ARCHIVED - Broadcasting Procedural Letter Addressed to Nathalie Dorval (Cogeco Diffusion Inc.)

Ottawa, 24 March 2016

By email: nathalie.dorval@cogeco.com

Nathalie Dorval
Vice-President, Regulatory Affairs and Copyright
Cogeco Diffusion Inc.
800 de la Gauchetière Street West
Suite 1100
Montreal, Quebec
H5A 1M1

Subject:  2015-1023-0 – CKOF-FM Gatineau – Application for amendments to the current conditions of licence of the station (Part 1), and 2015-1012-3 – CKOF-FM Gatineau – Licence renewal

Dear Ms. Dorval:

I am writing further to your application for licence amendment (Part 1) aimed at amending the current conditions of licence of station CKOF-FM Gatineau.

Section 28(1)a) of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission Rules of Practice and Procedure states that the Commission may require a party to provide information, particulars or documents, as required.

Please provide the following information:

• From your application for amendment of licence (Part 1) staff notes that you want to replace the current conditions of licence with those in effect for station CHMP-FM Montreal, another one of your stations which uses the specialty spoken word format. To explain your application, you indicate that this amendment is intended to harmonize the conditions of licence for all the spoken word stations operated by Cogeco Diffusion Inc (Cogeco).

• In your licence renewal application, staff notes that you are proposing in section 2.2 of the application form (local programming) to broadcast a minimum of 42 hours of local programming per broadcast week in your next licence term. 

• In your application for amendment of licence (Part 1), you mention in section 3.1.b. of the application form that you plan to devote at least 42 hours of programming per week to local broadcasts, and in section 3.1.e. you state that, if the application for amendment is approved, it will not result in any changes to the station’s programming.

• However, it should be noted that Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2011-381^{Footnote 1} (Decision 2011-381) stipulates that the station is currently committed, as a condition of licence, to broadcast 50 hours of local programming per broadcast week.

• Consequently, staff notes that, based on the information provided in the application for renewal, if the application for amendment of licence is approved, the scenario proposed in the application for amendment of licence (Part 1) would involve a reduction in local programming by station CKOF‑FM Gatineau from 50 hours to 42 hours per broadcast week.

• In addition, staff notes that, under the Corus Entertainment Inc /Cogeco transaction of 2010^{Footnote 2} , the conditions of licence granted in the subsequent decision, Decision 2011-381, were subject to a condition of approval of the ownership transaction, including obtaining an exception to the Common Ownership Policy, thus enabling Cogeco to operate three FM stations in the Montreal market.

• Given the above information, please answer the following questions.

  1. How many hours of local programming, local spoken work content and local newscasts do you currently broadcast on station CKOF-FM Gatineau per broadcast week?

  2. If the application for amendment of licence (Part 1) is approved, please describe in concrete terms how you plan to continue ensuring that the programming of CKOF-FM Gatineau is used for local spoken word content and local newscasts, in order to avoid the homogenization of information from the flagship station in Montreal.

  3. If the application for amendment of licence (Part 1) is denied, please comment on the possibility that the CRTC would re-impose the following conditions of licence for the next licence term of station CKOF-FM Gatineau:

     • The licence will be subject to the conditions set out in Conditions of licence for AM and FM radio stations, Broadcasting Regulatory Policy CRTC 2009-62, 11 February 2009, with the exception of condition number 7.

     • The station shall be operated within the Specialty format as defined in A Review of Certain Matters Concerning Radio, Public Notice CRTC 1995-60, 21 April 1995, and Revised content categories and subcategories for radio, Public Notice CRTC 2000-14, 28 January 2000, as amended from time to time.

     • The licensee shall devote more than 50% of programming broadcast during each broadcast week to programming drawn from category 1 (Spoken word).

     • In each broadcast week, the licensee shall broadcast no less than 50 hours of local programming.

     • In each broadcast week, the licensee shall broadcast no less than 24 hours and 46 minutes of spoken word programming of direct and particular relevance to the community served.

     • In each broadcast week, the licensee shall broadcast no less than 4 hours and 20 minutes of local news programming.

     • The licensee is authorized to operate its station pursuant to a local sales agreement until August 31, 2019.

     Please note that, in order to better reflect the CRTC’s intentions, the phrases in bold, above, are intended to correct their omission from the wording of the conditions of licence contained in Decision 2011-381, in light of the pre-existing wording for these conditions in Decision 2010-942.^{Footnote 3}

You are required to provide the information/documents noted above on the public record by 31 March 2016.

Considering the above request, the timetable for the proceeding is changed as follows:

If required, the licensee will have an opportunity to file replies to interventions within 10 days from the close of the intervention period.

The Commission requires that you submit your documents electronically using the secured service “My CRTC Account (Partner Log In or GCKey)” and fill in the “Broadcasting and Telecom Cover page” located on this web page. On this web page, you will also find a link to information on the submission of applications to the Commission “Submitting applications and other documents to the CRTC using My CRTC Account.”

A copy of this letter and all related correspondence will be added to the public record of the proceeding.

Yours sincerely,

Original signed by

Diane Massie
Radio Analyst

Date modified:

2016-03-24