ARCHIVED -  Transcript

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS BEFORE

       THE CANADIAN RADIO‑TELEVISION AND

TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION

 

 

 

 

TRANSCRIPTION DES AUDIENCES AVANT

CONSEIL DE LA RADIODIFFUSION

    ET DES TÉLÉCOMMUNICATIONS CANADIENNES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  SUBJECT:

 

 

 

VARIOUS BROADCAST APPLICATIONS /

PLUSIEURS DEMANDES EN RADIODIFFUSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HELD AT:               TENUE À:

 

Metropolitan Conference               Centre de conférence

Centre                 Métropolitain

333 Fourth Avenue South West                 333, Fourth Avenue Sud‑Ouest

Calgary, Alberta                 Calgary (Alberta)

 

February 21, 2006           Le 21 février 2006

 

 

 

 

 

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 BROADCAST APPLICATIONS /

PLUSIEURS DEMANDES EN RADIODIFFUSION

         

 

 

 

 

BEFORE / DEVANT:

 

Michel Arpin           Chairperson / Président

Helen del Val           Commissioner / Conseillère

Elizabeth Duncan           Commissioner / Conseillère

Ronald Williams           Commissioner / Conseillier

Stuart Langford           Commissioner / Conseillier

 

 

 

ALSO PRESENT / AUSSI PRÉSENTS:

 

Chantal Boulet     Secretary / Secrétaire

Leanne Bennett           Legal Counsel /

Conseillère juridique

Steve Parker           Hearing Manager /

Gérant de l'audience

 

 

 

HELD AT:           TENUE À:

 

Metropolitan Conference           Centre de conférence

Centre           Métropolitain

333 Fourth Avenue South West              333, Fourth Avenue Sud‑Ouest

Calgary, Alberta              Calgary (Alberta)

 

February 21, 2006           Le 21 février 2006

 

 

TABLE DES MATIÈRES / TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

 

    PAGE / PARA

 

PHASE I

 

 

PRESENTATION BY / PRÉSENTATION PAR:

 

Touch Canada Broadcasting Inc. 6 /   33

 

CHUM Limited 81 /  527

 

1182743 Alberta Ltd. 192 / 1211

 

Evanov Radio Group Inc. (OBCI) 261 / 1672

 

 

 

  Calgary, Alberta / Calgary (Alberta)

‑‑‑ Upon commencing on Tuesday, February 21, 2006

    at 0930 / L'audience débute le Mardi

    21 février 2006 à 0930

LISTNUM 1 \l 11     THE CHAIRPERSON:  Please be seated.  We will start the hearing shortly.

LISTNUM 1 \l 12     Thank you.

‑‑‑ Pause

LISTNUM 1 \l 13     THE CHAIRPERSON:  Order, please.

LISTNUM 1 \l 14     Good morning ladies and gentlemen and welcome to this public hearing.  My name is Michel Arpin and I am the Vice‑Chair for the Broadcasting for the CRTC.  I will be presiding over this hearing.

LISTNUM 1 \l 15     Joining me today on the Panel are my colleagues.  On my right, Helen del Val, Regional Commissioner for British Colombia and the Yukon.  Then, on my immediate left, is Elizabeth Duncan, Regional Commissioner for the Atlantic.  To my extreme right is Ronald Williams, Regional Commissioner for Alberta and the Northwest Territories.  And to my extreme left is Stuart Langford, National Commissioner.

LISTNUM 1 \l 16     The Commission team assisting us includes Hearing Manager Steve Parker, Senior Broadcasting Analyst and Legal Counsel Leanne Bennett, as well as Chantal Boulet, Hearing Secretary.  Please speak with her if you have any questions with regard to hearing procedures.

LISTNUM 1 \l 17     You may see me through the hearing wearing this headset.  It is not because I am listening to the translation, it is because I want to hear you.  I have a small hearing problem, so I will be listening to the floor sound.

LISTNUM 1 \l 18     At this hearing, we will study 13 applications to operate a new commercial radio station in the Calgary market, more specifically in the cities of Calgary and Airdrie.

LISTNUM 1 \l 19     Then, for the Lethbridge market, we will look at an application to acquire the assets of specialty radio station CJTS‑FM and to change its frequency and power, as well as four applications to operate a new English‑language commercial FM radio station in that market.

LISTNUM 1 \l 110     The Panel will examine the applications in the order of Items 1 to 18 presented in Broadcasting Notice of Public Hearing CRTC 2005‑11.

LISTNUM 1 \l 111     Some applications will be competing technically for the use of the same frequencies in the Calgary and Lethbridge market.  The Panel will study the proposals to operate a new radio station in light of the cultural, economic and social objectives defined in the Broadcasting Act and the Regulations flowing from it.

LISTNUM 1 \l 112     The Panel will base its decision on several criteria, including the state of competition and the diversity of editorial voices in the market, as well as the quality of the application.

LISTNUM 1 \l 113     It will also look at the ability of the market to support new radio stations, the financial resources of each applicant and proposed initiatives for the development of Canadian talent.

LISTNUM 1 \l 114     I will now invite the Secretary, Mrs. Chantal Boulet, to explain the procedures we will be following.

LISTNUM 1 \l 115     Mrs. Boulet?

LISTNUM 1 \l 116     THE SECRETARY:  Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

LISTNUM 1 \l 117     Good morning everyone.  Before we begin, I would like to go over a few housekeeping matters to ensure the proper conduct of this hearing.

LISTNUM 1 \l 118     When you are in the hearing room, we would appreciate if you would please turn off your cell phones, beepers, Blackberries, or other text messaging devices as they are unwelcome distractions for participants and Commissioners, and they cause interference on the internal communications system used by our translators.  We would appreciate your cooperation in this regard throughout the hearing.

LISTNUM 1 \l 119     We expect the hearing to take approximately one week and a half.  We will begin each morning, starting tomorrow, at 8:30 a.m. and finish approximately around 6:00 p.m.  We will let you know of any schedule changes that may occur.

LISTNUM 1 \l 120     The Strand/Tivoli Room, which is located on the second floor up the stairs as you come out of the hearing room, will serve as the examination room where you can examine the public files of the applications being considered at this hearing.

LISTNUM 1 \l 121     As indicated on page 1 of the Agenda, the telephone number of the examination room is (403) 205‑4965.

LISTNUM 1 \l 122     There is a verbatim transcript of this hearing being taken by the court reporter at the table in front of me.  If you have any questions on how to obtain all or part of this transcript, please approach the court reporter during a break.  Please note that the full transcript will be made available on the Commission's website shortly after the conclusion of the hearing.

LISTNUM 1 \l 123     As indicated earlier, we will begin this week by considering the competing applications for the Calgary‑Airdrie market, followed by the competing applications for the Lethbridge market.

LISTNUM 1 \l 124     We will be proceeding with the four phase process as follows:

LISTNUM 1 \l 125     First, we will hear each applicant in the Agenda order, and each applicant will be granted 20 minutes to make their presentation.  Questions from the Commission will follow each presentation.

LISTNUM 1 \l 126     In Phase II, the applicants reappear in the same order to intervene, if they wish, on the competing application.  Ten minutes are allowed for this purpose.  Questions from the Commission may follow each intervention.

LISTNUM 1 \l 127     In Phase III, other parties, either the public, will appear in the order set out in the Agenda to present their appearing intervention and 10 minutes is allowed for the presentation.  Again, questions may follow by the Commission.

LISTNUM 1 \l 128     Finally, Phase IV provides an opportunity for each applicant to reply to all the interventions that were submitted on their application.  Applicants appear in reverse order and 10 minutes are allowed for this reply and, again, questions may follow.

LISTNUM 1 \l 129     THE SECRETARY:  Now, Mr. Chairman, we will proceed with Item 1 on the agenda which is an application by Touch Canada Broadcasting Inc. for a license to operate an English‑language AM commercial religious radio programming undertaking in Calgary.

LISTNUM 1 \l 130     The new station would operate on frequency 700 kHz, with a transmitter power of 50,000 watts daytime and 20,000 watts nighttime.

LISTNUM 1 \l 131     Appearing for the applicant is Mr. Alan Hunsperger who will introduce his colleagues.  You will then have 20 minutes for your presentation.

LISTNUM 1 \l 132     Mr. Hunsperger...?

PRESENTATION / PRÉSENTATION

LISTNUM 1 \l 133     MR. HUNSPERGER:  Thank you, Madam Secretary.

LISTNUM 1 \l 134     Good morning Mr. Chairman, members of the CRTC and Commission staff.

LISTNUM 1 \l 135     As the first applicant before you in this hearing, I would like to take the time to welcome you to our wonderful city, Calgary, and hopefully you have a good stay and you enjoy the weather.

LISTNUM 1 \l 136     My next part of the presentation was according to the set up of four people and then people behind, so I'm going to have to ad lib a little bit of my introduction of our panel.

LISTNUM 1 \l 137     First of all, myself.  I am the founder of Touch Canada Broadcasting Inc., TCB as we will refer to it from now on.  I have been involved in radio broadcasting for 34 years.  I presented TCB's first application for a new commercial FM gospel music radio station to you back in 1996.

LISTNUM 1 \l 138     To my right is Bev Gilespie, who holds a Bachelor of Management Degree and serves as our business manager.  She has been with us for four years.

LISTNUM 1 \l 139     To her right is Mr. Richard Burrows, who is our sales manager of 88.9 Shine FM here in Calgary.  He has been with us for nine years and has many more years of experience selling in Calgary and western Canada.

LISTNUM 1 \l 140     To my left is Mr. Malcolm Hunt.  He is TCB's network program manager.  Malcolm has been in radio for 15 years, 10 of them with us.

LISTNUM 1 \l 141     Next to Malcolm is Holly Taylor who is our afternoon drive host of 105.9 Shine FM in Edmonton.  As a NAIT graduate in broadcasting, she came to us four years ago and has made herself an indispensable member of our team.

LISTNUM 1 \l 142     Next to Holly is Lana Lambert, who has worked with us for five years and has assisted me in the preparation of our applications for new stations.

LISTNUM 1 \l 143     We are here today to present our proposal for a new and distinct format for Calgarians, a southern gospel music format, a specialty station with all of its music from subcategory 35.

LISTNUM 1 \l 144     In our presentation today, we will tell you about TCB, it's present operations, the southern gospel music format, the research demonstrating its popularity in the Calgary market, and a description of what the proposed station will sound like.

LISTNUM 1 \l 145     TCB first became involved in radio in Alberta when we acquired the assets of CJCA in 1994.  CJCA was Edmonton's first radio station.  It had fallen on hard times and had in fact gone off the air when we acquired it and re‑launched it as a gospel music radio station.

LISTNUM 1 \l 146     Two years later, in 1996, the Commission approved our application for a gospel music radio station in Calgary and CJSI was launched as 88.9 Shine FM, a contemporary gospel music radio station.

LISTNUM 1 \l 147     While CJCA became quite popular with Edmonton audiences, we found fairly quickly that there were really two audiences for gospel music, those who preferred contemporary gospel, and those who preferred southern gospel.  Generally, those who like one really don't like the other.  Those who prefer the more contemporary sound are younger, while the fans of the older style tend to be over 45.  So a station trying to play both kinds of music is sort of like a station playing both alternative rock and big band.

LISTNUM 1 \l 148     We again applied to the Commission for a new commercial gospel FM station, this time in Edmonton, which the Commission approved in 2003.

LISTNUM 1 \l 149     Once we launched the new FM with the contemporary music format, we changed the AM format to southern gospel.  Our younger audience switched over to the new FM station and we acquired a new listening audience with the AM.

LISTNUM 1 \l 150     We received an incredible number of calls thanking us for the southern gospel music radio station.  Now, for the most part, moms, dads, kids and grandparents are happy with the opportunity to hear their favourite kind of gospel music.

LISTNUM 1 \l 151     I would like our network program manager, Malcolm Hunt, to describe to you the southern gospel and contemporary gospel sound.

LISTNUM 1 \l 152     MR. HUNT:  Thank you, Alan, and good morning Commissioners.

LISTNUM 1 \l 153     While the formats of Shine FM and The Light both fall into subcategory 35, specialty music, they can both be labelled gospel.

LISTNUM 1 \l 154     Having said that, they are as different from each other as soft rock is from heavy metal rock.  The name may be the same, but the sound is very different.

LISTNUM 1 \l 155     The contemporary gospel music of Shine FM has more in common with the pop and rock played on commercial CHR, hot AC and rock formats than it does with southern gospel.

LISTNUM 1 \l 156     What is common between the two gospel formats is that the lyrics are inspirational and uplifting, focusing on positive messages.

LISTNUM 1 \l 157     To illustrate, the songs of Frank Sinatra and those of Bono may both be about love and life, but the audiences that they attract are very different.

LISTNUM 1 \l 158     Shine's contemporary gospel music features artists such as Switchfoot, Michael W. Smith and Casting Crowns, playing a mixture of contemporary rock and today's pop.  By the way, there is a growing body of Canadian music in this area, with artists like Janelle, Greg Sczebel and Starfield.

LISTNUM 1 \l 159     The southern gospel sound is more rooted in the past, with very melodic sounds and often seems like a cross between barbershop, choir, country and bluegrass.  Some of its most prominent performers are Bill Gaither, Lauren Talley and the group Gold City.

LISTNUM 1 \l 160     While there may not be as many Canadian performers as of yet, Andrew Martin, Freedom and the New Hope Trio lead the way in this area.

LISTNUM 1 \l 161     I could go on listing artists that reflect southern gospel, the formats, but if you are not familiar with the genre it won't be very meaningful.

LISTNUM 1 \l 162     I should also mention that gospel music continues to see considerable growth.  In fact, it experienced a 16 percent increase in 2004.  We have prepared a short recording that shows first the contemporary music as played on Shine FM and, second, the southern gospel sound heard on AM 930 The Light in Edmonton.  This will show you the clear difference in sound.

‑‑‑ Audio clip / Clip audio

LISTNUM 1 \l 163     MR. HUNT:  Of course everybody at this table hopes that you have good news for us.

LISTNUM 1 \l 164     Now to speak to how we decided that this would work in Calgary, I turn it back to Alan.

LISTNUM 1 \l 165     MR. HUNSPERGER:  Thank you, Malcolm.

LISTNUM 1 \l 166     As I mentioned earlier, when we launched the southern gospel music format in Edmonton the reaction was overwhelming.  We knew that there was a demand for this type of music because of the popularity of the program called "Gospel Greats".  Heard on over 200 stations in North America, our existing stations consistently ranked among the top 10 percent.  This past year, we ranked number nine in North America.

LISTNUM 1 \l 167     Further to the success of the Gospel Great programs, here are a couple more examples that illustrate the popularity of southern gospel music.

LISTNUM 1 \l 168     When Bill Gaither brings his Homecoming gospel series to Edmonton and Calgary, ticket sales are almost twice what they are for the contemporary gospel concerts.  His Homecoming gospel series videos are the number one sellers across North America.

LISTNUM 1 \l 169     Alberta has also been the home of the Canadian version of the National Quartet Convention, held ever year in Red Deer, Alberta.  This draws southern gospel music lovers from British Columbia though to the Ontario border, north as far as the Northwest Territories and south into the United States with people coming as far as the State of California.

LISTNUM 1 \l 170     To prove that the market does exist, we request Ipsos Reid to do a survey of the Calgary market.  While Ipsos Reid typically uses random sample respondents, we wished to test two things:  the willingness to listen among the general population, as well as the intensity of interest amongst southern gospel music fans.

LISTNUM 1 \l 171     So the 300‑person sample was made up of 189 randomly drawn respondents from the general public, and 121 respondents provided to us by Calgary's biggest promoter of southern gospel music.

LISTNUM 1 \l 172     The results were very encouraging.  A full 20 percent of the random sample indicated it was clear it was likely that they would listen to the proposed station, while 98 percent of southern gospel music gospel fans said they wanted the southern gospel music radio station in Calgary.

LISTNUM 1 \l 173     Many of Ipsos Reid's findings reflect what we already knew.  We believe that we can attract a small but very loyal audience who cannot find what they want anywhere else on the radio, including Shine FM.

LISTNUM 1 \l 174     To talk about our sales strategy for the proposed southern gospel radio station is our sales manager, Richard Burrows.

LISTNUM 1 \l 175     MR. BURROWS:  Thank you, Alan.

LISTNUM 1 \l 176     My experience in selling radio in Calgary tells me that we can draw reasonable revenues with this format.  While the research tells us that the household incomes are lower than the average, because of their age we believe that their disposable income is substantial.  This is the generation that has paid off their mortgages and has seen their children educated and started on their own careers and are now able to spend on themselves and their grandchildren.

LISTNUM 1 \l 177     Because of their loyalty to the format and the sound, this is an audience that will support advertisers on their favourite radio station.  They have made it clear that they will do business with their advertisers, as they want this music to stay on the air.

LISTNUM 1 \l 178     As indicated in our application and correspondence that we expect 65 percent of our revenues to come from new advertisers, and we believe that we can be successful in expanding the radio pie in a number of ways.

LISTNUM 1 \l 179     First, there are a number of smaller businesses that have not traditionally been able to afford commercial radio rates.  Given our relatively low cost structure, and the small but intense audience that we will attract, our rates will be quite affordable.

LISTNUM 1 \l 180     And, as we have done in Edmonton, we have developed a number of vehicles that allow advertisers to use radio at an affordable rate.

LISTNUM 1 \l 181     For example, we provide what we call the business card bulletin.  This is an opportunity where three advertisers are billboarded in a 60‑second commercial, substantially reducing the cost for each client.

LISTNUM 1 \l 182     Second, the proposed station will be a very effective medium for those wishing to reach our demographic, such as retirement homes, RV outlets and travel agencies.  We can deliver the audience that they want at a reasonable cost.

LISTNUM 1 \l 183     Third, we provide a more extensive service package for what others call remotes.  Most stations operates remotes from their studio with occasional cut‑ins from an announcer at the client's premise.  We create a live broadcast on‑site, attracting listeners who want to see a live radio show.  This gives more value for both the client and the listener.

LISTNUM 1 \l 184     Fourth, there are advertisers who want to be with us because of the nature of our programming.  Quite simply, they want to be identified with family friendly programming that celebrates inspirational messages and a positive approach to life.

LISTNUM 1 \l 185     We took the research, our experience in Edmonton with this format, and our experience in Calgary with gospel music programming and incorporated it into our business plan, which Bev Gilespie will now share with you.

LISTNUM 1 \l 186     Bev...?

LISTNUM 1 \l 187     MS GILESPIE:  Thank you, Richard.

LISTNUM 1 \l 188     The revenue projections that we provided are based significantly on our experience with CJCA in Edmonton tempered by the reality of the Calgary market.

LISTNUM 1 \l 189     Before going further, I would like to draw your attention to the amended Schedule 4.1 which we have attached at the end of our remarks.  When we were preparing for this hearing, we realized that we had only specified $8,000 for the Canadian Talent Development, even though we propose to spend $16,000 annually.  This schedule has been adjusted accordingly, as well as for the identification of the spoken word programming revenues previously categorized as network revenue.

LISTNUM 1 \l 190     We do expect to have the following revenue streams.

LISTNUM 1 \l 191     First, our local revenues will be comprised of the sale of advertising.  These have been calculated using the number of advertisers and our approximation of their annual spending with us.  We also crosscheck this against what we anticipate will be the number of spots we would sell a year, with an average per spot.

LISTNUM 1 \l 192     The amounts we have provided are conservative.  We preferred to project a bit lower and be pleasantly surprised rather than the reverse.

LISTNUM 1 \l 193     As briefly mentioned above, what was recorded in network revenue is in fact the sale of time from spoken word programming, such as "Insight for Living", "Love Worth Finding", "Turning Point", and others.

LISTNUM 1 \l 194     The amount provided is much less than what we are currently doing in Edmonton, but we believe we will start slowing since some of the programs are already in the market.

LISTNUM 1 \l 195     You will also see that we expect a fairly quick increase of this revenue stream for the first few years as these annual contracts are secured.

LISTNUM 1 \l 196     On the expense side, we tailored our needs based on the previous Edmonton AM/FM model.  There is a significant savings we benefit from when sharing a building, staff and other costs with the existing FM station.

LISTNUM 1 \l 197     In addition, we have programming synergies with all three of the existing stations in most areas of operation.  This relatively conservative approach is the most economical way this kind of niche format can be presented.

LISTNUM 1 \l 198     We have talked about the music sound, our rationale behind our application and our business model.  Now I would like to ask Malcolm Hunt to talk about some of our other services we will provide.

LISTNUM 1 \l 199     MR. HUNSPERGER:  Thank you, Bev.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1100     In addition to the best of southern gospel music, we will provide a number of other types of programming to our audience.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1101     The new AM station will be live and local during morning drive, with two hosts producing a program featuring music, newscasts prepared in our studios, along with weather, traffic, sports, entertainment and other topical information.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1102     For much of the rest of the day we will use a voice tracking system, using some of our on‑air staff from Edmonton and from 88.9 Shine FM.  However, the advantage of collocating with the FM station, which is live and local for most of the broadcast day, is that we always have someone in the studio who can provide important breaking news as needed.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1103     The proposed station will also broadcast a number of syndicated programs, including Dr. Laura, Gospel Greats and the Gaither homecoming radio show, hosted by Bill Gaither.  This program includes many live performances by the industry's best artists.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1104     I will now ask Holly Taylor to share about her on‑air experiences and describe our community fund‑raising involvement.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1105     MS TAYLOR:  Thanks, Malcolm.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1106     As mentioned earlier, I am the afternoon drive announcer for 105.9 Shine FM and have been with TCB for the past four years.  I have seen the before and after results of just how beneficial two different gospel stations in the same market can be.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1107     I field many listener calls in my daily five‑hour show and I have access to listeners at live on locations and at remotes.  The launch of 105.9 Shine FM freed up 930 CJCA The Light to play southern gospel music as well as the talk programs.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1108     With the launch of 105.9 Shine FM, I had many first‑time listeners call in surprised that our contemporary gospel format had such a variety of songs and artists, Canadian and otherwise.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1109     The split between the two gospel stations has created more satisfied and loyal listeners, listeners that are willing now more than ever to support our clients, our events and, most importantly, our fund‑raising efforts.  Raising funds for community non‑profit organizations is extremely important to TCB.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1110     It is also important for me as an announcer and for our listeners to know that there is now a radio station that stands behind their community.  We are committed to continuing to do our part in serving the community through these fund‑raising efforts, and our energy has not been in vain.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1111     Our focus is on three to four charities annually and results have been very rewarding.  Just this year alone we are over $1.1 million raised between all three stations.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1112     We teamed up with Kid's Cottage 12 years ago, even before they became an association.  TCB expressed a need and our listeners jumped on board.  Kid's Cottage is a 24/7 facility that helps prevent child abuse and neglect.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1113     Another organization we work with is The MustardSeed.  The Seed works with those in the inner city.  It offers them food, clothing, shelter and a place for them to feel they belong, like they matter, which is always good for the soul.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1114     Year‑to‑date 88.9 Shine FM has raised $650,000 for The Seed with the local businesses and, of course, our listeners.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1115     We also work with Compassion Canada, which is an international child sponsor program.  We primarily use a radiothon format to raise for our charities.  We sometimes joke around the station that we make more money for our charities than we do for our shareholders.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1116     With a brief wrap up, here is Alan Hunsperger.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1117     MR. HUNSPERGER:  Thank you, Holly.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1118     Mr. Chairman, we believe that our application deserves to be licensed.  The Commission has enunciated a number of criteria that it uses to evaluate new stations and we believe that we meet them well.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1119     Calgary is a growing market of about $70 million in radio revenues.  It can easily sustain new ratio stations, particularly one with modest revenue requirements that will not compete with anyone for revenues.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1120     Number two, licensing us does not create a competitive imbalance.  In fact, with only one station in a market where several large broadcasters have three or four stations, you are helping us to be more viable.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1121     Number three, we have a strong and realistic business plan grounded in our 12 years of experience in gospel music programming.  We have lived through lean years and have found a way to sustain a business model.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1122     Number four, our proposed format is in demand and will serve a significant group of people.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1123     Number five, we have consistently exceeded the Canadian content requirement of our format.  In fact, our performance is 1.5 times what the Radio Regulations call for.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1124     Number six, we will provide double the required spending for Canadian Talent Development and direct it to developing artists in a neglected area of Canadian music, gospel music.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1125     Mr. Chairman, licensing this station will not only serve the gospel music listeners of Calgary, but because of the extent of the AM signal we provide a listening alternative to Red Deer and much of central and southern Alberta.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1126     At present CJCA reaches Red Deer in the day, but must pull out after dark.  We hear regularly from residents of Red Deer and of rural Alberta that they want to have our sound available.  Our AM application to serve Calgary and rural southern and central Alberta is a part of our plan to build a service that reaches other markets, including Lethbridge, as you will hear later.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1127     We hope you will share in our wish to provide additional diversity in music programming to our province.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1128     Thank you for your patience and attention, and we would be pleased to answer your questions.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1129     THE CHAIRPERSON:  Thank you, Mr. Hunsperger.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1130     I will have Mr. Langford ask you the questions, but I have one of clarification to Mr. Hunt.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1131     On the bottom of page 3 of your oral presentation you say:

"I should also mention gospel music continues to see considerable growth.  In fact it experienced a 16% increase in 2004."

LISTNUM 1 \l 1132     Sixteen percent of what, of music production or an index or international music, Canadian music?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1133     MR. HUNT:  It's of its of own growth.  Yes, music sales.  Correct.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1134     THE CHAIRPERSON:  Thank you.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1135     I am asking Mr. Langford.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1136     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  Well, that pretty well wrapped up all my questions.  I think we can go home now.

‑‑‑ Laughter / Rires

LISTNUM 1 \l 1137     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  I do have a few more.  Welcome to Calgary.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1138     I want to talk to you about a few areas, your choice of delivery mode, if I can call it that, your choice of format; some specific questions on your spoken word programming.  Then we will take a little closer look at the business plan and then some miscellaneous things like codes of ethics and equal opportunity codes and that sort of thing.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1139     So starting essentially with an application for an AM station.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1140     I know that there is a more viable business plan to be made for AM in the west and whatnot, but still it seems odd in this day and age that somebody would be jumping into the AM world.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1141     Can you give me some idea why you didn't apply for an FM station?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1142     MR. HUNSPERGER:  Yes, I can.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1143     Basically we looked at, you know, particularly as we had mentioned before, not only serving Calgary but servicing the rural areas.  When you look at the footprint that the 700 signal puts on the province, you know that we pretty well will be able to cover the central and southern parts of Alberta.  Even the signal goes up as high as Edmonton, especially during the daytime.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1144     We also are aware that in the format that we are proposing with the southern gospel music and spoken programming, that is an AM and works very well on the AM model.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1145     The third aspect that we have looked at is the new technologies that is coming down the road.  It is already being tested.  I'm not the guru on this, however Mr. Henke(ph) is here and he could address that issue.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1146     But there are new technologies coming for AM signals that is going to digitize ‑‑ my understanding of it and I could be here wrong when I'm saying this ‑‑ but digitize the signal and make it much higher quality.  In fact, testing is going on in the United States with this as well.  We believe with some of the research that we have done, is that that technology is not far away.  That will even give more of a quality sound than what the AM signal does right now.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1147     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  Well, just dealing with what we have today, because that is what we have to license.  We have seen technologies come and technologies go and a lot people have invested in the new, next greatest level and barely lived to tell the tale.  So let's hope it happens for you.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1148     But dealing with what we have today, why is the quality of AM good enough for the type of music you want to do?  Don't your audience members want to hear the best they can get?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1149     Why does southern gospel music work on AM when Beethoven doesn't?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1150     MR. HUNSPERGER:  I'm not sure I can really answer that to your full satisfaction.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1151     The only thing I can tell you is this:  When we were on the AM and only had the AM we always heard from our listeners on the contemporary gospel music side, "I can't stand it on AM and I can hardly wait until you get FM".  I mean we had that ‑‑ I'm sure Mr. Hunt can verify that ‑‑ over and over again.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1152     Correct me if I'm wrong, Malcolm, but our AM, when we changed CJCA up in Edmonton to the southern gospel format, I do not believe we have had one comment from our audience, and we have been broadcasting now over a year ‑‑ not one comment of saying, "I sure wish you guys were on FM".

LISTNUM 1 \l 1153     It seems that the older demographic is an AM demographic.  They are listening to the AM versus the FM, where the younger demographic doesn't even know that the AM band actually exists.  So it seems that the baby‑boomer kind of audience that loves this kind of music, they are the people who don't mind AM and don't really understand what all the fuss is about with FM and all the other stuff.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1154     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  We are going deaf is what you are trying to say.

‑‑‑ Laughter

LISTNUM 1 \l 1155     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  Good enough, I suppose.  Maybe we just notice, it's as simple as that.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1156     What about the cost of AM?  Isn't it expensive?  You have to put these towers up, you have to have this big kind of wired field or whatever.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1157     I'm looking at your projections, and you filed new ones this morning.  I'm trying to figure out where the costs are, because you have yourself starting to make a profit on year three.  So have you picked up a kind of used AM service somewhere or how are you managing this?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1158     MR. HUNSPERGER:  I'm sorry, I didn't understand the last part of your question.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1159     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  Well, I will just simplify it:  How much is this going to cost to go fresh into AM in Calgary?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1160     MR. HUNSPERGER:  We believe it's going to cost us about $1.5 million, especially in building the towers.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1161     We are looking at the long‑term of these new technologies, plus we are looking at ‑‑ when we look at our overall operation, our AM operation was most successful this last year, even more successful than our two FMs.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1162     We are reaching a market that no one else is reaching.  We are tapping into something that had been very successful.  We believe that even though our payment back of our investment is going to take a longer period of time, we are banking that that is going to happen not only because of the large audience we are reaching with the large signal, but we also believe that that is going to happen hopefully with this new technology.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1163     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  Is that $1.5 million everything?  I mean the land costs, the towers, the engineering costs?  Everything, $1.5 million?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1164     MR. HUNSPERGER:  Yes, sir.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1165     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  You must really know where to buy land around here.  I'm seeing some prices that are pretty shocking.  But I won't make you give that away, it's probably the only piece of land that you can get at that price within 200 miles.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1166     Okay.  Moving along.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1167     I want to talk a little bit about format and why you chose it.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1168     I'm not going to bring you over the information that you explained this morning.  I don't need to repeat that, the difference between the southern gospel and the more contemporary gospel.  That was pretty clear from the samples you played for us.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1169     But what I don't quite understand is why you have the confidence that there is a market for this.  It's one thing to get people phoning you or stopping you on the street and saying, "Gosh, you know, Granny would sure like some southern, but don't give up on contemporary because the kids will raise a fuss."  But that is not a very scientific approach, it would seem to me, to spending $1.5 million on towers and hiring people and whatever.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1170     So I went to your Ipsos Reid survey that you referred to today again in your opening remarks.  To be frank with you, I had trouble concluding that that survey told me anything.  It certainly didn't make me confident enough that you are onto a sure thing here.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1171     So I would like to go over it with you.  I don't know if you have someone from Ipsos Reid here with you today or whether you have someone who feels comfortable digging into it a little bit with me?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1172     MR. HUNSPERGER:  We can go through it.  I mean, we don't have anyone here with Ipsos Reid today and we are sorry about that.  However, any questions that we run up against that we can't answer here this morning, we will definitely get it to you before the end of the week.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1173     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  Well, the best you can do is always good enough.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1174     Let me see if I understand the way you conducted this survey.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1175     Oh, and I want to clear one thing up, one small point.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1176     At the bottom of page 4 of your opening remarks today you said the:

"... sample was made up of 189 randomly drawn ..."

LISTNUM 1 \l 1177     But in the Ipsos Reid survey that I read it said 179.  That's only 10 people, but which one is correct?

‑‑‑ Pause

LISTNUM 1 \l 1178     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  I think if it's 300 it has to be 179.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1179     MR. HUNSPERGER:  You are right.  It's 179, I'm sorry.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1180     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  Okay.  so here is what I don't understand.  I don't understand where these 121 came from.  Just for the benefit of people who haven't read as much as we have on this, I will just give  a small precis.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1181     If I understand correctly, what Ipsos Reid did here was to survey 300 people, a 300‑person sample; 179 of those were drawn randomly in a normal surveying fashion, but 121 of the respondents were sort of hand‑selected in some way from a group that I think you typify as either parishioners or somehow connected through business to your enterprise.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1182     I would like to focus a little bit on that 121, because I am not a surveyor myself ‑‑ I don't do primary research ‑‑ but it seems to me that you defeat the whole purpose of a survey if you start hand‑selecting the people who are going to answer it.  But I may be wrong.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1183     Can you, first of all, tell me more about where you got this 121, this smaller group?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1184     MR. HUNSPERGER:  I will be more than happy to.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1185     We got the smaller group from the Southern Gospel Reimer Promotions who have been promoting southern gospel in this area for over 13 years.  In fact, Mr. and Mrs. Reimer are one of the interveners for support of what we are doing here.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1186     They basically have had a list of people, e‑mails that they send out of all what's going on with southern gospel, and we asked if they would send out a notice to their e‑mail to just say, "We would like to have Ipsos Reid call them up.  Would they be willing to receive such a call?".  So we kind of went in that direction.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1187     If I can just make a comment here, I will agree with you that what we did here in Calgary we will not do again.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1188     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  I'm not the point the fickle finger of blame here, but I do want to try to assess with you just how much credibility we should put on those figures.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1189     But I agree, you shouldn't do it again.

‑‑‑ Laughter / Rires

LISTNUM 1 \l 1190     MR. HUNSPERGER:  Thank you.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1191     What we believe, according to Ipsos Reid ‑‑ and I just talked with Chris again this morning to go through this one more time.  He is the man that really ran this whole ‑‑ gave this whole presentation to us.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1192     He felt that the hundred ‑‑ well, first of all, he felt that the 179 respondents was good enough, that with the margin of error of about 7.1 he said to me this morning ‑‑ which is a little different than he has here ‑‑ but he said, "With 7.1 you have a good analysis that the general public somewhere in the vicinity of 20 percent does want your music station."

LISTNUM 1 \l 1193     And, of course, the other one, you know we found it out to be very successful.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1194     The reason why we will probably not do this is again is because we have always got a hold of Ipsos Reid to do us a marketing study on further applications that we have in to the CRTC, and we have found out that the random calling gives us even a higher percentage then what we have even with this Ipsos Reid survey.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1195     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  Well, that's not the way I read this.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1196     Again, I am not a really sophisticated reader of statistics, but if I read the results of this survey correctly, you got very encouraging results from the hand‑selected crowd.  Overall about, I think, 70 percent or so thought they would listen to it or would really, really listen to it.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1197     But with the other group, 179, the number dropped to 20 percent.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1198     So if that is the real assessment of the market ‑‑ and we can get to business plans later ‑‑ but, generally speaking, is that a good base on which to choose a format and build a business plan; 20 percent?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1199     Given your last statement, that there may be a margin of error there of 7 or more percent, we could be looking at 14 percent.  We could be looking at 27 too, but we could be looking at 14.  That would give me the willies if I were an investor.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1200     MR HUNSPERGER:  If we got 14 percent of this market, sir, we would be jumping out of our skin.  We would be very happy.  Because our audience is really small.  I mean, we get about a 2 or a 3 percent when we actually have measured our audiences with our radio stations.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1201     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  I'm sorry to interrupt but, Mr. Hunsperger, surely you can't equate a 14 or 20 percent return on a randomly dialled survey, telephone survey, of 179 people living in a metropolitan area of over a million people.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1202     You can't equate and straightline that with your share of audience three years down the road.  Surely not.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1203     Do you?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1204     MR. HUNSPERGER:  Well, we felt very good about it.  We felt the 20 percent was very good.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1205     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  Okay.  Well, that's your answer.  Thank you very much.  I think I will just move on to another area.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1206     I can't help wondering if David Emerson in Vancouver hasn't done a survey like that though, you know.  He has gone down to some Tory headquarters and found 25 people who said they will back him next time around.

‑‑‑ Laughter / Rires

LISTNUM 1 \l 1207     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  But, you know, it is not quite empirical, I don't think, that type of approach.  But anyway, we will see how it goes.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1208     Let me talk about this new mix.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1209     You were very clear on it today and I learned a lot in your opening statement and I'm grateful for that and I thank you for that, the difference of what you are going to do.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1210     Let me make sure I have it right.  You are going to shift over to the new AM station the sort of southern side.  Right now you are trying to run a kind of split personality station.  Leave on the FM station the contemporary side.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1211     Can you give me a breakdown, kind of in the sense of how much music, how much spoken word, what type of music ‑‑ well, you were pretty clear on that today, what type,so you don't need to be very long in that ‑‑ what type of spoken word in the sense of news, weather, brokered programming?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1212     How will it break down between your two entities, should you be successful in obtaining this new licence?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1213     MR. HUNT:  Well, I mean the majority of it obviously is going to be the southern gospel format, but we have 45.17 hours of spoken word, which is basically all of what you mentioned, the brokered time, the news and basically All of the talk components.  That is basically the mix between music and spoken word.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1214     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  that will be the mix on both stations?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1215     MR. HUNT:  No.  No, just on the AM station, on the station we have applied for.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1216     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  This red light district we are running here is not as much fun as I thought it might be.  Somehow I'm hitting the button at the wrong time and I apologize for that.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1217     What I was wondering, though, is:  Can you give me a kind of sense on the breakdown of both of them?  In other words, I know you are going to have 47.17 hours of spoken word on your new station and the rest will music.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1218     What will you have on the existing station one it is reformatted, as it were, to be pure contemporary gospel?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1219     MR. HUNT:  Exactly that.  We will play nothing but music and some syndicated programming that we are currently running on that radio station on the FM, and basically all of the ‑‑ other than the required news and whatnot that we have already, basically the news that we are currently running, all of that extra brokered time would go to our AM station.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1220     And on the AM, the ratio is basically we play the 45.17 and the rest will be music and syndicated programming, which is music‑based.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1221     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  So almost 100 percent music on the FM station, but for news, weather, drive information?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1222     MR. HUNT:  Right.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1223     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  Now, for the new one, you speak about 10 percent Canadian content.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1224     But I noticed that this morning you were pretty enthusiastic in a couple of places in your opening remarks about just how much more possibility there was.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1225     You were saying even now you are doing ‑‑ let me get the number right ‑‑ I think you said one and a half times that on a regular basis.  Then, in summing up ‑‑ yes, that was it, point 5 on page 10, you said:

"We have consistently exceeded the Canadian content requirements for our format.  In fact, our performance is one and a half times what the Radio Regulations call for."

LISTNUM 1 \l 1226     At another point I was interested to hear you say that this Bill Gaither homecoming concert series really draws in the folks.  There was a point where you said ‑‑ I think you specifically mentioned some Canadian content.  I'm just looking for that on page 4 of your introductory remarks.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1227     At any rate, I will keep looking.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1228     MR. HUNT:  It's on page 5, I think.

‑‑‑ Pause

LISTNUM 1 \l 1229     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  Yes, okay.  Thank you very much.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1230     So the question is:  Why not offer us more, because we love Canadian content?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1231     MR. HUNT: And so do we.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1232     I mean, bottom line is, the industry of southern gospel, because there are just a few ‑‑ like we are talking less than ‑‑

LISTNUM 1 \l 1233     MR. HUNSPERGER:  One.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1234     MR. HUNT:  There is one basically, and that's in Edmonton.  So it is difficult to create a really overpowering industry, a strong industry in Canada with one radio station powering the music.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1235     Obviously the roots of this particular product, of southern gospel music, are rooted much deeper.  A lot of concerts.  And obviously a lot of this comes from the States.  That is generally the market it seems to be where we draw a lot of this music from.  But, again, because we are at 10 percent, that is what we are supposed to play, we consistently exceed that because the music is that good right now.  I think with more radio stations it would get even better and that number could go higher.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1236     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  Well, you know, the commercial radio stations are supposed to play 35, that is the rule, and if you review most of the applications here today you will see they are at 40.  We are very pushy on this, because we like to support.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1237     I mean, I heard that twangy West Virginia sound you had there, and I guess if you are living in West Virginia that would make you feel all warm and comfy, but Wayne Gretzky may be looking for a new career soon and it would be nice to have him here singing.  Nice to give the boy a chance.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1238     I wonder whether we couldn't induce you to go higher on that.  You are consistently beating it now.  I mean, would you feel comfortable at 15 percent?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1239     MR. HUNSPERGER:  Here is our problem, Mr. Commissioner, and that is that what we have found ‑‑ and Malcolm can even speak more to this if you would like ‑‑ the distribution of southern gospel, because it is so new in Canada, is very poor.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1240     I mean, we are playing music even from Canadian artists that are not in the book stores and are not anywhere to get.  And even we work very closely with music outlets to provide this music and they are pulling their hair out as well in this whole area of distribution.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1241     So I would say that the southern gospel music format needs a few more years of trying to get their act together on this distribution.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1242     We have heard some encouraging reports of companies in the retail outlet for music looking at getting involved in distribution, which, as you know, is a huge market, and we go from there.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1243     I don't know if Mr. Hunt wants to add anything more to that, but that is our problem.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1244     MR. HUNT:  And it is a problem, you know.  The book stores have difficulty stocking the stuff that we are playing.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1245     We obviously have connections with record labels even before the one main distribution outlet, which is CMC distribution out of Ontario.  They don't even carry the majority of the stuff that we get.  We get our stuff sent to us directly by those labels.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1246     In terms of Canadian content, it is a lot of just family ‑‑ families basically that are singing.  And they are supporting themselves by travelling all over the country.  Often they have a difficult time of that because, I mean, outside of the one market where they can come and know that there is strong radio, I mean they basically are going from venue to venue and trying their best to make a go of it.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1247     I think if we had more of this type of radio offered to them, I am more than positive that the industry would grow in Canada and the more quality talent as well.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1248     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  Still, you tease us, don't you?  You tell us you are doing one and a half times and kind of hold it out there.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1249     Okay, I have your answer on that.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1250     Let me see if I can approach the music side of your life from one other little kind of direction.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1251     There are no rules on AM radios with regard to guarantees, but on FM ‑‑ if this were an FM channel, the station you were applying for ‑‑ you would have to guarantee that 95 percent of your format, non‑classical religious format ‑‑ or 95 percent of your content would comply with your format.  On AM there is no rule that says that.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1252     Would you be prepared to apply that rule to your AM station, should you be successful in getting it, the same rule you have on your FM now?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1253     MR. HUNSPERGER:  Is that rule talking about keeping the same music on the AM format?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1254     Is that what you are saying?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1255     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  Yes.  In other words, not switching your format to ‑‑ right now sort of the world is open to you because there isn't the same strict rule on AM as there is on FM with regard to format.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1256     MR. HUNSPERGER:  We are the only broadcaster, if I am correct in making this bold statement ‑‑ we are the only broadcaster in this room that has stuck to the same format for 12 years.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1257     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  I think Mr. Evanov may challenge you on that.  He is pretty proud of his reputation in that area too, but I will let you duke it out at the break.

‑‑‑ Laughter / Rires

LISTNUM 1 \l 1258     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  So what you are telling me is you are happy to accept a COL to stick with that format, the format you have proposed, the same sort of rule you would have if it were an FM station?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1259     MR. HUNSPERGER:  If that would make the difference of whether we get our licence or not, we would strongly consider it.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1260     Here is our problem, sir:  As you know, the huge investment we are making on this station, we have not flipped formats, we are not intending to flip formats.  You know, we want to continue to even get into other areas where we continue to bring in the gospel music into other locations across this country.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1261     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  So, if I understand, your answer is you are of good faith, but you would rather not have a COL?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1262     MR. HUNSPERGER:  That is probably correct.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1263     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  Okay.  Let's get into spoken word.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1264     45.17 hours a day, 7.17 hours ‑‑ if I have anything wrong, by the way, jump in and correct me ‑‑ 17.17 hours would be news weather, et cetera.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1265     I will get back to that, but what will the other 38 be?  I'm not as clear on that.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1266     MR. HUNSPERGER:  Most of that is going to be what we would call "paid spoken word programming".  As we had mentioned in our opening statements, like "Love Worth Finding", "Turning Point", those kinds of programs.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1267     Our budget at this point says that we are really only going to put about 25 hours.  From a budget point of view we have actually just included 25 hours.  But we are asking, obviously, for the opportunity to put more hours if the need is there, that we could add that because it is a revenue source.

‑‑‑ Pause

LISTNUM 1 \l 1268     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  So mostly sold time to other program producers, creators.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1269     MR. HUNSPERGER:  That is correct.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1270     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  So that brings me to a few other questions.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1271     I'm going to bounce around a little bit on this, but on the economics side, how does that affect your revenue?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1272     When you sell a half an hour of time to another program creator, an independent program creator, who gets the advertising revenue for that?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1273     Do you sell it?  Is it a gross sale, whatever it is for that half hour, and they get the advertising time, or do you insert advertising in that programming?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1274     MR. HUNSPERGER:  No, it's a gross sale and they get the advertising in that time.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1275     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  All right.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1276     Now, content.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1277     How do you control the content and the appropriateness of this type of purchased and inserted programming?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1278     MR. HUNSPERGER:  Well, any buyer who wants to come onto the station must send a pilot of the program.  We then of course listen to it to make sure that it would be the kind of a program that would be quality as far as radio and the kind of program that we would accept, which would be things like it is not a program that ‑‑ what we would accept is that it is a program positive initiatives, helping people, these kind of things, versus any kind of negative types of programming.  Those types of programming we turn down.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1279     What we have done over the last 12 years up at CJCA, we have had this type of programming on basically from 6 o'clock at night until about 11 o'clock at night where commercial revenue isn't that high anyway.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1280     The other thing, that over the 12‑year period that we have been broadcasting these programs, we have never received a complaint, nor have you from the Commission received a complaint.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1281     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  After you get the pilot and you approve it, then it starts to come in typically sort of in half hour segments once a week?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1282     Would that be typical?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1283     MR. HUNT:  That's correct.  Yes.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1284     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  Then what do you do?  Do you pre‑screen each half hour or do you just assume, "Well, I have done the pilot and this is acceptable and we have had 12 years, you know, and everything is fine" and play it, or do you screen it?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1285     How do you deal with it?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1286     MR. HUNSPERGER:  The theme of each of the programs usually comes in on a cue sheet so we know exactly the theme of what they are talking about.  And of course if anything alerts us to something that we wouldn't air, we would of course review it and then make a decision.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1287     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  So you read the kind of table of contents, if I can use a literary term, borrow a literary term, and then as long as it doesn't offend the smell meter, I guess is about all we can say, the smell test, then you go with it?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1288     MR. HUNSPERGER:  That's correct.  And sometimes, like, for example, you know, if something is played that we felt was not what we want on the station, we will alert the producer and say, "You know, that last program", or that program a week ago or whatever, "was bordering on something that we would not prefer to run."

LISTNUM 1 \l 1289     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  Now, where do most of these programs come from, Canada or the United States or the world?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1290     You have had a lot of experience.  Where do you get them?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1291     MR. HUNSPERGER:  The United States.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1292     We are doing our level best to try to get Canadians, and particularly ‑‑ we are obviously in Alberta ‑‑ trying to get Albertans to start producing programs.  We continue to encourage that.  The problem is that as soon as they find out there is a cost to it, that's when most of them back down.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1293     However, we, for example this last year, have been producing out of our station a program on diabetes.  This lady had started this program and it is aired every Sunday night at 9 o'clock on CJCA.  It is an encouragement for us to see a local person grab a hold of an idea and now has supporters with the Diabetes Association and that kind of thing behind her.  She is starting to be kind of a pilot Canadian program that hopefully we can encourage more to get involved with.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1294     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  What is the breakdown between kind of Christian‑theme, religious‑theme programming that you are buying and wellness, the sort of diabetes, health, wellness lifestyle?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1295     Can you give me some sense of how the programming breaks down as to themes and content?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1296     MR. HUNSPERGER:  Ninety‑five percent would be from a religious theme and the other 5 percent (off microphone).

LISTNUM 1 \l 1297     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  So this 95 percent, how do you guarantee the kind of balance that we insist on here in Canada if it is being produced by people who don't have the same code that we have?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1298     How do you work with that?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1299     MR. HUNSPERGER:  First of all, they are well aware of our code.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1300     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  I think it's me who is doing this.  I'm not touching it.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1301     Hello?  Whoever is in charge of the light, I'm not touching mine any more so you can turn it on, or off if you like.

‑‑‑ Laughter / Rires

LISTNUM 1 \l 1302     MR. HUNSPERGER:  If I can get my thought here again.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1303     All of the programming ‑‑ I should say 96‑97 percent of the programming that we play all have Canadian offices, all have Canadian presidents and boards and offices located either in Montreal or Ontario, or some of them out in the British Columbia area.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1304     We work with these people on a regular basis.  They of course are a subconnection to the main ministry that is in the States, and they really regulate themselves by keeping their home ministry, if you want to say, down in the States, very alert to what happens here.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1305     Sorry, I don't know who shut that off.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1306     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  It wasn't me that time.  My evil twin.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1307     I think we may not quite be talking about the same thing, though, because it IS one thing to have an acceptable sort of content in the sense that it doesn't offend people, but I think it is quite another to have content that is both inoffensive and balanced.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1308     I'm trying to find the place in your supplementary brief where you spoke of balanced programming.  I had difficulty with it, because your explanation ‑‑ I'm going by memory here, but I'm almost certain I'm right ‑‑ your explanation of balance was that you are prepared to sell commercially available time on your radio station to other groups if they want it.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1309     But if you will permit me to say so, that doesn't quite cut it with our religious balance policy here in Canada.  Each program doesn't necessarily have to be a balanced little jewel in and of itself, but overall your programming has to show a balance.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1310     So let's take a very simple example.  If you are going to do some sort of programming on this whole Danish cartoon situation and it will be on freedom of speech, it will be on religious freedom, it will be on the sense of freedoms being offended, it wouldn't be appropriate under our policy to simply be drawing all of your information, or even 95 percent of it from Christian‑based programmers.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1311     There would also have to be a sense that the other sides of these stories were represented.  The obvious sides one can think of, of course, are Muslim approaches to it, Israeli approaches to it, Judaic historic approaches to these sorts of questions.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1312     When I  read your supplementary brief, when I hear you here this morning, I don't see where you can get this kind of balance when in fact what you are doing is accepting programming that may not be offensive, but has nothing on the other side in the sense of a complete coverage of thoughts and beliefs.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1313     I'm sorry to have gone on so long, but I do have some trouble finding that in your application and in your supplementary brief and in what you have said to me today.  I don't find that piece of the pie.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1314     MR. HUNSPERGER:  First of all, when it comes to matters of balance and matters of public concern we have absolutely no problem in accepting the Commission's regulation on balance, that if an issue comes up of matters of public concern either we will get someone else in to explain the opposite side of the equation, or we ourselves, our on‑air staff members or whatever, will explain the opposite side to make sure that everybody knows that there is two sides to this matter of public concern.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1315     What I think you are talking about here is the Regulations when you view yourself as a religious broadcaster.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1316     We do not view ourselves as a religious broadcaster.  We view ourselves as a commercial broadcaster reaching out to a segment of the culture that likes this niche format.  In the same way that a modern rock station would reach out to their modern rock fans or whatever, we are trying to do the same thing.  That's why we do not enter into that area of then providing all other religions on there, because we don't view ourselves in that regard.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1317     However, I want to underline again that if there was ever an issue of public concern, a matter of public issue, we would definitely make sure that the balance is broadcast.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1318     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  Well, I don't approach this ‑‑ and it will be up to myself and all my colleagues to review the transcript and the record of this proceeding and I may be standing alone on this, but we have ample staff and we have legal assistance and whatnot.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1319     But my approach to the Broadcasting Act is very different than my approach to the Income Tax Act for example.  And I mean that.  I don't see it as something that if you can avoid it, that's okay.  If you can find another way to view yourself, as you say it, that's okay.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1320     We are dealing with some pretty broad policy objectives here and it would be my understanding ‑‑ and I may be corrected by legal staff or by my colleagues later ‑‑ but it would be my understanding that if you are in fact playing the amount of religious spoken word programming ‑‑ it would be different if you were all music, I grant you that ‑‑ but the amount of religious‑based spoken word programming that you are playing, then I think your duty is much broader than what you have described to me here today.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1321     I believe that your duty is ‑‑ and perhaps I shouldn't be giving legal opinions from the bench, I will probably be glowing bright red to learn later that I am incorrect ‑‑ but I think that there is a general duty to comply with the policy guidelines, and that because you don't declare yourself to be a religious program, I don't know if that would be enough.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1322     But we will all have benefit ‑‑ and I certainly encourage you or your counsel, if you have counsel here, to speak with Ms Bennett, our legal counsel, to exchange views at the break and that sort of thing.  And if there are questions you have that you may want to clarify later, there are different phases coming up here.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1323     But speaking only for myself now, I don't think that the approach that you have described here today quite makes it.  Once you get into the realm of spoken word and brokered programming and dealing with religious themes, it is my understanding that our policy directs you to have a much more balanced approach.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1324     Now we having another policy ‑‑ moving right along ‑‑ and I'm sorry to have taken so long with this ‑‑ that we talk about ethics as well.  I'm sure you understand what that is all about.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1325     One of our key concerns, of course, is in programs, spoken word programs, appealing for donations.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1326     Now, any of the programs that are on in your six hours of programming now, do any of these brokered programmers, the hosts of these religious programmers, make appeals for donations?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1327     MR. HUNSPERGER:  No, sir.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1328     For the most part, they usually offer premiums, what we call premiums, or books or whatever, and if people want this book they can send in money to get the book.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1329     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  But they are not asking people to sit down and write a cheque.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1330     MR. HUNSPERGER:  Mostly not.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1331     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  Mostly not.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1332     Some are then?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1333     MR. HUNSPERGER:  Well, we have had the odd commercial at the end of the year where the programmer would say ‑‑ it's at the end of the year, we have had some difficult times, if you can help us, please send it in.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1334     But it is usually a separate commercial that they buy versus in their program.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1335     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  You are aware of our policy regarding alarming people and the ethical duty that broadcasters have to ensure that, you know, the sort ‑‑ many of the people who listen to these are people who are, even by your own admission, in the last ‑‑ how can I put this kindly ‑‑ the last demographic slice, you know, section, and they maybe feel more vulnerable and are more easily persuaded to do something that perhaps 10 years earlier they might not have done, in the sense of signing over a good deal of money they can ill afford.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1336     You are aware of our prohibition on that sort of fund‑raising.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1337     MR. HUNSPERGER:  Yes, sir.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1338     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  Thank you very much.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1339     I wanted to ask you very quickly about revenues and money.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1340     Good old money always comes into it.  The reason we get into is because we want to see whether the business plan that you have put before us warrants the Commission assigning to you some frequency, publicly owned frequency, and will it be used and will it be used successfully.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1341     Because we may be a little harsh in our questioning here, but the point of it is if you get though it we want you to succeed.  So obviously if your financial plans don't seem to make it, we are concerned about that.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1342     I noticed one thing.  I have a number of question on that, not too many.  We have had a long morning already.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1343     But I noticed in the information you handed out here today ‑‑ excuse me for one second.

‑‑‑ Pause

LISTNUM 1 \l 1344     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  I'm just doing a time check there, which I seem to have misplaced and I need.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1345     Do you have today's handout, Elizabeth?  Yes.  I don't know what I did with mine.  Oh, here it is.  I have it.  Sorry.  Too much paper.  Too many heads under my hat.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1346     You handed to us today a revised account of your financial operations, the last page appended to your remarks today.  In that you cleared up the matter of the 16,000 versus 8,000 CTD, and I am very grateful for that.  Thank you.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1347     I think we can take it as given now that the 16 number was right and the 8,000 was a mistake.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1348     But then, when I go to "Administration and General Expenses" I notice that it is quite a bit lower than on the original version of this chart that you handed to us.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1349     I wonder if you could explain why that is.  I mean, really a lot lower.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1350     MS GILESPIE:  Yes, correct.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1351     The original Excel spreadsheets that were originally sent in with the application have the correct numbers which are reflected in this sheet that you have right here, other than the 8,000.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1352     Our consultant, when they transposed the Excel spreadsheet into the Schedule 4.1 that was originally put in had the errors.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1353     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  I see.  So this one is accurate.  This is the one.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1354     MS GILESPIE:  This is the accurate one, yes.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1355     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  Okay.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1356     Now, when I look at the programming expenses, they don't look huge to me.  Is it because you are almost doing no programming on your own, that it is mostly voice track and then purchased spoken word programming?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1357     MS GILESPIE:  In regards to the staffing, I can address that to Malcolm,

LISTNUM 1 \l 1358     But mostly, primarily we share a lot of the expenses, the operational expenses, with the other three stations.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1359     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  With the other three?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1360     MS GILESPIE:  Yes.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1361     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  Which brings me ‑‑

LISTNUM 1 \l 1362     MS GILESPIE:  It would be the other three stations and, depending on the type of duties that are performed, some would be divided between three stations, being our production and that kind of stuff, and divided between two stations if the staff was on‑air.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1363     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  I see.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1364     So let's get back to news, weather and drive time stuff, which I said I would put off for a while.  It is time to look at it, because in the sense of these projections how many people are you going to have dedicated to this station, this AM station?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1365     How many person‑years will be dedicated to this station versus the existing FM?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1366     MS GILESPIE:  Okay.  I will let Malcolm address that one with his staff.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1367     MR. HUNT:  This particular station will have two people basically that we will bring on and the rest of it will be synergized with our other station.  We will be utilizing the people that we already have to take care of the rest of it.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1368     I mean, we are in the same building as our FM station ‑‑ or we would be in the same building as our FM station.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1369     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  What will the two new people be?  What kinds of jobs will they have?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1370     MR. HUNT:  Basically mornings would be ‑‑ obviously the first person would be our morning show host.  They would also input a variety of programs.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1371     The other person would primarily be co‑hosting and many of the other programming duties that are specific to that station, and compiling any of the local news items that we need as well.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1372     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  What about the drive time returning home from work?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1373     MR. HUNT:  Voice track initially.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1374     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  Really?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1375     MR. HUNT:  Yes.  But we will have live weather and live traffic as well during those times.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1376     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  So essentially are you going to play the same news on your FM as on your AM?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1377     MR. HUNT:  No, they are customized differently.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1378     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  The same people reading it, though, I suppose?  Same journalists?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1379     MR. HUNT:  Yes.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1380     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  So why would you change it?  Just because you are trying to ‑‑ your signal goes out farther, you want more regional input?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1381     MR. HUNT:  Why would we change it?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1382     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  Yes.  Why would you have it different?  Why not just play the same, one is on the FM and the other is on the AM?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1383     MR. HUNT:  Well, we have to customize them different because the names are different, but I mean ‑‑

LISTNUM 1 \l 1384     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  Oh, that's the only difference.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1385     MR. HUNT:  Yes.  I mean the content will be the same.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1386     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  Exactly the same content.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1387     MR. HUNT:  Essentially.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1388     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  So even though your signal goes way out farther, miles and miles and miles across this lovely prairie that we have depicted behind us here, you wouldn't change it?  You wouldn't bring in more rural and more regional news and events of more rural and regional interest?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1389     MR. HUNT:  It is regional now.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1390     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  It is?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1391     MR. HUNT:  Yes.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1392     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  But surely the FM signal in the sense of contour doesn't hold a candle to this AM one.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1393     MR. HUNT:  No.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1394     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  But still no changes?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1395     MR. HUNT:  No.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1396     MR. HUNSPERGER:  If I could just comment?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1397     There is a bit of a change.  For example, the on‑air FM people make their own news to the local aspect of Calgary.  Right?  So there is a bit of a difference compared to what happens with the AM.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1398     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  These are the morning hosts you mean.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1399     MR. HUNSPERGER:  Yes, sir.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1400     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  I don't want to denigrate it, but are we just talking about the happy talk here between the host and hostess, or the two hosts, the two hostesses, or are we talking about something substantial like an arts report or something, or whatever passes for an arts report in the world of gospel?  I guess it would be ‑‑ well, I don't know, some sort of show I suppose that's in town.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1401     MR. HUNT:  Obviously the differences between the formats have a different type of entertainment news that they would carry.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1402     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  Oh, it's entertainment news and that sort of thing?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1403     MR. HUNT:  That would be some, yes.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1404     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  Okay.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1405     I just want to ask you, in one of your ‑‑ I have so many pieces of paper in front of me now I'm beginning to look like an income tax lawyer I suppose, or an Enron executive, one or the other.

‑‑‑ Laughter / Rires

LISTNUM 1 \l 1406     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  When I was looking at one of your revenue spreadsheets there was a category called "Other" in brackets "Contra".

LISTNUM 1 \l 1407     Can you explain what that is all about, because it Is quite a lot of money over seven years?  What is "Contra"?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1408     MS GILESPIE:  "Contra" is the exchange of goods and services for advertising.  It is heavier in the first couple of years primarily because we use that in exchange for media advertising and promotional advertising when we start up.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1409     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  So give me some examples.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1410     MS GILESPIE:  Newspaper ads, billboards, any kind of promotional activity that we would give them advertising on our station in exchange for advertising.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1411     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  So it's not getting the wall‑to‑wall carpeting put in or something like that?

‑‑‑ Laughter / Rires

LISTNUM 1 \l 1412     MS GILESPIE:  That would be nice, but no.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1413     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  Okay.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1414     What type of advertisers are you getting?  Because I'm just not quite sure how you measure you audience, because you don't have the normal measurement facilities available to you, and services.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1415     So how do you go to an advertiser and say, "Well, we think our audience is `X' so we think our rate card should be `Y', so how would you like to buy some time?"

LISTNUM 1 \l 1416     How does that work?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1417     MR. BURROWS:  Well, with this new application we have an older demographic, as we mentioned earlier, and so I think for that demographic, such as myself, you know, I am buying a different type of product.  I think I mentioned the RV travel, situations where people of my age group are more interested in.  Those are the people we would be going for.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1418     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  But you are not the only one going for that demographic in this city.  I have reviewed the formats of all of the other radio stations and I have reviewed the formats of some of the other applicants here.  Assuming we licensed more than one you are going to be fighting it out.  They can go to the advertisers and say, "Here is our rating this month in the last period.  These are the viewers we have.  We have empirical data.  So our rates are" so many dollars per minute or per half minute, however you do it.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1419     How do you do that?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1420     MR. HUNSPERGER:  If I could answer that question for you?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1421     The interesting thing that we had already said was:  First of all, we have a loyal listening audience.  The thing that has amazed us over the years is that there are times that we do a live on location, for example, and we can sell as many cars or more cars then some of the bigger stations within the market that have the big numbers.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1422     It is partly because of the way we do it.  We bring a live show on there versus a cut‑in, 60‑second cut‑in, and that kind of thing.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1423     The other thing is that our audiences are very loyal.  They recognize that it is the advertiser on our station that is allowing them to have their favourite kind of music come to the market.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1424     Believe it or not, they go to our advertisers and say, "I'm here purchasing a product from you because you advertise on my favourite radio station".  Most businesses that have commented to us about that have said this is the first time that they have heard that kind of comment from a potential buyer.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1425     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  The Chairman has asked me if we could all take a break now.  I think he is a kind man and he thinks everybody should have a comfort break, and I will do that.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1426     I do have just a few more questions along this same line.  Just to give you something to think about while we are all not thinking, I am interested in this loyal audience in the sense that it can't be measured accurately, and in the sense that you are about to cut it in two, so it is going to be smaller, at least for a while, on each station, and how that impacts on the kind of revenue projections that I see in front of me here, which are, you know, fairly rosy.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1427     You see yourself in the black by year three.  Even some of the experienced commercial operators don't have that kind of a positive projection.  So maybe we can have a very short discussion after the break.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1428     Mr. Chairman, how long do you want to give them?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1429     THE CHAIRPERSON:  Thank you, Stuart.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1430     We will resume in 15 minutes.

‑‑‑ Upon recessing at 1040 / Suspension à 1040

‑‑‑ Upon resuming 1115  / Reprise à 1115

LISTNUM 1 \l 1431     THE CHAIRPERSON:  Order, please.  A l'ordre, si'l vous plaît.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1432     Mr. Langford, for the continuation of this item.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1433     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  Yes.  I have almost completed my questions.  I just really wanted to return to the notion of how precisely you sell and the kind of obstacles you foresee and how you will get around them.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1434     I do notice, as we talked before, that a good deal of your revenue comes from brokered programming, so that is pretty well a sure thing and I understand that.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1435     This "Contra" has been explained now and I see that revenue stream.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1436     But I do have some concerns about the local advertising in the sense, as I said before the break, that the moment you launch this station you have effectively split your audience.  I don't know how you foresee ‑‑ maybe that is a good place to start.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1437     What will the split be?  What percentage of your audience will travel immediately over to your new AM station?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1438     MR. HUNSPERGER:  The split, we are not splitting our audience.  As we had mentioned before in our opening comment, the people who like southern gospel do not like contemporary and therefore are not listening to our station.  Those who like contemporary do not like southern gospel.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1439     I will give you an illustration.  I had lunch last week with a man who is a businessman, has his own business, and he is a loyal listener of our AM southern gospel music station up in Edmonton.  We do a crossover promotion where we say ‑‑ in effect the promotion says, "Maybe you know somebody who likes this music", and we play some contemporary music and then tell them about our sister station on the FM.  He says to me, "I don't know anybody that would like that kind of music."

LISTNUM 1 \l 1440     So we have learned from our Edmonton example.  We are not splitting our audience with FM.  We are, in essence, creating a whole new audience.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1441     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  Ah, well that is very helpful.  Thank you.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1442     Now that you have repeated it, I do recall that you said that in your opening statement.  So that is another good reason why you shouldn't prepare your questions in advance I suppose.

‑‑‑ Laughter / Rires

LISTNUM 1 \l 1443     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  How deep are your advertiser's pockets?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1444     I'm going by some experience at a Kitchener, Ontario hearing we had, and some other hearings, where we have had some applications for Christian music and it was pretty clear from those applicants ‑‑ and if this doesn't apply in your world I'm confident you will tell me.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1445     It was clear from those applicants that they recognized they had a limited number of advertisers.  They weren't going to get any national advertising to begin with.  They weren't going to get the biggest advertisers in town.  But they could, on the other side, be sure they would get the Christian book store and some other small business people, entrepreneurs who had very deep Christian beliefs and very much wanted to support this station, very much wanted their children listening to this kind of music rather than to Eminem or something like that, and felt about those stations almost about the way some people feel about public broadcasting in the United States, they were willing to reach into their pocket and support it and change their advertising strategies to do so.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1446     But you have to ask yourself how deep their pockets are.  If they are supporting one of your stations now, are they deep enough that they will support two, financially?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1447     MR. HUNSPERGER:  What we have found in the Edmonton ‑‑ here again, thank the Good Lord we can look to our Edmonton situation.  Our Edmonton situation picks up new advertisers in the same way that our FM picked up new advertisers.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1448     And we are finding that even though we don't necessarily get all of the traditional advertisers that other broadcasters do, we are starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1449     I will give you an example.  Because of the growth in gospel music, people like Wal‑Mart are starting to put a huge segment in their store for gospel music.  We have actually had, a couple of times, Wal‑Mart ads that encourage people to go pick up Michael W. Smith at Wal‑Mart.  We are beginning to see that.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1450     We know what is happening down in the United States, where all the big advertisers are advertising on the gospel music radio stations, and we kind of patterned ourselves after the Dallas station, an FM Dallas station which brings in about $15 million profit every year.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1451     But we look at them and we see that there is light at the end of the tunnel and we begin to see that little by little here, although we still know that the major agencies are located in areas that we are not yet located.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1452     When members of those agencies come out to Alberta and they hear our station, which is different than many of the low‑powered FM stations ‑‑ our programming is way different and when they hear ours they go "Oh, this is great.  We should have this in Toronto", or whatever.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1453     So we believe that as we continue and are able to extend this, that pie starts opening up a little more to us.  But, in the meantime, we get very loyal people and we do get the major advertisers once in a while as well.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1454     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  Thank you for that.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1455     Just a couple of more quickies on other very small areas ‑‑ not small in importance, but small in the sense of the amount of time we have to spend on them.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1456     There are a number of other elements to owning a scarce public ‑‑ or at least renting, using, having to write to ‑‑ a scarce public resource like the airwaves that this Commission generally encourages broadcasters to embrace, and to embrace in a very positive and meaningful spirit, even though we don't necessarily go around policing small broadcasters and whatnot.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1457     I'm talking about reflecting cultural and equitable diversity in your hiring practices and in your promoting practices.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1458     When I read your responses, in the supplementary brief and the interrogatories, to some earlier questions on that in the paper part of this process, the strongest statement I could find ‑‑ and there may be others, but the strongest one I could find was that you would hire the best qualified people for jobs.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1459     I would suggest to you that everybody, of course, wants the best qualified person in every job but, at the same time, if we are going to help women and visible minority groups and the handicapped, sometimes you have to take another approach to it.  I don't want to call it "second best", because it isn't.  I don't want to appear to be preaching a sermon, because I am not qualified, but I did find that in your responses in that area I wasn't quite clear what your strategy would be.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1460     As you have three stations already, maybe you can just give me a sense of whether you are reaching out into other communities in your hiring practices and in your promotion practices?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1461     MR. HUNSPERGER:  I will talk to that.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1462     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  I certainly see a lot of women at the table, so you are off to a good start there.  We are on a 50:50 balance.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1463     How about the other side of the equation?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1464     MR. HUNSPERGER:  Like announcers and ‑‑

LISTNUM 1 \l 1465     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  Anybody.  You know, do you have any aboriginal people on your staff?  Do you have any visible minorities?  Do you have any handicapped people on any of your payrolls anywhere?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1466     MR. HUNSPERGER:  We do have visible minorities on our payroll.

‑‑‑ Laughter / Rires

LISTNUM 1 \l 1467     MR. HUNSPERGER:  Holly is waving her hand.  But we have other staff members as well.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1468     Handicapped, not at this moment, no, we don't have anybody that would be what you would consider handicapped.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1469     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  Are you aware of the Commission policies in this area?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1470     MR. HUNSPERGER:  Yes, and we have no problem with them whatsoever.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1471     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  You support them?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1472     MR. HUNSPERGER:  Absolutely.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1473     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  Thank you very much.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1474     Those are my questions, Mr. Chair.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1475     THE CHAIRPERSON:  Thank you, Mr. Langford.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1476     Commissioners...?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1477     Legal counsel...?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1478     MS BENNETT:  Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1479     I just have two small matters to follow up on.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1480     During his discussion with you Mr. Langford talked about the guidelines on ethics which are set out in the Commission's religious programming policy.  I just wanted to follow up on that point.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1481     As you are probably aware, the Commission generally expects licensees who broadcast religious programming to adhere to those guidelines.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1482     I would just like to ask you to comment on the possibility of the Commission imposing that adherence as a condition of licence.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1483     MR. HUNSPERGER:  We have no problem with the Code of Ethics.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1484     MS BENNETT:  And you would be willing to operate under those ethics as a condition of licence?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1485     MR. HUNSPERGER:  Yes.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1486     MS BENNETT:  Okay.  Thank you.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1487     The last thing I just wanted to mention is, for all interested parties it touches, amended Schedule 4.1 that was filed this morning will be placed on the top of the public file in the Commission's public exam room.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1488     MR. HUNSPERGER:  Thank you.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1489     MS BENNETT:  Those are my questions.  Thank you.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1490     THE CHAIRPERSON:  Thank you, counsel.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1491     Just before we close, in your own words could you briefly give us the reasons why the Commission should retain your application?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1492     You can also use this opportunity to tell us what we should know and what we haven't asked for.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1493     So it is up to you.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1494     MR. HUNSPERGER:  Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1495     I would like to go back just a little.  We had our little huddle in the break and I just wanted to clarify a couple of things that we had gone over with Mr. Langford in our closing remarks.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1496     First, about the research.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1497     When it comes down to the 20 percent of the random respondents who said they would like our kind of radio station, you know if you go on this 7 percent plus or minus you have about a 12.9 versus a 27.1 either way.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1498     The interesting thing that we look at is what is happening in our other markets here in Alberta as well.  We have done an Ipsos Reid survey in Lethbridge, 27 per cent of the random respondents.  We have done one, for example, in Fort McMurray, 33 percent of the random respondents.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1499     So we know that the 20 percent is a good mark.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1500     We also wanted to say that even if it goes as low as 12 percent and we view ourselves as a niche broadcaster, I'm sure that there are other broadcasters in this room this morning that if they could get 12 percent on a random survey within the market that they want to receive, they would be ecstatic.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1501     We do translate that 20 percent into being a 2 to 3 percent share of the market.  You know, we are trying to do that in a very realistic way.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1502     The other item, on the Cancon that was mentioned.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1503     We mentioned in our statement that we are doing more than 10 percent.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1504     If you look back at the decision that the CRTC gave us when you gave us the FM radio station in Edmonton, the CRTC encouraged us to do more than 10 percent.  We have done that.  We seriously look onto doing that and, as we said, we are now at 15 percent.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1505     No, we would like to keep the requirement at 10 percent but, as we have shown in the past, we would continue to exceed that and we would like to be on the happy side of the situation versus on the negative side of it.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1506     I did not understand, Mr. Langford, your questioning on the 95 percent, committed to that as a condition of licence for the category of music in the subcategory.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1507     We would absolutely accept that as a condition of licence.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1508     And I am sorry, Mr. Hunt didn't know whether he should kick me in the shins when I was answering you.  I have told him next time kick me in the shins, tell me to shut up and he would answer that question.  So I'm sorry about that.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1509     COMMISSIONER LANGFORD:  I may not have asked the question very clearly, but I'm grateful to have your clarification on the answer.  Thank you.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1510     MR. HUNSPERGER:  Thank you.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1511     I think that's all that we have to say, other than to say that we are doing it in Edmonton, it has been successful.  We are relying on what we are doing in Edmonton.  We believe because of the growing market in Calgary the same thing is going to happen in Calgary.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1512     We have an investor who is a very astute businessman and he would not be supporting this if he did not think otherwise.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1513     So we thank you so much for allowing us to be in front of you and we are sorry for our nervousness and whatever, but you have been very gracious and thank you.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1514     THE CHAIRPERSON:  Thank you, Mr. Hunsperger, and thank you to your colleagues.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1515     Ms Secretary, we will move to the next item.  We will hear the oral presentation before breaking for lunch.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1516     THE SECRETARY:  Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1517     If we could perhaps take a couple of minutes for the set up of the second applicant.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1518     Thank you.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1519     THE CHAIRPERSON:  All right.  So we will take a five‑minute break.

‑‑‑ Upon recessing at 1125 / Suspension à 1125

‑‑‑ Upon resuming at 1130 / Reprise à 1130

LISTNUM 1 \l 1520     THE CHAIRPERSON:  Order, please.  A l'ordre, si'l vous plaît.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1521     Ms Secretary...?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1522     THE SECRETARY:  Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1523     We will now go on to proceeding with Item 2 on the Agenda, which is an Application by CHUM Limited for a licence to operate an English‑language FM commercial radio programming undertaking in Calgary.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1524     The new station would operate on frequency 90.3 MHz (channel 212C1) with an average effective radiated power of 100,000 watts, non‑directional antenna height of 298.5 metres.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1525     Appearing for the applicant is Mr. Paul Ski, who will introduce his colleagues, and then you will have 20 minutes for your presentation.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1526     Mr. Ski...?

PRESENTATION / PRÉSENTATION

LISTNUM 1 \l 1527     MR. SKI:  Thank you very much.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1528     Good morning, Mr. Vice‑Chair and Members of the Commission and welcome to Calgary.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1529     We are very pleased to be here today to present CHUM's application for a new Calgary radio station, Energy FM.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1530     My name is Paul Ski and I am Executive Vice‑President, Radio, for CHUM Limited.  In this role, I oversee the operations of our 33 radio stations from Halifax to Victoria.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1531     Before we begin our formal presentation, I would like to take this opportunity to introduce the members of our Panel.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1532     To my right, your left, is Rob Farina, Program Director for CHUM FM, Canada's highest rated commercial radio station.  Rob will help us explain the Hot AC format we are proposing and why we think this format will be of benefit to both the Calgary community and Canadian artists.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1533     To Rob's right is Duff Roman, Vice‑President of Industry Affairs for CHUM Radio.  Duff's expertise in the radio industry spans over five decades and we are all very proud that in two weeks he will be inducted into the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame in recognition of his lifetime of supporting the Canadian music industry.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1534     Duff is here to help outline and discuss the extensive series of Canadian Talent Development initiatives that we are proposing today.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1535     To my left, your right, is Kerry French, Director of Research for CHUM's radio stations, who is here to speak to our research on the Calgary market.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1536     In the back row, starting on the far left, your right, is Jay Switzer, CHUM Limited's President and CEO.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1537     To Jay's right is Kevin Goldstein, CHUM's Director of Regulatory Affairs, who is here to address any regulatory questions arising from our application.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1538     To his right is Larry Leblanc, one of Canada's foremost music industry journalists who prepared a report for our application concerning the benefits of the initiatives we are proposing for emerging independent Canadian artists.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1539     Next to Larry, the other Goldstein, Ken Goldstein, President of Communications Management Inc., who conducted the economic research for our application.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1540     I would also like to note the presence in the audience today of CHUM Chairman, Jim Waters, and Vice‑Chairman, Ron Waters, as well as long‑time CHUM board member Fred Sherratt.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1541     I would like to now to turn to Jay to begin our formal presentation.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1542     Jay...?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1543     MR. SWITZER:  Thank you and good morning, everyone, Mr. Vice‑Chair, Members of the Commission.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1544     I would like to just add what a privilege it is for us here today to appear before you, this your first hearing, Mr. Vice‑Chair Arpin, in our home town ‑‑ in my home town.  We congratulate you on your new responsibilities and wish you every success.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1545     On behalf of CHUM Limited it gives me great pleasure to be here today proposing what we believe will be an important addition to the local Calgary radio market.  As a native Calgarian, I must say, I am truly excited at the possibility of launching a new FM radio station in this great city.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1546     Calgary is a community that is not just growing economically, but one that is becoming increasingly diverse and has emerged as a centre of artistic excellence.  All over this city live music venues like the Hi Fi Club, Ironwood and the Rusty Cage are showcasing the best Calgary has to offer.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1547     Local clubs like the Mint, Melrose on 17th, The Living Room and The Mercury all flourish in and around 17th Avenue, known here as the "Red Mile", the centre of the universe for die‑hard Flames fans.  The scene here is brimming with musical talent, with scores of emerging Canadian bands looking for their next big break.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1548     Energy FM will become a new voice for this vibrant city, and together with our local television station CityTV, we will create a centre for excellence in downtown Calgary for the promotion of local talent and local groups looking for exposure.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1549     Last Friday night we celebrated the first anniversary of the launch of our newest radio station 91.7 The Bounce in Edmonton.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1550     For those of you who have not been to Edmonton recently, we have helped revitalize Jasper Avenue with our investment in a state‑of‑the‑art media centre that houses CityTV, Access Media Group and 91.7 The Bounce.  It has become a focal point for local organizations and young Edmontonians.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1551     We want to create the same kind of excitement and success here in Calgary.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1552     Paul and his team will now take you through our plans for the Calgary radio market and the initiatives that will not only help create success here in Calgary, but also provide support to artists from coast to coast to coast.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1553     MR. SKI:  As part of the creation of this application, we spoke to hundreds of Calgarians, ranging from local community, political and business leaders, ethno‑cultural groups, aboriginal groups, to those involved in the independent music scene.  We wanted to know what Calgarians wanted from a new Calgary radio station.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1554     Along with our formal research, this direct community input was very important as we crafted our application and we were pleased that in response we received hundreds of supporting interventions.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1555     This application is built on our long history of serving communities in western Canada, like Winnipeg and Vancouver where I was the local manager of our stations for over 20 years.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1556     We attribute our success in these and other markets across the country to our rejection of cookie‑cutter programming.  Instead, we take a market‑specific approach, where local management drives research and programming to create a service tailored for each individual market.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1557     That is why our proposed station for Calgary is, and will be, uniquely suited to this market.  We build it from the ground up.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1558     As we drafted this application, we believed it was important to answer three questions.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1559     One:  Can the Calgary market support a new radio station?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1560     Two:  What are Calgarians missing on the local radio dial?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1561     Three:  What kind of CTD initiatives would represent the best benefit to Calgary and the system as a whole.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1562     Our response is Energy FM.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1563     The word "Energy" not only reflects the Hot Adult Contemporary format, but it also describes Calgary's vibrant and optimistic nature.  One of Canada's fastest growing cities, Calgary has a young and increasingly diverse population.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1564     This application was developed to demonstrate CHUM's commitment to both the local Calgary scene and the system as a whole.  The result is a Canadian Talent Development CTD package of $13 million in direct and indirect benefits that will support Canadian artists on a local, regional and national level.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1565     As well, it will facilitate the launch of Aboriginal Voices Radio, Canada's first national aboriginal radio network.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1566     While I have spoken about our community consultation, Kerry French will now tell you a bit about the qualitative research that helped guide our proposal for Energy FM.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1567     Kerry...?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1568     MS FRENCH:  The first step in preparing our application was to analyze Calgary's economy to determine whether the market could sustain a new entrant onto the radio landscape without unduly impacting the existing players.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1569     As all of the applicants will likely tell you, Calgary is robust by all economic indicators, including the health of local radio.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1570     Both census and market research show Calgary to be a cosmopolitan city of over one million which is growing rapidly and drawing people from all over Canada and around the world.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1571     Driven by the success of the energy sector, Calgary's diverse economy is firing on all cylinders.  Growth in real GDP is expected to rank second in the country for 2006, while retail sales growth continues to be strong.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1572     The Calgary radio market currently consists of 15 commercial stations and is extremely profitable.  In fact, over the last five years profit before interest and taxes, PBIT, has outpaced the national average by 73 percent.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1573     Between 2000 and 2004, Calgary radio revenue increased over 31 percent.  The December 2005 trend reports an 8.2 percent increase in the first four months of this broadcast year.  Advertising investment in Calgary radio shows every indication of continued positive growth.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1574     Given the strength of both the Calgary economy and healthy radio revenue growth in the market, CHUM believes, and the economic report we commissioned from Communications Management Inc. confirms, licensing a new FM service designed to reflect the youth, energy, vibrancy and rich culture of Calgary will have limited financial impact on the existing radio stations in the market.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1575     Our next step in preparing our application was commissioning a research study to determine what, if any, format opportunities exist in Calgary.  We wanted to know what types of music listeners are interested in hearing and whether they currently have access to that music on the radio dial.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1576     We tested a number of formats, and what the Calgary radio audience told us very clearly is that despite the number of stations serving the market, they do not have access to the same variety of formats as are present in other large markets.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1577     Moreover, the research study prepared by Audience Research International showed that the most under served music choice was Hot AC and that no station was operating in that format.  41 percent of the 18 to 49 year old survey respondents said that they would list to Hot AC.  60 percent of those said it would be their favourite radio station.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1578     Our research clearly demonstrates that there is a hole in the radio market in Calgary and that hole is Hot AC.  Energy FM was designed to fill this void and give Calgarians a radio station that reflects their needs, their choices and their city.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1579     Rob...?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1580     MR. FARINA:  Thanks, Kerry.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1581     The hole in the Calgary market that Kerry just outlined is not only a loss for Calgary music fans but for the host of Canadian artists who receive little or no airplay in the market, as many of Canada's top emerging artists fall into the Hot AC format.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1582     In data collected from Mediabase for the week of January 19, 2006, we found no significant airplay of current singles from Canadian emerging artists such as The Arcade Fire, Daniel Powter, Tomi Swick, Andy Stochansky, Matthew Barber, Low Millions, Carl Henry, and many, many others.  During this same period these artists were enjoying widespread airplay across Canada.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1583     At present, the majority of Calgary's radio landscape is inhabited by Gold‑based music stations.  The Hot AC format is a vibrant music format that targets adult radio listeners who enjoy cutting edge new music.  This format provides a high energy music mix while being relevant to an adult sensibility.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1584     One of the keys to this format's success is the musical variety it offers, artists as diverse as Esthero, James Blunt, Coldplay, Feist and Mary J. Blige all fit on a Hot AC format.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1585     Research from the Bureau of Broadcast Measurement shows that Hot AC listeners like to attend concerts, live theatre and cultural events.  They like to dine out and they participate in the nightlife their city has to offer.  Energy FM will be the Calgary radio station that speaks directly to that lifestyle.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1586     Energy FM will provide listeners with a minimum of 7 hours of spoken word programming weekly, consisting of a mix of news, weather and sports, surveillance information and a cultural calendar feature which will promote the many cultural and community events occurring in and around Calgary.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1587     In addition, Energy FM will air a weekly one‑hour show entitled the "CUE Review", standing for "Cultural Urban Essence".  In partnership with the successful Calgary on‑line magazine of the same name, this program will feature local cultural news, a weekly review of Calgary cuisine, club news, music reviews, and coverage of local events, as well as in‑depth interviews with representatives from various cultural groups and musical artists.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1588     While we clearly believe there is a hole in the market that is denying Calgarians a great format and Canadian artists a place to be heard, we are also excited about how the proposed benefits in our application, developed in consultation with the independent recording sector, will impact Canadian emerging artists here and across Canada.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1589     The CHUM emerging Indie artist initiative is a first in Canadian radio, both in terms of its size and its scope.  The initiative will pool CHUM's resources from across the country and focus them on emerging independent artists to provide airplay, marketing and prominent retail rack space in 10 key markets across the country.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1590     Each month CHUM's programmers will choose a song from an emerging independent Canadian artist to be featured on our radio stations in Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, London, Toronto, Kitchener, Windsor, Ottawa and Halifax.  Each station will air the song a minimum of 15 times per week for a minimum period of four weeks.  Each time the song plays the artist will be identified as "the hot pick of the month".

LISTNUM 1 \l 1591     This concentrated effort by 10 radio stations will ensure that that song makes it onto the Top 40 Hot AC Chart in Canada within one week of play.  This momentum in turn will give independent labels a great story to tell and will provide sufficient leverage to garner airplay on other Hot AC stations across Canada.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1592     At this point, we would like to play a short video which shows how Energy FM will bring much needed diversity to Calgary and how this initiative will benefit emerging independent artists across Canada.

‑‑‑ Video presentation / Présentation vidéo

LISTNUM 1 \l 1593     MR. FARINA:  It is important to note that CHUM's support does not stop with airplay.  CHUM has partnered with HMV, who will be giving prominent rack space to Indie artists.  HMV stores across Canada will feature a rack branded as the local CHUM station's Hot Indie Rack and will include that month's featured artists, as well as approximately 20 more independent releases from the past year.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1594     To promote record sales of the emerging Indie artist of the month, CHUM will create and air 30‑second commercials promoting the artist.  All CHUM radio stations taking part in this initiative will air these commercials free of charge on a minimum of 10 occasions per station each week.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1595     That airtime support of this component is currently worth almost $4 million over the course of the license term.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1596     The final component of the CHUM emerging Indie artist initiative is a yearly compilation CD of emerging independent Canadian artists.  As part of our agreement with HMV, the CD will be given away free of charge with any purchase of a full‑length Indie CD featured on the CHUM Hot Indie Rack.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1597     This CD will allow music fans to discover new Canadian artists while driving sales of independent music.  The CD will also be promoted on the air.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1598     The Energy FM audience and listeners to other Hot AC stations want to hear new music, so emerging talent is integral to the success of this format.  We believe that the emerging Indie artist initiative, along with the other music initiatives outlined in our application, will be of great benefit for Calgary and for the Canadian music industry as a whole.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1599     Now I will turn it over to Duff to talk about some of our other CTD commitments.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1600     MR. ROMAN:  In addition to the substantial music‑related CTD initiatives Rob has discussed, CHUM will make a significant contribution to aboriginal broadcasting through our commitment to over $4.5 million to support Aboriginal Voices Radio.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1601     The Commission is aware of CHUM's long‑standing commitment to cultural diversity.  We believe that this support for AVR expresses that commitment in a most tangible way, and will provide diversity not only here in Calgary, but Edmonton, Vancouver and other cities where AVR currently is licensed.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1602     In a number of recent licensing decisions, the Commission has stated that support for AVR represents a significant and meaningful contribution to the fulfilment of the objectives of subsection 3(1)(o) of the Broadcasting Act and therefore is beneficial to the broadcasting system as a whole.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1603     Most notably, in Decision CRTC 2001‑172, the Commission said that in its view:

".. the development of native broadcasting services across Canada is an endeavour particularly deserving of financial and other assistance, and it encourages all commercial broadcasters to provide such support."

LISTNUM 1 \l 1604     In that statement, the Commission called on private broadcasters to step up to the plate and help make AVR a reality.  This initiative answers that call.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1605     Given AVR's immediate financial need, CHUM has agreed to accelerate our benefits by providing a first instalment of $645,000 to AVR 90 days from the date of the CRTC's decision to license Energy FM.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1606     We believe AVR has now assembled the right team and they have a blueprint for success.  So now it's time to make the dream of a national aboriginal urban radio network a reality.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1607     MR. SKI:  Mr. Vice‑Chair, Members of the Commission, we trust in the time that has been allocated to us this morning we have been able to give you a sense of the depth and breath of our commitment to Calgary.  We have proposed a strong local radio station that will fill a programming void and reflect Calgary's energy, diversity and vibrancy, while presenting a series of significant benefits to the system at both the local and national level.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1608     We look forward to building on our experience in Edmonton by creating a centre of promotional excellence for local artists and community groups, breathing increased excitement into Calgary's downtown core.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1609     We set out early in this process to answer some key questions.  We believe we have demonstrated that:

LISTNUM 1 \l 1610     One, the Calgary market is economically robust enough for a new radio station.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1611     Two, Calgary is the only major market in Canada without a Hot AC station, denying many Canadian artists much needed airplay.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1612     Three, that we have honed our CTD initiatives to advance the development, support and promotion of Canadian independent artists here and across the country, while adding diversity to the system by enabling the launch of AVR.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1613     We hope to leave you today having demonstrated that we have answered your call and that Energy FM is the best proposal for you.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1614     We thank you for your time and we look forward to answering your questions.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1615     Thank you very much.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1616     THE CHAIRPERSON:  Thank you, Mr. Ski.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1617     We will break at this point and will resume the hearing at 1 o'clock.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1618     Thank you.

‑‑‑ Upon recessing at 1155 / Suspension à 1155

‑‑‑ Upon resuming at 1300 / Reprise à 1300

LISTNUM 1 \l 1619     THE CHAIRPERSON:  Order, please.  A l'ordre, si'l vous plaît.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1620     We will now continue with the CHUM application.  I am asking Mr. Ron Williams to ask the questions.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1621     Ron...?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1622     COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS:  Good afternoon, CHUM panellists.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1623     Mr. Ski, I guess just for ease of questioning I will direct all my questions to you and you can answer them or have they have answered as you wish.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1624     MR. SKI:  Thank you.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1625     I have a couple of questions from your remarks and half a dozen or so from your supplementary brief, so it will seem like we are moving around in many different directions for the first little while and then I will move into some themed area of questions.  I have a series of questions on four or five themes as well.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1626     So I will begin with a question from your opening remarks.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1627     On page 4 you talk about the profitability of:

"The Calgary radio market currently consists of 15 commercial stations and is extremely profitable."

LISTNUM 1 \l 1628     These are your words:

"In fact, over the last five years, profit before interest and taxes (PBIT) has outpaced the national average by 73%."

LISTNUM 1 \l 1629     With your own experience and with your consultants you have researched the Calgary marketplace, and given the financial exuberance currently being experienced in Calgary, how many new stations could this marketplace support, in your opinion?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1630     MR. SKI:  Commissioner Williams, we think that the Calgary market could probably handle one in addition to ours, so that would, I guess, be two in total.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1631     I think that is more ‑‑ I know there may be more frequencies available, but we believe that in terms of new entrants into the marketplace that there should be some kind of a staggered development of FM stations, just to give everybody a chance to, I guess, solidify their programming, solidify their position in the market.  So we would say two FMs.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1632     COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS:  Okay.  Thank you.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1633     I am just quoting you again from page 5 now:

"Our research clearly demonstrates that there is a hole in the radio market in Calgary and that hole is Hot AC."

LISTNUM 1 \l 1634     What other format holes exist in Calgary?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1635     MR. SKI:  Commissioner Williams, I might just refer to our research for that and just maybe give you some idea of how we approach a new market or an application of this nature.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1636     Given our experience in radio with CHUM across the country, what we normally do first is we come into the market and we listen to the market itself and listen to find out whether or not there are any formats that seem like they are supposedly no‑brainers, or formats that are missing that are in most markets.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1637     That's what we found here.  We found that unlike most major markets across the country there was no Hot AC radio station in the market, so our first thought was that there was a Hot AC opportunity, and that was just anecdotally we figured that was the case, given our experience.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1638     Sometimes you can be surprised and when you get into the research part of it that doesn't necessarily confirm your initial thoughts.  In this case, however, it certainly did.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1639     We found that there was a tremendous opportunity for Hot AC, more so than some of the other formats that we thought might be available.  I will maybe ask Kerry to get into some of the details of the research that talks about a couple of those formats.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1640     MS FRENCH:  Thanks, Paul.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1641     When we tested the other formats there were kind of two ways that we look at this.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1642     First of all, what is the potential for listeners to consider a particular format type of radio station their favourite radio station.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1643     The second part of it looks at whether even though they love that particular type of music are they satisfied with what they are getting on the dial?  Do they identify any given radio station in the market as serving them that music?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1644     When we looked at Hot AC we found that 25 percent of the market would consider this kind of music to be their favourite radio station.  That is a pretty big hole.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1645     The other part of that is that they didn't identify any particular radio station in the market as giving them the music that would fit on a Hot AC radio station.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1646     With the other formats, however, there was some interest in both Country and Modern Rock, but in both of those cases ‑‑ in the case of Country, 92 percent of the respondents said they identified a radio station in the market that played that kind of music.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1647     With Modern Rock, 87 percent of them identified a particular radio station as giving them that particular music.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1648     In the case of the Hot AC it was less than 50 percent, which is a really low number in this kind of research study.  So that gave us certain confidence that the format that would be most successful would be Hot AC.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1649     MR. SKI:  I might mention, too, Commissioner Williams, that what we look for in the research that we do ‑‑ and we have done research since the early '80s and do a considerable amount of it within the CHUM group ‑‑ what we are looking for is not whether or not a person would just listen to the radio station, either somewhat or often.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1650     What we are looking for is passion, meaning would this station be their favourite radio station.  Because most radio station's audience is based on a core audience, what we call preferentials or P1s.  So it is the 80:20 rule, 80 percent of that audience ‑‑ that particular audience, sorry, the P1s make up about 80 percent of the tuning.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1651     So that is why it is so important to any radio station to have passion, and we find you get the passion by asking someone, not if they would listen to it, necessary just that, but could this radio station or would this radio station be their favourite radio station.  We are asking them to make a commitment.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1652     MR. FARINA:  If I could just add to that, which isn't further to the research but the anecdotal data that we got when we talked to the music industry, and as exemplified by the positive letters of support we have in regards to this application from major labels, Indie labels, independent promoters, artists managers and artists, there was a clear consensus that this was a big hole in the Calgary market by the big fact that these formats are incredibly successful in Canada and operate in every major market in this country.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1653     COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS:  Okay.  So if the Hot AC was already being served in the Calgary marketplace, what would be the second choice for CHUM, from a format point of view?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1654     MR. SKI:  Well, we think the opportunity is so large that would probably be our second choice, too.  But I might ‑‑

‑‑‑ Laughter / Rires

LISTNUM 1 \l 1655     MR. SKI:  But I might ask Kerry maybe to comment on that.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1656     It is hard for us at this point to say.  I mean, we could give it some thought to figure out what the second opportunity might be, but ‑‑

LISTNUM 1 \l 1657     COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS:  If it would be your second choice as well, as you earlier answered, I can live with that..

LISTNUM 1 \l 1658     MR. SKI:  I think it might be.  It's just because the opportunity here for Hot AC is so profound I think it might be our first and second choice.  That does happen in certain markets, where certain markets can handle two formats that are somewhat similar.  Here again, unlike most markets, major markets across the country, there isn't even one.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1659     COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS:  I want to talk a little bit about your support for aboriginal broadcasting.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1660     In your supplementary brief, beginning at page 20 you talk about the significance and importance of the aboriginal communities in Calgary and Alberta generally.  You state that:

"It may be understood in academic and political circles, but for most Calgarians the Calgary Stampede and other cultural events represent the extent of their exposure."

LISTNUM 1 \l 1661     Then you quote some census data that:

"The Province of Alberta has the largest concentration of aboriginal peoples in the prairies and the Calgary CMA is home to over 22,000 aboriginal Canadians, representing the third largest identifiable group in the city."

LISTNUM 1 \l 1662     This is all information that you provided, building your case to put together the contribution of $4.5 million to Aboriginal Voices Radio over the 7 year licence term.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1663     How did you establish the $4.5 million figure?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1664     Have you played a part in establishing, I guess, the budget or the implementation of these monies or is this just a sum that's given to AVR for them to manage as they see fit?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1665     MR. SKI:  Commissioner Williams, I will ask Duff Roman to give you a little bit more insight into the $4.5 million commitment to AVR.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1666     But we found out a while ago that their need was a certain funding for expansion, and certainly into the west, to Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver.  So the funds that we are talking about here are really for that expansion, transmitter sites and things of that nature.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1667     Duff can give you a little bit more detail of the various elements, which I believe is what you are asking about and where those funds will go.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1668     MR. ROMAN:  As you can appreciate, Commissioner Williams, we have had an extended conversation with our colleagues at AVR in an attempt to determine, as Paul says, what the funding requirements would be for a specific period of time, i.e. the 7‑year traditional licence term, and in a joint consultation we determined that about $4.5 million would work quite well in the beginning stages of rolling out the services in those areas where they have already received licences.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1669     As you know, they have been licensed to Calgary, to Edmonton, to Vancouver, Kitchener, to Ottawa and to Montreal.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1670     Now, in the case of this hearing for Calgary, we are committing to spend the first year of the commitment, $645,000, to make that available to them within 90 days of successful approval of this application.  That will go for the launch of Calgary and will make a decent start on the launch of Edmonton.  Then that will continue to be applied in the successive years of the 7‑year commitment.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1671     COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS:  Is that $645,000 sufficient to launch Calgary?  Is that the total amount required?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1672     MR. ROMAN:  It is more than sufficient for Calgary.  I can give you a general idea of the costs of launching in Calgary.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1673     COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS:  Okay.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1674     MR. ROMAN:  We think the technical plant, the transmitter, 20 kilowatt transmitter, the combiners, the modules, the standby systems, the installation costs, are in the range of about $350,000.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1675     At this point we are not talking about a live studio commitment to Calgary.  We are talking about a way of picking up the AVR network from Toronto.  So those costs we have also worked out, but in the first round they will come as a second phase as we roll out the Calgary, hopefully Edmonton and perhaps some of the other markets.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1676     But in addition to that, there would be some installation costs, there would be some maintenance costs, some tower space costs, for another $115,000, $110,000.  That would get the jump‑start of the AVR initiative in that first 90 days.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1677     But we are committed to making this project work.  We think that our intentions of getting the money out quickly like this would allow us to see how the rest of the business plan shapes up.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1678     We think that there are areas where others will come to the party.  We do not discourage private sponsorships, we don't discourage going to public sources with regard to helping AVR.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1679     But we have seen their business plan.  It is very stabilized.  They have had a new Board of Directors, they have some governance issues nailed down, and we are very confident that AVR has been put on a very stable footing and we are prepared to work with them in the long term.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1680     COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS:  There have been a lot of questions in industry, and even within our organization, about reasons by AVR hasn't been able to launch in all their licensed marketplaces yet.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1681     What, in your company's opinion, is the major reason AVR is not on the air in all of its licensed marketplaces within a year or so of being licensed, or two years?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1682     MR. ROMAN:  I think there may be others in these policy areas at our table that might wish to comment, but really I think that there has been somewhat of a piecemeal approach to the needs of AVR.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1683     Our discussions with AVR were really about the idea of getting to a long‑term relationship, basically laying out what their needs would be.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1684     We have talked with their Chair, Jamie Hill, with Lewis Cardinal on the board, with their consultants, and what we think we have here is a realistic plan to get them moving quickly in the first instance with Calgary, but then as the other annual instalments of $645,000 come on board, we are very confident that we can get the networked stations out.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1685     Local service costs a little bit more money and will be part of a second phase.  But I think that, probably in all good intentions, various broadcasters have worked with AVR and I think the approach hasn't been as holistic and I don't think in a sense that there has been this desire to form a true partnership where we are open with each other.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1686     We have many consultations with AVR in an attempt to really make this work this time, because we realized the history.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1687     So from that aspect, I think ‑‑ and we may get into it later ‑‑ just as we have taken a very large, global holistic approach to independent artist initiatives, we felt with AVR we would do a similar approach.  We think that that will make a big difference.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1688     We bring a lot of expertise, a lot of experience in broadcasting, and we put that on the table as well as the dollars.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1689     COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS:  Is this contribution in the nature of cash or is it cash and consulting services or cash and consulting services and equipment?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1690     What is the nature of it and what types of controls or strings do you have to the cash to make sure it is allocated in such a way as this network could get established in the manner that you envision?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1691     MR. ROMAN:  Well, certainly for the initial commitment of $645,000 we do have a letter that we will file with the Commission in terms of our understanding of the arrangement.  That is the only agreement we have at this time.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1692     But from a standpoint of where this commitment will be spent and how it will be spent, we have asked AVR to give us their needs.  They have provided us essentially with some of the budget figures that I presented to you.  We think that they basically have organized themselves very well, and from that standpoint I think we are in pretty good shape.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1693     MR. SKI:  Commissioner Williams, if I could, the $4.5 million is a cash contribution.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1694     COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS:  Cash contribution. okay.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1695     The AVR management team, I guess what you are telling us, is you are convinced that they are experienced and capable and they should be able to launch if they give financial assistance such as what you are proposing?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1696     MR. ROMAN:  Yes, we think so.  They have a very experienced radio executive in Roy Hennessy who is managing their day‑to‑day operations.  We certainly know that at the board level with Jamie Hill and some of the consultants that they have on board that they are very serious about it.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1697     And we are very impressed, by the way, with how they have managed to operate with some very restrictive circumstances in the Toronto area.  We have been to their studios.  There seems to be a real "can‑do" attitude and they certainly have the attitude that they will not be defeated in this area.  We are very impressed with that.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1698     We think the people who have been exposed to them are also rallying around the idea that we should have an AVR national broadcasting system in this country and we feel confident that they have that in place.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1699     COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS:  Okay.  Moving a little ways along from there, in your supplementary brief you talked about CHUM:

"...being prepared to commit that you would specifically hire an aboriginal Canadian for an on‑air position for your new radio station in Calgary and that CHUM would work with AVR to mentor young aboriginal Canadians who are interested in such positions in broadcasting."

LISTNUM 1 \l 1700     What level of discussions have you had with AVR and do you anticipate any difficulty in finding people of aboriginal ancestry that are trained and able to work in a large CHUM radio station in Calgary?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1701     MR. ROMAN:  No, I don't think so.  I think that given the opportunity to be trained and to work within a professional system like CHUM I think is something to be aspired to.  I really don't feel that there will be any difficulty with that.  We made that commitment.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1702     A lot of our discussion has been about the intangibles.  We are not putting a list of indirect benefits here, as Paul has mentioned.  The $4.515 million is cash, but a lot of our discussions about whether or not there may be a way of sharing facilities for instance in those markets where we have up‑and‑running radio stations, would we lend assistance with technical support for instance, would we be prepared to take on interns and part‑timers and other staff who could be developed into progressively better and better situations.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1703     That seems to be as attractive to them in a sense as perhaps the cash allotments.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1704     COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS:  Okay.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1705     In your supplementary brief again you refer to:

"Senior CHUM managers are founding and active members of the Strategic Alliance of Broadcasters for Aboriginal Reflection known as SABAR."

LISTNUM 1 \l 1706     Could you please describe some of the work that this group does and has been done in this area in the last couple of years?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1707     MR. SKI:  I might start, Commissioner Williams, and have Duff add a little bit.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1708     As you may know, we are a founding member of the Strategic Alliance for Broadcasters and Aboriginal Reflection and Sarah Crawford is one of the people who sits on that particular board.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1709     A number of the things that we look at is certainly on our reflection, which is important, and I know that it is somewhat more difficult with stations that are mature stations in the market where it is a little bit more challenging, but certainly with our new stations that we have, like The Bounce for instance in Edmonton, they have become quite diverse.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1710     One of the full‑time employees is aboriginal and I'm proud to say that nine of our 25 staff members are visible minorities.  That is about 36 percent.  The on‑air staff, four of the nine are visible minorities and 75 percent of the staff are female.  So we are quite proud of that record, especially of new stations that are in a start‑up phase.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1711     MR. ROMAN:  I just only add that we are not new to the development of relationships with aboriginal broadcasters.  Just for the record, in the late '60s CHUM Radio was the first private organization to partner with aboriginal radio in Tuktoyaktuk.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1712     COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS:  I actually lived in the Mackenzie Delta within 60 miles of that radio station when you helped them, yes..

LISTNUM 1 \l 1713     MR. ROMAN:  I think you remember Radiotuk it was called.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1714     COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS:  Or TBS.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1715     MR. ROMAN:  Yes, sir.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1716     COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS:  Tuk Broadcasting Society or something.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1717     Let's talk about Calgary now.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1718     The Calgary Cafe series.  You talk about:

"... showcasing talent staged in prominent downtown locations free of charge."

LISTNUM 1 \l 1719     You would:

"... be staging five lunchtime concerts in several downtown locations."

LISTNUM 1 \l 1720     What locations in Calgary have you identified as being a good venue for this Calgary Cafe series?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1721     MR. FARINA:  What we thought, Commissioner, would be that as our audience are young adult and predominantly females that it would be important that we be able to cover the business district and not the same location all the time but a roaming location.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1722     If I could correct the record, it is actually 12 events which happen each Friday over the course of the months of June, July ‑‑

LISTNUM 1 \l 1723     COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS:  So that is 12 rather than the five stated in your supplementary brief?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1724     MR. FARINA:  It is 12, yes.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1725     The events feature Alberta artists, that could be a combination of signed and unsigned.  To support the events, the artists are going to be invited into the radio station morning shows to be able to perform which, as everybody is aware, is peak tuning for radio, so a great way to get exposure.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1726     The events also allow us to chat up the entire week about the performance to engage listeners to come down and see, which in turn provides great promotion for the artist.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1727     MR. SKI:  Commissioner Williams, one of the people that we talked to when we were putting together the application was Richard White, who is head of the Downtown Merchant's Association for Calgary ‑‑ like we have done I guess in other markets like Edmonton in particular, trying to revitalize Jasper Avenue ‑‑ he certainly felt that the Cafe series and other initiatives that we have that would bring local live talent to downtown Calgary would be certainly an added bonus to the city.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1728     COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS:  Okay.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1729     You indicate your Hot AC would target a broad 25 to 44 year old listener.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1730     These next few questions ‑‑ maybe I will just give you a bit of preamble and then I will go back to that ‑‑ is to help us gain a better understanding of your proposed demographic and how it differs from the demographic proposed by Harvard, and also to examine why you believe your proposed format would provide the best programming diversity to the 25 to 44 age group.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1731     The first question is:  You indicate your Hot AC would target a broad 25 to 44 year old listener.  However, format qualifiers to just Hot generally don't denote from a programming perspective a more focused approach to attracting audience.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1732     As a Hot AC, would your programming and music mix target the younger 25 to 35 year old segment of the broadly defined market or would it be skewed to attract the older 35 to 44 segment?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1733     I guess what I'm trying to get is, I'm trying to get a feel for what your core demographic target it.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1734     MR. SKI:  Certainly, Commissioner Williams, I will start then have Kerry and Rob jump in.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1735     I think, first of all, the term "Hot" is a term that we use for a lot of things I guess, and one of them is radio formats, Hot AC.  But today most radio formats, given the fragmentation that we have in most markets, need to be focused, some of them more laser focused than others.  So while Hot AC may seem to be more focused in one particular area, there is a sense of focus with all formats now.  They have to be.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1736     Not only with, as I say, the local fragmentation in the marketplace, but also the other audio technologies that we are having to deal with, certainly the ones we currently have to deal with and certain impending technologies.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1737     So we take great pride in making sure that when we research a format that we get good and valuable information.  There are sort of three parts of it.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1738     One is doing the research itself, which is the questionnaire development.  We see that as 25 percent of the process.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1739     The next 25 percent of it is the interpretation.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1740     Those two elements are obviously very important, but 50 percent of that entire process is really the execution of the format.  If we miss on any of those we will probably miss somewhat or the other, but the big miss can be on the execution part.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1741     Let me let Kerry talk a little bit about the demo and the broadness or the focus of that that came out of the research.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1742     MS FRENCH:  Thanks, Paul.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1743     We don't necessarily define what the target of the radio station is.  The listeners actually define it.  When we did the research study, it came back that the core would be 25 to 34.  There would also be a reasonably large audience in 18 to 24 and then again on the other side in 35 to 44.  Those are the people who told us they would listen to this radio station and it would be their favourite radio station.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1744     So we are not really deciding that we are going to pick that part of it.  We are hopefully going to get some partisans in each of those demos.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1745     COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS:  So it is not a specific focus on the younger listeners or the older listeners, it is ‑‑

LISTNUM 1 \l 1746     MS FRENCH:  No, it is actually the audience that defines it for us.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1747     When you look at BBM numbers, in Hot AC formats across the country 49 percent of listeners are in that 25 to 44 area and 63 percent are in the 18 to 49 area.  When you look at other types of formats, for example the Modern Rock format, it is 56 percent 12 to 34, so it is a much younger format.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1748     The stat that differentiates them most specifically is that 60 percent of the tuning to Hot AC stations is by females, whereas 68 percent of the tuning to modern rock stations comes from males.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1749     So the actual age demos overlap a bit, but certainly they are very different in their taste.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1750     MR. SKI:  Commissioner Williams, too we have to remember that a format normally is a group of tastes inside a demographic.  It is a group of tastes inside that demo, whether it is 25‑34 or whether it is 25‑44.  Certainly most of us on this panel think that is fairly young, but maybe Rob, who programs a Hot AC radio station, one of the top ones in the country, might comment on the target audience.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1751     MR. FARINA:  Yes.  The narrow target of the radio station ‑‑ and although there are variances in market‑to‑market ‑‑ is generally 25 to 34 for this format and it is predominantly female skewed.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1752     You mentioned Harvard.  In their application they make several comparisons to CFNY in Toronto.  The thing to keep in mind with the Toronto market is, unlike the Calgary market there is an album‑oriented radio station that playlists a segment of the Alternative or New Rock music.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1753     Also, further to what Kerry said, I think another differentiation with the demo comes down to sustainability.  We run an Alternative Rock station in Windsor and based on what we are seeing in the new launches in the markets of Ottawa and Edmonton, it is a very tough demo to sell to advertisers as opposed to the 25 to 34 target which Toronto's example where we run a stand‑alone FM with CHUM FM and we are very successful with that.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1754     COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS:  Could you tell us, who is this demographic listening to now.  Are they tuned into CIBK offering CHR or CHFM offering an AC, or Classic Rock or AOR or Classic Hits?  Who is this demographic being entertained by now?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1755     MR. SKI:  Commissioner Williams, I will let Kerry give you some of the exact details, but maybe just a bit of perspective.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1756     If there is a lack of a particular format, especially one that has this kind of opportunity in a market, a couple of things happen.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1757     One is that radio stations in the market can be broader in their scope.  So a station that might be a CHR station for instance could be a little bit broader, because there is really nobody, if I could say, on top of them in that particular format.  So they can be broad in their scope to begin with.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1758     Are they super serving that Hot AC core audience?  No, they are not.  Normally a great deal of the listening that they have to that station won't be extremely significant.  People will tune into the station, but they won't spend a lot of time listening to that radio station because of the fact that they are not getting enough of their favourite music enough of the time, but it does allow those stations that in a market where there is the lack of this kind of a format to get additional tuning to their station because there isn't an alternative.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1759     Kerry...?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1760     MS FRENCH:  Thanks, Paul.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1761     That core demo of female 25 to 34 in Calgary, they are splitting their tuning basically between five radio stations.  The number one radio station, with 21.7 per cent market share ‑‑ that is in the latest BBM S4 survey, which is the equivalent of a regular fall survey ‑‑ is JACK FM, which is a Classic Hits radio station, a very popular station, but generally Classic Hits are slightly more male‑based and they are Rock‑based and Gold‑based radio stations.  So it is unusual to have this core demo listen to Classic Hits as their number one station.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1762     They also tune to the Vibe, which is the Top 40 urban station, CHFM, which is a softer, more mainstream version of AC.  The Country station, Country 105, and another Rock station .

LISTNUM 1 \l 1763     So Energy FM would actually take tuning away from all five of those radio stations because we would be giving them the kind of music that they really do want to hear.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1764     COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS:  To what degree do you think you would draw away from each of the existing stations?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1765     MS FRENCH:  Well, Commissioner Williams, because the tuning is so split I don't think we would impact any one particular radio station to any great extent.  Our estimate suggests that between 5 and 7 percent of their tuning would move over to our radio station because we would be supplying the kind of music that these people want to hear.  So it wouldn't be a terrific impact on any one radio station.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1766     MR. SKI:  I think too, if I could add, we should remember that the people who are tuning to these stations right now, although they may be tuning to the stations, they are not spending a great deal of time with them, just because they are not fulfilled from that particular experience.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1767     It is really by default, I would say, that they are listening to these stations or they are listening to their own CD collections or their iPod or whatever, because they are just not being fulfilled by any one of those particular stations.  We see this a lot where there is a tremendous spread across a spectrum of radio stations.  That normally happens when there is not one station that is fulfilling that particular need.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1768     MS FRENCH:  If I can just add another point?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1769     In our research the people who identify themselves as Hot AC partisans or people who would have a Hot AC radio station as their favourite radio station, in Calgary they are listening to between 2.5 and 3.5 hours of radio less than partisans to other formats.  We believe the reason for that is that they don't have the choice of radio station that they want to hear on the dial.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1770     MR. SKI:  I think, too, on page 4 of our research project is where those particular numbers are that Kerry had referenced.  And also the fact that since there is no one station that dominates their listening, they are not listening for as many hours.  That was the point I was trying to make.  But that is quantified on page 4 of the ARI study.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1771     COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS:  Thank you.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1772     Harvard is also applying to operate an Alternative Rock music format which, like your Hot AC, would provide a service to the 25 to 34 year old young adult listener.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1773     Why, in your opinion, would your Hot AC format proposal be a better choice than Harvard's alternative rock proposal to provide programming diversity to the Calgary marketplace, and specifically to the 25 to 34 year old young adult listener?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1774     MR. ROMAN:  There are a couple of reasons.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1775     First off, when you look at the Calgary market there are three radio stations in the Rock genre, a Classic Hits station, which is predominantly Classic Rock based, a Classic Rock station, and an album orientated Rock station, whereas there is no radio station targeting a young adult female audience directly in the market.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1776     Further to that, I refer to later and I see in several instances in the Harvard applications comparisons to CFNY with their demographics.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1777     If I could be so bold, I think it is a little bit different to compare CFNY with any other Modern Rock in Canada.  CFNY has a huge history of being an Alternative music station operating since the '70s, and because of that they are able to build a heritage with listeners, as opposed to our experience in Windsor and what we are seeing in markets like Ottawa and Edmonton with the Alt Rock stations that have launched there.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1778     It is a very male‑based and a very 12 to 24 format.  So we actually don't see any sharing of audiences between the two.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1779     Further to that, I took a look at a comparison of titles between Hot ACs and CFNY, that being the real comparative station in the Harvard application, and out of 176 titles only eight of the same songs appeared on both of those playlists, that being the Hot AC and Alternative Rock.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1780     COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS:  I didn't quite get why you feel that your offering would be better than theirs.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1781     MR. FARINA:  I feel our offering will be better than theirs because there is a complete void in the market now for this format.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1782     COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS:  Okay.  Because they are not being served.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1783     MR. FARINA:  The format has had a wider appeal in terms of the amount of people who are drawn to a Hot AC format versus the amount of people who are traditionally drawn to an Alternative Rock format.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1784     MR. SKI:  Rob may want to comment on the diversity of artist representation, that again you are not getting in this market the number of artists that are Hot AC artists that really aren't being played in this market in Calgary at the present time.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1785     Rob...?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1786     MR. FARINA:  Thanks, Paul.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1787     Hot AC is also referred to as Adult CHR.  The reason it is is because it is an audience that has grown up listening to teen radio stations, but with people living longer, leading more active lives, people still want to be plugged into what is new and what is happening, but obviously within an adult sensibility.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1788     One of the things about the Hot AC format that allows it to be as popular is because the music is so diverse.  It borrows from Adult Rock, Pop, urban, Soft Hits, and not only does the radio station contain great diversity in the music, but I think because of that it is why, in the audience make‑up that our radio stations attract, it really attracts a real diverse audience make‑up, obviously very centred around a predominantly female and predominantly 24 to 34 skew.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1789     COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS:  Okay.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1790     Can we talk a little bit about your local programming initiatives of spoken word and news.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1791     In response to some of our deficiency questions, you indicated that you would provide around 10 hours per week of local reflections spoken word programming, which would include 3.5 hours devoted to news, one hour to related surveillance programming, and earlier I noted that a number of incumbent stations already attract a high level of tuning in this age demographic.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1792     Perhaps you could elaborate on what would differentiate your treatment of local news from that being offered by the incumbent stations that are currently attracting your target listeners?

LISTNUM 1 \l 1793     MR. SKI:  Commissioner Williams, I will have Rob give you a bit of a perspective of the audience itself, I think, which would help to give you some comfort in the kind of news, the kind of information, the kind of spoken word that we are going to be offering.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1794     I should mention, too, that when CHUM builds a radio station we build it from the ground up.  So we go to those audiences to determine what type of information they require, what are their ‑‑ I guess what are their information needs.  Because the last thing that we want to do is duplicate what someone else is doing.  There are certain news stories you can only do so many ways.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1795     But, by and large, the other information parts of our application, a lot of which refer to the artists, et cetera, in certain types of the programs would be different than what other stations are currently doing, but to the point that we will get feedback from the community and try to reflect what is happening in Calgary, mirror the community and mirror what the listeners to a Hot AC format want to hear.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1796     Rob?...

LISTNUM 1 \l 1797     COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS:  As part of that answer maybe if you can elaborate a little bit on what you have just said and how your approach would play an important role in attracting listeners to your new station, your approach to the spoken word.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1798     MR. FARINA:  Gladly.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1799     MR SKI:  Certainly.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1800     MR. FARINA:  Commissioner, if you could indulge me for a second, there were a couple of omissions in the deficiencies.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1801     We want to clarify that the 8:30 a.m. newscast on weekdays was omitted, which adds an additional 25 minutes of news, and there was a mathematical error in the calculation of weather and traffic which should have read an hour and 40 minutes.

LISTNUM 1 \l 1802     So the breakdown ‑‑ and we will obviously supply this ‑‑ there are over four hours of minutes of news, weather and traffic accounts, for an hour and 38 minutes Monday to Sunday; there is a cultural calendar that airs 5 times a day, 7 days a week; and a one hour weekly cultural affairs show, bringing the total spoken word to 7 hours, 15 minutes and 30 seconds.