Commissioner
Molnar...?
12370 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: Thank you. I'm a bit afraid.
‑‑‑ Laughter /
Rires
12371 MR. AST: Don't be afraid, I don't bite.
12372 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: No. I will tell you that my parents were very big
fans of yours and there were many times they were laughing about Nestor Pistor.
12373 And I come from a
farm, so you are not going to catch me in a field without looking for a bull.
‑‑‑ Laughter /
Rires
12374 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: I understand you have had a long
experience with ‑‑ I'm sorry, now I have lost his name with
this ‑‑ with Mr. Kay, and that it has been a very positive
experience, but you are an established artist and I wonder if you can tell me,
is this something that is truly unique?
12375 There is a lot of
radio available across Canada and even here in Edmonton. You come here representing Mr. Kay
specifically, and I wondered if there was something specific that you have found
through your relationship with him, through your experience with him, that is
in fact unique?
12376 MR. AST: Yes, I do, Candice. It's his openness and willingness and
unselfishness to artists. He is not a
man that says we have a radio station here and we have a formula or we have a
format that we have to follow, and if we don't follow it to the precise thing
it is going to kind of throw everything up in the air.
12377 That is neither
here nor there with Don.
12378 Ever since I have
known him, ever since he has been a manager of many radio stations and you walk
in there or he tries to get a hold of you, he is a gentleman that you don't
have to really attempt to contact. He is
a gentleman that attempts to contact you if he knows that you are in town, if
he knows that you are in a venue.
12379 This speaks well
of him because this gives me the knowledge within myself that this man is not
going to shirk on what he says he is going to do.
12380 I think it is a
true commitment, I think it is a noble commitment and I know for a fact that he
will follow through with everything that he says he is going to do. That is a big plus for Edmonton and Alberta.
12381 I hope that's what
you wanted to hear.
12382 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: Yes, thank you. And thank you for coming here today.
12383 MR. AST: It's my pleasure. Thank you.
12384 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: I would like the ask Mr.
Powis ‑‑ if that is correct ‑‑ you are
talking about your Alternative band and I guess being frustrated with the
inability to get on existing stations.
12385 Are you speaking
particularly of Edmonton?
12386 MR. POWIS: Yes, pretty much. We did send packages Canada‑wide, but I
am speaking specifically about Edmonton.
12387 I think the
problem is that it seems like radio stations' programming is all done out of
eastern Canada and therefore the Edmonton stations just don't know what is here
and what they have.
12388 Yes, so I was
speaking specifically Edmonton.
12389 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: Let me ask about when you are
with this band, one of the other things I wondered is, there are a number ‑‑
and we have heard through this week our applicants come forward with a number
of different packages to support Canadian Talent Development, Canadian Content
Development, and one of the established funds that are available is called
FACTOR.
12390 Is that something
that you ‑‑
12391 MR. POWIS: That we have applied for?
12392 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: Yes, would have applied for?
12393 MR. POWIS: Yes.
Yes, we did apply for the last album with FACTOR. We actually achieved an Alberta Foundation
for the Arts grant for the last album.
12394 We applied for the
last two and got the last one. FACTOR,
we applied for both and were turned down on both.
12395 I think it
wasn't ‑‑ they're musicians.
They don't really know how to fill out the application properly and I
think we learned from our mistakes. I
think if we were to apply to FACTOR again for a grant, I think we would get it.
12396 I guess the point
I'm trying to make is I think we were turned down because our application
wasn't strong, not because the music wasn't strong.
12397 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: Okay. Fair enough, because we have heard that there
is not a lot of Albertan, frankly western ‑‑ I am from
Saskatchewan and it is the same; that the artists are not getting a significant
amount of the money out of FACTOR. It is
not landing was artists within these prairie western provinces and have had
discussions that it is not ‑‑ you know, it is not the
organization. It is just how do the
artists know about it and how are they able to successfully, as you mentioned
here, even fill out the forms to get access to those sorts of funds?
12398 MR. POWIS: Right.
I think that is all improving now.
There are instructions on the Internet now and there are people who will
coach bands on how to fill them out correctly.
12399 I think the bottom
line is I don't think the bands out there are looking for any handouts. They just need to be heard. You can throw as much money as you want at
our band. It doesn't matter. They just want people to hear them.
12400 They want to make
it on their own merits and their own laurels.
They are not looking for handouts.
12401 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: Yes. Fair enough.
12402 Thank you and
thank you for coming here today.
12403 MR. POWIS: Thank you.
12404 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: Ms Pocklington, you have really
given us some compelling reasons to listen.
Obviously you are passionate about this and your band sounds truly ‑‑
it is kind of an interesting story to hear how successful you have become and
yet, as you say, somehow falling through the cracks here in Edmonton and
perhaps across Canada to some extent.
12405 MS
POCKLINGTON: Yes.
12406 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: You, too, mentioned FACTOR. Is that something that has been available to
your band?
12407 MS
POCKLINGTON: We have applied for
FACTOR. We have never received a FACTOR
grant and we do know how to fill out grants.
12408 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: I can't imagine you can't fill
out the form.
12409 MS
POCKLINGTON: No, we know how to fill out
the grants. We have received ‑‑
for the CD that we are working on now we received a Canada Council grant as
well as an Alberta Foundation For the Arts grant,
12410 But the Alberta
Foundation for the Arts grant ‑‑ and I mean we understand this
is the way things go. But the Alberta
Foundation for the Arts grant was very small.
12411 In fact, I have
sat on several juries and it was very interesting to me that the grant that we
received from Alberta Foundation for the Arts was less than 50 per cent of what
we asked for, which is very rare.
12412 So I will leave
that with you.
12413 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: Yes.
12414 Just following up
on what Mr. Powis said, "it is not the money, we are not looking for
handouts, we are looking for airplay", would that be what you feel would
be most effective to help your music as well?
12415 MS
POCKLINGTON: Absolutely.
12416 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: Is it the airplay that is in
need?
12417 MS
POCKLINGTON: No. It's absolutely airplay and I will say
this. We have had just extraordinary
situations where people are like okay, you know, whoever, who are these
women? And then we perform and we have
had so many people say, "Oh my God, this music is fabulous. You know, where do we find you? We have never heard you anywhere. Why aren't we hearing you?"
12418 So yes, I think
that airplay for Asani would be huge.
12419 We are played
occasionally on CBC and occasionally on CKUA.
I have never heard Asani played on any other radio station.
12420 If what people are
telling us everywhere we go ‑‑ so it is not just across Canada
but other places ‑‑ if what people are telling us is true,
then people are interested in our music.
They just need to hear it to know that we exist.
12421 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: Yes.
12422 Well, thank you
very much. As I said, you were very
eloquent and very passionate as you brought it forward. So thank you for coming in, all of you for
coming.
12423 Those are my
questions.
12424 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Just two quick questions.
12425 Mr. Powis, I may
have missed your comment there and I'm just wondering, you said that the reason
you didn't get the money from FACTOR was more related to your application than
the quality of the music.
12426 I'm just wondering
what that was, because I did ask yesterday one of the applicants if it was an
involved process to apply to FACTOR and I understood it was not.
12427 MR. POWIS: Our first application was two pages long, and
I spoke to another band that had received a grant and they showed me their
application and it was 45 pages long.
12428 There seemed to be
a little bit of a problem there filling out the application.
12429 THE
CHAIRPERSON: I thought it was a
form. It's not a form then?
12430 MR. POWIS: Well, you have to make a lot of attachments.
12431 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Oh, I see.
12432 MR. POWIS: Basically what we found out later, you can't
just say you are going to send it out to 200 radio stations in Canada. You have to provide addresses and a contact
person to every radio station.
12433 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Oh, I see.
12434 MR. POWIS: Basically making it your marketing plan. We found out after the fact.
12435 THE
CHAIRPERSON: So once you learned that,
did you apply again and still not successful?
12436 MR. POWIS: No, but we will for our next album.
12437 By the way, one
thing I didn't mention is our newest album, we have actually changed our genre
a little bit. We have made it much more
commercial, radio friendly, again just to get it heard on the radio.
12438 I don't
necessarily like that idea, going away from your roots, but again, that is the
state of the industry here.
12439 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Do you play in the band or
are you ‑‑
12440 MR. POWIS: No.
12441 THE
CHAIRPERSON: You represent them.
12442 MR. POWIS: No, just a fan that has lost an awful lot of
money.
‑‑‑ Laughter /
Rires
12443 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Ms Pocklington, I just
wanted to know how you spell Asani, because I is soon you have a website.
12444 MS
POCKLINGTON: We do have a website.
12445 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Do you? How do you spell that?
12446 MS
POCKLINGTON: I am delighted that you
want to look.
12447 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Yes.
12448 MS
POCKLINGTON: It is A‑S, as in
Sarah, A‑N‑I.
12449 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Okay. It is a good thing I asked. Thank you.
12450 I was just
curious, do you have a video? Would I
see you on APTN, for example?
12451 MS
POCKLINGTON: Yes. We are on APTN probably quite a bit, yes.
12452 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Okay. I will watch for you.
12453 Thank you.
12454 MS
POCKLINGTON: Thank you.
12455 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Thank you all for your
comments. We appreciate you coming. Thanks very much.
12456 THE
SECRETARY: I would now call CKUA Radio
Network to come forward to the presentation table.
‑‑‑ Pause
12457 THE
SECRETARY: Please introduce
yourself. You will then have ten minutes
to make your presentation.
12458 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Excuse me, if I could. There seems to be something wrong with the
copies we have. We are not starting with
paragraph 1 or is that paragraph removed?
12459 Are we supposed to
start at 8?
‑‑‑ Pause
12460 THE
CHAIRPERSON: No, it's not there
actually.
12461 MR. REGAN: My apologies.
That's the photocopier.
12462 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Maybe what we could
do ‑‑ is it possible to fix that? We could just take a break now and then we
will start again in about 20 minutes.
12463 MR. REGAN: Sure.
12464 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Would that be all
right? Would that give you enough time?
‑‑‑ Off record
discussion / Discussion officieuse
12465 THE
CHAIRPERSON: So that would make it
10:40.
12466 Thanks very much.
‑‑‑ Upon recessing
at 1015 / Suspension à 1015
‑‑‑ Upon resuming
at 1045 / Reprise à 1045
12467 THE
SECRETARY: Please be seated. We will now resume.
12468 We will resume
with the presentation by CKUA Radio Network.
Please introduce yourself and you will then have ten minutes to make your
presentation.
INTERVENTION
12469 MR. REGAN: Thank you very much.
12470 My name is Ken
Regan. I am the General Manager at the
CKUA Radio Network. I apologize for the
disruption. It is one of the reasons why
I am protective of CKUA. We need more
money so that we can afford a photocopier, a better photocopier.
‑‑‑ Laughter /
Rires
12471 MR. REGAN: Madam Chair and Commissioners, thank you for
the opportunity to speak to these important deliberations.
12472 Appreciating that
my time is limited I would like, for the record, to provide a bit of history
about CKUA, some background.
12473 CKUA is one of
this country's great broadcasting institutions and pioneers. Founded in 1927 at the University of Alberta,
CKUA was created for the express purpose of using the medium of radio to serve
the community.
12474 One of the things
I am most proud of today is that after 80 years of history, CKUA remains true
to that founding principle.
12475 Over its 80‑year
history, CKUA has established many firsts for Canadian radio: Canada's first educational broadcaster;
Canada's first public broadcaster, predating the CBC by almost a decade. CKUA was also the first radio station in the
British Commonwealth to broadcast as a public service the proceedings of a
Legislative Assembly. In 1995‑96
CKUA was the first radio station in Canada to stream its signal via the
Internet while the Internet was in its infancy.
12476 Following the
deadly Edmonton tornado of 1987, it was CKUA engineers who, with the
encouragement and support from the Alberta government, developed and today
continue to maintain as a public service Alberta's Emergency Public Warning
System. It is the only province‑wide
public alerting system in Canada, and it is a system considered by
jurisdictions worldwide to be one of the finest anywhere.
12477 Today CKUA
broadcasts via a network of one AM and 16 FM transmitters which cover 95 per
cent of Alberta's populated regions from Fort McMurray and the Peace country in
the north to Lethbridge and Medicine Hat in the south, from Banff, Canmore,
Valley in the west to Lloydminster in the east.
12478 CKUA's product
consists of some of the most eclectic, intelligent and informed Alternative
music programming to be found anywhere.
It is made up of Jazz, Blues, Classical, Country, Celtic, Contemporary,
Folk, Roots, R&B and World Music and, I am proud to say, including the
music of fantastic musicians like Harpdog Brown and Asani.
12479 I think, if I may
suggest, during the course of your deliberations when you have heard oblique
references from artists about getting some airplay on radio in Alberta, that
more often than not they are probably speaking of CKUA, perhaps Campus Radio,
but more than likely they are talking about CKUA.
12480 It is what we
do. Support for local, regional and
Canadian artists is our chosen mandate.
12481 This music
programming is backed up by immensely dedicated, knowledgeable and experienced
programmers, many of whom are accomplished or professional musicians
themselves, and by one of the largest most diverse music collections in North
America, consisting of more than 1.5 million selections.
12482 I think this
number is particularly relevant, given that when you consider that the
Encyclopedia of Life, which is an internationally recognized online repository
of information on every known species on the planet, has 1.8 million entries.
12483 The CKUA music
library is a national treasure and I think if you ask any working musician who
knows about it, they will tell you that visiting this collection is akin to
completing a pilgrimage.
12484 But CKUA is about
much more than music. It is also a place
where listeners can hear outstanding information programs. I will just mention a few.
12485 Inspiring
Leadership, a series produced in conjunction with the acclaimed Leadership
Development Program of The Banff Center, which examines the essence of
leadership and its relevance, increasing relevance, in society.
12486 Similarly, an
earlier series entitled The Folkways Collection, which told the story of Moses
Asch, the founder of Folkways Records, and which was produced in collaboration
with the prestigious Smithsonian Institute.
It is now a very popular podcast on iTunes music platform, and during
the first two weeks that the series was available on iTunes it was downloaded
50,000 times.
12487 Madam Chair, this
unique content and the intelligent, informed and respectful way it is offered
are why people in Alberta, across Canada and around the world support CKUA, to
the tune of roughly $3 million annually, a fact even more remarkable when you
consider that these are voluntary contributions for a product that can be
acquired for free.
12488 This support has
made CKUA without question the most successful community‑based
broadcaster in this country.
12489 But inherent in
this success is CKUA's vulnerability, because it is this unique programming and
CKUA's history of serving niche markets that will forever relegate CKUA to
having to survive with the support of a loyal but relatively small audience. Implicit in that equation, then, is the fact
that any potential erosion of an existing small audience that is so crucial to
our existence, particularly one that voluntarily funds our operations, can have
a disproportionately negative impact on CKUA's viability and sustainability.
12490 The situation is
really no different for any community‑based broadcaster serving its
community, I believe.
12491 But it is
specifically because of this particular vulnerability that it is incumbent upon
CKUA to defend its audience position fiercely.
To not do so would be an abrogation of responsibility.
12492 Which brings me to
our intervention against DAWG‑FM.
12493 Madam Chair, even
though CKUA has intervened against DAWG, I have tremendous respect for Mr.
Torres and his desire to support the Blues community of Edmonton. CKUA has its own history of supporting Blues
music in this province.
12494 Our intervention,
though it referenced several issues we feel are relevant, was largely borne out
of concern that a broadcaster seeking to commercially develop a niche music
format, particularly one that has been a mainstay of CKUA for 50 years, does
represent a potential threat of audience erosion.
12495 That being said, I
will say that subsequent to our intervention and Mr. Torres' vigorous defence,
I have had opportunity to meet with and discuss my concerns with Mr. Torres and
I'm happy to inform the Commission that we have agreed that should Mr. Torres'
application be successful on its own merits, we will work collaboratively to
address the concerns specific to CKUA.
12496 In truth, CKUA's
biggest concerns are not specific to Mr. Torres or any one application or
company. I am excited by what I have
seen and heard at these hearings because it speaks directly to the passion, the
dedication and the ongoing entrepreneurial spirit that are the hallmarks of
this industry.
12497 It is the nature
of the business that we will all have occasional differences, but I have been
around the business a while and the Canadian broadcasting industry is one of
the most collegially competitive enterprises I have ever seen. Differences will crop up, but behind the
competition is the foundation of respect and friendship.
12498 Because of this
kinship, I wish that CKUA never had to intervene or challenge anyone's
applications, but the vulnerability is real to CKUA, and I might suggest to all
community broadcasters.
12499 The broadcasting
industry today is staggeringly dynamic and challenging. CKUA and other community broadcasters face
exactly the same challenges and threats as our private and public sector
colleagues: technological change, rising
costs, audience fragmentation and increased competition.
12500 The difference for
CKUA and other community broadcasters is that the resources needed to face
these challenges are extremely limited, our margin for error is minuscule and
our sector is, frankly, handicapped by a patently unfair playing field.
12501 As much as CKUA
may have concerns with individual applicants from time to time, our primary
concern is with the systemic inequities that exists within the Canadian
broadcasting system. On one hand, unlike
our friends in the private sector, CKUA is not allowed to compete on an equal
footing for advertising. We cannot
simply sell more or charge more to improve our bottom line.
12502 Unlike the CBC,
CKUA receives absolutely no tax subsidy to fall back on. Unlike the public broadcaster, we have no
choice but to earn our keep. That's
fine, because in fact we don't want government handouts.
12503 While it may not
be specifically germane to these discussions, I have to tell you that it causes
me great concern and intense frustration when the tax funded public broadcaster
uses our own money to revamp its entire network schedule to, in effect, emulate
if not copy CKUA programming models to create, at the very least, a serious
potential to erode our audience.
12504 I am more than
willing to put CKUA's product up against any other stations in the country, but
I cannot compete with private radio's immense marketing machinery or the guaranteed
tax funded CBC resources which allow them to leverage a place on SIRIUS, XM, on
most if not all telco mobility services, and which allows them to dominate the
broadcasting Internet platform in Canada.
12505 CKUA and other
community broadcasters have made and are making very important contributions to
our respective communities. We all know
we could do much more and we want to contribute more. Like any other broadcaster, we have a right
to not only exist but to thrive. Any
other suggestion would be pure paternalism and is, frankly, unacceptable.
12506 The problem is not
a lack of will, Madam Chair. The problem
is our sector's ability to survive, let alone thrive. The problem is the absence of an appropriate
funding framework of support and systemic inequities that preclude us from
competing fairly in the marketplace on the basis of our product.
12507 I am happy that
Mr. Torres and I have found common ground to resolve our specific issues, but
CKUA's greatest concerns are not with Mr. Torres alone, or with Rawlco Radio or
any of the fine applicants who have appeared before you in these past
weeks. Our greatest concern is with
these inherent and systemic inequities in our system and their potential for
significant negative impact on CKUA and the entire community broadcasting
sector.
12508 I thank you for
this opportunity.
12509 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Thank you.
12510 Commissioner
Cugini will do the questioning. Thanks.
12511 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: This is going haunt you, Madam
Chair.
12512 I'm just saying,
if you weren't here, Mr. Regan, she ‑‑ to say mispronounced my
last name on a day of the hearing would be an understatement.
‑‑‑ Laughter /
Rires
12513 MR. REGAN: That's why I have stuck with a simple one
like Regan.
12514 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: Thank you for your intervention
here today. Believe me when I say that
the Commission understands and appreciates the special role that CKUA plays in
the Canadian broadcasting system.
12515 I am going to
start with the end of your presentation and I can't help but think that it is a
preview of a submission urging us to review the Community Radio Policy.
12516 MR. REGAN: I think that's fair to say. It may also may be a preview of a submission
that we plan to make with respect to broadcasting in the new media as well,
because there are issues specific to that particular component of the industry
that are crucial in the underlying case that I'm trying to make.
12517 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: I would suggest that that is
probably your best route, in the sense that the Commission will continue to
license commercial radio stations if the market so warrants, and I think that
you raise some very valid points that the Commission must keep top of mind in
those decisions, as I said, the role that community radio plays and the
potential impact and that perhaps a bigger form is also something that needs to
be added to your schedule.
12518 Now, your written
intervention did focus on the Torres application in particular.
12519 MR. REGAN: Correct.
12520 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: I think it is great that you and
Mr. Torres were able to reach an agreement to collaborate, so you know I am
going to ask you if you can provide us with more details as to what shape that
collaboration will take.
12521 MR. REGAN: Well, it's not in writing as yet ‑‑
12522 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: I understand.
12523 MR. REGAN: ‑‑
but I can say that Mr. Torres has offered to assist CKUA in providing free
air time to promote our fundraising activities, for example.
12524 We conduct two
fundraisers a year to try to raise operating revenue from the audience. We have been very successful, but certainly
any support that we can achieve around that is helpful.
12525 He has also
offered to purchase advertising on CKUA ‑‑ we have a limited
advertising, restricted advertising licence ‑‑ not to promote
his station so much but to promote community‑based activities that his
station may be engaged in and we can ‑‑ when I talk about
working collaboratively, I think it is a good thing, a way that we can also
assist the work that they're trying to do in the community by promoting those
things within our Blues programming on CKUA as well.
12526 So those were
couple of things that we have spoken about specifically.
12527 We intend to get
together and talk further about other things that we may be able to do, but
those are a couple of specific examples.
12528 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: How much Blues music do you
currently broadcast?
12529 MR. REGAN: We broadcast three hours on Friday evenings,
from 9:00 to midnight, and we broadcast two hours on Saturday afternoons, from
3:00 to 5:00 p.m. Those are Blues
specific programs, block programs if you wish.
12530 It may sound like
odd times within the schedule, but it is not to ghettoize those things at
all. In fact, those programs have
garnered significant audiences in those timeslots, so we are reluctant to move
them around because we don't want to be upsetting or alienating the audiences
that they have developed.
12531 Natural Blues,
which is the program produced by Holger Petersen on Saturday afternoons, is the
longest‑running Blues program in this country on radio. So our history in supporting the music and
the artists and the industry is well established.
12532 As I say, it is
unfortunate that the systemic issues require us to intervene from time to time
and our arguments, the points that we made in our intervention, we feel are
appropriate. But it is not a personal
thing and we don't wish any ill will to anyone.
12533 As I say, we feel
significant vulnerability because we are a small player in a very big and very
competitive market. We have been
fortunate to achieve the success that we have, thanks to the generosity of
listeners who appreciate what we do, but we know without doubt that we are
riding a very strong economic wave at the moment and increased competition,
whatever form it may take, audience fragmentation, however it evolves, are
serious issues for all of us in broadcasting.
We feel a particular vulnerability because of our reliance and the
capricious nature of listener funded radio.
12534 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: And your position is that the
deleterious effect of licensing more commercial radio stations is that it takes
away audience from you, because it doesn't take away advertisers, being a non‑commercial.
12535 MR. REGAN: No, that is correct. That is correct.
12536 There is only one
audience at the end of the day and we are all trying to carve out a piece of
that audience, so the more players there are it stands to reason that the
smaller the piece is going to be for somebody.
12537 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: As far as interventions are
concerned, we all know that for the most part broadcasters are grown‑ups. The great thing about your intervention is
that you were able to strike at least a conversation with the Torres Group.
12538 MR. REGAN: Absolutely.
As I say, you know, CKUA has a tremendous relationship with everyone in
the industry, particularly I would say with the private sector broadcasters who
I think really not only appreciate the niche that CKUA serves, and not only
appreciate the fact that we are survivors and the success that we have been
able to achieve, they appreciate the fact that we earn our way; that just like
them, we make our way on our own product, if you like, the fact that we are not
subsidized in any way.
12539 Again, I worked at
the CBC and I believe in public broadcasting.
So my issue is not with public broadcasting. But it causes me grave concern, as I said, to
see our money being used to essentially mimic or replicate a lot of what we do
in this market and I can't compete with their resources. I can't compete with the wage scale that has
already lured many valuable CKUA employees away from us because we can't
compete with their wage scale.
12540 I can't compete
with the honorariums that they pay to musicians. CKUA insists on paying artists who perform at
CKUA. We insist on paying them a
stipend, but when CBC can offer them three or four times as much as we can
afford, that is problematic for us. I
don't blame an artist for preferring to go to CBC.
12541 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: Well, Mr. Regan, thank you
very much for your intervention here today.
It was quite useful.
12542 MR. REGAN: I appreciate the opportunity.
12543 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: Thank you, Madam Chair.
12544 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Thank you, Mr. Regan.
12545 MR. REGAN: Thank you.
12546 THE
SECRETARY: Thank you.
12547 I would now call
Community Radio Fund and CRA/ANREC, ARC du Canada, ARCQ; Byron Christopher and
Edmonton Public Schools to come to the presentation table and present as a panel
their interventions.
‑‑‑ Pause
12548 THE
SECRETARY: We will start with Community
Radio Fund.
12549 Please introduce
yourself and you will then have ten minutes to make your presentation.
INTERVENTION
12550 MS KAESTNER: Thank you.
12551 Good morning, everyone. My name is Melissa Kaestner and I am the
development consultant for the newly formed Community Radio Fund of Canada, La
Fond Canadien de la Radio Communautaire.
I have worked in radio for 15 years and was most recently the National
Coordinator for the National Campus and Community Radio Association.
12552 We are here today
on behalf of not only the Fund, but also for its three founding associations.
12553 MR. HANNLEY: Hello.
My name is Jay Hannley. I am the
Program Manager at CJSR Radio here in Edmonton, Alberta. It is a campus and community radio station.
12554 I was the Music
Director there for five years and I just recently got to the position as
Program Manager.
12555 MS KAESTNER: The Community Radio Fund of Canada is a
national fund established to support the development of local community
radio. It is our goal to help these
broadcasters reach their collective potential as a well resourced, independent,
diverse, vibrant and accessible media sector.
12556 The activities of
the Fund will reflect the commitment of the sector to principles of localism
and access, respect for and promotion of the official languages of Canada,
diversity and multiculturalism, social justice and high quality programming and
innovation.
12557 We are here today
to talk about how approving the licence for Rogers Broadcasting will contribute
to community radio broadcasting across the country. We will talk about the details of the program
and provide examples of projects that stations could receive funding for, but first
we will give an overview of the Fund itself.
12558 The Fund was
created by Canada's largest community radio associations, the National Campus
and Community Radio Association, l'Alliance des radio communautaires du Canada
and l'Association de radiodiffuseurs communautaires du Québec.
12559 Since the fall of
2004 they have worked together to build this arm's length not‑for‑profit
organization, from initial discussions and research to creating bylaws and
policies, to meeting the CRTC staff and Commissioners and to making our case to
Canadian Heritage, Senators and MPs. The
Associations have contributed considerable financial, staff and volunteer
resources.
12560 The result is a
transparent and accountable funding body that will have a meaningful and significant
impact.
12561 The Fund is open
to all non‑commercial community and community based licensed broadcasters
in Canada and their associations. It
will ensure that financial support is well targeted and used efficiently. Applications for funding will be judged on a
combination of need and merit for projects and activities under the following
program areas: sustainability and capacity building; dealing with emerging
broadcast distribution technologies; local news and spoken word programming;
and, finally, Canadian Talent Development.
12562 In terms of
structure, the Fund is member driven, its membership comprised of the stations
and associations it has been created to serve.
These members will elect an independent board with no directors having
any affiliation with potential recipients, meaning they will not be board
members, officers, staff people or active volunteers at recipient stations.
12563 Additionally, each
founding association will have an ex officio representative to act as an
advisor but will not have a board vote or participate in funding decisions.
12564 In the future, we
may add ex officio positions to represent our long‑term funding agencies
or sectors, which would help achieve our goal of ensuring transparent
management of the funding we receive.
12565 While we intend to
diversify our revenue sources in the future, we are currently focusing on
soliciting contributions from the private broadcasting sector and the federal
government, including the Department of Canadian Heritage.
12566 With regard to
private broadcasters, we have already made significant progress toward
achieving our funding goals. Last month
we publicly launched the Fund by announcing our partnership with Astral Media
Radio, resulting in a $1.4 million contribution over seven years. This will see the Fund distributing grants as
early as this fall through two programs, the Astral Media Radio Artist
Development Assistance Program and the Astral Media Youth Internship Program.
12567 Now that the Fund
has been officially certified by the CRTC, we are able to develop new funding
partnerships with other broadcasters as well.
12568 One such
partnership is with Rogers Broadcasting.
After indicating in their application they wanted to support campus and
community broadcasters, they learned of the existence of the Fund from CRTC
staff. Rogers then approached us to
discuss possible news oriented grants for our stations.
12569 The result is our
proposal to manage the Rogers News Access Program. This program would provide funding to assist
eligible stations in Alberta and across the country to develop and increase
local news and public affairs programming.
12570 MR. HANNLEY: One of the primary functions of community
media is to provide people with a voice that reflects what is happening in the
community around them. With so many
people turning to digital forms of media, terrestrial analog radio now competes
with a wide range of music, news and other content from around the globe. But no matter how much choice they have,
people still need to know about the events and issues in their home
communities, where they live, work, learn, pay taxes, raise children and
socialize.
12571 Local news
orientated programming not only keeps people informed and offers in‑depth
analysis and relevant local issues, it can also help hold local decision‑makers
accountable, encourage dialogue and participatory decision‑making and
contribute to sustainable community development. Increasing the capacity for not‑for‑profit
community stations to carry this out provides community members with a unique
opportunity to actively participate in researching and broadcasting their own
news orientated programs as an alternative to passing consumption of news.
12572 It will play a key
role in ensuring that the not‑for‑profit community media remains
relevant in the future.
12573 Having consistent
on air news programming is a common goal of stations in our sector. Most stations offer at least some programming
geared towards news and public affairs.
For the most part this occurs through weekly programming focused on
specific issues.
12574 For example Terra
Informa, an environmental news program on CJSR in Edmonton, Dynamic Health on
CFRO in Vancouver Co‑op Radio, Aboriginal Connections on CKUW in Winnipeg
and Critical Thinking, a municipal politics program on CFRC in Kingston.
12575 There are a few
stations that have the resources to produce daily news programming such as CKDU
in Halifax, CKUT in Montreal and CHRY in Toronto, but this is rare.
12576 The key challenges
the stations face in realizing regular local news oriented programming can be
attributed to a lack of resources, which leaves them with insufficient staff,
equipment and inadequate training to produce frequent, thorough and reliable
news.
12577 Through the Rogers
News Access Program stations will be eligible to apply for grants to help with
the infrastructure, training and production.
Half of these grants would be given to stations in Alberta and the
remaining half to stations in other parts of the country.
12578 In the area of
training, stations could receive grants to strengthen the presence and improve
the quality of news oriented programming to serve their local communities.
12579 For example, a
station could bring in experienced researchers, journalists, reporters and
other news producers to conduct workshops and training sessions so that new and
experienced volunteers and staff can learn skills relevant to high‑quality
news broadcasting.
12580 In the area of
production, grants could be available for stations to purchase portable
recording equipment. It can also enable
stations to develop custom software to facilitate digital editing and enable
stations and their volunteers to share news and information locally and nationally
across the community radio sector.
12581 In the area of
infrastructure, stations could receive grants to hire consultants to help
establish a sustainable news department or develop news and editorial policies
and style guides. They could also hire
short‑term interns or producers to develop story ideas, conduct research
and recruit local volunteers to help create news oriented programming.
12582 MS KAESTNER: Rogers Broadcasting's contribution to the
Fund will increase the capacity of stations in the community radio sector to
produce news and strengthen the presence and quality of the news and public
affairs programming they provide. It
will also foster increased opportunities for community members to participate
in newsmaking, thereby increasing the diversity of voices and perspectives on
the airwaves.
12583 We ask the
Commission to consider this impact when awarding licences for the Edmonton
market.
12584 Thank you. We welcome your questions.
12585 THE
SECRETARY: Thank you.
12586 We will now
proceed with Mr. Byron Christopher.
12587 You have ten
minutes to make your presentation.
INTERVENTION
12588 MR.
CHRISTOPHER: Thank you very much and
good morning, Madam Chair and Commissioners.
12589 Right off the bat,
a very belated warm welcome to Edmonton and to Alberta. I think I have new respect to the CRTC after
watching you in operation for about a week and a half. You certainly have an awful lot of
information to go through and I do not envy your job. There have been very good presentations here.
12590 I am a little bit
like Harpdog in that I'm kind of nervous talking to the group. It is not the microphone. I feel like I am appearing before the
Broadcasting Supreme Court. There is a
lot at stake here.
12591 I would like to
thank Cindy Ventura for her help. She
has been an excellent traffic cop. I
have been badgering her to find out when I am appearing and she has been very
patient with me.
12592 Yes, I am here on
behalf of the Rogers application for an all news operation here in
Edmonton. I support that fully and with
my heart.
12593 Another news
operation here is desperately needed.
The key word is desperate. It is
like we need it like a slow steady rain after a long drought. The fact is Edmontonians have been suffering
through an information drought for about two decades.
12594 Radio news rooms
here have been decimated. I know you
have heard this probably from one end of Canada to the other, but you are going
to hear it again.
12595 I don't think
there is one FM operation here in the city that has a dedicated reporter, not
one. That is a huge change from the time
I got into the business 30 years ago.
The proof is over here.
12596 I mean, you have a
media table set up and I haven't seen too many reporters here. But if this was the early 1980s, there would
have been quite a few reporters.
12597 So for a long time
now there has been no real competition.
12598 I notice that with
all the speakers here ‑‑ and I include myself ‑‑
we speak with passion. We have different
interests and certainly with a lot of passion.
I too have a lot of passion for the news business.
12599 I was asked at an
employee evaluation just a few years ago how would I rate my loyalty to the
company? It is a bit loaded. I said it comes in second. My loyalty is to the audience and it always
will be.
12600 Whether I work for
one company or Al Jazeera or CBC, it doesn't really matter. My loyalty has always been to the audience.
12601 To give you an
example of a lack of media coverage, about 2002 or so I was reading news on one
of the AM stations in Edmonton on the weekend ‑‑ I was also
the reporter ‑‑ and I forgot to check my faxes. Five hours later I checked them and found an
important fax: a news release from the
Edmonton Police Department about a homicide.
I quickly got it on the air and the remarkable thing was we broke the
story.
12602 That illustrates
the drought here. That would not have
happened in the 70s, there was such competition here.
12603 I'm sure ‑‑
and I hate to say this to a panel of three women, but I have to use a sports
analogy.
12604 I'm sure you have
watched hockey teams where teams have been playing with two players short. Edmontonians have been watching a game here
where their team has been four players short.
That accounts for a lot of smoke and mirrors in the industry, a lot of plagiarism. I hate to say it, but it goes on.
12605 I think the big
losers ‑‑ I listened to these corporations, the suits talk
here about their fear of competition, but really the big losers are the people
of Edmonton. They are not given a choice
in information. They are not given a
choice in many stations, to start with.
12606 It is the
equivalent of asking the people of Edmonton to buy their cars at one
dealership, essentially a General Motors car.
If there are two dealerships, it is owned by the same company. It is not a level playing field, not even
close to it.
12607 So not only do
Edmontonians need more information, they need different kinds of information,
different outlooks, not the same editorial voice. That won't work. It works fine in North Korea or Cuba, but not
here.
12608 I know the
buzzword that I have been hearing here is diversity of voices. That simply means we need more voices.
12609 I believe
consumers need a choice in news, the same way you need a choice when you buy a
vehicle or any product. Competition is a
good thing and choice is a good thing.
12610 When the Calgary
Flames made it to the NHL Stanley Cup finals a few years ago, guess which team
followed them the following year to the finals?
It was the Edmonton Oilers. That's
competition. That's pride.
12611 If we get another
great newsroom here ‑‑ and there are some here now and I don't
wish to knock the other stations ‑‑ it will only make everyone
better, not just the other stations, the TV stations, newspapers.
12612 There is nothing
that ticks off a media company more than to get a great scoop and to have them
follow it or to try to match it or to beat it.
Competition is a good thing.
12613 Again I use a
sports analogy here, but going back to the so‑called old days where we
played AAA ball here, now it is slo‑pitch. And what is being lobbed across are news
releases, news conferences, wire copy.
It sure ain't journalism.
12614 Ethics. I am big on that. The broadcast industry has a Code of
Ethics. It is administered by the Radio‑Television
News Directors Association. The City of
Edmonton also has a bylaw prohibiting littering and the old Soviet Union had a
Bill of Rights. They don't really mean a
lot unless it is enforced, and they are not enforced.
12615 Competition. One of the caveats I would put in my support
for Rogers is that they put up a Code of Ethics right in the newsroom for
everyone to read and stick it on their website so the public can read and can
look over their shoulders and give them ‑‑ take them to task
if they cross any lines.
12616 By the way, I am
not aware of any newsroom in the city that has a posted Code of Ethics. Some brothels in Vegas do, but newsrooms
don't.
12617 A good friend of
mine recently turned down a job in radio in Edmonton. He was to be a reporter. I won't identify the station. But he walked out after he saw the reporter
steal traffic reports from another station.
There was no shame. He said no
thanks.
12618 I recently
interviewed the infamous paedophile Karl Toft.
That story appeared front‑page news in Edmonton Sun. I offered the tape free to a radio station in
Edmonton on condition that they give credit.
They didn't want to run the story.
Management didn't like to give credit.
12619 The voice of Karl
Toft speaking was broken by a radio station in Calgary. It happened to be Rogers.
12620 One thing I liked
about Rogers' management ‑‑ and it's not very often I praise
suits. But a number of years ago while
working at a private station here one of our reporters joined the Rogers outfit
in Calgary and said, do you know what's neat, they were ordered to credit
sources.
12621 I don't know who
that person at Rogers was, but I would like to shake their hand.
12622 The CRTC could do
its share to. I think you could do more
in enforcing standards. I really believe
that in some instances you are part of the problem and not the solution.
12623 Have you ever
yanked a licence because of plagiarism?
It's rampant.
12624 I would like to
see the CRTC make newsrooms accountable to indicate the sources for stories,
not necessarily names, but to indicate if you pulled that story straight from a
newspaper, say so. I mean, you do that
now with playlists and Canadian content.
I think it is equally as important to have it done for news.
12625 I can't believe I
have only talked about ethics and stopped at three minutes, because I could go
on for three days.
12626 That is the end of
my talk. Thank you and thank you again
for coming here.
12627 THE
SECRETARY: Thank you.
12628 We will now proceed
with Edmonton Public Schools.
12629 Please introduce
yourself, after which you will have ten minutes for your presentation.
INTERVENTION
12630 MR. WRIGHT: Thank you.
12631 Good morning. My name is Stephen Wright. I work for the Edmonton public school system
in a role titled Supervisor. Although
that role carries a title, nobody really knows what that means.
12632 My role is to work
with student transitions dealing with secondary students who are transitioning
to post secondary or the world of work and to develop programming, courses and
help schools in delivering things to assist students in the successful
transition.
12633 One of the roles I
perform is the development of the Skill Center which is going to begin pilot
operation in September 2008.
12634 Edmonton Public
Schools has looked at the programming we provide in our secondary school and
has noticed with the recent cuts to education that we no longer provide
previous courses to students because we can't provide them in the variety of
school settings we have.
12635 So my job and role
were to reinvent what can be done at a school, but instead of providing it to
all of our high schools to relocate the students to the Skill Center for a
portion of their school day.
12636 So one of the
things we will be putting in is a hospital ward in order to teach health
services to students. We do not have
enough students in any one school to fill that classroom, so we will be busing
students to and from the site from other high schools to utilize the facility
and the teacher, because the teacher must have high qualifications to do that.
12637 Our original plan
focused on very traditional courses.
Just like the students, we thought of what roles they traditionally go
to after high school and we never thought of radio. That was never on our agenda because it was
just never in our mind.
12638 Through
conversations with the General Manager from SONiC and World FM, we learned of
the Canadian Content Development as part of this and tried to look at how this
could support school systems or the K to 12 system, not only in providing
instruction through the Skills Center, but also such things as a community
resource database in which we identify community companies that can support
education and things that can be distributed to other schools that are sort of
trickle‑down from the work we do with the Skill Center.
12639 The Radio in
Schools Program, as part of the Canadian content development, is a seven‑year
plan that aligns very well with what we are proposing for the Skill Center,
because it is a phased‑in approach that will allow us to build two sites,
deliver instruction in radio and broadcast journalism that goes along with
other initiatives we're working on.
12640 The money used
from this Radio in Schools Program will provide the equipment, teacher learning
resources and student learning resources that we currently do not receive
funding from Alberta education to buy.
We are funded from Alberta education on something called CEUs, which are
credit enrolment units, to pay for the teachers we have. But there is no seed money to start up new
programs in that.
12641 Also as part of
the Canadian content development Rogers is looking at supporting the work done
at NAIT and we also are partnered through an innovation grant with NAIT to
develop the programming, so this is what content and courses go into that
school as well, so we can leverage that money and that grant money to support
the development of a radio program in the Skill Center.
12642 Why it is
important for us to work with an all news station is because of the
interactions of students with the media; that it maximizes the learning time
for students. If you look at the
curriculum we are starting for Audio 1525‑35 is the name of the course,
it has the students constantly doing something and that's what we look for with
the all news station.
12643 Also we look at
partnering with the all news station because they will have a larger pool of
professional people in the radio station to support student learning, so we
would be able to tap on more people to come out and mentor the students, work
with the students in doing presentations; that there is actually more human
capital available.
12644 Another reason for
getting involved in supporting this application is media awareness. The partnership for the 21st century skills
identified the need for children to understand the myriad of messages from the
broadcast medium that surround them every day.
Unfortunately, that often comes with students learning to cut‑and‑paste,
not citing their sources. Instead, we
must have students access and analyze, so they must have the news available to
them to do that. Then they must evaluate
and create messages of their own to learn and have opportunities.
12645 We feel that the
Radio in Schools focused on journalism will provide all four of these to occur.
12646 The third reason
for getting involved is, as a previous classroom teacher, I taught math and
unfortunately I think I am a good math teacher, but I don't think many kids
woke up and jumped out of bed in grade 8 to come into my math class.
12647 We found not
surprisingly that students are losing out on their option courses and losing
relevancy of education. So they are not
hopping out of bed to come to the course any more, but we are also finding we
have lost the reinforcement and transferable skills.
12648 If we look at
journalism, it is easy to recognize that they reinforce our language, our arts
curriculum and our social studies curriculum.
But when you look a little deeper, there is statistics, there is ethics,
there is technical skills, career awareness, science inquiry. All of that can be reinforced in the option
classes. We don't need to keep putting
kids into more academic courses and wondering why they're not succeeding any longer.
12649 The one area that
I am out of my element in speaking about but I want to mention is the
future. This is a seven‑year plan
and I don't know where radio will evolve to in seven years. I am simply a consumer of the radio system.
12650 We do know that
students readily use new technologies, and often faster than our teachers, but
I was fortunate to teach both teachers and students PowerPoint when it was
first introduced and we found the same thing occurred in adults and kids: everybody learned very quickly how to have
things fly in and the typewriter sound as words appear, but they lost the fact
that there had to be a message on that screen; there had to be content.
12651 We want to teach
media literacy to our students, not just how to use the equipment.
12652 So I'm pleased
today to be a part of this process. It
has increased my awareness. It has
increased our involvement with the radio community and I am surprised that I
bump into more and more people now involved with radio that I never knew before,
now that I am involved with it.
12653 So thank you for
the opportunity for Edmonton Public to present today.
12654 If you have any
questions, I would be happy to answer them.
12655 Thank you.
12656 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much, all of
you, for appearing.
12657 I'm just
wondering, Ms Kaestner, these funds, Astral, Rogers, these are just the start
of this new funding. What other sources?
12658 I think you
referred in your remarks to approaching broadcasters, I assume you meant in
general, just not people applying for new licences?
12659 MS KAESTNER: That's right.
We are essentially going to seek every opportunity that we can. Since the time that we incorporated the Fund
last November, you know, it is promising that we already have one funder
established, and we are here as part of this proceeding to speak to two other
potential sources.
12660 That is barely
with really getting the word out. We
haven't had a lot of opportunities to really spread the word that the Fund is
here and come on over and talk to us, kind of thing.
12661 So I think as time
goes by and more people learn about us, I think that the opportunities will
open up, whether it is through new licences or renewals or transfer of owners,
those kinds of things.
12662 Then outside of
the private broadcasters we are looking at contributions from the federal
government, as I mentioned, such as through the Department of Canadian
Heritage. That is an ongoing thing and
we have been focused on that because I think, as I also mentioned in the
presentation, the three founding associations have just been putting in any
resources that they currently have.
12663 So now the Fund is
in a position where it has a development consultant that is available to start
pushing this forward little bit more.
12664 THE
CHAIRPERSON: So where are you situated
yourself? Where is your office?
12665 MS KAESTNER: In Ottawa.
12666 THE
CHAIRPERSON: In Ottawa.
12667 MS KAESTNER: Yes.
12668 THE
CHAIRPERSON: I think we have met before.
12669 But you will be
approaching broadcasters, for example established broadcasters in Edmonton as
well, independents?
12670 MS KAESTNER: Yes.
As far as we are concerned, we are available to work with multiple
broadcasters in terms of ‑‑ I don't know what the best forums
or what the best methods are for that outreach, if it is just a matter of
picking up the phone and calling them.
We are certainly willing to do that and hopefully some people will pick
up the phone and call us as well.
12671 THE
CHAIRPERSON: I guess I was actually
wondering if you were going to be proactive or if you were just going to wait
for people like Rogers or others to come to you because they have an idea and
they want to put together an acceptable plan.
12672 MS KAESTNER: Our goal is to be proactive. I just started working out of the office at
the beginning of April. So getting our
website ‑‑ I mean, our website isn't even up and running
yet. It is currently being
developed. Just getting our
address ‑‑ it is actually still a temporary office.
12673 So everything is
still in the development phases.
12674 So even though in
these cases people have approached us with respect to the Edmonton proceeding,
we definitely intend to be much more proactive, even in the coming months.
12675 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Thank you.
12676 Mr. Hannley, are
you also involved with the fundraising aspect of it as well?
12677 MR. HANNLEY: Well, as regard to our individual station,
for sure.
12678 THE
CHAIRPERSON: And your station again was
what?
12679 MR. HANNLEY: It's CJSR.
It is a campus and community station here in Edmonton.
12680 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Oh, in Edmonton.
12681 MR. HANNLEY: Yes.
So we raise money in the same sort of way that CKUA does, through
listener donations.
12682 THE
CHAIRPERSON: And you have great success
at that?
12683 MR. HANNLEY: Not as good as CKUA; but, yes.
‑‑‑ Laughter /
Rires
12684 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Theirs sounded good. Thank you.
12685 Mr. Christopher,
you will be happy to know that I stayed in my room last night to watch the
game. I wasn't happy with the outcome,
but nevertheless I did watch it. And my
husband plays slo‑pitch, so I did get your analogies.
12686 MR.
CHRISTOPHER: You can relate to those,
yes.
12687 THE
CHAIRPERSON: I understand there was a
recent change in format with one of the Corus stations in the last few weeks, I
gather, to add another new station.
12688 Do I have that
right?
12689 MR.
CHRISTOPHER: Okay. I would rather not be compromised on
that. I worked for that station. I know of conversations that were said there
and I would rather not bring them up.
12690 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Okay.
12691 MR.
CHRISTOPHER: If you are trying to get
into there, I must back away from it.
12692 THE
CHAIRPERSON: I wasn't trying to get in
there. I was just wondering if it was
going to be sufficient to address your concern about whether there was adequate
news in the market ‑‑
12693 MR.
CHRISTOPHER: No, absolutely not.
12694 THE
CHAIRPERSON: ‑‑ are adequate diversity of voices?
12695 MR.
CHRISTOPHER: Absolutely not.
12696 THE CHAIRPERSON: Absolutely not.
12697 MR.
CHRISTOPHER: There won't be a diversity
of voices. It's the same news staff.
12698 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Thank you.
12699 As for the
Edmonton Public Schools, I was just wondering, Mr. Wright, when you had
actually hoped to start your Radio in Schools aspect of your Shared Skills
Center?
12700 MR. WRIGHT: The Skills Centre will begin operation this
September. We are running some pilots
this summer to learn from them in the healthcare field and then we will
gradually phase in programs, adding them as we go along.
12701 It is a five‑year
program in cooperation with NAIT, of which this was the first year in
developmental phases. So we are into
year two this coming year and we will be adding programs.
12702 We recently met at
NAIT to decide which of the programs we will work together on and radio was one
that we are working on.
12703 THE
CHAIRPERSON: So will the radio one
proceed with or without the Rogers money?
12704 MR. WRIGHT: Without the money, it will probably not
proceed.
12705 THE
CHAIRPERSON: I was curious to know, you
mentioned the gentleman from The Bounce; I didn't catch the name. Did they approach you or did you approach
them?
12706 MR. WRIGHT: From SONiC and World FM?
12707 THE
CHAIRPERSON: SONiC, was it? Okay. Thank
you.
12708 MR. WRIGHT: And they approached us.
12709 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much. We appreciate you all taking the time to
come. We have read your interventions
and we certainly will consider them.
12710 Thank you.
12711 THE SECRETARY: Thank you.
12712 I would now call
UrbanDNA Events, Jonny Chung, Q99 FM and Peter Kossowan to appear as a panel
and present their interventions and to approach the presentation table.
‑‑‑ Pause
12713 THE
SECRETARY: We will begin with UrbanDNA
Events.
INTERVENTION
12714 MR. BAIG: Thank you.
12715 Good morning, Lady
Chairman and everybody else on the Panel.
12716 I am glad to be
here and show my support for NEW 107.
12717 My name is Tim
Baig and I represent a small group of people called UrbanDNA Events. I am sure you would want to know who I am and
what I do here in Edmonton.
12718 I am a part‑time,
independent promoter here in Edmonton and we are dedicated to bringing small to
medium‑sized concert events and showcases. I consider ourselves more grassroots, meaning
that what we do is more trendsetting and always a step ahead of what's going
on.
12719 Having said that,
you know, I would like to be here today and speak on behalf of the Urban music
community here in Edmonton.
12720 What makes me
qualified to speak on their behalf? For
several reasons.
12721 First of all, I
would like to consider myself active in the community, continuously
active. I work with venues, retailers,
major record labels and most importantly the local artists. It is all in an effort to help build the
emerging Urban music community that is happening here in Edmonton.
12722 I also DJ and have
been doing so for over a decade now. You
know, being a DJ you are always in the know of what's new and what's fresh and
the feedback that you get from people and their ideas of the music selection
that is available here in the city.
12723 Last, I have been
involved with event promotions for the last five years, three years in Toronto
working for one of the largest promotions companies in the country and two
years here in Edmonton as an independent promoter, which has been successful
thus far.
12724 So with all this
experience I have been fortunate to meet all sorts of people, most importantly
getting the feedback from these people, what they like, what they dislike when
it comes to music that is available here in their own city.
12725 Let's just say I
just try to keep an ear to the street in trying to see what people are saying.
12726 So that is why I'm
here, you know, to voice that opinion of the community and say that something
like NEW 107 and its format is something that is in demand and it is something
that would be successful, you know, in the City of Edmonton.
12727 If you are
wondering how I heard about NEW 107 and why I wanted to get involved, it was
through word of mouth initially and from there I took it upon myself to do my
own personal research, looking up their website, checking out their pages on
Facebook, which is very popular, and I was instantly impressed. I was instantly excited.
12728 The reasons why is
because I could relate to the concept and the image that they are putting out
there. I related to it on a personal
level because it is something that I have always wanted to see, and even on the
business level what I am doing with UrbanDNA is kind of what NEW 107 is doing
as well.
12729 You know, it is
young, it is new, and most importantly it is local.
12730 I was also
impressed with the promotional efforts that they put forth and the feedback
they generated in such a short time.
12731 You know, it
wasn't just me, it was the people that were getting excited and they definitely
created a buzz in the city.
12732 So after all that
I took it upon myself, contacting John Yerxa, showing him my support and trying
to get more information about what I could do, and that's how I ended up here.
12733 So basically I
know you are going to ask why do we need a station like NEW 107 here. There are various reasons.
12734 You know, as far
as I know, radio stations are supposed to be a reflection of their target
listeners and I'm here to say that there is a group of listeners, a large group
of listeners, that aren't getting what they want from the local radio
stations. More importantly, it is a
station that could probably bring new listeners to radio.
12735 You know, if
people want to listen to Modern Rock and Classic Rock, we have great stations
like The Bear and SONiC, and for those people who want to listen to Top 40
hits, The Bounce is great for that. I
mean, those stations are great at what they do, but there is a large market
similar to the one that I aim after with UrbanDNA that is 15‑to‑29
years old that aren't getting what they want from radio.
12736 So where are they
turning to? I mean, like everybody else
that knows it is simple. They are going
to their iPods, they are going to MP3 players, they are going online to the
Internet and listening to music just because that is the only place they can
get it.
12737 The people in this
demographic are just doing it at a larger rate, you know, and it is just going
to get larger and larger. So, I mean it
is not a fad, it is not a phase. This is
what is happening and this is the future of music.
12738 The younger people
want variety and because of the accessibility today, I mean we are listening to
more artists, we are listening to more songs, we are listening to more
genres. Everything has just become more,
more, more. So we need to make radio
relevant again to young people and we need to give people a reason to reach for
the radio dial again, because it is losing some appeal with the younger
generation.
12739 One of the
solutions is what NEW 107 is proposing, having a constant rotation of new and
fresh music, which is a format that will keep these listeners coming back and
introducing new listeners to radio again.
That is how we can keep it more appealing.
12740 The most important
reason why we need NEW 107 is because of their commitment to play Canadian
content. It is a commitment I have made
by always making efforts to include local artists at every one of my events,
and I hope that if this station gets approved I could help build these local
artists and the music community with NEW 107.
12741 So I guess one of
the questions that may arise is that, you know, if NEW 107 is some form of an iPod,
then why do we need it? If people can
listen to what they want on an iPod, why do we need 107?
12742 For one, it is
interactive where iPods and MP3 players and the Internet are kind of limited in
that way. People still want to hear a
voice. People still want to hear what's
going on in their city and they want the information to go along with their
music.
12743 Second, NEW 107 is
constantly introducing new music, a constant rotation of music that people
won't hear anywhere else.
12744 Then just some
final notes, probably the most important ones.
12745 I would like to
distinguish between an outlet and a source, meaning NEW 107 will not just be an
outlet for music like other radio stations.
I feel other radio stations are just outlets for music. They are just driving the chart‑based
music and they are good at what they do for certain type of listener. But there is a huge demographic of listeners
that isn't getting what they want.
12746 Instead, NEW 107
will be a constant source, not an outlet.
It will be a source. It gives
people a reason to listen. It is what we
need and that is the key to the station, because I think the young people now
go to the Internet, go to iTunes because it is a source rather than an outlet.
12747 You know, radio
needs to catch up with what is going on, especially with the younger target
market.
12748 You know,
everything else is changing when it comes to the way we listen to music. We are in a generation of constant
progression. Everything is bigger,
everything is better, everything is faster.
And the way the younger generation listens to music now, you know, like
I said, it is not a phase or a fad; this is the present, this is the way the
future of music is going and we need a station that reflects that.
12749 You know, I'm not
saying that we need to reinvent the wheel, but we need to put some shiny new
rims on it and make it more relevant to what is happening now to the younger
generation.
12750 So please strongly
consider NEW 107 for approval. I believe
in John Yerxa. I believe in his group of
people that can make this happen.
12751 Like I said, I
hope that what I'm saying is taken to heart and, like I said, I am speaking on
behalf of many, many people.
12752 I appreciate your
time and thanks again.
12753 THE SECRETARY: Thank you.
12754 We will now
proceed with Jonny Chung.
12755 You have ten
minutes for your presentation.
INTERVENTION
12756 MR. CHUNG: Hello.
As you said, my name is Jonny Chung and I'm a full‑time student at
the University of Alberta as well as an independent Urban artist here in
Edmonton.
12757 First off, I would
just like to say as a science student you don't really do public speaking so I
am kind of nervous, if you can't tell already.
I think the last time I public spoke seriously was in high school, so
please just bear with me.
12758 Like I said, I am
one half of a duo here in Edmonton known as The Greater Good. We are an Urban group here, and we have been
making music since 2001.
12759 As a solo artist I
have been able to open up for such groups as Sweatshop Union and Slum Village,
which was with the help of UrbanDNA.
12760 I am here today to
speak on behalf of John Yerxa and NEW 107.
12761 For the last two
years we struggled kind of just to be heard on local radio. We got a couple of plays on CJSR, because
they have an Urban show, which is the campus radio, but we haven't been heard
on commercial radio yet.
12762 NEW 107, they
launched the website which I heard through word‑of‑mouth from my
peers and they actually contacted me first and were willing to support me and
put me up on the website, and they threw my song up on their website and put me
into the, I guess, online rotation.
12763 Yes, only after a
couple of days I got some feedback from my friends who were also checking out
the site and they are like wow, like you got put on the site. When is this radio station coming out, like
when can we hear you on air? And I was
just telling them that they are applying for it and they were all agreeing that
it would be a great idea to have this kind of station in our city.
12764 As well, if they
gave us this type of support online and through the website and the Facebook
group, which Tim already mentioned, just imagine what kind of support they
would give us if the station were to be granted here, as well as they would
play us not only to the online community that is already supporting, but to the
rest of the community that would hear the buzz and maybe tune in.
12765 The second point I
would like to bring up his John Yerxa, he mentioned to me that they would be
contributing financial backing to independent artists here in the city. One of the names that came up was FACTOR, and
he said that you can go online and fill out a form to have a grant given to you
that would help with financial backing.
He said that they would be a large part in that, contributing financial
backing to that.
12766 The last point I
would like to bring up is I am also a taekwondo instructor to the urban
ministry in the city here, and I teach a lot of youth. One thing that they brought up, which is
similar to my peers, is they aren't just listening to one genre right now. They like every type of music, kind of like
their iPods, but also when you go to the clubs DJs were playing mash‑ups,
which are maybe a Rock song mixed with an Urban song.
12767 So they want to
hear kind of a mixing pot of music and everything.
12768 A lot of interest
has been shown. I would just like to
bring that point up.
12769 Thank you.
12770 THE
SECRETARY: Thank you.
12771 We will now
proceed with Q99 FM.
12772 Please introduce
yourself and then you will have ten minutes for your presentation.
INTERVENTION
12773 MR. TRUHN: Thank you very much.
12774 My name is Ken
Truhn. I am the President and General
Manager of Q99 in Grande Prairie.
12775 I just wanted to
thank you first. I haven't had a chance
publicly to thank the Commission for giving me the opportunity to pursue my
lifelong dream, which was owning a radio station in my hometown, which is
Grande Prairie.
12776 I am here
obviously to speak on behalf of John Yerxa's application for a new FM licence
here in Edmonton.
12777 I have been in
this business ever since I graduated from high school some 32 years ago. I have a great passion for it and still do,
for radio and everything it represents in our community and the communities it
serves across this country.
12778 One of the things
that you may or may not be aware of is the huge contribution that John made to
our application process when we went through it for Grande Prairie, well beyond
what we hired him to do, which was initial research and consultation throughout
the process.
12779 My association
with John goes back a number of years to the Monarch Broadcasting days when
John was initially hired to provide that company with research in various markets. Over the course of time, he and I became
pretty close friends and his experience in radio as a research consultant is
unequalled as far as anyone I have had the pleasure of working with in the
business and a large part of that credibility I believe stems from his
background in the actual operation of radio stations.
12780 The kind of
support John provided us with is indicative of the association he has had with
many other broadcasters across the country, including a lot of friends and
associates of mine, and that is primarily why I'm here before you today.
12781 There aren't very
many of us independent broadcasters left in Canada or across the country. I believe John should be given the
opportunity to build a station in his hometown based on the same set of
reasoning that I applied for one in my hometown. He is local.
He has an extensive background in this business. He has a solid business plan in terms of
format and the niche he wants to carve out in the Edmonton market.
12782 His format
position is unique. When you look at the
radio landscape across the country, I just believe that there must be
opportunities for individuals such as myself and for John to pursue our passion
for radio.
12783 I believe in
circumstances such as this where you have an applicant with expertise, with the
know‑how, with a great plan and an even larger passion for radio, he
deserves that opportunity.
12784 I know John has
many supporters throughout the radio industry.
I know that lots of people are rooting for him. In his case, how unique it is to see an
independent applicant with his entire family around him, not only serving as a
support network but as active members of his presentation team.
12785 I just wanted to
personally attest to the Commission that beyond his skills as a radio
consultant, John has the passion and expertise to introduce a diverse and
meaningful new format to radio listeners in Edmonton.
12786 As an independent
broadcaster, I wanted you to know that he will contribute something special to
this, his hometown, and to radio in general.
12787 Thank you.
12788 THE
SECRETARY: Thank you very much.
12789 We will now
proceed with Peter Kossowan.
12790 You have ten
minutes for your presentation.
INTERVENTION
12791 MR. KOSSOWAN: Thank you.
12792 Madam Chairman,
Commissioners and staff, my name is Peter Kossowan and I have been a constant
promoter of Edmonton ever since I have arrived in 1950.
12793 I have had the
opportunity to know the Yerxa family for a long, long time and they have a
standing tradition in this community in radio and in business. As a youngster, I listened to John's father,
Hal Yerxa, host the farmer's program, basically designed and directed at the
youth.
12794 Then he ventured
into creating his own radio station CFCW Camrose, which still serves a large
part of the province. While operating
that radio station they as a family helped build the community and were
excellent corporate citizens.
12795 The Yerxa family
put the northern Alberta area on the map operating radio station.
12796 Like his father,
John Yerxa is an entrepreneur and, like his father, has special interest in
youth and in business. John and his
family deserve an opportunity to demonstrate and maintain the legacy
established many years ago.
12797 Youth of today, as
always, are in need of guidance, direction and to become responsible leaders of
the future. Given this opportunity, John
and his family can mould the lives of the young and ensure them a bright
future.
12798 I can firmly vouch
for John's integrity, his business knowledge and his drive to serve the
Edmonton community.
12799 History has an
opportunity to repeat itself. Should
John Yerxa and his family establish a radio station of their choice, it will
again be a legacy.
12800 Support of this
applicant is going to further enhance Edmonton and the world of radio
here. I firmly support this application,
knowing it is going to make a difference.
12801 From my own
personal introduction, I am the former Chairman of the Board of Governors at
Grant MacEwan College, which brought the brand new college downtown and, as you
are very well aware, has an arts component to it which is music.
12802 In addition to
that, I brought some fame to Edmonton as the world creator of Toastmasters
International. As I hear many of the
young presenters here, I have a program that can suit your needs.
12803 The Toastmaster
program also has a youth component to it, so I speak on behalf of the community
in favour of this station.
12804 Thank you.
12805 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much.
12806 Commissioner
Molnar...?
12807 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: Thank you and welcome, everyone.
12808 Mr. Kossowan, when
you say you speak on behalf of the community, I have read your intervention and
I have seen your very significant contributions to the Edmonton community. So I think you are well placed to speak on
their behalf, on the community's behalf, and I would like to thank you for
coming.
12809 I don't actually
have questions for you. It was very
clear, both in your written intervention and in what you told us here today, of
your support for the local, if you will, the local presence here in Edmonton
and the family's contributions to this community.
12810 So thank you for
coming.
12811 Mr. Truhn, it was
always very clear of your support for Mr. Yerxa on a personal level, as well as
from a professional level, having worked with him also on your own application.
12812 Is that right?
12813 MR. TRUHN: Yes.
He was our research consultant.
12814 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: I am relatively new to the
Commission and wasn't around at the time when you would have been licensed for
Grande Prairie. When did that occur?
12815 MR. TRUHN: November 15th of 2006 was when the licence
was awarded.
12816 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: How many licensees are there in
Grande Prairie?
12817 MR. TRUHN: Five now.
12818 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: Five.
12819 MR. TRUHN: There was two.
12820 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: Are you the only local
independent licensee in that market?
12821 MR. TRUHN: Yes.
12822 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: How is that working?
12823 MR. TRUHN: It's working just fine.
12824 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: It's working fine?
12825 MR. TRUHN: Yes.
12826 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: So you are competing as a local
independent against regional and national players?
12827 MR. TRUHN: Yes.
12828 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: What do you see to be your
advantages as a local independent?
12829 MR. TRUHN: I think one of the biggest things that has
helped us is that I grew up in that community.
I had 20 years of experience or more in that community when I started. I went to school there and I played sports
there, so I had some ins in the community, especially in the business side of
things before we started. It helped. It went a long ways when we first got off the
air.
12830 I think the
background that I had in the radio business went a long way to helping us get
off the ground as well.
12831 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: Thank you. So you think those are some similar
advantages Mr. Yerxa would have here in Edmonton?
12832 MR. TRUHN: A career in the business and growing up in
this area and the family's history in the business, I don't think there is any
doubt that John would make it successful.
12833 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: Thank you. And thank you for coming here today.
12834 MR. TRUHN: Thank you.
12835 COMMISSIONER MOLNAR: Is it okay if I say Jonny instead of Mr.
Chung?
12836 MR. CHUNG: Yes.
12837 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: I'm quite surprised that
somebody who is a soloist and a musician would be nervous speaking in front of
three old ladies, but there you go.
12838 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: Speak for yourself.
‑‑‑ Laughter /
Rires
12839 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: And no need to be nervous. I think you made it clear what you saw.
12840 I'm interested in
the excitement. Where did you say that
you were attending school?
12841 MR. CHUNG: I am at the University of Alberta.
12842 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: So there is talk around the
university about this potential launch?
12843 MR. CHUNG: Oh, yes.
Like my whole group of friends, there are a lot of Rock fans but there
are a lot of Hip‑Hop fans as well, and this is a station that doesn't
merge them but it gives them a mix and it also throws in some new local talent
that they were interested in checking out.
12844 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: Such as Jonny Chung.
12845 MR. CHUNG: Yes, there is me and there are also a lot of
other urban acts that I have noticed on the website.
12846 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: So when you say there is talk,
how is the talk occurring? Is this like
blogs and different Facebook, or how is this talk occurring?
12847 MR. CHUNG: Yes.
It's on Facebook. You just go to
school and it is through word‑of‑mouth. There are no big posters or bulletins, but I
believe John Yerxa also has ‑‑ one of his sons goes to
University of Alberta, so his group of friends are pretty interested in what he
is doing and how he is helping his dad.
12848 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: Right. Right.
12849 Just a little bit
about your music. Have you received any
airplay anywhere?
12850 MR. CHUNG: Just on CJSR a couple of times, on the Urban
show there.
12851 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: You may not be aware as we went
through this, but there are many applicants and there are many proposals to
offer room and airplay to new and emerging artists, and particularly local
Edmonton artists.
12852 So I think it is
all just good news, what we heard all week here from all of the applicants and
Mr. Yerxa as well was one of those. It
is one of many, so I think you will see growing opportunities in your
community.
12853 Mr. Baig...?
12854 MR. BAIG: That's correct.
12855 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: Properly pronounced?
12856 MR. BAIG: Yes, you did.
12857 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: Thank you. It is actually my scribbling writing
here. I didn't know what I had written.
12858 I am interested
particularly in talking ‑‑ you talked about bringing in acts
and, as a part‑time promoter, you said you are not looking at the
headline acts; you are looking at the small and medium acts to bring them into
Edmonton.
12859 Is that right?
12860 MR. BAIG: That's just because of the budget that I run
with. I am strictly independent. All the money that comes into my promotions
is strictly from my own pocket. So I'm
not getting funded from any outside sources.
12861 I would love to
put on larger shows and bring it larger artists, but right now that is just not
feasible for me. So I have to do what is
in my means.
12862 Like I said, the
driving force behind what I'm doing is more for the love and more because I
know that there is an opportunity to present this type of shows and events and
concerts because ‑‑ I mean, I would like to think we are one
of the leaders, if not the leader in what we're doing with the type of shows
and concerts that we are putting on.
12863 Like I said, it
has been just over two years now and it is just getting better. The turnouts have been great and the feedback
has been nothing but positive. So, yes.
12864 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: So these groups and performers
you are bringing in, are they groups and performers that receive airplay here
in Edmonton?
12865 MR. BAIG: Some of them do. Some of them mostly get airplay at the larger
markets like Toronto and Vancouver, but they do definitely get airplay.
12866 Some of them are
actually Canadian. I usually catch most
of these acts when they do their cross national tours. So I work with them.
12867 A couple of acts I
have brought two or three times and they have got great responses. Like I said, they are small to medium. I mean, I could get anywhere between a
hundred to 800 people. So I'm not
filling up stadiums, but I am filling up some of the great small independent
venues that are here in the city.
12868 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: I wanted to ask you ‑‑
and Mr. Chung you may also want to pipe in on this. Radio does a few things, and two important
things: one is that it entertains and the other is informs. You are here speaking about obviously the
music component about that and speaking about how it takes people from the iPod
and maybe brings them back to radio.
12869 But how is it that
from your perspective ‑‑ and I take this as a personal
perspective. I am not asking you to
speak for all youth or for all people within your community.
12870 How do you stay
informed? If the access is through the
iPod and through the web and so on, what is the source of information, you
know, for you and your group?
12871 It is what radio
does, right. It combines
information ‑‑
12872 MR. BAIG: Right.
12873 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: ‑‑ and entertainment.
12874 MR. BAIG: Right.
12875 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: So how do folks disenfranchise
from radio? The youth if they are using
only the web and only MP3s and iPods and so on, what is the source for
information?
12876 The web doesn't
seem to me to provide a lot of local information.
12877 MR. BAIG: Well, that is one of the reasons why, like I
was saying, the iPods and MP3 players are limited on what they provide. I mean, they are great for the music, but for
radio format we are trying to take the selection of music that people can get
online and on their iPods, transferring that to radio and adding the appeal of
radio, which is being more interactive, which is being informative, because
people still want that.
12878 I think if you mix
the relevant information that people want with the music that they want, it is
just a good mix.
12879 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: That is very fair. I maybe should explain why this question came
to me ‑‑
12880 MR. BAIG: Okay.
12881 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: ‑‑ because I think you are there well, why am I
speaking for all. I'm just thinking, you
are bringing in these concerts ‑‑
12882 MR. BAIG: Okay.
12883 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: ‑‑ so even to promote these concerts, how do you
inform?
12884 MR. BAIG: Oh, okay.
12885 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: You know, because radio to me
seems like a very obvious means of hitting your target audience, to letting
them know you were bringing in a new band, a new group or whatever, and yet it
would sound like the groups that you normally go to are disenfranchised from
radio.
12886 MR. BAIG: This is one of the points I mentioned to Mr.
Yerxa especially, is that I'm in the business of promoting and a radio does
seem like an obvious outlet.
12887 But the markets
that they are targeting, especially The Bounce, isn't, first of all, the market
that I'm going after. I mean, it might
hit some of the people, but for me to spend the money on radio ads and only hit
a small percentage of who I'm going after, you know, didn't really make sense
to me.
12888 That is one of the
reasons why NEW 107 has the same target as I do. For me to advertise on there as a promoter
would make more sense and more ‑‑ you know, it would make more
sense for me to spend the money to do that.
12889 Like I said, I am
smaller and I do have budgets when I do have on the show, and radio promotion
wasn't one of those budgets. I just
never thought it would be the best promotion for me.
12890 Most of our
promotions is online and that seems to be the way it was. Like I said, I have been in promotions for
just over five years and when I first started we used to be very street‑level
promotions. Everything was about
flyering, postering, hitting the retail spots, and it's great for that time
period. But in the last year or two I
have slowly gone away from that type of promotion, and the promotions now have
been more so online.
12891 And it has been
more effective that way because the younger youth are always online, whether it
is going to be on a website, on a blog site, on a discussion board, through e‑mail. People are hitting up all these places and it
saves a lot of time, it saves a lot of money.
And just the effectiveness of online promotions, that is the way I see
everything going now.
12892 You can see that
not even just through independent promotions like myself, but I work with
Universal Urban, I work with Warner Urban here in the city, which are the two
largest urban distributors of music in the country, and they have cut back
their promotions on CDs and promotional materials and everything they do now is
online.
12893 So when I ask them
for promotional material, when I ask them for vinyl, when I ask them for
anything to help me promote, they said, you know, we are moving towards online
promotions now. We will send you
JPEGs. We are going to send you MP3s and
push it through online rather than pushing it on the street.
12894 So this is the trend
that is happening now. I mean, it's
changing even on the promotional side.
12895 I don't know if
that answers your question.
12896 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: No, it definitely answers my
question.
12897 MR. BAIG: Okay.
12898 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: Thank you. I think I'm trying to understand to what
extent, you know, if we have this station, will it stimulate advertising from
disenfranchised groups as well or is it that the target audience is really kind
of pretty solid on their web and, you know, using the Internet as their primary
source of information?
12899 MR. BAIG: I think it opens up new opportunities for
anyone who considered radio advertising but didn't because there wasn't a
proper outlet for it.
12900 You know, like I
said, The Bounce is great at what they do, but for an advertiser like myself
who considers radio, it wasn't the best option for me and something like this
is something that I would consider now just because it works better for me.
12901 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: Okay. Thank you very much.
12902 MR. BAIG: No problem.
12903 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: Thank all of you for coming.
12904 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Thank you all. Your comments are very much appreciated and
will certainly be taken into consideration.
12905 We are going to
break now. We have a Commission matter
to deal with, as I mentioned earlier.
12906 So we will resume
at 2:15. Thank you.
‑‑‑ Upon recessing
at 1220 / Suspension à 1220
‑‑‑ Upon resuming
at 1425 / Reprise à 1425
12907 THE
SECRETARY: I would now call Aboriginal
Voices Radio, Laura Vinson, Canadian Rocky Mountain Festival and Western
Canadian Music Alliance to appear as a panel and present their interventions.
12908 We will start with
the Aboriginal Voices Radio.
12909 Please introduce
yourself and you will then have ten minutes to make your presentation.
INTERVENTION
12910 MR. CARDINAL: Good morning, Madam Chair, Members of the
Commission, Commission staff and ladies and gentlemen.
12911 My name is Lewis
Cardinal. I am the Chair of the
Aboriginal Voices Radio Inc., AVR, Board of Directors. I live here in Edmonton and with me today is
Jamie Hill, the CEO of AVR.
12912 I am attaching
biographical information about Mr. Hill and myself to your copy of this
presentation.
12913 Before we begin I
would like to express thanks for the letters of intervention filed in support
of the Pattison application on behalf of AVR by national aboriginal leaders and
organizations, including: Phil Fontaine,
National Chief, Assembly of First Nations; George Erasmus, CO‑Chair,
Royal Commission on Aboriginal People; Vera Powis Tobobondung, President,
National Association of Friendship Centres, and Beverley Jacobs, President,
Native Women's Association of Canada.
12914 I would also like
to acknowledge and thank local aboriginal organizations and leaders here in
Edmonton for letters of interventions filed in support of the Pattison
application on behalf of AVR, including:
Glori Meldrum, President, Little Warriors Society, Edmonton; Dean Brown,
Executive Director, Canadian Native Friendship Centre, Edmonton; George Vass,
General Manager, Apeetogosan (Métis) Developments Inc.; Giuseppe Albi, General
Manager, Events Edmonton; Dale Hudjik, Program Director, Guru Digital Arts
College; Jared Sinclair Gibson, Executive Director, Sun and Moon; Jack White, Indigenous
Elders Cultural Resource Centre; Muriel Stanley Venne, President for the
Institute for the Advancement of Aboriginal Women; Adrienne Lachance, Director
of Yellow Ribbon Cultural Dancers; Clayton Kootenay, Executive Director of
Oteenow Employment and Training Society; and Len Mundorf, Public Relations
Chair for Teen Time, Edmonton.
12915 I am now ready to
begin our presentation.
12916 Aboriginal Voices
Radio appreciates the opportunity to appear before you today in support of the
application by Pattison for a licence to establish a new FM station here in
Edmonton. Our presentation today will
(a) update you on our current financial situation; (b) explain how we will
utilize the Canadian Content Development Funds pledged by Pattison; and (c)
touch on a few of the reasons why Pattison's funding is important to us and the
Canadian broadcasting system.
12917 We have touched on
many subjects in other appearances before you.
We have indicated that the aboriginal community is Canada's poorest and
most vulnerable community. We have
emphasized the need for a national urban aboriginal service in major urban
centers where the aboriginal population is growing at an unprecedented
rate. And we have touched on the
important role that free over the air radio can play to help a people with old
traditions rejuvenate their languages, cultures and identities.
12918 But we have spent
little time explaining the extent of the financial challenges we face to
establish a national radio service dedicated to serving aboriginal people.
12919 Madam Chair,
ladies and gentlemen of the Commission, AVR requires $10 million per annum to
carry on the operation of a credible, robust, full‑service national
aboriginal broadcasting transmitting undertaking with stations in Vancouver, Calgary,
Edmonton, Regina, Saskatoon, Kitchener, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. $10 million is not an unreasonable estimate
of what it will cost to operate the network.
It costs that much or more just to operate a single commercial station
in Toronto.
12920 As you may know,
AVR has received substantial benefits package pledges since it was awarded its
first licence in 2000. One may think
that this would be sufficient to cover the start‑up costs required to
launch a national radio service.
However, the Canadian Content Development funding is spread over a 16‑year
time horizon that began in 2000 and continues through to 2015.
12921 As a result, the
funds paid over the 16‑year period average only $962,000 per annum, or
less than $1 million per year. That is hardly
enough to sustain the operation of a national radio service with nine stations
across Canada.
12922 AVR will need
almost all of the $962,000 per annum just to keep our nine transmitters on the
air. This is before we invest in
programming.
12923 We note that CCD
packages are not adjusted for inflation.
As you know, $1.00 received in year seven of a benefits package is worth
less, far less than $1.00 in one year.
It is in fact nearly one‑third less.
12924 Moreover, because
of inflation, while the money AVR receives diminishes in value each passing
year, the cost to operate keeps going up.
So the task of securing AVR's financial viability is a never ending
battle that we have been waging for ten years.
It is job one for us.
12925 AVR is currently in
discussions with the Commission on ways to establish adequate stable long‑term
funding. Until we find a way to achieve
this elusive goal we cannot survive without CCD funding.
12926 Last Friday was a
day of celebration for us because of your decision approving Pattison's
application to transfer its AM station in Vancouver to the FM band. As a result of your decision, Pattison's
commitment to contribute $3.0 million over seven years to assist AVR has now
been confirmed.
12927 We thank you and
our friends at Pattison for this timely lifeline.
12928 While we are very
grateful for Pattison's proposed funding, the $428,571 per annum that we will
receive will merely replace funding that expires at the end of next year from
another broadcaster.
12929 Therefore, in
order to advance beyond where we are, the funding proposed by Pattison in these
Edmonton proceedings is crucial to us.
This funding will help us to: sustain existing operations; meet the
daily news and local programming requirements that come on stream for Edmonton
and each of our other markets next April; and launch our stations in Regina and
Saskatoon.
12930 But Pattison's
funding is about much more than AVR's financial capacity to grow and develop
its service. It is about access, giving
aboriginal people access to the Canadian radio broadcasting system.
12931 As you know, there
are no aboriginal programs on the CBC's main network in the south, few if any
aboriginal programs in major urban centers on private sector commercial
stations, and only a limited patchwork of aboriginal programs on campus and
community stations across Canada.
12932 Lack of access is
also a problem on aboriginal stations.
If you listen to the overwhelming majority of aboriginal stations in
Canada, you will hear very few if any songs by aboriginal artists and
musicians. Instead, they play commercial
Pop Rock and Country music from the American charts by non‑aboriginal
artists and musicians.
12933 In addition, most
aboriginal stations feature very little aboriginal enriched spoken word
programming. As a result, it is often
difficult to tell the difference between aboriginal stations and commercial
private sector stations.
12934 By comparison, all
of the music featured on AVR is by aboriginal artists and musicians. Moreover, 50 per cent of the music we play is
aboriginal Canadian music by aboriginal Canadian artists and musicians.
12935 In addition, AVR
is the only station in Canada with an enriched spoken word commitment of nearly
20 hours per week. Like everything else
we do, all of our enriched spoken word programming is distinctly aboriginal.
12936 In the
circumstances, we believe AVR is the only radio service in Canada featuring
distinctly aboriginal music and spoken word programming on a dedicated 24‑hour
basis 7 days a week. To our mind AVR is
an important national cultural institution.
It stands alone among all stations in Canada providing aboriginal people
with free and unfettered access to the Canadian broadcasting system through its
network of stations in major urban centers.
12937 But lack of
funding constitutes a significant and ongoing challenge, forcing AVR to operate
a skeleton service which lacks the financial capacity to provide aboriginal
people with meaningful access.
12938 What is meaningful
access? In our view, meaningful access
means giving aboriginal people the quality of news and spoken word programming
that they deserve. It means providing
aboriginal people with the quality of programming that Canada's broadcasting
system provides non‑aboriginal people.
12939 At present, AVR
can only offer old and tired spoken word programming repeated over and over
again because we do not have the human and financial resources to develop
fresh, new and vital aboriginal programming every day.
12940 In effect, the
funding proposed by Pattison in this licensing process is essential if we are
to provide aboriginal people with the quality of access enjoyed by non‑aboriginal
people on non‑aboriginal radio stations.
12941 In conclusion,
according to financial information provided by the CRTC, there are more than
600 privately owned commercial radio stations in Canada. These stations achieve annual revenues in
excess of $1.4 billion. Over the years,
commercial broadcasters have built large and profitable companies through the
use of scarce public frequencies. Many
of the broadcasters who benefited from the profits gleaned from the use of
these frequencies later sold their companies, reaping millions and in some
cases billions of dollars in the process because of the asset value of radio
and television frequencies.
12942 In the period
between 2003 and 2006, the Commission licensed 233 new over the air radio
stations, including 76 new stations in 2006 alone. We do not begrudge the use of spectrum by any
broadcasters, aboriginal or non‑aboriginal, but since existing aboriginal
and non‑aboriginal broadcasters feature mostly mainstream commercial
programming, AVR has a critical and strategic role to play in giving aboriginal
people access to Canada's radio broadcasting system.
12943 Until long‑term
solutions are found to fund AVR, AVR cannot fulfil its role unless you approve
interim CD funding opportunities as they come along, including the funding
opportunity before you as proposed by Pattison.
12944 We therefore urge
you to approve Pattison's application for one of the four frequencies available
here in Edmonton.
12945 Thank you.
12946 THE
SECRETARY: Thank you.
12947 We will now
proceed with Laura Vinson.
12948 You have ten
minutes to make your presentation.
INTERVENTION
12949 MS VINSON: (Off microphone)
12950 ... a little
louder there. So I'm hoping that you
will be answering (Cree language spoken), which means I am fine.
12951 I am an aboriginal
recording artist and singer/songwriter.
I have about 30‑some years in the music business. We won't go there. But quite a few CDs, awards, nominations,
that sort of thing. The ones I'm most
proud of are the Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal from Senator Chalifoux; a Woman
of Vision Award from Leslie ‑‑ you probably know who I
mean ‑‑ and the Esquio Award from Muriel Stanley Venne.
12952 I don't say that
to brag about things but just to let you know what my connection is to the
aboriginal community here in the city and in the musical community, as well.
12953 I was Executive
Director at Ben Calf Rope Society for seven and a half years as well as my 15
years there. I can't say enough about
what he has already said.
12954 I have been the
recipient of FACTOR grants, also Canadian Council grants, and I have been a
juror for both of those, as well as a juror for the Canadian Aboriginal Music
Awards. I am also a teacher.
12955 So when I got this
thing from my friend Gerry Siemens from Pattison, I was absolutely ecstatic
that somebody was going to put some money into emerging aboriginal artists,
into things like the station, the radio station that they are proposing, that
would just be such an invaluable outlet for our music.
12956 The interesting
part of their input into FACTOR is that they will also be emphasizing the
grants going to western Canada.
12957 As a juror on the
FACTOR committees I know where a lot of the money goes, and as a juror for the
Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards I know where a lot of those awards go as was
well, and they don't go ‑‑ they go disproportionately not to
western Canada.
12958 There is so much
going on down east in the aboriginal music industry, it is a real eye‑opener
and the people out here don't know that.
Our artists out here are not getting the kind of chance that they
should.
12959 Like I say, I have
been in the industry here for many, many years.
Had there been this kind of opportunity for myself and the AAA station
that they are also proposing, I probably wouldn't be sitting here right now. I would be touring instead of building a bed
and breakfast in the mountains.
12960 I just can't say
enough about the kind of input that they are going to do that will help
aboriginal people particularly, but also western Canadian artists and emerging
artists.
12961 Any time you put
money into the Edmonton Folk Festival, hey, that's got to be great.
12962 As a teacher, I am
totally blown away by the fact that they have a fund that is going to purchase
musical instruments for kids in schools, because heaven knows, especially in
the school like Ben Calf Rope School there is not a musical instrument in that
school except for a hand drum and they are not getting the chances that they
need because there isn't the money there.
12963 I don't think I
can say too much more than that, but a really exciting proposal I think.
12964 THE
SECRETARY: Thank you.
12965 We will now
proceed with Canadian Rocky Mountain Festival.
12966 Please introduce
yourself and you will then have ten minutes for your presentation.
INTERVENTION
12967 MR. CONNELL: Good afternoon, Madam Chairman, Members of
the Commission. Thank you for allowing
me to speak before you today.
12968 Just to preface my
presentation, I would just like to say that I am a little bit in awe of this
whole thing; I mean, making a presentation in front of the CRTC, the broadcast
industry which is a huge business in Canada.
I'm just an old music teacher that believes in kids and believes in the
power of music and I think that's where our talent comes from.
12969 Anyhow, I am here
in support of the application by the Pattison Broadcast Group.
12970 Although I support
all the initiatives in this package of Canadian Content Development put forth
by this application, I am here to speak directly to the importance of the Save
the Music Foundation.
12971 As a former music
educator for 17 years, and someone who has been involved in music and the music
industry for 39 years, I firmly believe that the development of Canadian music
talent begins at the grassroots in our schools.
12972 This proposal by
the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group supports Canadian Content Development on all
fronts, from the Save the Music Foundation involved in the beginnings of music
talent to the culmination of a musical career with The River Performance
Project.
12973 When you talk to
musicians of all genres or read interviews from famous musicians, it is
inevitable that they speak about how they were influenced by someone when they
were young. The development of talent
starts when we are young and usually in our schools. By assisting the development of music
programs we will be nurturing the environment that is necessary to attract
students to music. The more students
that are positively influenced by music, the greater that pool of Canadian
talent will be, which will result eventually in more Canadian content over our
radio waves.
12974 If we are serious
about developing Canadian content, we need to assist our school music programs
where it all begins. The Save the Music
Foundation, which operates at arm's length from the Pattison broadcast Group, does
exactly this.
12975 The foundation
provides the needed funds to assist school music programs. Although music programs are part of our
curriculum, they rarely receive enough funding.
Most programs need financial assistance with instruments, with
equipment, with performance projects, with travel, with almost every aspect of
a music program.
12976 This is what the
Foundation does. By helping to develop
good music programs, the Save the Music Foundation is aiding the development of
Canadian talent right where it starts in our schools.
12977 The Pattison
organization believes in the importance and value of music education. They just don't give lip service to this
whole idea. This is proven by the
involvement they have in the Save the Music Foundation, in the Canadian Rocky
Mountain Festival and projects such as the Chandos Pattison Auditorium at the
Pacific Academy.
12978 To put it bluntly,
the Pattison Broadcast Group put their money where their mouth is.
12979 I have come to
know the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group over the past four years as a major
supporter of the Canadian Rocky Mountain Festival which takes place annually at
the Banff Center. Through the festival,
the Jim Pattison Group has seen the power of music education in action and how
it positively influences the youth of Canada.
12980 Every year over
3,000 young Canadians attend the festival in Banff and become rejuvenated and
motivated by all the festival activities.
All of them become better citizens because of the discipline and
commitment it takes just to get to the festival. Many of these students realize how important
music is to their lives because of the festival experience and end up in that
pool of Canadian talent.
12981 Former festival
participants are professional musicians all over the Canadian music scene: from Russ Broom, who is Jann Arden's guitar
player, to Linda Brown who was a fulltime member of the Calgary Philharmonic
Orchestra; from the Churko Brothers who perform with Shania Twain to Stella
Steledo(ph) who performs on Broadway.
12982 I found it very
interesting that the Junos in Calgary two months ago, when I was watching, the
bands that backed up both Michael Bublé and Feist were made up of kids who had
been to the Canadian Rocky Mountain Festival.
12983 The festival is a
place where we create talent. I would
invite Members of the Commission, anybody from the CRTC, please come out to the
festival some time at the Banff Center and see the development of Canadian
talent in action.
12984 So we know that by
assisting school music programs through projects like the Save the Music
Foundation and the Canadian Rocky Mountain Festival we are indeed helping to
develop Canadian talent and therefore Canadian content for the radio stations.
12985 On a personal
note, you need to know that the Pattison Broadcast Group is genuinely
interested in music, which is the backbone of this industry. The Jim Pattison Broadcast Group does not
support the development of Canadian talent only to achieve a radio licence. On an ongoing basis, in various ways and in
many areas they support the development of Canadian talent.
12986 The package of
Canadian Content Development presented in this application is simply an
addition to what this company does very well and that is develop Canadian
talent.
12987 My history with the
Pattison Broadcast Group is not only that they do what they say they will do,
but they usually go far and beyond what they say they will do. All of my dealings concerning the Pattison
organization have been first class and professional. This is a breath of fresh air in a business
community when, quite frankly, we have a lot of large companies that are
somewhat suspect.
12988 The Pattison
organization is an honest, hard‑working organization.
12989 As the Executive
Director of the Canadian Rocky Mountain Festival for the last 17 years, I am
honoured to be involved with the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group. Rick Arnish and Gerry Siemens from the group
visited our 17th annual festival just last April. To me it was very obvious that they genuinely
believe in the importance of music education and in how it develops Canadian
talent.
12990 It was interesting
to watch them. They actually were
getting excited about some of the performances of the kids at the festival.
12991 Canadian content
and the development of Canadian talent is not only an idea that this
organization pulls out a few years to impress the CRTC or when applying for a
licence, it is a way of life with these gentlemen and it is an important part
of this company's corporate culture.
12992 The Jim Pattison
Broadcast Group has proven their commitment to the development of Canadian
talent with their ongoing support of projects like our festival. I therefore respectfully request that you
provide them with the opportunity to continue their support and development of
Canadian music talent by providing them with an FM licence here in the Edmonton
area.
12993 Thank you.
12994 THE
SECRETARY: Thank you.
12995 We will now
proceed with the Western Canadian Music Alliance.
12996 Please introduce
yourself and you have ten minutes for your presentation.
INTERVENTION
12997 MR. FENTON: Good afternoon, Madam Chair and Members of
the Committee. My name is Rick
Fenton. I am the Executive Director of
the Western Canadian Music Awards and Alliance.
12998 I started out in
the business as artist in the late 70s, as a guitar player of no particular
note, decided that the other side of the glass might be better for me. It turned out to be a wise decision, for all
of you as well.
‑‑‑ Laughter /
Rires
12999 MR. FENTON: I worked for the CBC as a Music Producer for
18 years. I also produced about 20 to 25
albums as an independent music producer, including people like Ian Tyson and
Bill Bourne, folks like that. Then I
went to Winnipeg and I was the Artistic Director of the Winnipeg Folk Festival
for four years and most recently, as I say, I have assumed the role as the
Executive Director of the Western Canadian Music Alliance.
13000 The WCMA is the
umbrella organization for the western music industry associations and includes
the Manitoba Music, Sask Music, Alberta Music, Music B.C. and Music Yukon. We work closely with the industry
associations and in particular this year with Alberta Music.
13001 The WCMA awards,
festival and conference takes place October 16th to 19th in Edmonton this
year. I hope you can all come.
13002 Artist development
is one of the central pillars of the music industry associations in Alberta,
across the west and of the WCMA and at the core of all the music industry
associations. It is also at the heart of
the Pattison Broadcast Group CCD funding proposal and, in particular, The River
Performance Project, which I will speak to a bit about today.
13003 You will have to
excuse me. I have the great Canadian
cold, so I may have to stop every once in a while.
13004 As I'm sure you
are aware, the music business is going through a huge paradigm shift at the
moment. New business models are being
created daily. Who knew that ten years
ago a computer company was going to become one of the largest distributors of
music in the world? I speak of course of
iTunes.
13005 One thing that
hasn't changed is the creativity and raw talent of our artists.
13006 I believe that the
music industry is poised actually to expand at an amazing rate. A lot of people come up to me and say, oh,
you work in the music business, poor you.
I go well, that's just not true.
13007 The ability of
artists and labels to place their wares these days in front of a hundred times
the number of people of the old distribution models I believe will eventually
reap huge economic dividends. I also
believe that radio has a huge part to play in that development and in that
expansion.
13008 I go back to the
70s when you looked at album rock and things like that, where radio was a huge
part of the discovery and the creation of taste makers, DJs who led people to
new music.
13009 I notice in my own
life, my daughter is 18 years old and certainly was part of the iPod generation
but now it gets to the point where she needs to be led to new music, and radio
is I notice becoming a much greater part of her life and the lives of her
friends.
13010 So all that being
said, there is a great opportunity there, but our artists face new challenges
in this new DIY landscape that has been thrust upon them: do it yourself.
13011 In our
distribution, publicity, recording, tour support used to be a part of the
record label machines. Record labels are
changing the way they do business and that development has been left in the
hands of the artists themselves. Our
developing artists have had to become much more like small business owners.
13012 I know Laura has
been a small business owner in her artistic career for many years.
13013 Like any small
business, there is great opportunity, great risk, but support and infrastructure
have never been more important.
13014 I believe that The
River Performance Project as presented by the Pattison Broadcast Group
addresses many of the needs of the artists of this region and will help
directly in their careers by expanding their knowledge and infrastructure, not
to just create stars, but to start them on their way to sustainable careers
based here in Edmonton that can be marketed and exported to the rest of the
country and eventually the world.
13015 The development
stages of The River Performance Project allow for artists to have the chance to
move forward on their successes. Every
performer that participates will develop a higher skill level to assist them in
their careers.
13016 It is also
important to note that there is no financial caveat placed on these
artists. They will retain 100 per cent
ownership of their own material. This
allows the artist to chart their own path when it comes to partnerships with
labels, agents, managers, publishers, et cetera.
13017 The Pattison
Broadcast Group has committed $17 million to Canadian Content Development as
part of their Edmonton application and more than $3.5 million of that money
will go to The River Performance Project, whose purpose is to assist emerging
artists in Edmonton and northern Alberta.
13018 The basic career
needs that the artists themselves have identified and will be brought to bear
to this project include a solid financial footing obviously, marketing,
airplay, tour support, solid management and an overall development plan. Introducing our artists to this proactive
support will help create an environment that can breed greater further success.
13019 Another goal of
the program is to promote three emerging Alberta artists annually to a national
stage, including a completed professionally produced CD, tour support,
coaching, airplay and more.
13020 As I mentioned
earlier, I believe that all artists benefit from this program. Having three groups of performers move up to
this larger stage does benefit the whole community. Success stories help to support the industry
professionals within that community who will work with that next generation of
artists.
13021 Again, this
contributes to the long‑term sustainability of the music community of
this region.
13022 The River
Performance Project has six different phases.
I won't go through them all now.
I know that it has been put before you.
13023 There is a call
for talent which identifies and promotes the best of the region's emerging
talent.
13024 The River
Performance Boot Camp, I love this one.
This program alone is of great benefit.
Twenty finalists will have access to instruction from top music
professionals, and even if they don't win, their week of intense education and
networking will serve them very, very well in their future careers.
13025 The River Live
Performance Concert Series speaks for itself.
It is an incredible step next for these artists to develop a fan
base. They will be broadcast. The performance will be broadcast live and
this is where they make real connections with the fans in the industry.
13026 The CD then, The
River Project Compilation CD takes these five artists, five finalists as
identified by the fans, which I think is important, and creates a tangible
product to promote the artists. Beyond
the promotional value, the knowledge gained working in a professional studio
environment is invaluable to any artist.
I think Laura will agree.
13027 You know, to get
that opportunity, given today's economies of scale, to go in and work in that
professional environment, will go through the rest of your career, as the
trickle‑down theory to the producers, managers and people who will be
brought to bear to this project.
13028 The Finale is the
free concert featuring the top five acts that remain in the competition. The concert will be broadcast live on the
radio station. Listeners will vote for
their favourite, either via text message, e‑mail or telephone, and the
top three winners will be identified as The River Rising Performers of the
Year, with the winners announced live on the air during the final broadcast.
13029 The three River
Rising Performers of the Year will share in the distribution of $250,000 in
cash to be used for their career development.
First place in the competition will receive $125,000, second place
$75,000 and third place $50,000.
13030 Every band has a
different set of needs, but the budgets will include rehearsal time, studio
time, a video production, website design, tour support and promotion.
13031 I believe this is
a real and tangible investment in the community. Again, success stories are what create the
infrastructure necessary to create a sustainable economy in the region. Music is a growth industry with an ever
expanding economic impact across Canada and initiatives like The River Performance
Project help to ensure that our artists will have a seat at the table.
13032 It is important to
note that the money will be administered by Alberta Music, the Alberta Music
Industry Association, according to a pre‑agreed marketing plan and budget. Alberta Music is an organization made up of a
membership of Alberta's top music professionals, as well as established and
emerging artists. Alberta Music will
ensure that all monies will be released in a timely manner, in an accountable
way and directly used for the advancement of those careers.
13033 Through its
membership, Alberta Music has the contacts within the music industry in Alberta
to bring to the project the very best of our music industry professionals.
13034 Again, Alberta
music and the WCMA, Western Canadian Music Alliance, feel that the components
of the proposal by the Pattison Group tie in perfectly with our mission
statements and goals. Their mission
statements and goals, the core values of this program, dovetail in a wonderful,
wonderful way.
13035 Prior to writing
the application, the Pattison Broadcast Group met with officers from Alberta
music looking for direction for their Canadian Content Development
initiatives. Alberta Music participated
in the development of an integrated program that would be truly relevant to the
music industry and of benefit to emerging artists.
13036 The Alberta Music
Industry Association has been asked to administer the project if the
application is successful. Alberta Music
has a great deal of experience administering programs of this sort.
13037 In summary, if
this application is awarded the licence, Alberta Music, the Alberta Music
Industry Association will support the initiatives and programs put forth in the
application by the Pattison Group, the contribution being $3,540,000 over seven
years.
13038 Again, the core
values of The River Performance Project, the Save the Music Foundation and the
Aboriginal Voices Program all closely parallel the values of Alberta music and
the Western Canadian Music Alliance and Awards, and we wholeheartedly endorse
the proposals put forward by the Pattison Broadcast Group.
13039 I would like to
thank you all for allowing me the opportunity to speak to you today.
13040 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Thank you all very much.
13041 Commissioner
Cugini will lead the questioning.
13042 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: Good afternoon and thank you to
each of you for being here.
13043 I am going to ask
you just a couple of questions each in the order in which you presented.
13044 So my first questions
will be for you, Mr. Cardinal.
13045 You said in your
oral presentation that the funding will help you to launch your stations in
Regina and Saskatoon. Does that mean
that this funding will help you launch them sooner than you had anticipated?
13046 MR. HILL: Yes.
My understanding of the timeframe of the funding is that it will
probably come I guess about a year from now.
So that is our anticipated launch time.
13047 So I wouldn't say
that it would help us to launch sooner, but it will certainly fortify our
financial effort to make sure that those are going on the air.
13048 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: And of course the other side of
that question is if we were to not award the licence to Pattison and therefore
you would not receive the funding, would it delay the launch of the stations in
Regina and Saskatoon?
13049 MR. HILL: I don't want to anticipate that it will delay
it. We are committed to launching those
stations, but certainly it provides a bit more risk for us.
13050 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: A bit more ‑‑
I'm sorry, I can't quite hear.
13051 MR. HILL: More risk.
13052 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: If we didn't grant.
13053 MR. HILL: It's more risk if we don't get the approval.
13054 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: Now, you are able to generate
advertising revenues.
13055 MR. HILL: Yes, we are able to generate some advertising
revenues but it is not something that we thought as we looked at it over the
past couple of years would be able to sustain us, because we understand ‑‑
and we have been advised of this as well by people who are in that business of
doing that ‑‑ that advertisers, you know, you are in a
situation of trying to sell them to believe that they want to sell to the
poorest population in the country, and that is not really what they are
building their businesses on.
13056 So it is a
challenge for us. We do have some
revenues, but I would have to say that it is not something that we are banking
on, just because we don't believe we can achieve significant revenues along the
lines of, let's say, what commercial broadcasters can do.
13057 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: And you find that ‑‑
13058 MR. HILL: We have similar costs, but we don't have that
revenue opportunity.
13059 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: And you find that barrier no
matter what market you go into?
13060 MR. HILL: Pardon me, Commissioner?
13061 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: You find that barrier on the
part of advertisers no matter which market you go into?
13062 MR. HILL: Yes, because I think demographically, you
know, and economically with aboriginal people, it is the same across the
country. So yes, that barrier exists
everywhere.
13063 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: If you had to quantify your
dependency on funding from whether they are new licences or other sorts of
transactions, could you say you are reliant on them to what percentage?
13064 MR. HILL: Well, which ones are you referring to? Like, the packages that we have received so
far?
13065 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: Yes.
13066 MR. HILL: Geeze, I think we are 95 per cent
reliant on them.
13067 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: Okay. Thank you very much.
13068 Ms Vinson, I'm
curious to know more about the aboriginal music scene in Edmonton.
13069 MS VINSON: Okay.
Well, it's relatively small. We
have a few international artists here besides myself, like Asani that have been
relatively successful, but none of us are making any money off our record
sales. We are making very ‑‑
well, no money off airplay sales, that's for sure, on our original music
because there is just very little opportunity for that to be played.
13070 So the scene here
is pretty limited.
13071 When I was
doing ‑‑ I had an aboriginal show on CKUA for a little while
and to find material for it was very difficult, and it wasn't until I started
joining the Canadian Aboriginal Awards that I actually had access to the
multitude of music that is coming out of the east. I was really dazzled by how many eastern
aboriginal artists are able to produce and get music out there, and the actual
Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards is quite an event all in itself.
13072 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: Are there opportunities or
venues for you to perform live in Edmonton?
13073 MS VINSON: Things like the Edmonton Folk Music
Festival. I think we were the first
aboriginal act on the stage and they have tried to include one every year. And other festivals.
13074 More of my work is
actually done in Europe because we are a novelty there and people are very
excited about the mystique of the native North American Indian. So it goes over a little better there.
13075 But as far as like
sustainable work where you would actually make a living out of it, not a
chance.
13076 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: I'm intrigued by that and I have
the floor so I have permission to ask.
‑‑‑ Laughter /
Rires
13077 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: What countries in Europe?
13078 MS VINSON: Mostly northern Europe. Our management is in Holland and we perform
there, Belgium, Denmark. Actually, they
have some connections in Lithuania. We
have done a country music festival there.
We are considered Country music over there and those are ‑‑
I mean, that is what I did commercially for years, so there is certainly that
flavour to what I write, but it is more Roots/Folk indigenous music.
13079 But we are a
Country band in Lithuania, as far as they are concerned, with native sounds.
13080 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: That's fascinating to me. Thank you.
13081 Mr. Connell ‑‑
is a Connell or Connell? How do you
pronounce your last name?
13082 MR. CONNELL: Connell.
13083 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: Connell, thank you.
13084 You see it's
these ‑‑ I'm not going
to say it. We have been having trouble
with names all week.
‑‑‑ Laughter /
Rires
13085 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: Here, too, I would like some
more information on your Save the Music Foundation. You say it is to fund the beginnings of music
talent.
13086 How do you receive
your funding now?
13087 MR. CONNELL: The Save the Music Foundation is run at arm's
length from the Pattison organization.
13088 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: Right.
13089 MR. CONNELL: They put money into it themselves and then
money that comes through the CRTC, and then that money is used to help various
music programs in western Canada.
13090 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: And is this for elementary
schools?
13091 MR. CONNELL: It's for all levels.
13092 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: And the Canadian Rocky Mountain
Festival, again, is that students that have benefited from the Save the Music
Foundation?
13093 MR. CONNELL: In some cases. But the festival, you know, predates the Save
the Music Foundation by quite a bit. The
festival is going into its 18th year so it has kind of built up its own
reputation. Students basically from
Ontario west attend the festival, by invitation only.
13094 I think because of
the format of the festival, it is very popular.
It is a non‑competitive festival; it is a totally learning
festival.
13095 We just put out
our registration for next year's festival, and it will be full by the end of
this month.
13096 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: By invitation only. What is the criteria to receive an
invitation?
13097 MR. CONNELL: Performance and the philosophy. The educational philosophy basically has to
be that they want their kids to be there to learn and to improve, not to win.
13098 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: Okay. Thank you.
And you said it's all ages.
13099 MR. CONNELL: Yes.
Mainly later junior high, high school and college.
13100 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: Mr. Fenton, you said that artist
development is one of the central pillars of the WCMA's mandate.
13101 What do you mean
by "artist development"? What
is it? What functions do you perform?
13102 MR. FENTON: It is an umbrella organization so the five
music industry associations that feed into it, the core mandate of all those
organizations is to certainly support our established artists, but really to
keep the business going, to create, support, train, work with, you know, do
information sessions with, introduce to managers, all the stages of emerging
artist development.
13103 If you look
at ‑‑ so the difference maybe between us and the Junos would
be that the Junos is, you know, to celebrate the success stories. Our success stories are our emerging artists.
13104 We have a festival
for the WCMAs which is 70‑plus artists playing in 15 venues, and
90 per cent of those are new and emerging artists of all multi genres
creating careers.
13105 The conference is
very much centred towards the idea of the creation of careers, the support of
emerging artists.
13106 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: Do you see, then, The River
Performance Project as a precursor to what your associations do or does it run
parallel?
13107 MR. FENTON: I think it runs very much parallel.
13108 I mean, there is a
rich legacy of particularly Roots, Pop music.
I mean we look at Leslie Feist, we look at Jann Arden, we look at all
those folks who are now, except for Leslie, all independent artists again.
13109 Jann, Paul Brandt,
all those people are running their own small businesses again.
13110 I see The River
Performance Project very much running in parallel. To me the really great benefit is the
infrastructure, what is left behind. I
think it is great that there will be three or four winners, you know, and that
those will represent us and create those new success stories, but what is in
the wake of that are those managers, publicists, people who are charged and
able and willing and educated in the ways of the news, particularly to bring
these new technologies and new emerging opportunities forward to those artists.
13111 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: Thank you very much. Thank you to all of you.
13112 Those are all my
questions, Madam Chair.
13113 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Thank you all very much.
13114 I did want to ask
Ms Vinson, I just wanted to follow up on your comments about the FACTOR
funding.
13115 MS VINSON: Yes...?
13116 THE
CHAIRPERSON: I understood you to say
that it appeared that artists in eastern Canada were having better success.
13117 We have talked
about FACTOR a fair bit during the course of the hearing. Do you attribute that to the fact of lack of
awareness or what is the reason?
13118 MS VINSON: I attribute it to the fact that most of the
jurying and people on the juries are from down there and so they know who they
are voting for or recommending grants for.
13119 It has been the
story of my life anyway, the west not having the exposure and the foundation
that the eastern artists have, just what he was talking about with the managers
and the record labels and stuff that have been existing down there for a long
time and doing successful business. That
is just kind of coming here and still isn't to the point where it should be.
13120 So the fact that
they are designating and earmarking a certain amount of FACTOR money for people
from the west will enable people like myself to be able to do more European
touring and stuff.
13121 THE
CHAIRPERSON: You will notice in the FACTOR
letters they always have the qualifier that if there aren't any artists from
the west, then it will go into their general fund, or they often have that.
13122 So I assume that
it is going to be very important for the artists to be aware and applying for
these grants.
13123 MS VINSON: Yes, it certainly would be. And I think there is a lack of awareness a
bit out here of that sort of thing.
13124 THE
CHAIRPERSON: We did hear a number of
broadcasters say that they were going to undertake to increase awareness. Thank you very much.
13125 Thank you all very
much. It was very helpful.
13126 THE
SECRETARY: Thank you.
13127 I would now call
Gateway Entertainment, Hipjoint Music Group, Shiloh Schramm and Community Radio
Fund of Canada/Le Fonds canadien de la radio communautaire to come forward to
the presentation table to appear as a panel and present their interventions.
‑‑‑ Pause
13128 THE
SECRETARY: Before we begin, I would like
to note for the record that Harvard Broadcasting Inc. has filed, in response to
undertakings, their over and above CCD commitments. This document has been added to the public
record and copies are available in the public examination room.
13129 We will start with
the Gateway Entertainment.
13130 Please introduce
yourself, after which you have ten minutes for your presentation.
INTERVENTION
13131 MR. KUPINA: Thank you.
13132 Good afternoon,
Madam Chair, Commissioners, staff. My
name is Jesse Kupina and I'm here to express my support for CHUM Radio's
application to earn the next spot on Edmonton's radio dial. I am an avid media buyer and radio listener
and hold a great deal of respect for 91.7 The Bounce, both as a customer and as
a listener.
13133 I am a partner in
an Edmonton‑bred company called Gateway Entertainment. One of my many duties in our company is
marketing and media buying. I purchase,
maintain, traffic things such as billboards, student newspapers, washroom ads,
radio, TV, and so on.
13134 I am responsible
in the maintenance of four company websites with a member database upwards of
60,000 people.
13135 Our entertainment
group consists of two 1000‑seat nightclubs, the Ranch Roadhouse in Union
Hall, a pub crawl company known as Edmonton Pub Crawls and an upscale Canadiana
pub concept known as Hudson's. We will
be happily adding our fourth location of Hudson's to the family this July in
West Edmonton Mall.
13136 As a company we
proudly employ over 500 people.
13137 Nightlife and the
demographics are not what they used to be.
People are still going out well into their 40s on a regular basis. This is extremely exciting for us, as we see
the 18‑to‑34 demo predominantly at our two mega clubs. Then we graduate them into our pub concept,
which is popular with the 25‑to‑44 year olds. Basically the only stage of life we are
missing out would be a 65‑plus retirement nightclub, but don't count us
out.
13138 To speak on why
musically the essential Alternative concept is so brilliant to our city relates
back to something that was mentioned in CHUM's presentation yesterday morning,
about a percentage of the population that exists who resort to other means than
the radio to find Alternative music.
13139 I have a packed
nightclub week‑in, week‑out full of these so‑called misfits.
13140 The club scene is
not unlike the dial for the most part.
There are Top 40 clubs, Country clubs, Hot AC lounges, Hard Rock and
live music venues.
13141 Where does someone
go to hear the Alternative hits or see the Alternative videos? They come to me at Union Hall.
13142 These people who
Essential is targeting are out there and extremely loyal to the music. We reluctantly took a stand after one year of
opening and said yes, we are an Alternative music nightclub. We were so reluctant because at the time we
didn't know how to find these people, especially through traditional means of
advertising such as radio. So we took a
grassroots guerrilla marketing approach and made Union Hall into a popular well‑known
thriving business.
13143 Why do people love
Union Hall? We play the music that no
one else does, just as CHUM Radio said they would on their proposed station.
13144 Communicating to
this elusive audience has been our strong point as a company. As I mentioned earlier, we have an
interactive website with over 60,000 active members. We use a text messaging program called Fire
Text to both stimulate and communicate our customers from all different
concepts.
13145 I can speak from
experience that having such interactive features such as CHUM presented is not
just a bonus but a necessity to communicate to today's consumer. With this station on the dial I would
confidently increase my marketing spin to include Essential 107. This would definitely be a station who speaks
to my audience, both in the mega club and the pubs.
13146 Cultivating local
and Canadian talent to the tune of $10 million is outstanding for our
city. I have one of the most sought‑after
live venues for upcoming bands, but I can't book them because no one knows
them. This is the struggle for these
local unsigned bands. They are stuck to
playing for girlfriends and friends in smaller venues.
13147 I'm sure that
there is a rich and extensive talent base at these events, but my two‑year
business diploma and Guitar Hero prowess does not give me the ability to pick
the next rising star.
13148 I think that the
commitment to find and develop these bands will provide a ton of great
synergies between the talent, the radio station, venues such as Union Hall and
Hudson's and the Canadian music scene.
13149 As an experienced
media buyer, I have had a chance to deal with a variety of concepts,
promotions, sales reps and station staff.
One of my strongest reasons in agreeing to appear today is to support
the heart, creativity and professionalism in which CHUM represents, making them
one of the industry leaders.
13150 Madam Chair and
Commissioners, I want to thank you for your time and attention this afternoon.
13151 THE
SECRETARY: You may now proceed.
INTERVENTION
13152 MR. JAMES: Madam Chair and Commissioners, staff, good
afternoon.
13153 My name is Mike
James and to my left is Troy Samson. We
are the principals of Hipjoint Music Group.
We are a Canadian owned, independent production, promotion and
publishing company. We are very pleased
to have been asked by CHUM Radio to administer a new initiative put forward as
part of their application for Essential 107, the Start to Star initiative.
13154 I would like to
begin by giving you some background on ourselves and our company, our
relationship with CHUM Radio through our involvement in The Bounce Showdown and
then finish by talking about the great benefits of CHUM's proposed Start to
Star Program.
13155 Troy and I have
been working with and developing acts since the early 1990s. We created Hipjoint in 2003 as a company
dedicated to creating great music that would be both commercially viable and
artistically credible. Since then we
have produced a long string of radio hits for a wide variety of acts, signed
and unsigned, domestic and international.
13156 Hipjoint Music
Group is made up of three companies.
13157 The first is
Hipjoint Productions, which has provided songwriting and production services to
dozens of acts, including Kreesha Turner, Kelly Rowland and Canadian Idol.
13158 The second is
Hipjoint Promotions. Over the years the
Hipjoint radio promotion arm has been responsible for literally hundreds of
thousands of spins on radio for a wide variety of Canadian and international
acts.
13159 The third is H
Songs Publishing. The H Songs Publishing
catalog is administered worldwide by Network One Music, the publishing division
of Network Music Group.
13160 Our companies work
closely with Network One to create opportunities for the songs in our catalog
and the artists that record them.
13161 From American
Nicon commercials, major motion pictures and U.S. network prime time TV shows,
our songs have been widely exposed.
13162 As well, we are
currently in the process of signing and developing young artists and
songwriters with our publishing partners at Network. Together, Troy and I have written for,
produced or promoted artists, including Biff Naked, Holly McNarland, 54‑40,
Canadian Idol and PopStars, Crash Test Dummies, Pam Grier and Snoop Dogg, Moka
Only, soulDecision, Classified, Suzie McNeil, Marci Playground, Katie Melua,
Madeleine Peyroux, Bob Sinclair and, most recently, Kelly Rowland of Destiny's
Child and, of course, The Bounce Showdown winners, Kreesha Turner and Shiloh.
13163 Hipjoint Music
Group also has an advisory board made up of mentors to help steer our
company. Our board members are: Mark Jowett, who is the cofounder of Network
Music Group; Jim Vallance, international hit songwriter and member of the Order
of Canada; Jordan Thorsteinson, who is a Director of Business Development for
the Vancouver Canucks Sports and Entertainment; chartered accountant Martin
Carsky; and Craig Horton, who is the Director of Publishing and Licensing
Administration at Network One.
13164 Both Craig Horton
and Jim Vallance are also on the board of SOCAN.
13165 MR. SAMSON: Now, for last four years, Hipjoint has worked
with CHUM Radio through its existing Edmonton radio station The Bounce. Our experience with CHUM Radio and The Bounce
Showdown has been quite remarkable.
13166 To clarify, The
Bounce Showdown is an annual contest staged in Edmonton by CHUM Radio's 91.7
The Bounce. It uses part of the
station's CCD contribution to fund the production of masters for its winning
artists. Our role is to write and
produce those masters.
13167 The Showdown
started from the simple thought that if a talented but unknown artist was given
hit songs, top‑level production and, most importantly, ownership of their
own master recordings, they would be given a significant head start in their
music career. The results of The Bounce
Showdown have exceeded our expectations.
13168 The 2005 Bounce
Showdown winner Kreesha Turner is currently enjoying her second hit single
nationally, as well as receiving international exposure as one of Virgin EMI's
top priorities. Her career is now
managed by one of the best managers in the music business, Chris Smith, the
same man who has guided Nelly Furtado's rise to success.
13169 The 2006 Bounce
Showdown winner, Shiloh, is another success story that keeps getting better and
better. Along with Hipjoint, Shiloh now
has a world‑class management team via Ivan Berry and Daniel Mekinda.
13170 She is also
represented by Canada's number one entertainment lawyer, Chris Taylor.
13171 With them, Shiloh
has recently secured a major label recording contract with Universal
Music. On top of all these developments,
Shiloh's songs have already been heard in the widely popular TV show Gossip
Girl and in the Fox major motion picture What Happens in Vegas starring Cameron
Diaz and Ashton Kutcher.
13172 None of these
developments would be anything more than very distant dreams without the
initial investment of CCD funds made possible by CHUM Radio and The Bounce in
Edmonton.
13173 MR. JAMES: This brings us to the proposed CHUM Radio
Essential 107 Start to Star Program.
13174 Start to Star
basically picks up where The Bounce Showdown leaves off. It will fund and guide the winning artist
through the process of writing and recording a full album of material right
through to the marketing, touring and promotion of the finished product. A few years ago this was known as artist
development and was a regular part of the record label process, but currently
the responsibility of artist development has shifted from the labels to the
artists themselves.
13175 Start to Star will
give a deserving artist the budget to access the very best in the business for
a full year so that they can learn and grow and understand what it takes to
succeed as a working act. We liken it to
a year‑long semester at music business university with some of the best
minds in the industry as the professors.
13176 An artist that is
armed with this kind of knowledge and experience will have a much better chance
at a sustained career in today's music business.
13177 Another notable
aspect of the program is that it gives the winning artist something most label‑signed
artists have never had, ownership of their own masters without a mountain of
debt on their shoulders. By building on
the model developed by The Bounce Showdown, and with the mentorship and
guidance of this program, Start to Star winners will be better able to create
business opportunities and financially benefit from them as the master owner.
13178 It is also
important to note that the economic impact of the careers that Start to Star
will help build will touch and strengthen all sectors of the music
industry. Start to Star will have a
direct and immediate positive impact on its winners in the entire music and
music related industries in Canada.
13179 Throughout this
process Hipjoint will be working closely with Essential 107 to ensure all the
elements of the initiatives do comply with the Commission's policies on CCD
initiatives. We know of no other program
that comes close to offering such a complete package of service and guidance,
with only the artist's promising future being the ultimate goal of all
involved.
13180 Emerging from this
process will be a group of artists with a deeper understanding of all aspects
of what it means to have a viable career as a recording and touring
musician. Approval of CHUM Radio's
application and the Canadian Content Development plan it has proposed will
undoubtedly provide unprecedented support for emerging Canadian artists.
13181 Start to Star is a
very noble and groundbreaking vision that CHUM Radio is putting forth and
Hipjoint is proud to be part of it.
13182 I would like to
thank you, the whole Commission, for giving us the opportunity to speak today.
13183 Thank you.
13184 THE
SECRETARY: Thank you.
13185 We will now
proceed with Shiloh Schramm.
13186 You have ten
minutes for your presentation.
INTERVENTION
13187 MS SCHRAMM: Madam Chair, Commissioners and CRTC staff,
good afternoon and thank you for this opportunity to speak before you in
support of Essential 107.
13188 Two years
ago ‑‑ no, that's wrong.
I'm way ahead of myself, way ahead of myself.
13189 My name is Shiloh
Schramm and I am from right here in Edmonton, Alberta. Sitting next to me is my manager, Daniel
Mekinda.
13190 Now I can get
ahead of myself.
13191 Two years ago,
when I was 13 years old, I was the winner of CHUM Radio The Bounce
Showdown. I would like to share with you
not only my experiences leading up to the contest, but also those since.
13192 Singing has been a
major part of my life since I was a little girl. My mother, who is here with me today,
regularly recalls my performances from the back of the car as a young
toddler. At only two years of age I
would manage to unbuckle myself from my car seat and stand up tall to perform
at the top of my lungs for my parents in the front seat. I knew during these years, and well into
grade school, that this would be a dream I had to fulfil.
13193 Over the years I
managed to win many local talent competitions, but unfortunately with very
little results. I participated in school
shows, country festivals and even the odd talent show across the border in the
U.S. To be honest, I was never quite
convinced that I would ever get the opportunity that would open a door big
enough to take me to the level of those artists I looked up to.
13194 I continued to
participate in these events and, thanks to those around me, especially my
family, I was reassured of my talents and of my dreams coming true. In the same breath, I was also discouraged by
many of my peers. Many kids in my school
laughed about my ambitions and attempted to discourage me. Some days I would listen to them and
temporarily second‑guess myself.
13195 I was confident in
my passion and my dreams but unsure of how the small‑town girl could ever
make it happen. Still, I continued to
attend competition after competition with not much outcome.
13196 So then comes 2006
here in Edmonton. My mom came across an
ad in the paper for The Bounce 91.7 Showdown.
We agreed that, if anything, this event would be good exposure for me and
likely get me in front of a few new faces.
I prepared my songs, ranging from Rihanna to Mary J. Blige and headed
out.
13197 Upon arrival I was
impressed with the organization and the quality of the event for a change. I feel I sung quite well and, needless to
say, I won. I was officially the winner of
CHUM's 2006 Bounce Showdown.
13198 For the first time
in my life I truly felt that realizing my dream could be a reality. Little did I know what I was in for.
13199 Part of winning
this competition was the opportunity to fly to Vancouver and record two songs
with Hipjoint. This was a dream come
true and was an experience like no other.
13200 After recording
these two songs, CHUM and 91.7 supported my new career with national airplay
and on radio interviews. Having
fulfilled my winning package, it was clear that CHUM believed in me and my
future career.
13201 Not long after
that, they went beyond the prize and sent me back to Vancouver to record two
more songs. Immediately after that I was
off to Toronto Showcase, a Canadian music week.
I was truly touched and once again it was clear that they were going
above and beyond in investing in this young girl's ability to truly break as an
artist.
13202 The Showcase went
well and now I had four great songs under my belt. This was way more than I expected.
13203 Come summer of
last year CHUM and the guys at Hipjoint recommended pursuing a full manager and
help guide my career and once again to take it to another level. My music was played for the team of Daniel
Mekinda and Ivan Berry at Tanjola. They
loved what they heard, or at least they told me they did, and we immediately
thought we should get on the phone and all chat.
13204 The conversation
lasted for about an hour and we all agreed to meet in Vancouver about a month
later.
13205 In Vancouver I
really felt that things were once again taking a big step. I felt that CHUM had led me to another key
piece of the team and a major part of why I am sitting here before you today.
13206 That weekend we
sat down with what was later to become my management company, as well as Mike
and Troy from Hipjoint. We all talked
about my career and the conversation started to turn to the bigger
picture. That weekend we also did a
photo shoot and really just spent some good time hanging with my new managers.
13207 We returned to
Alberta in good spirits. My managers
felt they got the Shiloh vibe and we were all excited for them to run with
it. In order to shop my project, they
felt they needed to record two more songs to complete the package. Once again, CHUM stepped up to the plate and
supported the recording of two more songs by covering all of the costs.
13208 I returned to
Vancouver and recorded them. With these
six songs by managers were confident that we could push the official green
button on my career. Needless to say,
everything has been green since.
13209 In the last few
months many things have happened for me and my career. As you all know, two days ago my manager
received a phone call while here in Edmonton that Universal Music Canada had
accepted the final deal points. As a
result, I am now signed to a worldwide deal to the world's biggest record
company, Universal Records. I am also
represented by entertainment lawyer Chris Taylor, who also represents Natalie
Furtado, Avril Lavigne and Sum 41.
13210 My team also
includes Canada's top booking agent for live shows, S.L. Feldman.
13211 In only one month
since working with them, I have already secured shows with Hedley and Theory of
a Dead Man and we are in talks about tours in Australia with Simple Plan and
massive national tours as a whole.
13212 I have been
offered multiple publishing deals for major and independent music publishers as
well. My managers, if I may say so
myself, were very impressed with my songwriting ability and as a result pursued
publishing offers. This will now also
lead to my career as a songwriter above and beyond that of an artist.
13213 Finally, I have
also been offered a television show by Cookie Jar Entertainment, one of
Canada's top TV producers.
13214 There is so much
more in the works, but this is just a taste of the last six months.
13215 In about two weeks
time I will begin the official recording of my debut album and also shooting a
video and working together with Universal to really go all out on my
career. I have a big summer ahead of me
and I look forward to all the new experiences.
13216 The past two years
have really been a dream come true. I
can 100 per cent tell you that without CHUM Radio and their phenomenal team I
would not be where I am today. They
single‑handedly are responsible for all the people I have met and the
amazing direction my career is going in.
13217 In my short time
in this industry I have already met so many people who have the amazing talent
and certainly will be a part of my life for a very long time. I feel blessed and will never be able to
thank them enough.
13218 When I first heard
about ‑‑ waaa!
‑‑‑ Laughter /
Rires
13219 MS SCHRAMM: I'm fine.
I'm fine. I'm good.
13220 When I first heard
from CHUM about the ability to support them in their plans for the new station,
I was 100 per cent in. I truly wish
there was more opportunities like the one I was given and I know that they
should be awarded a new station.
13221 They could repeat
this success tenfold.
13222 Even though this
may not be the time to do so, I want to once again thank them for everything
they have done and the endless help I have received from CHUM to further my
career. They are surely to repeat this
feat again.
13223 Thank you for your
time and I would like now to have the floor over to my manager, Daniel Mekinda.
13224 MR. MEKINDA: Good job.
13225 MS SCHRAMM: Thanks.
13226 MR. MEKINDA: Thank you, Shiloh.
13227 Madam Chair,
Commissioners and the CRTC staff, good afternoon and thank you for the
opportunity to speak to you today.
13228 I am here in
support of CTV's application for Essential 107 largely because of my positive
experiences with CHUM Radio in the past, as well as my firsthand experience
with their preeminent CCD initiatives through 91.7, The Bounce.
13229 I would like to
provide you with a little background on myself and my company Tanjola.
13230 It is through this
company, with my partner Ivan Berry, that we manage Shiloh. I myself have been in the music industry for
over a decade and together with my partner have 30‑plus years' experience
in our field. I have held senior
positions with major record labels, BMG and Sony BMG, with Canada's largest
music publisher Ole, and worked and pursued initiatives in my field from
Senegal to Sweden.
13231 My partner and I
run a management and publishing company and are currently involved in industry
initiatives in Canada, the U.S. and the Caribbean.
13232 Back in the 90s I
entered the music industry on the cusp of a very trying time. The entire dynamic of our vocation has changed
over the last five years in particular and it is truly a new ballgame for
artists trying to make a career of their talents.
13233 I saw firsthand
the pressure foreign controlled record companies were putting on their Canadian
offices to if not end local development altogether, cut back on Canadian
development as a whole. I have seen
many, many talented artists and bands come across my desk at a major record
label with no budgets to not only develop them, but to even simply sign and
release an album.
13234 Finally, I have
also seen far too many artists discard the value of Canadian partners and head
out of country in search of the support and marketplace in which to build their
career.
13235 The reason I'm
here today is to tell you I can confidently say that CHUM Radio has single‑handedly
changed the dynamic in the Canadian marketplace. I have participated and been a recipient of
FACTOR, VideoFACT, Starmaker and various federal and provincial grants and
bursaries. None of them have had such a
direct impact that I have seen with CHUM Radio's CCD initiatives through The
Bounce 91.7.
13236 I have worked
directly for a massive foreign talent competition, which will remain unnamed,
with a lot of money and muscle behind it.
In a couple of years CHUM's CCD initiatives have allowed the artists
benefiting from such efforts to surpass that of the other competition and
simply blow them out of the water.
13237 I have attempted
to develop and break an artist in this market and have seen the number of brick
walls that one hits, both from a financial perspective and from a lock of
national support. CHUM Radio has solved
the puzzle and found the golden key to finding, developing and breaking new
talent. I have seen this all firsthand.
13238 Over the past
eight months we have worked with CHUM to share our expertise in what is needed
to take the CCD initiatives undertaken by The Bounce and step it up a notch via
Essential 107. Their commitment to
Canadian talent and supporting our superstars of tomorrow is both uplifting and
unparalleled.
13239 My partner and I
have never seen such passion and devotion to our market and our talent pool.
13240 So for fear of
dragging this on, I would like to close by asking the Commissioner to take a
serious look at Essential 107, not only fulfilling a void in the Edmonton
marketplace but for what they are doing for the Canadian music industry as a
whole.
13241 Cancon and the
Maple system, although implemented before I was even born, is largely
responsible for me being employed in the Canadian music industry today. It was a major accomplishment and we continue
to benefit from it every day.
13242 By sitting here
and speaking with you, I truly feel that by supporting Essential 107 and their
unequalled CCD endeavours I am playing a part to an initiative potential of
equal importance.
13243 Please consider
this as my support for CTV's proposal for a new station in the Edmonton market
as outlined in their presentation.
13244 Thank you very
much.
13245 THE
SECRETARY: Thank you.
13246 We will now
proceed with The Community Radio Fund of Canada/Le Fonds canadien de la radio
communautaire.
13247 You have ten
minutes for your presentation.
INTERVENTION
13248 MS KAESTNER: Thank you.
Good afternoon once again.
13249 My name is Melissa
Kaestner and I am the development consultant for the Community Radio Fund of
Canada.
13250 As before, we are
presenting today on behalf of not only the Fund, but also for its three
founding associations, The National Campus and Community Radio Association,
l'Alliance des radios communautaires du Canada and l'Association de
radiodiffuseurs communautaires du Québec.
13251 MR. HANNLEY: Hi. My
name is Jay Hannley, from CJSR in Edmonton and I had so much fun this morning I
decided I would do it again.
‑‑‑ Laughter /
Rires
13252 MS KAESTNER: The Community Radio Fund of Canada is a
national fund established to support the development of local community
radio. It is our goal to help these
broadcasters reach their collective potential as a well resourced, independent,
diverse, vibrant and accessible media sector.
13253 The activities of
the Fund will reflect a commitment of the sector to principles of localism in
access, respect for and promotion of the official languages of Canada,
diversity and multiculturalism, social justice and high quality programming and
innovation.
13254 We are here today
to talk about how approving the licence for CHUM Radio will contribute to our
goals through the CHUM Radio Alberta Cultural Diversity Program.
13255 I am going to
assume you remember all the great things we said about the Fund the last time
we were here and go right into talking about the details of the program.
13256 There is something
unique about this partnership. CHUM
Radio is the first private broadcaster to take the initiative to approach the
Fund during its planning an application process rather than waiting to be
approached by us. This is an important
step for the Fund and one that we hope is a trendsetter.
13257 We ask the
Commission to recognize this development when making its licensing decision for
the Edmonton market.
13258 In the past, the
three community radio associations attempted to create funding partnerships
with commercial broadcasters by approaching them after the public processes to
review their applications had already begun.
This worked out well for both parties with respect to the contribution
from Astral, but we think being approached by CHUM Radio in advance of the
public proceeding is noteworthy and deserving of recognition.
13259 If this
application is approved, we propose to establish the CHUM Radio Alberta
Cultural Diversity Program. This program
would provide funding to assist eligible stations in Alberta to develop and
increase culturally diverse programming on the air.
13260 We recognize that
these stations already work with a number of cultural communities and produce
many hours of third language programming each week. However, Alberta is experiencing a huge
growth in population and, according to station staff, that includes growth in
multicultural communities.
13261 Through this
program stations will receive grants in the areas of production, infrastructure
and marketing, which will lead to a greater presence in these communities, more
opportunities for community members to participate in their local stations and
an increased diversity of programming on the air.
13262 The generous
contribution from CHUM Radio has the potential to significantly impact stations
and the communities they serve. Due to
the size of the contribution and the small number of community‑based
stations in the province, individual stations may be eligible to receive grants
as high as $10,000 per year, which would be warmly received in the not‑for‑profit
broadcast sector.
13263 MR. HANNLEY: In the area of the infrastructure, grants may
be awarded to help stations develop the capacity to serve a wider variety of
communities. For example, a station
could hire a consultant or community liaison to ensure that current station
policies, procedures and practices address a variety of cultural issues that
would help broadcasters meet the needs of their listening audience.
13264 Stations could
also have policies and public relations materials translated into several
languages, improving the level of accessibility into these communities.
13265 In the area of
production, stations could apply for grants to create specialized training
programs that would see experienced broadcasters providing free broadcasting
training to community volunteers in relevant languages or individual producers
from cultural communities could work with the stations to help create unique
and educational documentaries to broadcast not only to their own markets but to
share with the other stations across the country and beyond.
13266 In the areas of
marketing and outreach, stations could contract consultants to help develop
strategic plans to identify local communities not currently represented and
present effective and meaningful communications and recruitment plans.
13267 They could also
receive funding to create local events that would bring the stations out into
these communities, like live to air music performances or lectures and
participatory debates focused on the current community issues.
13268 These activities
would also help create sustainable cultural programming at the station and
provide cultural groups with the avenues to promote and communicate with their
community members while also sharing their cultures with the general public.
13269 MS KAESTNER: While Alberta‑specific, CHUM Radio's
contribution to the Community Radio Fund of Canada will not only increase the
diversity of programming in the province but also within the national community
sector as a whole. By providing
resources to Alberta stations for these kinds of initiatives, stations across
the country will benefit as well. Our
sector has a long history of resource sharing and networking through national
conferences, a national program exchange server and one‑on‑one
communication.
13270 So the Commission
can feel confident that by approving this application, you will also be
contributing to the diversity of local community voices.
13271 Thank you and we
welcome your questions.
13272 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much.
13273 First of all, I
would like to say congratulations to Shiloh.
You are very, very young and you have already accomplished a tremendous
amount.
13274 MS SCHRAMM: Thank you.
13275 THE
CHAIRPERSON: It's very, very
credible. We are excited to meet you.
13276 What I would like
to ask is CHUM described this new Essential Alternative format that they were
proposing as a new format in Canada. I
don't know if they went farther than Canada or not, but I think it was an
entirely new format.
13277 I just would like
to know your viewpoint as experienced musicians or entertainers involved with
the entertainment industry how you see their format as different from what is
currently available in the market.
13278 MR. JAMES: Well, after listening to the proposal
yesterday and getting a great broad view of it, it was brought up that the kind
of ‑‑ at least for me, this is my personal view as a musician
and somebody who loves music.
13279 The kind of person
who listens to this type of music, while they have nailed a demographic, it is
a kind of person, you know, who covers all demographics. For a long time there has not been an outlet
on radio for these bands, and over the years a lot of the great New Wave bands
and Punk bands from the late 70s, early 80s, all those great songs, you know by
The Clash and things like this, people know those songs, they love them.
13280 They were never on
the radio, really not too much, but they have become part of the fabric of
society and people want to hear those songs, you know.
13281 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Would you agree with that
as well?
13282 MR. KUPINA: Yes. Madam
Chair, I was just sort of thinking as I was listening to what he was just
saying, and I remember a time at our nightclub we had a guest DJ actually from
91.7 The Bounce kind of come in and listen to the music we were playing because
of the popularity of our nightclub, and people were singing along to a song and
he kind of leaned over to me and said, "How do these people know this
music? "Like what is the song? Where did they hear it?" because his
familiarity with the music, it has never been on the radio.
13283 I do believe it
exists out there and I think that the artists that they have explained to me
that are going to be on the radio station are artists we play and artists that,
you know, I would listen to as a 32‑year‑old, and our clientele
does listen to, and is not currently being heard or played by a radio station.
13284 THE
CHAIRPERSON: As far as the age range,
then, that it would appeal to, I think they have indicated 24‑to‑34. I guess you would concur with that, then?
13285 MR. JAMES: I fall into that demographic and, yes, I
believe so. But I think it goes beyond
that as well.
13286 I was talking with
Shiloh after the session yesterday and she was, "Ah, that sounds like an
awesome station. I would love to listen
to that station."
13287 Again, it is a
type of person, almost a lifestyle that is drawn to that kind of music. It is a swath that is cut through the entire
population.
13288 So I think it
would be interesting to see just how wide that audience will get and I think it
is going to be pretty wide.
13289 MR. SAMSON: I would like to also say that we deal with a
lot of young artists and it is amazing to me, you know, someone who listens to
Tegan and Sara also know The Smiths, you know.
They know The Cure, you know.
13290 I think as I was
listening yesterday to the proposal, I mean if you listen to The Killers, if
you know the band The Killers, you have to know The Cure. I mean, you have to know Robert Smith, you
know. What a great station to educate
young people and expose them to this music without being fragmented.
13291 I love listening
to other stations that play like old songs, the classic songs, but Depeche Mode
followed by, I don't know, Chad Kruger, it just kind of turns me off. You know, I mean it's like, wow ‑‑
because I am a 42‑year‑old 80s child, right, so I grew up in the
Live Aid, everything, right. My sister
had all the Duran Duran posters and everything.
13292 MR. JAMES: Troy used to wear makeup.
‑‑‑ Laughter /
Rires
13293 MR. SAMSON: I still do.
13294 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: But do you know Sisters of
Mercy?
13295 MR. SAMSON: For different reasons.
13296 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: But do you know Sisters of
Mercy?
13297 MR. SAMSON: Sisters Of Mercy, sure.
13298 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: Okay.
13299 MR. SAMSON: You know, when we were working on Shiloh's
tracks, you know, we were listening to Timebomb, you know, the group ‑‑
13300 MR. JAMES: Rancid.
13301 MR. SAMSON: Rancid.
I mean, you know, I think it's just really important to expose
people ‑‑ to expose the youth today to this music.
13302 It goes back to
The Specials, you know. If you know No
Doubt, you have to listen to The Specials.
You know, this is education. This
is the education that you can't ‑‑
13303 THE
CHAIRPERSON: It is certainly
education ‑‑
13304 MR. SAMSON: We are very passionate about it.
13305 THE
CHAIRPERSON: It is certainly education
for me, I would have to admit.
‑‑‑ Laughter /
Rires
13306 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Shiloh, would your interest
be, then, more in a station like The Bounce which I gather appeals to a younger
audience, or everything?
13307 MS SCHRAMM: I don't know.
My mom likes The Bounce.
‑‑‑ Laughter /
Rires
13308 MS SCHRAMM: It depends on the kind of person. It depends.
Like I think you are a true music lover if you can listen to absolutely
anything as long as it's a song that's good.
13309 But I mean being a
teenager myself, I could say that this station ‑‑ like any one
of my friends ‑‑ and I'm not just one of those weird kids that
goes "Oh, I like this music because".
No.
13310 But almost like
all of my friends and a lot of people that I know that are around my age would
listen to this station because it's the classic stuff. It is the stuff that they grew up with
because their parents were playing it and it's just ‑‑ it's
that ‑‑ yes, I would listen to it.
13311 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Thank you.
13312 MR. MEKINDA: Can I add a little real life experience?
13313 THE
CHAIRPERSON: You certainly can.
13314 MR. MEKINDA: Shiloh and I have spent a lot of time driving
around over the last six months since we have met, going to record labels and
meetings in Vancouver and here and it's funny, we often kind of play with the
radio station dial and fight when we are in Toronto about which station to
listen to and so forth.
13315 I think for one of
the first times when we saw the song selection of the artists that were going
to be played or would be played on Essential 107, I don't think there was an
artist that we couldn't agree on that ‑‑ I'm a 31‑year‑old
guy, she is a 15‑year‑old girl, straight up, it met us right in the
middle and it touched us both ‑‑
13316 MS SCHRAMM: Definitely.
13317 MR. MEKINDA:
‑‑ on both levels.
13318 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much.
13319 MR. MEKINDA: So it was pretty special.
13320 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Thank you.
13321 And thank you to
the Community Fund as well. I don't have
any questions for you, but maybe some of the other ‑‑ either
Commissioner Cugini or Commissioner Molnar, do you have questions?
13322 Not even our music
expert?
‑‑‑ Laughter /
Rires
13323 THE CHAIRPERSON: I feel very inadequate.
13324 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: Shiloh, did you use a hairbrush
or a curling iron for a microphone when you were in the back seat of the car?
13325 MS SCHRAMM: Through a microphone.
13326 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: When you were little girl?
13327 MS SCHRAMM: A water bottle.
13328 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: A water bottle.
‑‑‑ Laughter /
Rires
13329 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Well, thank you all very
much. It has been very helpful. Thank you.
‑‑‑ Pause
13330 THE
CHAIRPERSON: We are going to take a
break now for ten minutes and be back at 4:00.
13331 Thank you.
‑‑‑ Upon recessing
at 1550 / Suspension à 1550
‑‑‑ Upon resuming
at 1610 / Reprise à 1610
13332 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Good afternoon, ladies and
gentlemen.
13333 I would just like
to mention before we get started that we are intending to go through, straight
through tonight, so hopefully that is convenient for everybody.
13334 I expect we would
finish in advance of 7 o'clock, but at any rate we will see how it goes.
13335 Thank you.
13336 THE
SECRETARY: We will proceed with The
Amber Affair.
13337 Please introduce
yourself and you will then have ten minutes for your presentation.
INTERVENTION
13338 MS KEATING: Okay.
I thought I was presenting maybe yesterday so I had originally typed up
"good afternoon". So you can
just ignore the first sentence.
13339 Good
afternoon. My name is Cindy Keating and
I am a singer/songwriter and recording artist here in Edmonton's independent
music scene. I am also the sole
visionary behind The Amber Affair, which is an event that celebrates women in
music and art and is now an event in planned partnership with Evanov Radio
Group.
13340 So I am also here
is a spokesperson in favour of Evanov's request to start a radio station in
this city which targets that very same theme or demographic.
13341 I would first,
however, like to take a few moments just to give a bit of background on my
personal music journey so you can see how The Amber Affair came to be and why
am here today.
13342 I started piano at
the age of four. I studied voice, guitar
and flute extensively throughout my childhood.
I wrote my first song at age 10, entered and then won my first
songwriting competition at age 11. Thus
the foundation was laid for my musical passion and the inevitability of my
career choice.
13343 I continued on to
post secondary education where I graduated with honours and at the top of my
class with the performance degree, where I majored in classical arranging and
composition and minored in Jazz, Blues and Gospel. Upon graduation I fuelled my desire for
performing by touring extensively across the country in coffee shops and small
venues acoustically.
13344 After two years of
doing that and getting to know the ins and outs of the industry, I decided to
formally form a band, which consisted of three male members on drums, bass,
electric guitar, acoustic guitar and piano.
So together, as a four‑piece Pop Rock band, we recorded, self‑financed
two full‑length CDs and toured as much as possible across the country
developing a fan base and building momentum.
13345 Now, I simply tell
you all of that to tell you this: No
matter how hard one works or how many small venues you can play in, places you
can travel, records you can produce, no matter how talented you are or what degree
you have or even what placing you managed to stand in your graduating class or
even how many instruments you can master, if you don't have support from the
main making‑it industry, your momentum and your motivation quickly dies,
as was the case for me.
13346 As for every
musician out there, the industry is just that industry: the making‑it
industry. So to this day if you ask any
successful artist if they can remember the first time they were played on the
radio, you will be met with an astounding yes.
I know, because I ask everybody that.
13347 Radio is the
answer for every musician's career and being played on air is the dream.
13348 So, of course and
naturally, I started pounding on doors when I first started. I managed to go through all the appropriate
radio channels because I know there are certain doors and certain people you
talk to. I aligned myself with all the
right people. I recorded with the top
producer in western Canada and I even had three guys in the band, but I was
still met with: "Sorry, Edmonton is
more of a Nickelback market. Don't get
me wrong. You have great stuff. It's just not what the station is looking
for."
13349 I would be lying
if I said I wasn't discouraged and discouragement kept coming quite a lot. So in an attempt to shake it off once again
and to rise above, I decided I wanted to do something to help the female
market. I was tired of having no
opportunity. I was tired of having conversations
with my fellow female musicians who were just as equally frustrated, and I was
really tired of hearing that Edmonton was on the cusp of this supposed musical
explosion, but I knew of five female musicians and singers who were pursuing
their dreams in Montreal.
13350 So for once I
wanted to do something to help that female voice be heard. I wanted to plan a fun, creative event that
would help showcase the underdog and also build the female fellow musician
community, and thus The Amber Affair was born.
13351 Much like Sarah
McLachlan's Lilith Fair, the Amber Affair is a festival concept showcasing some
of Edmonton's finest independent music.
However, I also wanted to broaden that spectrum and include other forms
of artistic expression besides music, and therefore I opened the event to all
platforms of creativity, such as abstract and formal painters, industrial
designers. There were full piece bands
as well as singer/songwriters in all different genres and handmade
designers. We even had an aspiring
journalist who writes for Edmonton's weekly music magazine Host the Evening.
13352 The Amber Affair
is now an annual event showcasing those musical performances, video
presentations and displays of work from what I call Edmonton's hidden
talent. It is also an evening for social
interaction where the independent female community has a chance to learn from
each other, grow with each other and network, and the success of the event so
far has far exceeded my expectations.
13353 I was so very
impressed with the way Edmonton's television and newspaper medium embraced the
concept. Many TV spotlights were given
to the event and it was an exciting happening in our capital city. I was even more impressed with the way the
fellow musicians and artists band together to make this a sold‑out event.
13354 From the
attendance to the press coverage, to the new‑found friendships, you can
only imagine how excited I was to start planning the event for next year's
event.
13355 However, with all
things dreamy comes that realistic, practical hard to face moment of
realization. I needed support. If there is one thing I have learned in all
my musical endeavours, it's this: If you don't have the big guy believing in
you, you have 20 times more difficulty carrying that dream to fruition.
13356 Insert Sean
Moreman. He is a lawyer representing the
Evanov Radio Group who found my Amber Affair website online and shared a common
interest in the concept. It was a simple
e‑mail explaining who he was and asking me to contact him.
13357 At first I thought
it was spam and a not so funny joke by maybe one of the artists because, you
know, let's face it, things like that just don't happen, at least to me
anyway. But a few more e‑mails
later and I paid attention. I'm not even
kidding when I say his third e‑mail came just five minutes after I had
verbalized "Ah, I need support".
Somehow I just need that big guy to believe in me.
13358 Coincidence, fate,
answer prayer, miracle, I will let you decide.
But for me I called it absolute perfect timing. My phone conversation with Sean was very
inspiring, to say the least. I was very
impressed with Evanov's vision for Edmonton.
13359 As a female, I was
very excited they were targeting the female community. As a musician, I was thrilled there was
opportunity to prove that Edmonton was so much more than just Nickelback. And as a visionary, I was totally thrilled
that they wanted to work with local artists.
13360 So Sean asked me
questions about my long‑term vision for the event; I asked him questions
back. He talked support and I listened
intently to him. I probably sounded
quite composed ‑‑ sorry, I didn't get that sentence out ‑‑
to which I am very proud, but inside my brain was a frantic whirlwind of ideas
of the possibilities that could happen with this potential partnership.
13361 I mean, here's a
radio station of all things, the one thing I had the most difficulty with,
catching the same vision of what I wanted to do and what I really wanted to do
now in the city.
13362 To me it was like
partnership heaven.
13363 The partnership
with Evanov will support three very important aspects of The Amber Affair.
13364 First, financial
provisions will be used to support the talent for national and international
stages right back to our local stage. I
really do believe the bigger the name that headlines the event, the bigger the
draw. With a bigger draw comes a greater
opportunity to showcase our very own community and independent talent.
13365 I also believe
that something phenomenal happens when you do combine both those levels of
success. You create a learning and
shared environment between artists and various styles and in all walks of life.
13366 In fact, I really
believe it is something that is missing in today's survival of the fittest
driven society, especially the cutthroat music
business.
13367 So partial money
would be spent on invitations made to those established well‑known
artists, but will also be spent in paying the local talent.
13368 Second, the final
contributions will go to production costs.
These are not so glamorous but necessary intangibles needed to make an
event of this calibre operate. Costs
such as venue, stage design, lighting, sound engineering, technicians and
artist displays. I want this event to
continuously get bigger and better and I can only do that with these guys'
help.
13369 Third, and by far
the most important, are the opportunities that Evanov will provide for this
community. I want Amber Affair musicians
to get airplay and Evanov can achieve that.
13370 I want the event
to reach a large target of females from various stages of life and whom I
couldn't reach otherwise. Evanov can
accomplish that.
13371 I want Amber
Affair to get national recognition.
Evanov can most certainly achieve that through their Toronto station
which airs Top 40 music. And Toronto, to
us aspiring Canadian musicians, is a major market to break through in one's
musical career.
13372 I mostly want the
partnership with Evanov to act as a representation of what can happen when the
big guy gets behind independent creative pursuits.
13373 In the end, I just
want to say thank you. It is pretty cool
when you get to come to these sorts of things and get to share your passion and
your vision and your heart. So as one of
those starving musicians, I guess they call us, it is a huge honour to be here.
13374 So I just wanted
to say thanks in closing.
13375 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Thank you, Ms Keating.
13376 Commissioner
Cugini will ask the questions.
13377 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: Thank you and good
afternoon. Thanks for taking the time to
come.
13378 How does someone
who majors in classical arranging and composition and a minor in Jazz, Blues
and Gospel end up with a Pop Rock band?
13379 MS KEATING: You sound like my dad.
‑‑‑ Laughter /
Rires
13380 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: Oh, don't say that to me!
13381 MS KEATING: It's okay, I love him. He's a great man.
13382 You could call me
eclectic, I guess. You study certain
things and it kind of evolves you and just opens your mind to other forms of
writing. And when I sat down to write,
and three members of the band being guys, it just evolves.
13383 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: Have you recorded?
13384 MS KEATING: Yes.
13385 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: Has your music received any
airplay at all?
13386 MS KEATING: It received a couple of spins, I guess you
could say, but here is the problem I keep hearing from them, is that I'm too
Rock to be Easy Listening, but I'm too girl to be ‑‑
13387 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: Rock.
13388 MS KEATING: There you go, to be Rock.
13389 I fall ‑‑
and I have heard it mentioned today, too, when I was here a little bit this
morning; hence my good morning thing in the beginning.
13390 You fall between
the cracks. I think a lot of female
artists, that really does happen for a lot of them, because you are undefinable
and therefore they don't know how to classify you.
13391 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: For how many years have you been
putting on The Amber Affair?
13392 MS KEATING: This coming up will be our second year. It just started.
13393 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: It really is unfortunate that as
we travel across the country we learn about great events and it is just
unfortunate that they don't occur at the time that we are in the city in which
they are born.
13394 Has any other
radio station in Edmonton sponsored you or shown any kind of support for The
Amber Affair?
13395 MS KEATING: I have great respect for all radio stations
that are here obviously. I definitely
don't want to dismiss any of them, but it has been by far the absolute most
difficult area for my entire musical journey, not just for The Amber Affair.
13396 It wasn't even an
option. It was just an astounding we are
not interested, which I found quite amazing because I think I can sell
something. So it was quite shocking that
I couldn't convey that vision and that ‑‑ you know, that for
such a festival city the doors could be shut so quickly, I guess.
13397 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: Who are the sponsors for The
Amber Affair currently?
13398 MS KEATING: They are all either store ‑‑
female owners are the ones that predominantly kind of jumped on board fairly
quickly. There are men that have
sponsored it as well. But from design,
like T‑shirt design, local placement stores, to bath and body work type
stores, to independent clothing stores, that sort of thing, are the ones that
really rallied behind the whole artistic concept.
13399 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: One of the additional things
that Evanov pointed out to us when they appeared before us is that two women
will be shareholders of the Edmonton radio station if we license them.
13400 Just from your
perspective, is it important that women are given the opportunity to own radio
stations and what difference do you think that will make?
13401 MS KEATING: I get asked that one question all the time
being in a male dominated industry.
Personally, I think it is super cool.
I think it is a huge plus when I see any woman on a playing field in
that demographic.
13402 That's not to say
that I necessarily want to hear all women roar, so to speak, but I think it is
a huge form of inspiration for any younger women coming up to see that more
opportunities are being opened up, such as a woman being part of a radio
station like that.
13403 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: Thank you very much for taking
the time to come talk to us today.
13404 MS KEATING: Thanks for having me.
13405 COMMISSIONER CUGINI: Those are my questions.
13406 MS KEATING: Okay.
13407 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much. It was very helpful and we appreciate you
taking the time.
13408 MS KEATING: Thank you.
13409 THE
CHAIRPERSON: We will certainly consider
your remarks.
13410 THE
SECRETARY: Thank you.
13411 I would now call
CIRPA and the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Alberta to
come forward to the presentation table to appear as a panel and present their
interventions.
13412 For the record, we
have been informed that Richard C. Fraser and J. Barry Petursson listed in the
agenda will not be appearing at the hearing.
‑‑‑ Pause
13413 THE
SECRETARY: We will start with
CIRPA. Please introduce yourself, after
which you have ten minutes for your presentation.
INTERVENTION
13414 MR. JAHNS: Thank you.
13415 Good afternoon,
Madam Chair and Members of the Commission.
My name is Alvin Jahns. I am a
Board Member of the Canadian Independent Record Production Association, and I
am here today as the CIRPA representative to support the Harvard Broadcasting
application and to speak to the Canadian Blast initiative included in their
application.
13416 The Canadian music
industry faces an extraordinary number of challenges. After nearly a decade of declining sales, due
largely to unauthorized downloading, a new generation of consumers who were
eight and nine year olds when all of this started are now entering our key
demographic of 18 and 19 year olds.
13417 Needless to say,
these consumers, unlike any other previous generation, have a different view of
the value of music than we did when we were young, at least its cash
value. For many of them, too many of
them, music is free; it is just there to be taken.
13418 Now, as a result
the structure of the music business in Canada is experiencing radical
change. Recorded music has as never
before become a component of a much larger value chain that is based on the
artist and his or her relationship with their market and audience.
13419 Companies who once
just made and sold records are more and more diversifying their companies to
include other areas of expertise. Music
publishing and management, touring, promotions, merchandising, all have become
part and parcel of the music company's core competencies. They have to do this to survive.
13420 Now, this is all
happening in an era where somewhat ironically Canadian Independent acts or acts
who were nurtured in the Canadian indie culture are more popular than ever.
13421 Canadian acts are
in demand around the world and many, such as Feist, are being recognized in the
conventional manner with Juno Awards in Canada and Grammy nominations in the
U.S. and other international awards.
13422 Capturing and
monetizing this intense interest takes imagination, skill and investment, with
the latter coming from both private and public sources. The CCD contribution to Canadian Blast
proposed by Harvard Broadcasting addresses this need. Our job at CIRPA is to help create the
appropriate environment in which Canadian Independent music companies can
succeed. Whether that means
representations to broadcast and telecommunications regulators or copyright
boards or organizing showcase opportunities for bands in London or Hong Kong or
Austin, Texas, CIRPA provides the expertise necessary to ensure that the
interests of Canadian music companies in our membership are professionally
promoted.
13423 Over the past
year, we have appeared at hearings, written interventions, met with ministers
of government, attended trade shows and promoted concerts and festivals. We have also spent a considerable amount of
time finding the funding necessary from both public and private sources to make
all of the events we attend and promote possible.
13424 This upcoming year
will be a milestone for the organization.
With less emphasis on copyright and regulatory affairs and more on trade
development, CIRPA intends to take the lead role nationally, together with
ADISQ, our French‑speaking counterpart, in pursuing export market
opportunities.
13425 We have found that
in order for companies to ‑‑ sorry, I had this organized
here. Pardon me.
‑‑‑ Pause
13426 MR. JAHNS: I printed off a new version and I have new
glasses.
13427 In any event, last
year, in a dedicated mission to Japan, CIRPA members met over 200 Japanese
music industry professionals and completed over 90 deals. This level of success can be repeated when
the same strategy which focuses attention on Canada is followed.
13428 As an example, we
are confident that repeated trips to Japan will produce huge benefits. Therefore, we are returning this year to
Tokyo and continuing on to Asia.
13429 Providing
opportunities to access foreign markets is one of the keys to moving
forward. The Canadian market is
shrinking so domestic expansion is unlikely.
A larger proportion of our Canadian industries' sales are offshore. Canada is a small, scattered and expensive
touring market. By comparison, Britain
is densely populated and relatively cheap.
The cost‑benefit ratios are easily calculated.
13430 Now, does this
mean that Canadians should give up on Canada?
By no means.
13431 But unlike in
previous years were record sales would comprise a substantial income, acts must
more and more rely on live performances to both earn a living and to sell their
products. With profitable operations
they can produce more and their companies can reinvest in developing new
talent.
13432 The Canadian Blast
initiative is one of the most important tools CIRPA has developed to address
the issue of developing export market opportunities for Canadian artists and
labels. Begun in 2005 as a cooperatively
funded venture between the Trade Routes Division of the Department of Canadian
Heritage and CIRPA, the effort has continued to this day.
13433 In March of this
year eight export ready Canadian acts performed for over 2500 delegates and 250
industry professionals from around the world in Austin's Bush Square at the
South by Southwest Music Conference and Festival, all under the Canadian Blast.
13434 In addition, 120
Canadian bands showcase their talents in venues in and around Austin during the
festival week. Included in the Canadian
Blast showcase was Cadence Weapon, an Urban artist from here in Edmonton. Cadence Weapon also appeared in last year's
Canadian Blast at CMJ in New York.
13435 This is priceless
exposure on a world stage for a developing act.
13436 In June of this
year, six Canadian bands and 12 companies will travel to London for our
inaugural appearance at London Calling, the UK's premier conference for the
British and Continental European music business. The Canadian Blast Showcase will take over
the Borderline music club for one night of this two‑day conference,
focusing exclusively on Canada.
13437 For our musicians
to appear abroad, we must invest substantial amounts of money. Sending a four‑piece group to Britain
involves the usual expenses, but in addition requires appearance fees, backline
support like instruments, PA, lighting, et cetera, and publicity. Our program is stretched to the limit and we
often turn down applicants or find participants who are worthy but can't afford
to attend.
13438 Through the
Canadian Blast Program, Harvard Broadcasting's CCD initiative will direct much‑needed
funding to deserving artists who otherwise could not afford the trip. The results can be startling and
substantial. From touring, to licensing,
to distribution deals Canadian Blast artists have often begun their
international careers based on their success in these events.
13439 Every event has
produced a success story and some have produced many success stories, such as
the trip to Japan.
13440 Revenues generated
from these initiatives are cycled back to Canada where they are reinvested in
developing more high quality content for both Canadian and worldwide
markets. There is an important benefit
here for Canadian radio. Successful
companies and artists produce revenues that are reinvested in Canadian content
for domestic radio and better content as mature acts continue to succeed. This will guarantee an ongoing supply of what
Canadians want: an opportunity to hear their culture on radio.
13441 As previously
mentioned, Canadian music companies cannot develop and sell their artists' work
based solely on the Canadian marketplace.
Canadian success in music has always been dependent on the development
of foreign markets.
13442 In the new world,
where artists are brands and touring is essential to a successful
commercialization, the costs of success are increasing. Competition from other countries with highly
developed export strategies is intense.
Governments in Britain, France and even Iceland have invested heavily in
music export initiatives.
13443 With our artists
charting worldwide, Canada must respond with a well‑funded world‑class
effort. The proposed contribution will
help us do that.
13444 Finally, CIRPA's
board has taken the position that in order for new artists to be heard in
Canada, the CRTC must define and establish benchmarks for new music played on
radio so that the benefits of our development efforts are felt in local markets
in Canada.
13445 CIRPA has recently
suggested that 50 per cent of the Cancon requirements be devoted to new
acts and that increased Cancon levels would also be welcomed to accommodate new
materials.
13446 Given a definition
of new acts that defines them as new for three years beyond the first time they
reach Top 40 status on the appropriate chart, we estimate that this could mean
as much as a three or four‑fold increase in new radio play. We would point out that in support of new
material, Harvard has committed itself to levels of play which are consistent
with our board's view.
13447 We commend Harvard
Broadcasting for realizing this opportunity and the funding challenge it
presents, and we appreciate the support and their inclusion of these
initiatives in their application for a radio licence in the Edmonton market.
13448 Thank you.
13449 THE
SECRETARY: We will now proceed with the
Department of Family Medicine, University of Alberta.
13450 Please introduce
yourself and you then have ten minutes for your presentation.
INTERVENTION
13451 DR. DOBBS: Thank you.
13452 Good afternoon,
Madam Chair, fellow Members of the Commission and CRTC staff.
13453 My name is Dr.
Bonnie Dobbs and I am pleased to have the opportunity to be here today in
support of Harvard Broadcasting's application for JENN‑FM, a radio
station that is decidedly different but very much needed in our capital region.
13454 I believe JENN‑FM
is truly reflective of our capital city and speaks to people like me. I am pleased to lend my support and voice to
the JENN‑FM application because in my professional and personal views, it
is a solid proposal that has been developed for this community and one that I
believe will be supported by the community members.
13455 Commissioners, I
feel compelled to appear before you today because I believe Harvard
Broadcasting and JENN‑FM are the right fit for the city and particularly
for women who reside here. Women are an
integral part of Edmonton's past and future.
There is evidence that women think differently, act differently and
aspire to different goals than our male cohorts. It also is well documented that today's woman
is very different in aspirations, roles and choices than her mother and
grandmother.
13456 Although I am a
proud grandmother, I do not want to be prescribed music selections or talk
radio that stereotypes or transports me to degradation or the past. I believe JENN‑FM offers something
unique, a choice on radio that celebrates an increasingly numerous and
important part of our community: the more mature woman.
13457 Let me begin by
telling you a bit about myself.
13458 I am currently the
Director of Research for the Division of Care of the Elderly at the University
of Alberta. I also am an Associate
Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and an Adjunct Professor in the
Department of Psychology at the U of A, an institution celebrating its 100th
anniversary where many firsts have been born.
13459 I have dedicated
most of my research to the effects of medical conditions on driving competence,
procedures that improve the identification of medically at risk drivers and the
consequences of driving cessation for medically‑impaired drivers and
their families.
13460 I am an author and
I have served as an expert on numerous national and international committees
and working groups on the medically at risk driver and issues related to aging.
13461 I, along with my
colleagues, are currently in the process of establishing a Medically at Risk
Driver Center at the University of Alberta, an Edmonton first, an Alberta
first, a Canada first and a first nationally and internationally. The Medically at Risk Driver Center, like
JENN‑FM, will be integral ‑‑ or the partnerships that we
develop with the Medically at Risk Driver Center and with the community will be
integral to its success, like the partner, community partners for the JENN‑FM
application.
13462 I am a long‑time
resident of Edmonton and a proud resident of our province's capital city. Edmonton is known as a government town, but
it also is a city rich in cultural and economic diversity. This is a city where sports are an integral
piece of Edmonton's past and future and, as an avid Edmonton Oiler fan I dare
say that our future will hopefully be better than the recent past.
13463 In addition to our
NHL team, Edmonton is known for the strength of its spirit, a spirit that is so
integral to its continued growth. Ours
is a city that is growing in size, attracting both human and capital
investment. We are no longer comparing
ourselves to our neighbour to the south, but we are recognizing the differences
between us and capitalizing on the strengths that our capital region brings to
the economic and social fabric in Alberta.
13464 Edmonton is
continually looking for ways to be a city of champions. JENN‑FM fits perfectly as a champion
for Edmonton's radio listeners.
13465 Edmonton is a city
to be proud of. It is a city that
rallies around causes like the Sorrentino's Compassion House for women with
breast cancer, the Mazankowski Heart Institute, the Stollery Children's
Hospital and the United Way.
13466 Notably, the women
in our community have played and will continue to play a key role in these
initiatives. This is a group that JENN‑FM
speaks to, women who are leaders and who are working to build a community here
that is inclusive, respectful and culturally rich.
13467 I would like to
turn now and talk briefly about JENN‑FM's format.
13468 I am not a music
expert so the opinions I share on this portion of Harvard's proposal are merely
those of a music fan.
13469 On paper it
appears as if the people of Edmonton have a variety in radio to choose from and
there is no shortage of contemporary music and news or talk. One could reasonably assume by looking at a
summary chart that we want for nothing.
But I sit before you as a woman and a long time resident of this market
to tell you that this is not the case.
13470 First, there may
be a lot of services but there is not a lot of choice in music. It is not unusual to switch between stations
only to hear the same song playing.
Neither is it unusual to hear the same song on the same station multiple
times.
13471 Through a AAA
format JENN‑FM will expand musical choices by playing artists not
currently being heard, play songs from artists that have never made any charts,
and play styles of music that largely can only be heard through CD collections
or clubs.
13472 It is difficult to
find a station playing a balance between old and new music. Currently the choice is between classic hits
or current music or the alternative, frequently changing channels.
13473 But JENN changes
all that. They are promising to provide
a balance, new music, more music, more Canadian artists, more new artists and
songs from CD and, yes, even albums that were hits when we were all a lot
younger. This is a variety and this most
closely mirrors the personal listening experience that many of us desire.
13474 Although music is
important to me, the area of JENN‑FM's programming that I want to spend
the most time discussing is the spoken word.
Thus, the remainder of my time will be spent on emphasizing the power of
radio as a communication tool and a means to connect to community.
13475 JENN's spoken word
format will provide an integral connection between the people and events within
our community. The opportunity to access
information on lifestyle issues such as health, developments and preventative
and diagnostic medical interventions and treatment, and issues related to aging
are not currently readily available.
JENN‑FM will address that deficiency.
13476 A topic that I am
particularly passionate about is the medically at risk driver. There are a number of conditions that affect
a person's ability to drive safely, including chronic conditions such as
diabetes or dementia. The effects of
surgery, such as coronary artery bypass graft surgery, and treatments such as
chemotherapy also can reduce the ability to drive safely.
13477 The research that
I, along with colleagues at the University of Alberta, and the translation of
that research into practice is, and will continue to play a key role in
addressing a preventable public health issue, the medically at risk driver.
13478 Currently there is
limited opportunity to disseminate information on this issue, information that
could assist in reducing the individual, the social and the economic costs
associated with the medically impaired drivers.
The growing population, the aging of the baby boomers means that the
dissemination of information and discussions around the medically at risk
driver will become increasingly important.
That information needs to target individuals. It needs to target the caregivers, family
members and the health care professional.
13479 Notably, JENN‑FM
will provide a forum for the appropriate audience with an appropriate
format. As a researcher, a connection to
the community via radio like JENN proposes to be is invaluable.
13480 I also want to
talk briefly about the value the spoken word format will have for me as a
consumer. The selection topics proposed
on JENN is of considerable service to me not only as a local consumer, but also
as a general knowledge seeker. The time
I spend with radio often is the time that I commute between work and home. I welcome the opportunity to have access to a
radio station that provides a more sophisticated choice of topics and one with
less inane banter or discussions that are relevant to a select few.
13481 JENN's format
offers to me, and many of my colleagues, an opportunity to learn from and to
contribute to our community in a very direct, personal manner.
13482 In conclusion, I
would like to leave you with the following thoughts.
13483 Edmonton and its
surrounding communities are full of vibrant women who are not represented on
our airwaves. JENN‑FM will fill
that void.
13484 Edmonton is a
community which has an aging population that is actively involved in the
community but does not have a single source of music to meet that need. JENN‑FM will fill those needs.
13485 And, finally,
JENN's spoken word comment will fill an important gap through the dissemination
of information that can serve to educate and enrich the lives of women. JENN‑FM is a station that I believe
recognizes and will fill the diverse roles and needs of women like me.
13486 I'm excited by
this proposal and I know many others like me are, as well. I ask the Members of this Commission to
consider the application for JENN‑FM as a good fit for the community, a
necessity for a growing demographic and the right place for a first for radio
in Canada.
13487 I appreciate the
opportunity to present to you today.
13488 Thank you.
13489 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much, Dr.
Dobbs and Mr. Jahns.
13490 I don't have any
questions actually for Dr. Dobbs. I had
read your submission and your comments today are very thorough, and we can
certainly see why and what areas in particular you are supporting in your
application. We appreciate that.
13491 DR. DOBBS: Thank you.
13492 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Mr. Jahns, what I'm
interested in is the artist who qualify for travelling abroad and are part of
that program. Have they already achieved
some success in Canada? Is that sort of
a prerequisite?
13493 MR. JAHNS: Most often, yes. You know, the artists put in an application
and are assessed by committee; I think it is a committee. I have to admit that I am not certain but I
could get that information for you.
13494 But there is an
assessment and there are a number of applications and it is assessed both on
the artistic merit and their ability to make the trip. That's one of the reasons that Canadian Blast
and the support for the travel is so necessary, because often the artistic
ability is there but the financial support isn't there.
13495 THE
CHAIRPERSON: But is the focus on new and
emerging then?
13496 MR. JAHNS: Yes.
13497 THE CHAIRPERSON: It is?
13498 MR. JAHNS: Entirely, yes.
13499 THE
CHAIRPERSON: What other sources of
funding?
13500 The members, they
pay a fee to join, to belong?
13501 MR. JAHNS: To belong to CIRPA?
13502 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Yes.
13503 MR. JAHNS: The CIRPA membership consists basically of
record labels, of managers and people of that sort. Artists don't join CIRPA directly and so it
would be up to the companies. The
companies are the ones that are the members, but the companies may arrange for
the travel for their artist.
13504 But if an artist
wanted to travel independently, we still support that effort as well.
13505 THE
CHAIRPERSON: So is that your main source
of revenue, is from the memberships?
13506 MR. JAHNS: Membership is a significant amount. We get some funding through collective
initiatives program administered by FACTOR, and we administer various other
programs and have some other fund raising initiatives that ‑‑
it is definitely an uphill battle.
13507 It is not a well‑financed
organization, as most cultural organizations are always strapped for money, I
guess.
13508 THE
CHAIRPERSON: So would this be a first
CCD initiative that you have benefited from or have there been others?
13509 MR. JAHNS: This would actually ‑‑ I
believe this would be a first that is directly ‑‑ that
directly goes to CIRPA.
13510 CIRPA in its role,
as you can imagine, is a proponent for increased Canadian content and is
generally not, I guess, given a lot of direct support by radio, no, in terms of
we are sort of the opponent.
13511 THE
CHAIRPERSON: The opponent?
13512 MR. JAHNS: Yes.
13513 THE
CHAIRPERSON: I don't understand, sorry.
13514 MR. JAHNS: Well, we are looking for more Cancon and
generally radio would ‑‑
13515 THE
CHAIRPERSON: You don't suppose you are
opponents to us, too. We are also
looking for more Cancon.
‑‑‑ Laughter /
Rires
13516 MR. JAHNS: Like, we are always interested in increasing
Cancon. Perhaps to call them opponents
is not entirely accurate, but we often don't see eye to one on certain issues,
mainly being Cancon.
13517 THE
CHAIRPERSON: I appreciate that. Thank you.
13518 MR. JAHNS: And new and emerging artists.
13519 THE
CHAIRPERSON: The degree of support of,
you mean?
13520 MR. JAHNS: That's correct, yes.
13521 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Yes, okay.
13522 Thank you both.
13523 I don't know, do
you have any questions? Yes, okay.
13524 Commissioner
Molnar has some questions for you.
13525 MR. JAHNS: Thank you.
13526 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: Just one question, sorry, to
follow up on Commissioner Duncan's questions related to Canadian Blast.
13527 You mentioned that
there were six bands that were going to the U.K. as a consequence of that
funding?
13528 MR. JAHNS: Yes.
13529 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: Have those bands been selected?
13530 MR. JAHNS: Yes.
13531 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: Are any ‑‑
13532 MR. JAHNS: I believe it's happening in the next couple
weeks; so yes, that would all be decided already.
13533 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: It has. Has it been announced? I don't want to be asking questions if it has
not been announced.
13534 MR. JAHNS: I'm not sure which bands are showcasing. Again, I could get that information for you,
but I'm not familiar with that.
13535 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: Okay. My question was going to be whether or not
any of them were from the Edmonton area or even Alberta?
13536 MR. JAHNS: I don't believe that this year any of them
would be. I think I would be aware of
that. But I know Cadence Weapon has on
two occasions ‑‑ the two previous events, which is an Edmonton
band, or originally from Edmonton and now I think has relocated I believe to
Toronto. But they participated.
13537 And it's not ‑‑
certainly I know other bands in the area that would certainly qualify in the
future. But it is always a mix of ‑‑
you know, it gets back to the financial constraints that generally bands and
artists face, particularly with the cost of international travel.
13538 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: But the point of this program,
if I'm correct, is to try to help and support and supplement their costs.
13539 MR. JAHNS: That's correct.
13540 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: Yes.
13541 MR. JAHNS: Yes.
13542 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: Okay. Thank you very much.
13543 MR. JAHNS: Thank you.
13544 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Commissioner Cugini...?
13545 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: Dr. Dobbs, just one question for
you.
13546 Why do you believe
that the proposal from Harvard, and that is a radio station from a female
perspective ‑‑ and we're not just talking about the music
choices but also the spoken word ‑‑ is important for a market like
Edmonton and, perhaps more specifically, for the work that you do?
13547 And just on a
personal note, I applaud the efforts of anyone who dedicates their life to the
care of the elderly.
13548 DR. DOBBS: Good.
13549 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: But if you could just answer
those questions for me, that would be great.
13550 DR. DOBBS: Good.
Thank you.
13551 I suspect that the
format of JENN‑FM is appropriate to any market in Canada. In fact, if you look at any of the developed
countries, the aging of our population, the growth of the baby boomers, females
consist of a significant percentage of that demographic.
13552 I'm delighted that
JENN‑FM has considered Edmonton to be the first for JENN‑FM.
13553 In terms of how is
it relevant to the female market, particularly in the area that I am concerned
with, the research that I concentrate on, we know, for example, that illnesses
that affect our mothers or fathers, that females are most likely to be the
caregivers, that females most likely are the ones that, for example, provide
transportation if a licence is taken away.
13554 Females
increasingly ‑‑ I think that in general our lives are more
complex, but certainly the lives of females and mature females are becoming
more complex in the baby boomer demographic.
13555 We have all heard
of the sandwich generation where we're looking after our children, we are
looking after children who have left home and have come back, the boomerang
kids, but we are also looking after our parents ‑‑ and
rightfully so, we should be looking after our parents.
13556 We are also
holding down fulltime jobs, professional jobs and becoming increasingly engaged
in our community.
13557 So I think that
when I look at Harvard Broadcasting, their application, the orientation of
their music but more importantly the spoken word, that we have a
tremendous ‑‑ or they ‑‑ we have a tremendous
opportunity, "we" meaning citizens of Edmonton, professionals to
reach a target audience that we simply cannot reach now.
13558 COMMISSIONER
CUGINI: Thank you very much. Those are my questions.
13559 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Thank you both very
much. We appreciate your input and we
will certainly take it into consideration.
13560 Thank you.
13561 We are going to
take ‑‑ no, wait a second.
‑‑‑ Pause
13562 THE CHAIRPERSON: No, I'm jumping ahead of myself.
13563 We will leave that
to people who know what is going on here.
Just a second.
‑‑‑ Pause
13564 THE
SECRETARY: Thank you.
13565 For the record,
Anna Beaumont who is listed on the Agenda has been replaced by Christian Hanson
who had also requested to appear at the hearing.
13566 Therefore, I would
now call Christian Hansen, Stew Kirkwood, Katie Perman and Sandro Dominelli to
appear as a panel and present the interventions.
‑‑‑ Pause
13567 THE
SECRETARY: We will begin with Christian
Hansen.
13568 You have ten
minutes for your presentation.
INTERVENTION
13569 MR. HANSEN: Thank you, Madam Chair, Commissioners and
CRTC staff.
13570 My name is
Christian Hansen, I am an Edmonton‑based musician. I play in the band called Christian Hansen
& the Autistics.
13571 I was recently
awarded the Enbridge/Nextfest Emerging Artist Award for Excellence in
Music. I have also worked with
Chrysalis, an Alberta Society for People with Disabilities to create and
maintain a music program that allows these people to realize their full
potential in music.
13572 I am also a member
of Jam Union, a local Edmonton‑based promotions company that encourages
local shows and local culture.
13573 I am here today to
give my support to Rawlco's application for this new FM band.
13574 I come to you
today not as a manager, not as a business person, but as an artist. I feel it is my duty to represent the
multitude of incredibly talented artists that exist in Edmonton, artists that
are making incredible music in all genres, but specifically in reference to the
play format of Rawlco's proposed FM band, what would be considered Adult New
music.
13575 Like I said, there
is a multitude of talent that is happening in Edmonton right now.
13576 The thing that we are
missing is the funds in order to take what we have here in Edmonton, bring it
to a larger national level, and Rawlco is prepared to provide that funding as
part of their new FM band application.
13577 They are calling
it the 10K20 and there is a four‑part process to that.
13578 First of all, the
most impressive part is that Rawlco is guaranteeing that one artist in ten of
all songs played will be a local Edmonton artist. Now, to my knowledge this is virtually
unheard of. That alone guarantees that
local Edmonton artists who would not otherwise get a chance to have this
exposure are going to get it. That means
my song on the radio on Rawlco, that may have otherwise been relegated to a
college or university station, is now going to reach the multitude of
listeners.
13579 Rawlco is prepared
to give $10,000 to 20 emerging artists every year. This $10,000 will be geared towards that
artist recording an album, the production, the paying of studio engineers and
musicians, as well as promotions and packaging for that album.
13580 They are also
guaranteeing what is called Showtime, which would be a regular rotation of
those artists on the Rawlco station.
They are also promising an emerging artist promo which goes beyond
regular airplay on the station and into the community, such as billboards, such
as advertising on buses.
13581 All of these
things which are otherwise inaccessible to small independent artists such as
myself. Artists that have management
teams, record labels, music publishing, they have the ability to access that
type of promotion, whereas myself and colleagues that play in the Independent
Edmonton music scene, we don't have that ability. Rawlco would be giving us that ability.
13582 I would also like
to take a moment to mention that some of the most successful Edmonton‑based
and Canadian‑based acts have come from the Independent new music
community, artists like Arcade Fire, artists like Feist, Edmonton artists such
as Cadence Weapon, who has been mentioned, who is still based in Edmonton despite
the fact that he signed a major U.S. record deal.
13583 These are all
artists that have toiled in the underground, in the new music scene for years
before getting a break.
13584 What Rawlco is
proposing is something that is quite revolutionary and very powerful, the
ability of those artists to perhaps skip the five to ten years of playing in no‑name
clubs all across Canada, pouring money and money and money into their careers
and seeing no payoff.
13585 Rawlco has
proposed to take these artists and invest in them and help build their careers,
which is something we need. Canada has
been very supportive of its artists and Edmonton is very supportive of its
artists. This would be the next step in
that support.
13586 Rawlco is also
prepared to facilitate what they are calling the breakout artist of the
year. Now, this would be them taking one
of the artists that was awarded a $10,000 to record an album, taking this
artist and awarding them $50,000, as well as creating a long‑term artist
plan for this specific individual or band, or what have you. This would include a plan on how to break
this artist nationally, how to market this artist, et cetera.
13587 I would also like
to mention that throughout this process the artist is retaining 100 per cent
property of their own songs and their own image, et cetera, which is something
that is extremely important and something that these type of act that these
type of bands value extremely highly.
13588 So in conclusion,
I would like to say that what Rawlco is proposing could potentially
revolutionize the music scene in Edmonton and take it from where it is now to
the level of some place like Toronto or Montreal, which is absolutely deserves.
13589 Thank you for your
time, thank you for listening, and thank you.
13590 THE
SECRETARY: Thank you.
13591 We will now
proceed with Stew Kirkwood.
13592 You have ten
minutes for your presentation.
INTERVENTION
13593 MR. KIRKWOOD: Good afternoon. I would like to thank you for the opportunity
to speak this afternoon.
13594 I would like to
start by giving you a bit of background on myself.
13595 I am first and
foremost a music lover. I come from a
musical family and I grew up with musicians and my father's band that has since
become an institution in Edmonton. It
was not uncommon for me to be present at rehearsals, concerts and recording
studios as far back as I can remember, knowing full well that this would be my
calling and passion because for once there was no right or wrong.
13596 Because of all the
instruments laying around the house, I took naturally to most and quickly
became a multi‑instrumentalist. I
have been writing, performing and recording my own songs since I was in Grade
3. From there, my professional music
career began to take shape.
13597 Where am I
here? I'm not used to small crowds. I'm nervous.
‑‑ Laughter / Rires
13598 MR. KIRKWOOD: From there my professional music career began
to take shape as I started my first band at the age of 15 and was soon playing
on campuses and nightclubs in Edmonton.
It was during that time I would also fill in on bass in my father's
band, playing Blues clubs around Edmonton.
13599 Every job I have
had in life was always rooted in the music industry. I have been a musician, I have worked in
record stores and music stores I have taught music both independently and for
AADAC, which is the Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission, teaching music
to children with drug and alcohol issues and teaching them the glory and the
release and the self‑confidence that music has to offer.
13600 I have toured
Canada with a band named Welcome, sharing the stage with many luminary and
established groups in Canada and recorded in many high‑profile recording
studios in western Canada, which led me to my most recent endeavours as a
recording studio owner, producer, sound engineer and session musician.
13601 My training in the
field of producing an engineering has come from life experience and from
looking over the shoulders of the producers that I have worked with, namely
Joel VanDyke and Laurence Currie who helped bands like Wide Mouth Mason and
Sloan rise to Canadian fame at the very least.
13602 Since I have been
recording professionally, I have worked as a producer and/or engineer with over
300 bands in the last eight years and managed during that time to record and
release six of my own albums, some of which have charted high on campus, online
and community radio internationally.
13603 Most artists come
to me because of my experience in the many facets of the industry and because I
can speak to each musician with the passion and terminology that pertains to
their instrument.
13604 I have also had
the wonderful opportunity to record some artists that have been recipients of
Rawlco's 10K20 Grant, namely Ruben Ditolito(ph) for the Decidedly Jazz Dance
Ensemble, the Ambers with Moe Berg from the Canadian group The Pursuit of
Happiness, acting as producer, and for Rawlco Saskatchewan affiliate
Saskatoon's Jason Plumb, once member of the group The Waltons.
13605 It was at this
point that I took note of Rawlco and their benevolence. I mainly record music that has its roots
deeply cemented in the Rock genre and feel as though the funding available to
these artists in Alberta is very slim due partly to the fact that there are so
many in this genre.
13606 It would be one
thing if there was only one form of Rock music, but it is still an ever‑growing
and quickly developing genre with new forms that I cannot even keep up with.
13607 In my career I
have seen a rise and most recently a decline in the live music scene due to the
recent loss of a few institutional venues.
For me as a performer, this brought me too close to giving up the fight,
which is a thought I truly cannot bear to fathom. Music is so therapeutic for an artist and
knowing that if we affect only one person, our goal has been reached and
therein lies our purpose.
13608 Edmonton has a
wealth of amazing and truly talented bands and artists and that has been well
documented in the past. Only a few were
able to break out nationally and even less internationally, because it is
difficult for them to afford to tap into the amazing infrastructure Edmonton
has to offer, be it publicists, promoters, recording studios, producers,
engineers and, dare I say, being able to afford the rehearsal spots.
13609 Of the approximate
300 artists I have recorded over the last eight years, it is my professional
opinion that there is about 30 per cent that I would deem destined for success
in some capacity and definitely worthy of the 10K20 grant, and there are at least
five other pro recording studios and ten basement studios which would lead me
to believe that the talent in Edmonton is overflowing.
13610 In the past, the
aid that other Rock stations have given to their community has been focused on
merely local recognition in the form of compilation albums and contests, with
no thought put into the possibility of national recognition, or this money has
been administered to FACTOR by which my observations have been distributed
mainly to Ontario‑based artists and already established artists.
13611 I strongly believe
that Rawlco's 10K20 grant and the three other grants that they are prepared to
provide will provide Edmonton artists of the Rock genre with the means to tap
into this infrastructure and give them a chance to break out nationally and/or
internationally like never before in the history of the Edmonton music scene
that I have been a part of or have ever heard of.
13612 This excites me
both as a professional and as a music lover and that's why I'm here today.
13613 Thank you for your
time.
13614 THE
SECRETARY: Thank you.
13615 We will now
proceed with Katie Perman.
13616 You have ten
minutes for your presentation.
INTERVENTION
13617 MS PERMAN: Hello, Madam Chairwoman, Members of the
Commission and CRTC staff.
13618 My name is Katie
Perman and I am a local Edmonton musician.
13619 I grew up in a
musical family and have been playing piano and singing since I was six. I have studied piano at the Royal
Conservatory of Music and attended the Grant McEwan music program in both vocal
performance and composition. I have been
making my living as a musician for the last four years as a performer, studio
singer and as a vocal and piano teacher.
13620 I sang with the
Kickette Club, a professional corporate cover band, for four years and I am now
in The Top 10, a similar type of band. I
perform regularly at jazz clubs and restaurants and I am in two original music
bands, as well as doing solo singer/songwriter shows.
13621 I was fortunate
enough to be able to go on a Canadian tour last summer from Vancouver to Regina
with one of those bands.
13622 The many
challenges I have faced as a musician have taught me many things, but also left
me looking for a better way to do things.
Promotion and expenses are the major challenges. The tour we did across Canada was not very
well attended and, though it was fun, it was also frustrating because of the
fact that so much hard work could turn into very little.
13623 The amount of
hours spent calling clubs and radio stations again and again trying to book
shows and get promotion when you are not a well‑known band can be
overwhelming.
13624 I have had the
privilege of working as a studio singer with Audio Looks and their 10K20
recordings and with producer Dave Babcock.
These experiences taught me many new things and challenged me to improve
in many ways.
13625 The chance to work
with a producer and/or engineer is a very valuable but expensive opportunity
and many new artists cannot afford the privilege. Working with a professional outside has many
benefits. The overall sound of the
project is more polished, the musician is pushed to their full potential, many
new ideas can emerge and the experience can lead to improved performances,
songwriting, confidence and skill.
13626 As an emerging
artist I feel that a new radio station that offers an adult new music type of
format, along with the 10K20 project, would greatly benefit my career as well
as many of the other artists in our great musical community. I have many friends in other areas of music
related business that are also looking forward to the support that the creation
of a station like this will bring.
13627 Recording studios
will benefit, as it will increase the need for high‑end audio recordings,
as well as mastering studios and a variety of other businesses that are
involved with a large number of steps in creating an album, including album
design, photography, music lessons, instrument repair.
13628 A music grant to
produce an album for play on a radio station is a wonderful gift to give a new
musician, not only for the money, the production help and the confidence boost,
but also to have the opportunity to be heard.
I have seen what these grants from Rawlco and radio exposure has done
for many of my musician friends. They
have been encouraged and transformed from music players into artists. The chance to hear yourself on the radio is
something that every artist should be able to experience and the fact that full
ownership of the recording is given to the artist is something that is also
very important.
13629 Being a Canadian
musician is a source of pride for me, as well as many others. Canadian musicians seem to often get lost in
the crowd and although many stations do fulfil their Canadian content, very
rarely is it an emerging artist.
13630 Right now local
Edmonton, as well as Alberta‑wide musicians, don't really have too many
ways to get their songs out to their median audience in terms of radio. There is campus radio, which has a relatively
low listening audience, and CKUA. There
are very few stations that play local music acts on their regular playlist.
13631 Edmonton has a
strong musical community and financial support and exposure. It takes artists from here and helps to
globalize them, not only creating a bigger spotlight for the artist, but also
creates more awareness of Edmonton in general.
When people hear a band they like, they more often than not ask where
they are from.
13632 There is a serious
talent pool here and Edmonton artists are proud to be part of it. With the creation of a station like this,
with the promise to play a local act every one in ten songs, more people will
be encouraged to stay in Edmonton rather than be forced to move to Toronto,
Vancouver or the States in order to get any attention.
13633 Edmonton used to
have a booming live show industry, but with closure of such places as The
Sidetrack Cafe I feel like we are running out of places and when you do play,
it is not always at a place you are proud of.
13634 That's why this
Showtime idea is so valuable. Having
promotion done for you and getting paid real money is a very nice change from
the ordinary. It is nice to feel like
you are receiving real support.
13635 The idea behind
this radio station is an incredible boost for the Edmonton music community. I have pride in being a musician and,
although I play music for the joy of it, I also want to be proud of what I
produce. Having the financial,
promotional and airplay support can help me to create something I can be proud
of. This is an incredible opportunity
for any emerging artist.
13636 Thank you for your
time.
13637 THE
SECRETARY: Thank you.
13638 We will now
proceed with Sandro Dominelli.
13639 You have ten
minutes for your presentation.
INTERVENTION
13640 MR.
DOMINELLI: Thank you. I would like to say good afternoon to all the
members of the Commission and the CRTC staff.
Thanks for having me here.
13641 My name is Sandro
Dominelli. My musical journey started at
a very young age; I think I was about nine years old. I grew up in a musical family. I had many brothers and sisters, uncles,
aunts playing in all sorts of bad wedding bands and all sorts of things like
that.
13642 Rita, you probably
know this sort of thing, yes.
‑‑‑ Laughter /
Rires
13643 MR.
DOMINELLI: Soon after I decided in my
early teens that this is what I wanted to do, I went on to sneak into the clubs
in the Edmonton music scene. I used to
play in clubs that had six nights a week entertainment. You know, I was like 15, 16 years old. It was an amazing time. That was the early 80s.
13644 So I was a
professional musician at a young age, which means basically I was making
money. I don't know if I was any good,
but it didn't matter.
13645 Of course my
instrument is drums, some percussion. At
that time our scene here in Edmonton was very healthy and very prosperous for
musician. With 25 years of music in my
life since, I have noticed through three decades the difference from the 80s to
the 90s and to 2000.
13646 Soon after my
professional career in the bars ended, for a brief stint anyways, I went on to
start to educate myself in the music scene and, as well, in university. In 1995 I studied music education and
received a Bachelor of Arts in music education from Antigonish, Nova
Scotia. St. Francis Xavier is the university.
13647 Soon after that I
came back to Edmonton, my home town where I was born and raised, and I started
playing, again fulltime. It was a little
different then. It was the mid‑90s. There wasn't six nights a week in the
clubs. There wasn't many venues ‑‑
as many venues ten years later.
13648 Since then, or
after that rather, I started working on my own career as a solo artist. I started writing music. I started recording many records for
different people, and then I recorded my debut CD in early 2003. That CD was called Cafe Varzé Jazz and we
went on to ‑‑ and I say "we" because I credit all
the people that were involved in that recording. We went on to win a WCMA for best Jazz
recording of the year.
13649 Soon after that,
in 2004, we received the Juno nomination for that same record.
13650 It was soon after
that that I got caught by the bug of being a solo artist and excited about
playing in front of audiences with my name, so to speak, in lights. That inspired me and an investor for me to put
out my second recording as a solo artist, which was called Meet Me in the
Alley, a very personal endeavour for me.
13651 That particular
recording, I was involved in every aspect from writing the music to producing,
to even the artwork that went onto it.
That particular recording had plenty of airplay all across Canada. Every college and Jazz station, CBC, private
radio stations in smaller towns, things like that.
13652 I was proud to go
on in 2006 to receive Canadian Jazz Independent Artist of the Year from that
record.
13653 Soon after that I
continued to tour Canada with that CD.
It took me all over Ontario, B.C., Nova Scotia and parts of the
prairies.
13654 Soon after that my
good friend and peer, Dave Babcock, called me up in 2005 and asked me if I was
interested in being part of a group that would record theme records for their
radio station. I found it to be a little
absurd at first. I was thinking wait a
sec, that doesn't exist. Like I don't
understand, what do you mean? He said
no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, it really does.
We are going to sit down and we're going to talk about this and we are
going to record about a hundred songs for a new radio station that is coming to
town. I said can you tell me the
name? He goes no. He didn't even know, I don't think, at the
time.
13655 That radio station
was Magic 99. That radio station is the
template for the new station that we are here in support of, the New Music for
Adults radio station. That template that
we were practising, that we were working on, was the same template that we're
talking about here today.
13656 The biggest part
of that template is 10K20: 10K20,
$10,000 to 20 artists in the Edmonton area.
13657 Before that all
started we had been hired as session musicians to create 12 ‑‑
I think it was 12, well, over 100 songs worth of theme music for their radio
station for when they hit the air for the first time. This music included songs of the 60s, Burt
Bacharach, Smooth Jazz, a variety of different stylings.
13658 It took us a couple
of years to get through that actually.
It was quite an endeavour. It was
something that was overwhelming at times.
13659 Soon after that I
decided to give it another kick at the cat with my third recording as a solo
artist, which was funded by Magic 99 and I was a 10K20 artist. That record was called Passages in 2006.
13660 That particular
record was monumental for me because that was the birth of my own studio called
SD2 Studios, and that particular recording was the birth of me as an engineer
and furthering my producing skills.
13661 As well, that was
also monumental for me to be part of all the other recordings that we had done
of the theme records. I was continuing
to record and do overdubs and all those sort of things trying to catch up so we
could finish this work and get these songs to the radio station before they hit
the air.
13662 Once that was
completed I went on to produce some other records for 10K20 artists and I went
on to perform approximately another 20 records for other artists in the
Edmonton area.
13663 So I am actually
here telling you that it works. I am
actually here saying that this program that they are presenting is something
that is inspiring to people like me who have been through almost three decades
worth of music.
13664 I have seen where
Edmonton was in the 80s and it was really vibrant. It was one of the best cities in the country
for live music and then it started to dissipate and dissipate and dissipate,
and since then I believe that the Rawlco Radio Company, in particular Magic 99,
has reinstilled the faith in our music society, in our community.
13665 I know that from a
Jazz perspective and that is probably the most difficult genre to keep
alive. Probably Classical might be next;
I'm not sure.
13666 But I do know this,
in a New Music for Adults Pop Rock radio station I can't imagine how this
couldn't be the best thing for our city.
I can't imagine how this might not be the best thing for our artists.
13667 There is an
incredible amount of talent in this province.
I know that. I live in a suburb
known as St. Albert. It is 50,000
people; it is north of Edmonton. I run a
studio out there now. I am general
manager, engineer and producer and a session musician. I am surrounded around kids that are 10 to 16
years old and out of every 10 I can pick five and say they can make it all the
way if we get behind them and help them out.
If we can support them, if we can put a machine behind them, we can
build a team, I know that they can be stars.
13668 So I can only imagine
if Rawlco Radio and this new station was to come to life what it would mean for
the rest of our community in the Pop Rock genre, what it means to our studios
and what it means to the players in our city, what it means to the clubs, what
it means to other live venues, what it means to our audiences.
13669 The idea behind
10K20 has been taken to another step with this particular radio station with
Showtime, which Christian and Katie made mention of, and The Breakout, which is
unheard of.
13670 I don't know of
anybody ‑‑ it must be unprecedented unless I don't know
anything that's going on. Maybe in the
United States or maybe in Europe, I don't know.
I haven't did all my research so I apologize. But if I had to take a guess, I think this is
quite unprecedented as to what they are offering.
13671 On top of that, I
was here yesterday during one of the hearings and I saw Rita ask a question to
Doug Pringle of this group and I was ‑‑ I haven't been that
inspired, other than by music, being a musician, after his answer to your
question.
13672 I do believe that
there is a void, there is a hole that has to be plugged with musicians who are
like me, maybe on a grander scale, maybe on a smaller scale, but have played
music, recorded music, had successful music situations in their lives and then
have gone missing because there is no forum for them to continue to grow. There is no forum for them to play their new
music. Oh, that's the guy who had that
one hit. He's gone.
13673 I believe that
what the Rawlco Radio Group is presenting is not a need, but more than a need;
it is just a reality. I think that it is
something that we have to consider greatly in Canadian music.
13674 Where is Anne
Murray's new music? Where is Gordon
Lightfoot's new music? You know, where
is Bryan Adams' new music?
13675 I will tell you
where Bryan Adams' new music is. It's on
Magic 99, you know. You won't catch it
on many of the retro or Classic Rock stations.
13676 THE
SECRETARY: Pardon me,
Mr. Dominelli. You have one minute
left in your presentation. Please
conclude.
13677 MR.
DOMINELLI: Thank you. Sorry for talking too much. I'm a passionate guy, what can I say?
‑‑‑ Laughter /
Rires
13678 MR.
DOMINELLI: In conclusion, I would like
to thank you for taking the time and listening to me.
13679 I am a huge
supporter of the Rawlco Radio Group.
They have been great to me, all my friends, all my peers, some of my
relatives and of course a greater Edmonton area.
13680 Thank you.
13681 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Thank you, all.
13682 Commissioner
Molnar...?
13683 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: Thank you, and welcome.
13684 You are late in
the hearing here. We have had a lot of
people ahead of us, so I am sure you have been very patient waiting. I appreciate that.
13685 Despite the fact
that we have had a number of groups in front of us, your group has said
something that I'm not sure I picked up earlier and I am just going to open it.
13686 I know that Mr.
Dominelli, Ms Perman and I believe that Mr. Kirkwood, you also made the comment
about how there are less venues for live music.
And perhaps even, Mr. Hanson, you may have also spoken of it.
13687 It is not
something that at least I had picked up earlier in the week. You know, we have heard throughout this
proceeding about the economic growth that is going on, you know, the population
growth that is going on, the dynamic city it is. It is a city of festivals and it is a city of
culture.
13688 So hearing that
you are losing venues for your live music is something that is a bit
surprising.
13689 Perhaps I'm going
to open it and let you all give me your perspectives on why that is the case in
a city that sounds like it is so vibrant, you know, musically and artistically;
why those venues are going away and what role radio would have in trying to
change that.
13690 MR. HANSON: Well, I think one of the reasons that may
seem a little bit removed why venues are going away is that Alberta and
Edmonton is in a state of massive flux and change right now. It's a boomtown and it is going through a
shift in focus.
13691 I think that has
an effect on new people coming to a city, people leaving. More money being made sometimes has an effect
on ‑‑ culture gets alienated.
But I think that even though it may be alienated, it is still there.
13692 You know, I mean
with the disappearance of venues that doesn't mean there is a disappearance of
passion for making great music and playing that.
13693 I mean with my
promotions company, I mean we were doing shows in bars with VLTs in them and
just places you would never think just because there is a lack of venues, but
there is still a market there.
13694 But I think that
radio and the exposure of new artists and local Edmonton artists, that can be
the missing link, because if I am doing a show or promoting a show are playing
a show where there are three great local Edmonton acts but no one, the greater
public outside of a small kind of incestuous music scene has heard of these
people, they are not going to come to the show.
But if each one of those bands is being played, you know, one spin out
of every ten songs and it is being promoed on the radio station, you bet your
bottom dollar that people are going to come to that venue.
13695 Recently I saw an
amazing example of how promotion affects the turnout of a live venue. A local radio station featured an artist for
a month. They play one song of that
artist a couple of times a day for a month and then promo the show. At the end of that month they do this big
show.
13696 My band opened for
this band. At the venue they had it,
which was about a 250 capacity venue, the venue was sold out. People were so excited about this band that
had been played on the radio, promoted and just people were so excited about
the show, it was a success. The bands
made money, the venue made money, it was all good.
13697 Two weeks later
this band did the same show at a venue that had maybe about a hundred person
capacity but with nowhere near the promotion muscle behind them. There were 30 people there.
13698 So at that first
venue, because they had this promotion machine behind them, which takes money,
which takes the commitment of radio, et cetera, people from St. Albert, people
from all the outlying suburbs where this radio station reaches came and saw
this band.
13699 But this band
didn't promo their next gig that was two weeks later. Even though people were so excited about this
band, I bet you more than half of the people that came to that initial large
show had no idea this band was having another show. If they did, if it was being promoted on the
radio, I bet you anything they would have come to that show.
13700 So that gives you
an example of the promotion power of radio, especially mainstream or corporate
radio that has power behind it and that isn't campus‑based or independent
based.
13701 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: Thank you.
13702 I have one other
question and I would like to give everybody an opportunity to answer this
question. But it is the same question
for all.
13703 I think this is an
interesting panel because we see people, all artists ‑‑ I
think there was a common theme that you all started as babies and grew up. You know, it is certainly something you don't
choose. It chooses you obviously from
what you have all said, and you are all at different points in your
career. So I would be interested in
getting the perspective of each of you individually to this.
13704 My question
is: What do you think is perhaps the
most important element to help you start and gain that traction within the
industry? Is it the money to create the
product or is it the promotion or is it the airplay?
13705 And maybe I should
say promotion and airplay are the same thing.
13706 So is it creating
that initial product, the initial song and CD, or is it the promotion?
13707 Maybe we could
start with Ms Perman, if I say that right.
Did I say that right? Thank you.
13708 MS PERMAN: Well, I think both are very important.
13709 I think if you
have ‑‑ I think the main problem is that we all have the
passion for it, but sometimes producing a product that you want is not possible
with the funds that we have. So it is
very valuable to have that support of the money in the background.
13710 But I do believe
that the airplay is what can get you to the place that you need to be, because
if nobody has heard of you ‑‑ it is very difficult to get
people to come to your show if they haven't heard anything from you, and I
think that the airplay is just overwhelming, to have that chance for people to
hear you, hear what you sound like, get that out there.
13711 Like I remember
the first time ‑‑ I was on one of the Rawlco recordings, and I
remember the first time I heard myself on the radio. Everyone in my family phoned me when they
heard me and that was one of the best moments so far in my life. It just was so exciting to know that somebody
from far away could possibly be hearing something that I had produced.
13712 It's really very
nice to find a station that has that support for you. It's hard to find.
13713 MR. KIRKWOOD: I would think the promotion and airplay ‑‑
I will lump the two together with you ‑‑ are the most
important.
13714 In the past,
probably previous to five years ago, there was an average of about 170,000
records made worldwide and for some reason there are 700,000 on average made
today per year. So many of them are
holding up people's couches at home after they manufacture them because there
is no vehicle for promotion.
13715 Nobody is very
educated in the sense of they need to spend a lot of money to make a lot of
money and to succeed in the music industry.
In a perfect world, if we had the money to be able to hire radio
trackers and get our music played all over the world, which rarely works, from
what I'm told, it would be ‑‑ where was I?
13716 Oh, at any rate,
so the promotion is vital to the success of our art.
13717 I also think that
we are very confidence driven beasts, for lack of a better word. It is great to have the money, but if we just
have the recognition from our peers ‑‑ Edmonton is a very
arts ‑‑ the artists promote the arts here, and with Rawlco I
believe that is going to change because it is going to get into the hands or
into the ears more so of the general public; like they both mentioned, get to a
wider demographic as well and start having people show up to our performances.
13718 The print media in
Edmonton I find is not very supportive of their local talent and it's nice to
see that somebody is willing to put in the time and money to help the cause.
13719 I hope that
answers the question.
13720 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: Yes, thank you.
13721 MR. HANSON: I was at an eMusic West Conference last
spring and there was a radio programmer speaking ‑‑ his name
escapes me. He said the absolute only
difference between a song that is a hit and a song that is not a hit is
promotion.
13722 So I think that by
far the promo and the airplay are essential and are more important than the
money. I can sink $5,000 of my own cash
into recording an album that is ready to be played, but if it doesn't get
played and no one gets a chance to hear it and fall in love with it, then it is
not going to go anywhere. You know, it
is going to be holding up my couch or crowding my closet like it is now.
13723 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: Thank you.
13724 MR.
DOMINELLI: I believe infrastructure is
what we have always been criticized about not having in Edmonton,
infrastructure meaning the means to get a product from one stage to the next.
13725 The first thing is
the song. The next thing is that song
being recorded. The third thing is
having that song being heard. The fourth
stage is having more people hearing it and more people and more and more and
more and more and more and more.
13726 We have been
lacking infrastructure for a long time.
I consider this template to be part of our infrastructure, where we have
the opportunity or at least we can compete for the opportunity, to be put into
the infrastructure.
13727 If we have the
opportunity here to be funded, to record the CD or the record, and have the
opportunity to be played, then the promotional machine has started. I would put on my resume or I would put on my
bio or I would put on my CV that I was played on Magic 99 or Rawlco radio
station and send it to The Wave in Toronto and see what Toronto says. Oh, they have been getting some airplay,
what's going on, and they will stick it in their CD and go yes, this is pretty
cool. I dig this. And then oh, I have been played in Toronto,
maybe I'll call Montreal, you know.
13728 So I think this is
an opportunity for us here in Edmonton especially ‑‑ and it
has also been working in Calgary as well.
It is a little different than what has happened here in the past. In the 80s especially radio stations at the
time were just doing contests and giving away $10,000 or $15,000 to one person
and they would record something and maybe they would help him market it or play
it on that station or whatever it may be.
13729 So to answer your
question without going too far out, I would think you have to create a song,
you have to create a recording and you have to create a promotional machine,
and I just can't help but say what I have to say about this opportunity we have
here as a musician, as a producer, as an engineer, someone in the
industry. It is right here in front of
us and we are good.
13730 COMMISSIONER
MOLNAR: Thank you very much.
13731 And thank you all
for coming here today and sharing your stories.
13732 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much.
13733 As Commissioner
Molnar said, you are our last panel and we certainly appreciate your patience
and the time you have taken. We
appreciate your comments and we will take them into consideration.
13734 Thank you very
much.
13735 We are going to
take a 10‑minute break before we commence Phase IV.
13736 Thank you.
‑‑‑ Upon recessing
at 1745 / Suspension à 1745
‑‑‑ Upon resuming
at 1805 / Reprise à 1805
13737 THE
SECRETARY: For the record, Rogers
Broadcasting Ltd. has filed in response to undertakings audience numbers over
and above CCD commitments, a letter of confirmation from the Community Fund,
the draft budget for Radio in Schools Program and the budget statement by
Network for Journalism Excellence.
13738 These documents
have been added to the public record and copies are available in the public
examination room.
13739 We will now
proceed to Phase IV in which applicants can reply to all interventions
submitted on their applications.
Applicants appear in reverse order to respond to all the interventions
that were filed to their applications.
13740 For the record, we
have been informed that CIAM Media Broadcasting Association will not be
appearing in Phase IV.
13741 I would now invite
Rawlco Radio Ltd. to come forward to the
presentation table.
13742 Please reintroduce
yourself for the record. You have ten
minutes for your presentation.
REPLY / RÉPLIQUE
13743 MR.
RAWLINSON: Gordon Rawlinson, Rawlco
Radio.
13744 I just want to
thank the four people who appeared as interveners on our behalf and we are very
thankful for all the many wonderful letters of support we have received.
13745 Thank you all for
a very courteous and professional hearing.
13746 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Thank you,
Mr. Rawlinson. It is much
appreciated and we appreciated your interveners as well. Thank you.
13747 THE
SECRETARY: I now invite Evanov
Communications Inc. on behalf of a corporation to be incorporated to come to
the presentation table.
13748 Please reintroduce
yourself and you have ten minutes.
REPLY / RÉPLIQUE
13749 MS
LAURIGNANO: I am Carmela Laurignano,
Vice‑President of Evanov Communications Inc. I would like to add to what Mr. Rawlinson
said, to express our thanks to the staff, to Commissioners and to everyone
here. It was a great hearing, as usual,
and we will see you next time.
13750 We appreciate the
fact that we can get up and walk around and we appreciate your stamina for
sitting in those chairs for so long all day.
13751 So thank you very
much and we'll see you soon.
13752 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Thank you,
Ms Laurignano.
13753 MS
LAURIGNANO: Thank you.
13754 THE
SECRETARY: Thank you.
13755 I will now invite
Harvard Broadcasting Inc. to come forward to the presentation table.
13756 Please reintroduce
yourself for the record and you have ten minutes.
REPLY / RÉPLIQUE
13757 MR. COWIE: Thank you.
I am Bruce Cowie.
13758 Madam Chair,
Commissioners, Commission staff, it was a great hearing. I have never been to a two‑week one
before and it is interesting that the folks last standing in the front rows are
all women.
13759 We support very
much and we are thankful to our supporters, our interveners, particularly the
two who were able to make it today.
13760 And just one more
thought. I want to compliment the other
applicants here. When we first started
our growth strategy in the west we talked about discovery support as part of a package
that takes people from a thought, an idea, to success. I heard that all over this hearing and it was
refreshing to hear.
13761 So thank you very
much. Have a safe trip home. We will see you again soon.
13762 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Thank you, Mr. Cowie,
and thank you to your interveners as well.
13763 THE
SECRETARY: Thank you.
13764 I would now invite
CTV Limited to come to the presentation table.
13765 Please reintroduce
yourselves for the record and you have ten minutes.
REPLY / RÉPLIQUE
13766 MR. GORDON: I am Chris Gordon, President of CHUM
Radio. To my left is David Goldstein,
Senior Vice‑President, Regulatory Affairs; to my right, James Stewart,
Vice‑President and General Manager for CHUM Radio Alberta; and Gisele
Sowa, General Sales Manager and Assistant General Manager for The Bounce here
in Edmonton.
13767 MR. STEWART: Madam Chair, Commissioners and Commission
staff, we want to thank you for this opportunity to reply to the oral and
written interventions concerning CHUM Radio's application for Edmonton's
Essential 107.
13768 We only have a few
comments and we would first like to begin by thanking the hundreds of
Edmontonians who supported our application for Essential 107. We received overwhelming support from
individuals, community organizations, advertisers and artists and their
management, all of whom are looking for a new radio station in Edmonton that
services their needs, be it their taste in music or new community or business
opportunities.
13769 In particular, we
would like to thank Shiloh and her manager Daniel Mekinda, as well as Mike
James and Troy Samson of Hipjoint. These
individuals have attested to the core belief that CHUM Radio has in supporting
new emerging artists as well as our commitment to breaking new artists.
13770 Jesse Kupina of
Gateway Entertainment, who spoke to how Essential 107 would meet the needs of
both an underserved audience and underserved business community in Edmonton;
and Melissa Kaestner and Jay Hannley from the Community Radio Fund who
addressed our proposed CCD initiative, the Alberta Cultural Diversity Program,
and how it would provide an opportunity for community campus radio stations in
Alberta to provide culturally diverse programming.
13771 Turning to some of
the statements made by other interveners, many of them commented on the
strengths of other applicants, including the localism of their ownership.
13772 As we stated
during our appearance yesterday, our team here in Edmonton is very excited
about the prospect of providing additional service to Edmonton. CHUM radio strongly believes in localism. I have had 15 years of radio experience here
in Edmonton and Gisele Sowa, our General Sales Manager and Assistant General
Manager, has had over 16 years of direct radio experience in this community.
13773 CHUM Radio is
local. When I made the decision to join
the company four years ago, they gave me the opportunity to build a radio
station that was and is 100 per cent local.
13774 I can tell you
that The Bounce build began in a two‑bedroom condo literally three blocks
away from this very spot. I in fact
recall sitting at my desk with the only view out the window being the 7‑Eleven
across the street and thinking we have to make a radio station that reflects
this city to its core.
13775 To that end, we
chose to put our studios downtown.
Storefront studios have given us the ability to be a true window to the
city. Our personalities broadcast while
being able to see rush‑hour traffic, Edmontonians walking to work or
lunch, or getting on or off the busy city bus that stops directly in front of
our studio. Quite often we will open our
studio doors and broadcast from the city sidewalk in front of the station,
literally taking The Bounce out to the audience.
13776 Our team have
become involved in many local charities, raising funds and awareness for kids
with cancer, the Edmonton Food Bank, the St. Valentine's Day Hair Massacre and
the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, who recently awarded our team the
Corporate Commitment Award.
13777 Our team is as
local as it gets. If licensed, Essential
107 will be built and operated in the exact same manner.
13778 MR.
GOLDSTEIN: Several of the interveners
have pointed out or have spoken to the nature that this is a very competitive
process. We respectfully submit that our
application, taken as a whole, with our commitment to Canadian music, emerging
artists, spoken word and Canadian Content Development, provides the strongest
response to the Commission's call.
13779 We also believe
this application for Essential 107 is the most responsive to the needs of
Edmontonians and the objectives of the Broadcasting Act and the Commercial
Radio Policy.
13780 Essential 107 will
increase diversity and repatriate a disenfranchised audience by bringing them a
distinctive programming format, one that provides 100 per cent local reflection
and one that is interactively engaged with its audience on a multiplatform
format.
13781 Essential 107 will
make the greatest contribution to Canadian Content Development with a strong
support for Canadian artists. We have
committed to 40 per cent Canadian content and of that 40 per cent, 25 per cent
will be from emerging Canadian artists.
13782 Our $10 million
CCD package is unparalleled in this competitive process. As our successful track record shows, we know
how to make Canadian stars.
13783 Many of our CCD
initiatives will also contribute to the cultural diversity in Edmonton in
Alberta.
13784 We respectfully
submit that Essential 107 is the right proposal for Edmonton because, as noted
by the interveners, we will be serving an underserved market, our income on the
incumbents will be minimal and our CCD initiatives will deliver results.
13785 MR. GORDON: In conclusion, we want to thank the
Commission for this opportunity to present our proposal for a new and exciting
radio station in Edmonton. The Bounce
team here has had an excellent track record in repatriating youth listeners to
radio, as well as creating Canadian stars and we hope that you will give James
and Gisele the opportunity to do so again.
13786 Their road to
success has not been easy as a single radio operator competing against radio
clusters in one of the most competitive markets in the country. Licensing Essential 107 will create a more
equitable competitive environment, something that The Bounce as a single radio
station in Edmonton would have difficulty realizing.
13787 As I noted
yesterday, we are committed to fostering intensely local centers of excellence
that are at the forefront of format innovation and content creation. CHUM Radio's localism is well documented as
our stations are managed locally, staffed locally and programmed locally. We have been an industry leader in local news
and information, as well as ensuring that all our stations are a reflection of
the cultural diversity in each of these communities that we serve.
13788 We will continue
to bring all these values to Edmonton's Essential 107.
13789 We would like to
thank Madam Chair, Members of the Panel, thank you very much, and the staff,
who I know have been working for months on this, thank you.
13790 We welcome your
questions.
13791 THE
CHAIRPERSON: We have no questions, I
don't think so. Thank you very much for
your presentation.
13792 MR. GORDON: Thank you.
13793 THE
SECRETARY: I would now invite Jim
Pattison Broadcast Group Ltd. to come forward to the presentation table.
13794 Please reintroduce
yourself for the record and you have ten minutes.
REPLY / RÉPLIQUE
13795 MR. ARNISH: Thank you very much.
13796 Good afternoon,
Madam Chair, Members of the Commission and Commission staff. My name is Rick Arnish, President of the Jim Pattison
Broadcast Group. I have a very brief
presentation.
13797 I would like to
take this opportunity this afternoon to thank the over 200 individuals and
organizations that took the time to write thoughtful, strong letters of support
for our application. I also wish to
express our appreciation for those who took the time to appear before you to
speak in favour of our application.
13798 In Phase I, Madam
Chair, you asked why a regional presence was important. The interventions filed supporting our application
convincingly set out the public interest value in improving our regional radio
company which serves small and large markets in British Colombia and, to date,
secondary markets in Alberta.
13799 Our close
connections with the communities we serve are clearly and eloquently expressed
throughout the many letters of support for our application. We greatly appreciate all of the support we
have received and believe we have demonstrated in our application and appearance
in Phase I the clear benefits of allowing our regional group access to serve
the city of Edmonton.
13800 I would also like
to highlight the large number of supportive interventions from First Nations
groups who have filed letters on behalf of our Edmonton application. This support results from the significant
investment of $1.5 million that we will contribute to the Aboriginal Voices
Radio if we are granted a licence in Edmonton.
13801 That support was
emphasized in the comments of our appearing interveners, Mr. Jamie Hill and Mr.
Lewis Cardinal of AVR, and also by the appearance of Ms Laura Vinson.
13802 They recognize our
contributions will make a significant step forward for AVR and will solidify
this critical and distinct voice in the Canadian radio landscape. We are very proud of our partnership with
AVR.
13803 Last, Madam Chair,
I want to express our appreciation to you, Commissioner Cugini and Commissioner
Molnar and staff for running a very fair and thorough hearing process. We are anxious to introduce The River to Edmonton,
a forward thinking AAA station with 60 per cent new and recurrent music, 40 per
cent gold‑based music and 40 per cent Canadian content.
13804 We wish you safe
travels and look forward to receiving your decision some time in the near
future.
13805 Thank you very
much.
13806 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much, Mr.
Arnish.
13807 THE
SECRETARY: I would now invite John
Charles Yerxa on behalf of a corporation to be incorporated to come forward to
the presentation table.
13808 Please reintroduce
yourselves for the record and you have ten minutes.
REPLY / RÉPLIQUE
13809 MR. YERXA: Madam Chair, Commissioners and staff, for the
record I am John Yerxa, a local independent applicant for a new FM station in
Edmonton.
13810 Accompanying me
are my sons Zachary, Barron and Hunter.
Their sister Signe is working this evening.
13811 First, in
addressing the interventions, I wish to point out that aside from the generic
Jay Hannley letter, which it appears everyone received, our application did not
receive any opposition. Therefore, I
will quickly respond to some of the positive interventions that we received.
13812 Among local
political and civic leaders, I wish to acknowledge the support of Edmonton's
current Mayor, Stephen Mandel, as well as our former four‑term Mayor Bill
Smith; also Bob Giffen, who for years ran the offices of both Premier Lockheed
and Premier Getty; as well as Alberta's current Leader of the Official
Opposition, Liberal Leader Kevin Taft.
There is Senator Tommy Banks and even Alberta's first Reform MP, Deb
Grey.
13813 That is quite an
interesting cross‑section of politician, but what links them is their
desire to see local, independent radio ownership returned to Edmonton.
13814 Of course, members
of the local business community have also given me strong letters of
support. They included various local
advertisers indicating a desire to establish NEW‑FM as a broadcast
partner once it is licensed.
13815 There was also a
letter from our local Chamber of Commerce President and CEO, Martin Salloum,
whose sons Jamie and Nathan played in the same band as my son Zachary, and that
would explain his particular mention of the fact that at least half of NEW‑FM's
40 per cent Cancon will be devoted to new and emerging Canadian artists.
13816 I also wish to
thank Tim Baig and Jonny Chung for their appearances earlier today. They are indicative of so many young people
in our hometown who believe a station like NEW‑FM will give local artists
more airplay while introducing greater cultural diversity to the local
commercial airwaves.
13817 I am also grateful
for the tremendous support that I have received from so many within the local
broadcast community. In particular, I
wish to thank Ken Schroon(ph) from Grande Prairie, as well as Al Anderson, the
recent head of the Edmonton Radio Group and Newcap Alberta.
13818 Finally, I want to
acknowledge the 850‑plus members who have signed our online petition, as
well as the 1400‑plus members who have now joined our Facebook
group. Their enthusiasm for NEW‑FM
grows by the day and I hope that you have captured some sense of that at this
hearing.
13819 You have heard a
number of different themes this week from various applicants, some of the
finest broadcasters in this country, yet I am satisfied that you will keep in
mind the importance of the broadcasting system that it should now place on
serving our youth, without whom neither the private nor the public broadcasters
will have listeners in the future.
13820 In closing, I
specifically want to say to Commissioner Molnar thank you for bringing up new
distribution platforms and emerging technologies at this proceeding. These are issues that radio broadcasters must
address more adequately if they want to build audiences, especially youth
audiences in the future.
13821 Commissioner Cugini,
your knowledge of all types of music continues to amaze me. It impressed the members of my team and it
certainly lit a spark under my son Zachary.
13822 Commissioner
Duncan, I appreciated your penetrating questions and your running of such a
fair and efficient hearing.
13823 Finally, to the
CRTC staff, I enjoyed meeting many of you and I appreciated your prompt
attention to my questions.
13824 It has been a
privilege to appear before you all with my family by my side and I wish you
well in your deliberations.
13825 Thank you.
13826 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much, Mr.
Yerxa and your family. You are very
fortunate to have them all with you.
13827 Thank you.
13828 THE
SECRETARY: I would now invite Rogers
Broadcasting Limited to come forward to the presentation table.
‑‑‑ Pause
13829 THE
SECRETARY: Could you please reintroduce
yourselves for the record and you have ten minutes.
13830 Thank you.
REPLY / RÉPLIQUE
13831 MR. SKI: Thank you.
13832 Madam Chair,
Members of the Commission, I am Paul Ski, CEO of Rogers Radio. To my left, your right, is Susan Wheeler, VP
of Regulatory Affairs; and to my right Karen Parsons, your left, News Director
of 660 News Calgary. Next to Karen is
Tom Bedore, General Manager of our Edmonton radio stations.
13833 Thank you again
for the opportunity to appear before you this week to present our proposal for
an all‑news station to serve Edmonton.
13834 We also sincerely
want to thank the many interveners who have taken the time to write letters of
support for our application and appeared before you this week. Their contribution and interest in this
proceeding is evidence of their commitment and want to see a greater choice of
news and information programming made available to Edmonton radio listeners.
13835 It is clear from
this public support that the people of Edmonton:
13836 (1) are concerned
with the concentration of news and information sources currently available to
them;
13837 (2) desire a
choice of news and information radio stations;
13838 (3) are concerned
about the reductions in newsroom staff in Edmonton and across the country; and
13839 (4) believe
competition will serve to strengthen the quality of news and information
currently available in the Edmonton market.
13840 As Mr. Christopher
and other written interveners have noted, the Edmonton radio landscape is
dominated by two news and information stations that share a common
newsroom. In their view, having another
fully staffed newsroom in Edmonton will not only improve the quality of news
and information on radio, it will improve the quality of news and information
available from all media holdings, television and newspaper.
13841 Our experience
supports this view. Our all news
stations have proven to actually change the nature of the news environment in
all of the markets we serve by raising the bar for news‑gathering and
reporting among all news outlets. You
heard that today from our interveners.
13842 With the largest
radio newsroom in the city providing live local and timely news and information
24 hours a day, seven days a week, the only broadcaster who will do that, News
102.3 will offer choice to Edmonton listeners and balance the editorial
perspective currently dominated by one large player.
13843 In our view, a
community cannot have a surplus of diverse news voices.
13844 The interveners to
our application have recognized our unparalleled commitment to this format, a
commitment that is currently unmatched in the Edmonton market. We agree that competition will undoubtedly
increase the quality of the news product available to Edmonton listeners and
will diversify the editorial opinion and perspective currently available.
13845 We are also
pleased to see that organizations such as the Alberta emergency management
agency, Edmonton's Office of Emergency Preparedness and the Edmonton Fire
Rescue Services recognize the inherent value of this type of service to the
community, particularly on the FM band.
These organizations understand the importance of our proposed enhanced
weather and news reporting and understand the role a station like News 102.3
can play in the coverage of emergency situations and other public safety
situations.
13846 As noted by
Edmonton's Office of Emergency Preparedness and Edmonton Fire Rescue Services,
emergencies can strike at any time and without warning, and depending on the
type of incident they will need a station like News 102.3 that is live 24 hours
a day and available on the FM dial to communicate messages to the public as
emergency situations unfold.
13847 Finally, we want to
thank the many interveners who commended our efforts to support young, local
spoken word and journalistic talent at various levels of their career,
including within the community element of the system. Our CCD contributions are aimed at ensuring
there continues to be a healthy level of trained professional broadcast
journalists available to reflect the diversity of views and opinions held by
Canadians in Edmonton and across the country.
13848 We truly believe
that active and well resourced news sectors will strengthen public dialogue and
encourage citizen engagement to the benefit of all Canadians.
13849 We trust you will
agree and recognize our commitment to this type of service.
13850 We thank you for
the opportunity to reply to the interventions filed in support of our
application. We also wish to thank the
staff for their assistance during this week.
13851 We wish you well
in your deliberations.
13852 Thank you very
much.
13853 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Thank you, Mr. Ski.
13854 I do have a matter
that I wanted to discuss with you. I'm
sure, as you know, that during the course of this proceeding it was brought to
our attention that Corus had changed the format of their CHQT Edmonton station
from Oldies to All News. We did actually
look at their website and found that it was strikingly similar to what you are
proposing.
13855 We were surprised
that you had not mentioned it when we questioned you on the differences and
similarities. So we are wondering when
you were aware of the station's format and how it is going to affect your
business plan?
13856 MR. SKI: Certainly.
We referenced, I guess it's iNews 880 or Corus in our opening remarks
when we talked about ‑‑ and so did our interveners, I
guess ‑‑ when we mentioned that ‑‑ and they
only launched a couple of weeks ago and we only had a chance to listen to them
I guess over the last ‑‑ well, if it is a couple of weeks, two
weeks to find out what the differences were and what the similarities were.
13857 But as we said in
our opening remarks, the Edmonton market is currently served by two information
services which essentially is what this is, but the content is derived from
essentially the same source.
13858 Karen can talk
about differences, if you like, but we didn't really find too much of a
difference between them and CHED; a lot of the same reporters, a lot of the
same newscasts, in particular some of them taped I guess on one station and
used on another.
13859 So as a result of
that we felt you were hearing largely the same editorial perspective and content
on both.
13860 I think one of the
interveners talked about it this morning when they mentioned the analogy of two
car dealerships; one owner selling the same cars doesn't really add much
diversity.
13861 We always expect
competition for this particular format.
We don't always expect it before we launch, but it happens, the same as
tomorrow you could wake up and find that there is a AAA radio station on the
air in this particular market. There
very well could be.
13862 Competition makes
us all better and that is factored into our business plan.
13863 I should say ‑‑
and if you are asking, if the question is are we different than they are or
will we be different, then we would be happy to answer that too.
13864 You have
referenced the website. There are some
similarities in their website to what we do.
Certain of our people have not missed that fact and will proceed
accordingly. But I think what we try to
keep in mind when we were going through this is that that could change
tomorrow. While they changed to this
particular format, it could be different tomorrow.
13865 Our experience is
that that may be likely the case.
Whether this is a preemptive strike or mischief, I'm not sure, but it
happened.
13866 I should mention
that I spent quite a bit of time in the Vancouver market and in that particular
market Rogers has an all news radio station and Corus, who owns CHED, which is
the number one radio station in the market, and also owned CKNW in the
Vancouver market, decided to change to an all news station on one of their AM
radio stations there.
13867 They called it
NW2. It was sort of I guess a repurposed
content that was being used from one station to another, much like here. They lasted in that format I think for the
year.
13868 My timing may be
off a little bit. I lived through it but
didn't pay that much attention to it other than to know that they were in and
out of the format.
13869 I think the same
thing may have happened in Montreal; otherwise they don't have any all news
stations across the country.
13870 So whether they
will stay in the format or not, who knows.
It wasn't an issue for us because we believe that you can't have too
many obviously diverse news voices, as we have said, and quite frankly, if you
license us for an all news station the residents of Edmonton may have one all
news station or they may have two, but very different.
13871 I can talk to you
about that if you like in terms of demo and in terms of the differences which
Karen can provide for you.
13872 If you decide not
to license Rogers for an all news station, Edmonton might have one news station
or more than likely none at all.
13873 So like I say, we
recognized it and referred to it in our opening comments, but it was a bit of a
non‑issue because, as I say, we expect there will be competition, not
always before you launch.
13874 THE
CHAIRPERSON: If I could say, I do recall
that comment. We just were not aware
that they had done that, the change in format, and so we didn't associate with
that.
13875 But I do recall
you saying that.
13876 Your projections
would have been submitted to the Commission some time ago and so at that point
you wouldn't have been anticipating ‑‑ or maybe you were
anticipating that somebody might do such a thing.
13877 MR. SKI: No. As
I say, we normally factor into our projections that we will have a competitor
at some time down the road.
13878 THE
CHAIRPERSON: In the very same format?
13879 MR. SKI: Well, again, in a format that may be
peripherally the same, as is this. This
isn't the same format since it is, as we said, essentially repurposed
information as it was to a great degree in Vancouver.
13880 We didn't talk too
much I don't think about audience composition yesterday of CHED, but if you
look at each of the markets ‑‑ and I have some of the numbers
here. If you look at the markets, by a
large our audience is a 25‑to‑54 for the all news format; newstalk
and some of the other things that they are doing.
13881 Our audience
share, if I can remember without thumbing through to look at the numbers, is
about 50 per cent in that particular demographic 25‑to‑54. Sometimes it is a little bit higher than that
and normally in news talk station, CHED or some of the other stations they have
put on that have been similar to their news talk stations, normally the
audience 25‑to‑54 is in the 30 per cent range.
13882 It tends to be a
much older audience, normally 55‑plus or 54, 55‑plus. So it is a very different audience than what
tunes in for an all news station.
13883 THE
CHAIRPERSON: I will take you up on your
offer, though, to review for us the differences if you would like. I think it would be good having it on the
record for when we do our deliberations.
13884 So if you want to
take a few minutes to do that, we have the time.
13885 MR. SKI: Sure.
Thank you.
13886 Actually if we
break it down and try to chunk it down so that it is maybe easy to
understand ‑‑ and we understand it is hard to understand all
the nuances between various formats and we will do our best.
13887 I think it gets to
maybe three things: content, context and commitment.
13888 I have talked a
little bit about commitment and we talked about commitment over the last couple
of days, and so I won't go over that too much more, other than you know that as
a specialty licence and given our track record in this format, we are in it for
the long haul. It is part of our
culture.
13889 I will ask Karen
to talk about the content and the context of our station vis‑à‑vis
the others.
13890 MS PARSONS: I understand your concerns about having the
same format, same structure. I mean,
they launched a station two weeks ago that has almost identical format to the
one we are proposing.
13891 I think that in
terms of content what you will find, we are planning to launch a 24‑hour
a day live radio station for one thing.
13892 And in terms of
context, what we do ‑‑ and I have been in this format now for
13 years ‑‑ is reporter driven as opposed to anchor
driven. So you will find there are a lot
of similarities between the two stations that you were talking about right now,
CHED and iNews. The same reporters are
reporting. In some cases ‑‑
I'm not sure if you are familiar with the term voicers, but reporters that file
40‑second reports, and they will be exactly the same report that airs on
one station and the other.
13893 I'm not sure that
down the road Edmontonians are going to find any difference between the two of
these stations when they listen.
13894 What we will be
providing is a slightly different editorial voice in terms of we put a lot of reporters,
as you have noticed in our submission, on the streets in every city.
13895 I worked in
Toronto. When we had our morning show
there, we launched with several reporters on the street, very unusual even in
that market, that size of market, and there were no other reporters from any
other radio station live in the morning drive at that point in time. And it wasn't long after that that the other
stations, one of whom I had worked for prior to going to 680 News, also started
putting reporters on the street.
13896 The same thing
happened when I launched the station in Calgary. There were no live reporters on the streets
in the morning show, anywhere in the market at the time. The other two news stations have now put
reporters live on the streets.
13897 What I think
happens is that the quality of the news reporting for the community is improved
when you have reporters out there digging out stories as opposed anchors who
are delivering news that comes to them.
13898 So I think that
the phrase goes something like "the rising tide floats all
boats". When we have appeared in
those markets, the quality of the news has improved a great deal as a result of
our reporter driven.
13899 I can't get into
any of the secrets editorially, but we have a different perspective on news and
I think that as a result of that, we super serve the local communities that we
are in and I think that would be true here in Edmonton as well.
13900 So I hope that
helps.
13901 THE
CHAIRPERSON: That is very helpful. They will have more flexibility than you will
because you have asked for specialty licence.
13902 So with that in
mind, I take it that you still feel there is sustainable demand for both
stations in this market, or three stations if they were to keep that format
going.
13903 You were not
intimidated by that?
13904 MR. SKI: No, not at all. I think you can tell from Karen ‑‑
13905 MS PARSONS: No.
13906 MR. SKI: ‑‑
that she is not too intimidated by most things.
13907 But in most
markets that are this size they were normally three to four news talk, all news
or various derivations of this particular type of format. Toronto is a good example of that and so is
Calgary and Vancouver, the markets that we are involved in.
13908 THE
CHAIRPERSON: So I don't have to ask you
if it's the best use of the frequency, then?
13909 MR. SKI: No.
Well, yes, you can, and I would be happy to ‑‑
13910 THE
CHAIRPERSON: I think I know the answer.
13911 MR. SKI: I would be happy to answer that, maybe in two
ways.
13912 Also, the first
question was related to the fact that they have more flexibility.
13913 That is correct
and I think they could be ‑‑ as they were Oldies before, they
could be Oldies tomorrow. We don't know
that.
13914 The one thing that
you can be pretty certain of is that if we are licensed, we will have a radio
station that is 100 per cent spoken word, 100 per cent local 24/7 in this
market. Again, that is what we do.
13915 So you are right,
we can change, we don't want to change.
We hope that you have recognized our passion and the fact that we
believe that this could be a good format.
13916 I think again, we
believe it is the best use of the frequency for a number of reasons.
13917 Before I make a
few comments on that, if you look at our particular format for spoken word or
for all news and compare it with others that are in similar formats, as Karen
has, it is not really that different than the consideration of licensing a AAA
station or an Adult Alternative station.
13918 The big difference
is Corus who owns CHED, which has a 13.3 share and its second most popular
station in the market, CISN, and I believe the third or fourth most popular
station in the market, giving them a pretty large share of that 33 per cent.
13919 We expect not to
take that big of a share. So they are in
pretty good shape. They can leverage a
lot of dollars out of that. We were
talking the other day with Commissioner Molnar about dollars in the market and
to have 34 per cent market share audience‑wise, if you leverage that into
what it means in revenue in an $82 million or $85 million market, that is
around $34 million.
13920 If you take 32 or
33 per cent of that, you come in around $32 million.
13921 So if it's $32
million, approximately, and we're looking at one million, $1.2 million,
certainly in our first year that is about 1/30th or somewhere in there of what
they are able to get in terms of the market.
13922 So it is a little
easier for them to compete than it may be for the number eight ranked station
in a market that is a stand‑alone, which happens to be our Modern Rock
station SONiC, which will compete or will have to compete against one of these
radio stations if you decide to license a AAA or an Adult Alternative
station. They will compete on the upper
end of our audience. So it will mean
that our station will have to focus more on the younger audience.
13923 Right now it is a
little broader. It can be more 18‑to‑34,
but I think, as most people have said, most applicants have said, they are a
particular format and AAA will be 25‑to‑44 in that range. So it will hurt the upper edge of SONiC, no
doubt.
13924 In terms of the
best use of the frequency, we believe that because we are adding diversity to
the market, because we are offering something that is not available in the form
that we are talking about, may not be available in the future, we know that.
13925 And if I could,
there has been some discussion about the frequency. I am not an engineer but I have felt like one
over the last couple of weeks while we have been learning more and more about
third adjacencies in the market. And
although Industry Canada permits them, they can cause unexpected interference.
13926 The unfortunate
thing for us with the 102.3 format, unless we are licensed for, is that it
affects ‑‑ it can affect both of our stations.
13927 Something that I
didn't know is that the station that is licensed for that frequency, 102.3,
will not affect ‑‑ will not be affected. So the stations on each side, which are our
two stations, SONiC and World, are affected by third adjacency but the 102.3
frequency is not affected by the two others.
13928 I'm not sure that
I can explain that really well; I'm sure that I can't, but I would be happy to
have our engineers explain that.
13929 But apparently
there is no interference to the 102.3, but there is interference to the
stations that are on either side because of the third adjacency situation.
13930 THE
CHAIRPERSON: We will leave the technical
questions for the people at head office ‑‑
13931 MR. SKI: Thank you very much.
13932 THE CHAIRPERSON:
‑‑ for further explanation anyway.
13933 MR. SKI: I appreciate that.
13934 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Yes. Thank you.
13935 Any more
questions? No.
13936 Thank you very
much. We appreciate that and your team.
13937 MR. SKI: Thank you.
13938 THE SECRETARY: I would now invite Don Kay on behalf of a
corporation to be incorporated to come forward to the presentation table.
13939 Please reintroduce
yourselves for the record. You have ten
minutes.
REPLY / RÉPLIQUE
13940 MR. KAY: Good evening, Commissioners. It's about that time.
13941 My name is Don Kay
and I am here with my partners Jim McLaughlin, Suki Badh, as well as Liz Janik
and Jaspreet Gill.
13942 I would like to
thank the many Edmontonians who took the time to write in support of our application. They include a wide range of business, civic,
political, musical and social leaders of our city.
13943 I also want to
particularly thank Donny Ast, Sarah Pocklington and Barry Powis who came down
here earlier this morning to show their support.
13944 MR.
McLAUGHLIN: The positive intervenors
made a number of points that we would like to briefly outline.
13945 First of all, many
pointed out how consolidated this market is and that there is no Edmonton or
even Alberta‑based broadcast company licensed to this city.
13946 As Senator Tommy
Banks, one of the greatest musicians to make our city his home, noted in his
intervention, and I quote:
"The radio and television
stations operating in Edmonton are now all owned and operated by non‑resident
proprietors. Having spent many years in
broadcasting in Edmonton, I can tell you that there is a significant difference
in broadcaster's relationship with the community since this has become
so."
13947 The Senator went
on to endorse our application and that of Mr. John Yerxa, the only two English‑language
local applicants.
13948 Liz...?
13949 MS JANIK: Intervenors from the music community noted
that their music will get lots of airplay on The Planet. Barry Powis and Sarah Pocklington both
pointed out that there are many excellent Edmonton and Canadian artists who
receive interest from the public that goes to see concerts and festivals, but
are not heard on local radio. The reason
is:
"You've got great music but you
don't fit the format."
13950 The intervenors
recognized that The Planet ‑‑
13951 MR.
McLAUGHLIN: Will open doors.
13952 MS JANIK: Thank you, it's late.
13953 The Planet will
open doors to the airwaves for many great Canadian artists such as Edmonton's
Bagpipe Rockers, The McQuaig's, Edmonton's Amos Garrett, Corb Lund and national
treasure Jesse Winchester.
13954 The Planet is able
to do this because its listeners want to hear Canadian artists in a fresh mix
of music, including both Folk and Blues.
13955 Intervenors from
the music community also told you about the importance of our CCD
commitments. The Planet's programming
and CCD proposals gave you a firm commitment that will ensure when we come back
for a renewal, if we are fortunate enough to be awarded the licence, that we
will meet the music community's needs exactly as we have outlined.
13956 MR. BADH: Thank you, Liz.
13957 Madam Chair,
Commissioners, a couple of applicants have referred to the need to maintain
long‑term stability in the market and implying that the independents,
without corporate synergies, will have a rough road ahead of them.
13958 Incumbents
indicated that they need a second FM station in this market to face the
clusters. Two of them were licensed in
the last round and a review of the transcripts of that hearing certainly shows
no record that their proposals were dependent on a future second station.
13959 To assure you that
licensing our new independent FM will not lead to the same situation, I would
like to reiterate a proposal I put on the table in Phase I and offer a new one.
13960 First, this is not
an asset play, to grab a piece of real estate and to sell it to one of the big
companies for huge profits. I stated in
Phase I that when I first got involved in radio it was a hobby.
13961 Commissioners,
over the past few years radio has become my passion, as it is for our
team. I am young enough to have many
years left in this industry ‑‑ and old enough to have lost
most of my hair; I'm just kidding ‑‑ and old enough to have
developed the business skills to make it work.
13962 For this reason,
Don, Jim and I are willing to reiterate our commitment to you that we will not
sell The Planet 107.1 in the first term of licence and we will turn the licence
back to you rather than do so. You can hold
us to that and take it to the bank.
13963 Second, if in
response to a future call anywhere we apply, we will not come to you asking for
a second licence to somehow guarantee our viability. We might ask you to license a second great
idea for Edmonton or a new licence elsewhere, but we will stand on those
applications and not on economic needs.
We will not ask to solidify a western base or grant us synergies.
13964 Commissioners, we
will ask what we are asking here. Please
license us based on the merits of our application.
13965 MR. KAY: Finally, Madam Chair, Commissioners, we would
like to close with three thoughts.
13966 First, if you
license the two local applicants, John Yerxa and The Planet 107.1, you will
have four stand‑alone English‑language commercial FMs in this
dynamic market.
13967 Second, we want to
thank you for a truly well run hearing.
You people have been here for almost two weeks locked in this room and I
hope you have a chance to enjoy some of the city of champions. We appreciate that you have been able to stay
on top of things with all the applicants.
Clearly, you are well briefed and well prepared.
13968 Your staff has
also been very friendly, very helpful, thank you.
13969 Third, to
paraphrase intervenor Donny Ast, or better known as Nestor Pistor ‑‑
13970 UNIDENTIFIED
SPEAKER: We want to tell you to do the
things we promised. We gots to have the
licence and that's no bull.
‑‑‑ Laughter
13971 MR. KAY: Thank you very much. We appreciate your time.
13972 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Thank you all very much.
13973 THE SECRETARY: I would now invite the Aboriginal Multimedia
Society of Alberta to come forward to the presentation table.
13974 Please reintroduce
yourself for the record and you have ten minutes.
REPLY / RÉPLIQUE
13975 MR.
STANDERWICK: My name is Alan Standerwick. I am with the Aboriginal Multimedia Society.
13976 As Bert Crowfoot
has a video presentation at the Dreamspeakers Film Festival this evening, he is
not going to be able to give his thanks.
13977 I will not pretend
to think or speak for Bert, but I will try to convey his feelings.
13978 We would sincerely
like to thank those who wrote letters of support for us and we also thank the
Commission for allowing us to hopefully explain radio from the native
perspective.
13979 Thank you.
13980 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very much as
well.
13981 THE
SECRETARY: I would now invite Blackgold
Broadcasting Inc. on behalf of a corporation to be incorporated to come forward
to the presentation table.
13982 Please reintroduce
yourself for the record and you have ten minutes.
REPLY / RPLIQUE
13983 MR. TAMAGI: Thank you.
My name is Mark Tamagi, Blackgold Broadcasting.
13984 Madam
Commissioner, Commissioner Cugini, Commissioner Molnar, CRTC staff, I would
like to thank you for allowing us to be a part of this public process. It was very enlightening, very informative,
very long.
13985 I would especially
like to thank our panel members, our Mayor Greg Krischke, our MLA George
Rogers, our County Reeve John Whaley, my assistant, Alana Gueutal and my
partner Aaron Giesinger.
13986 I really want to
especially thank the residents of the County of Leduc and the City of Leduc for
the last 18 months, 21 months that they have been patient and been supportive
of this application. I have asked a lot of
questions over the last 18 months as well and we will wait for your decision.
13987 I don't envy your
position. There was a huge amount of
information here at these hearings. The
quality of applicants, incredible.
13988 I am proud to be a
part of the broadcast system in Canada, proud to be a part of Canadian and be a
part of this process.
13989 I look forward to
your decision in bringing Leduc and Leduc County its first originating radio
station.
13990 Thank you.
13991 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Thank you, Mr. Tamagi.
13992 THE
SECRETARY: I would now invite Frank
Torres on behalf of a corporation to be incorporated to come forward to the
presentation table.
13993 Please reintroduce
yourselves for the record and you have ten minutes.
REPLY / RÉPLIQUE
13994 MR. TORRES: Madam Chair, Commissioners, Commission staff,
my name is Ed Torres. I am the President
of Skywords Radio. To my right is Jeff
McFayden. He is the General Manager of
Western Canadian Operations for Skywords Radio based here in Edmonton. He is responsible for the day‑to‑day
operations of our Edmonton operations, as well as western Canada.
13995 First I would like
to note and thank the people that filed, the interveners who filed more than
350 letters with the Commission in support of this application. We want to thank also the intervenors that
appeared here, including Harpdog Brown ‑‑ very entertaining.
13996 Intervenors
reflected all aspects of the community, including local residents, politicians,
musicians, also Stephen Mandel, the Mayor of the city, a number of MLAs and city
councillors, as well as a number of supporting intervenors, like Karen McKenzie
of the Edmonton Aboriginal Urban Affairs Committee.
13997 We were very
surprised to receive a lengthy intervention from CKUA and the CKUA Radio
Network. We are very sympathetic to the
plight of community radio and the challenges that face it. As a company we take community service as a
very serious corporate responsibility, and we are pleased to report that we
have had discussions with CKUA that are very positive towards mitigating the
possible effect of our entry into the market.
13998 We also respect
that CKUA has the responsibility to protect its network, and it is an excellent
network, but so do I have a responsibility to our stakeholders and to defend
our application.
13999 I won't defend the
intervention, CKUA's intervention point by point because it is quite lengthy,
but there are too focuses to the intervention and I would just like to speak
briefly to both of those focuses.
14000 The first one
being that the Edmonton market cannot sustain another radio station. The second one being that DAWG‑FM's
format would have an injurious, extremely injurious effect on CKUA.
14001 We would like to
note that this is the only intervention against DAWG‑FM. So with respect to issue number one, the
inability of Edmonton to sustain another radio station, unanimously, almost
unanimously, all of the applicants at this hearing experienced regional
independent national broadcasters, licence holders, non‑licence holders,
they have stated publicly that the market can sustain easily four new
commercial FMs, up to four as the case in Pattison's submission.
14002 We also see that
TRAM reports double‑digit growth in revenue for this year for the
Edmonton market, revenues of approximately $80 million to $90 million.
14003 With only ten
mainstream FM stations, in fact Edmonton could arguably be the most licence‑worthy
market in the entire country.
14004 Blues, on the
other hand, if we could talk to issue number two, which is DAWG‑FM's
format having a very significant effect on CKUA, Blues only accounts for six of
the 168 broadcast hours on CKUA, or a mere 3.5 per cent.
14005 Admittedly, CKUA
doesn't play any dedicated Blues programming in the Monday to Friday 6:00 a.m.
to 6:00 p.m. period.
14006 MR. MCFAYDEN: And in fact, we think that we could have a
positive effect on CKUA's Blues programming, because in addition to the
partnership that we have discussed with them and that we have agreed to, we
feel that our mere presence in the market will expand the Blues genres fan
base. So therefore CKUA's programs, and
their Blues program specifically, can draw from that expanded fan base.
14007 From what I know
about radio is music basically draws people and the personalities retain them.
14008 CKUA has Holger
Petersen and Cam Hayden who are icons in Canadian Blues, and it is a very
valuable commodity to them. One thing
that we might have to deal with is we might have to go against Harpdog Brown on
our programs.
14009 MR. TORRES: Whilst CKUA speculates that DAWG‑FM is
going to negatively impact the station, they don't offer any statistics, market
research or tangible proof. However, we
have devoted considerable resources studying the market for negative impact
with independent third party research firm census based in Vancouver. In fact, CKUA was not among the top 10
impacted stations according to our research.
14010 Further, CKUA
claims that licensing any radio station in the market would have a deleterious
effect on it. BBM disagrees.
14011 CKUA's annual
report also conflicts with this statement.
In 2004 radio station CJRY commenced operations in the market, then in
2005 four more licences were awarded.
Throughout this, CKUA has remained constant in sheer numbers.
14012 In fact, from
their website they say that dedicated listening ‑‑ they have a
dedicated listening audience that has more than doubled since 1996.
14013 A further quote
from their website from their annual report:
"In fiscal 2006‑2007
there were nearly a dozen new stations licensed and brought on stream in
Alberta, yet despite the significantly increased competition and clamour for
attention, CKUA continues to find a strong and supportive audience for its
programming content. Both the fall 2006
and 2007 campaigns exceeded their monetary targets." ( As read)
14014 Not to belabour
the point, but:
"Further, BBM suggests and
specifically identifies it, adults 55‑to‑64 and adults 60‑plus
our CKUA's number one and number two demographics."
(As read)
14015 This is
significantly older than the demographic information that we have
presented. Our core demographic will be
significantly younger.
14016 So we would like
to just close maybe by referring to the program schedule again. This is from CKUA's website. You will see that we have highlighted in blue
the total amount of Blues programming on CKUA's schedule.
14017 In fact, the green
highlights on the program schedule are when you expand on these on the red
links, CKUA provides information on their programming, because it is quite
eclectic, so that you will see that the afternoon edition is an up‑tempo
mix of Jazz, Rock, Pop, Folk and Worldbeat.
14018 How I Hear It is a
mix of music and commentary. They have
some spoken word agricultural news. They
have Folk, Jazz, Pop, Worldbeat.
14019 This really
is ‑‑ you have heard this all week long. This is a AAA station.
14020 CKUA will in fact
be more affected by AAA stations entering into this market because 94 per cent
of their schedule, approximately, is what I would consider, and certainly from
attending these hearings this is all AAA music.
14021 Another thing that
CKUA stated today in their intervention was that they are intelligent, adult
and eclectic. Those are all words that
have permeated this hearing with respect to the AAA applications. So we contend that we are going to be much
less injurious to CKUA.
14022 This is a fact
that we brought up to CKUA in our subsequent meetings with them.
14023 So in closing, we
want to just show that there is a gaping void in Edmonton when it comes to
dedicated Blues programming. DAWG‑FM
has also proven and financial data from CKUA confirms that past multiple
licences in the market have not negatively affected their share or revenue
totals. According to CKUA, revenues have
steadily increased and fundraising goals have been surpassed.
14024 So we are pleased
to work with CKUA and we are pleased to support its dedicated Blues programming
for the benefit of the artists that create the music.
14025 This is our fifth
time before the Commission and on behalf of my team, our Edmonton employees at
both of our Edmonton offices and everyone out Skywords Radio, thank you Madam
Chair, Commissioners and CRTC staff for another fair and very well run hearing.
14026 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Thank you, Mr. Torres
and Mr. McFayden.
14027 THE
SECRETARY: I would now invite
Multicultural Broadcasting Corporation Inc. to come forward to the presentation
table.
14028 Please reintroduce
yourselves for the record. You have ten
minutes.
REPLY / RÉPLIQUE
14029 MR. SAMUEL: Good evening, I am Bijoy Samuel, General
Manager of RedFM, and along with me is Kulwinder Sanghera, President of
Multicultural Broadcasting Corporation.
14030 MR. SANGHERA: Madam Chair, Members of the Commission and
Commission Staff, Multicultural Broadcasting Corporation wishes to express our
gratitude to more than 200 individuals and organizations who took the time to
write letters of support and the interveners who appeared this week to express
the need for an ethnic radio station.
14031 MR. SAMUEL: As there were no interventions filed in
opposition to our application, we have no further reply comments.
14032 But before we
leave, want to thank the Commission for the speed by which you brought these
applications to the hearing and we want to express our appreciation to the
Commission staff who have worked so hard and have been so helpful to us.
14033 We wish you a safe
trip home. Thank you.
14034 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Thank you,
Mr. Sanghera and Mr. Samuel.
14035 THE
SECRETARY: I would now invite Guldasta
Broadcasting Inc. to come forward to the presentation table.
14036 Please reintroduce
yourself for the record and you have ten minutes.
REPLY / RÉPLIQUE
14037 MR. SHARNPREET
BUTTAR: Hello. My name is Sharnpreet Buttar. To my left is Sapreet Buttar. To my right is Gursharan Buttar and to his
right is Rajwinder Klair.
14038 I will be
responding to the intervention after which Sapreet will be providing the
closing statements.
14039 Madam Chair and
Members of the Commission, thank you for this opportunity to respond to the
interventions presented in this hearing.
We realize that you have heard many applicants and interveners and we
intend to keep our response as brief as possible and address only those items
directly related to Guldasta Broadcasting's application.
14040 Guldasta has
always participated in and provided coverage for all South Asian community
events. One such event is a large
Vaisakhi parade which is held on an annual basis here in Edmonton in which the
South Asian community, as well as many other communities, come together in
numbers reaching near 20,000.
14041 Guldasta
Broadcasting not only covered the event, but also had a float in the
parade. We also had a static display
along the parade route and held a contest.
14042 Our radio station
covered the parade and our TV crews filmed the event, which is broadcast on
Access TV.
14043 All three Vaisakhi
parade organizing associations filed written letters of support for Guldasta
Broadcasting, a direct recognition of our continuing commitment to local
service.
14044 But the community
events, as well as the businesses in the South Asian community, lack prime time
mainstream media coverage and airtime, which we hope to provide through the
over the air licence.
14045 The main thrust of
the interventions we are concerned with contained an underlying theme that
Edmonton didn't have any good radio service in the ethnic community. We strongly disagree with this claim and we
are concerned that a broadcaster from outside the community could so
comfortably make a claim without any true history or experience in the market.
14046 Further, such a
broadcaster would bring an inherently negative attitude towards existing
broadcast experience in the community, ignoring the established broadcasters
and lean heavily on imported programming and talent, an approach that fails to
recognize the value of local experience and knowledge in broadcasting.
14047 Thank you.
14048 Sapreet...?
14049 MS SAPREET
BUTTAR: Madam Chair, Commissioners and
Members of the CRTC, Guldasta Broadcasting has been serving Edmonton's South
Asian community in full compliance of our SCMO licence for many years, and we
are ready to expand our service over the air in a conventional manner.
14050 We respectfully
request that the Commission take into account our long unblemished record of
community service and accountability when determining whether a licence should
be issued. Our experience here this week
before the CRTC has been educational, enjoyable and an important learning
experience for everyone in our company.
14051 It remains a great
honour and privilege to be able to participate so fully in Canada's broadcast
regulatory process and we thank you for your consideration of our application.
14052 Once again, we are
pleased to extend an invitation to the Members of the CRTC to join us for some
tandoori chicken at our launch party.
14053 Thank you.
14054 THE
CHAIRPERSON: Thank you, Mr. Buttar
and your family.
14055 THE
SECRETARY: This completes the
consideration of Items 13 to 26 on the agenda.
14056 I would like to
indicate for the record that the interveners who did not appear and were listed
in the agenda as appearing interveners will remain on the public file as non‑appearing
interventions.
14057 Also, there are
two non‑appearing applications on the agenda of this public hearing. Interventions were received on these
applications. The Panel will consider
these interventions, along with the applications, and decisions will be
rendered at a later date.
14058 This completes the
agenda of this public hearing.
14059 Thank you, Madam
Chair.
14060 THE
CHAIRPERSON: I would like to take a
second, on behalf of Commissioner Cugini and Commissioner Molnar and all of the
staff, to thank all of the applicants.
It has been a very interesting process.
We have enjoyed our time in Edmonton.
14061 Surprisingly
enough, it has gone very quickly and we appreciate the good weather, at least
it looked good from in here.
14062 At any rate, thank
you all and I hope you all have a safe trip home, too, if you are travelling.
14063 Thank you.
‑‑‑ Whereupon the
hearing concluded at 1910 /
L'audience se termine à 1910
REPORTERS
____________________ ____________________
Cynthia James Jean Desaulniers
____________________
Fiona Potvin
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