ARCHIVED - Decision CRTC 95-805
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Ottawa, 6 November 1995
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Decision CRTC 95-805
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CHEZ-FM Inc.
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Smiths Falls, Ontario - 942012600
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Relocation of CFMO-FM transmitter - Denied
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Following Public Notice CRTC 1995-107 dated 6 July 1995, the Commission denies the application to amend the broadcasting licence for CFMO-FM Smiths Falls, by relocating the transmitter from Blacks Corners, Ontario to Camp Fortune, Chelsea, Quebec.
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CFMO-FM is licensed as a Smiths Falls station. The Commission has in the past noted the licensee's longstanding commitment to provide a distinct programming service to the Ottawa Valley, and particularly to the Smiths Falls region.
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In support of its application, the licensee maintained that the proposed site would allow it to provide a better quality signal without compromising its signal in Smiths Falls and the Ottawa Valley.
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The Commission, however, considers that, as a result of the approval of this proposal, the reception of CFMO-FM would be much weaker than at present in Smiths Falls and moreover, that some communities located south of Smiths Falls would in fact lose a reliable signal.
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This proposal, in fact, represents a significant change in the station's principal service area. Based on the Commission's definition of the market of an FM station (as set out in Public Notice CRTC 1990-111), the licensee's proposal would result in the station's primary service area moving from Smiths Falls to Ottawa. The licensee confirmed in a letter dated 13 January 1995, that the proposed contours for CFMO-FM "would be considered identical" to those of CHEZ-FM Ottawa.
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Since both CFMO-FM and CHEZ-FM are owned by the same licensee, this situation would therefore also conflict with the Commission's existing ownership policy which prohibits the common ownership of two radio stations of the same class serving the same market in the same language.
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In assessing this application, the Commission has taken into account the substantial level of support indicated in the numerous interventions it has received. Nevertheless, in view of the probability of a decline in the technical quality of this signal to its primary market, and the fact that the circumstances invoked by the licensee in its application do not, in the Commission's view, warrant an exception to the common ownership policy, the Commission has denied this application.
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Allan J. Darling
Secretary General |
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