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Broadcasting Procedural Letter addressed to France St-Onges (La Coopérative des Montagnes Limitée)

Ottawa, 24 July 2020

France St-Onges
Technical Director
La Coopérative des Montagnes Limitée
17 Costigan Street
Edmundston, NB  E3V 1W7

Sent by email: france@cfai.fm

Re: Part 1 application 2020-0086-8 – CFAI-FM Edmundston, New Brunswick – Technical amendment application to increase the transmitter’s power in order to improve the quality of the station’s signal

Dear Mr. St-Onges,

This is in reference to the above-noted Part 1 application submitted by La Coopérative des Montagnes Limitée to amend the broadcasting licence of CFAI-FM Edmundston to increase the transmitter’s power, in order to improve the quality of the station’s signal.

Commission staff would like to remind the applicant that it is its responsibility to submit a complete application which includes all relevant information and provides necessary supporting documentation. It is important to demonstrate the existence of a technical or economic need justifying the proposed amendments. Additionally, the Commission expects applicants to clearly explain how the approval of the proposed solution(s) would resolve the technical issues described in the application.

Commission staff also notes that the applicant used Form 303 - Technical amendment to a broadcasting licence for an analog radio to submit its licence amendment application. At question 3.a of the form, the applicant expressed its desire to increase the coverage of the authorized contours of CFAI-FM Edmundston. However, at question 3.b, the explanation relates more to an increase of the transmitter’s power for establishing optimal use of the channel, which is justified by a need to improve the quality of the station’s signal for listeners. Finally, following these two seemingly inconsistent answers, the applicant answered “No” to question 4.3 of the form which asks whether the request is aiming to improve the signal within the current authorized coverage area.

By responding “No” to that question, the smart form did not lead you to the question requesting the submission of supporting evidence.

In order to fully assess this application, Commission staff considers that additional information is required to complete the examination of the application:

Please provide all supporting documents that prove and clarify the presumption of technical issues that you are attempting to resolve and that led you to file this technical amendment application. For example, please submit any complaints from listeners, any evidence demonstrating that the station has been experiencing financial difficulties due to the limitations of its authorized contours, signal quality measurements or tests done by the station or the filing of the actual contours, if applicable.

Commission staff request that the information mentioned above be submitted by no later than 7 August 2020.

In light of the above, the deadlines for the Part 1 process related to the above-noted application will be modified as follows:

The Commission requires the response or other documents to be submitted electronically by using the secured service “My CRTC Account” (Partner Log In or GCKey) and filling out the “Broadcasting and Telecom Cover page” or the “Broadcasting Cover Page” located on this web page. Also on this web page you will find information on the submission of applications to the Commission on the page titled “Filing Broadcasting and Canadian Program Certification documents with the CRTC: Privacy and Security”.

A copy of this letter and all related correspondence will be added to the public record of the proceeding.
Should you need further information concerning this application, please do not hesitate to contact me by e-mail at courtney.fortin@crtc.gc.ca or by telephone at 873-353-9360.

Sincerely,

Courtney Fortin
Analyst, French-Language Radio Policy & Applications
Broadcasting
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission

cc. Joseph Sadoun – jsadoun@yrh.com

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