Feb.20, 2004
By
Alex J.Walling
 Radio,
the at times forgotten media, takes front and center stage
in a few weeks time as the CRTC (Canadian Red Tape Commission)
(Can’t Reply Till Christmas) holds hearings at the
WTCC. Those hearings start on Monday March 1st and the
commission has the hall booked until March 12th.
That’s a long time but then there
are lots of applicants. Something like 25 representing
all the Atlantic provinces.
It’s been a while since a full fledged
commercial radio license has been awarded for Halifax
with SUN-FM getting the nod back in 1990. Since then our
population has grown at least 50,000 and I expect anywhere
between 2-4 stations to get licensed.
The area has had a few 50-watt signals get
approval from Seaside-fm licensed for Eastern Passage
(2001) and that area and the info station 97.9 (2002)
radio which is owned by former CTV news/TV man Jack McGaw.
Expect one or two full fledged commercial
undertakings to be granted a license and one of those
being Maritime Broadcasting the current owners of CHNS/CHFX.
They are almost guaranteed a license.
As it stands Maritime Broadcasting, also
known as MBS, is being outnumbered 5-2 by the NewCap group
of stations in metro. So we have CHFX/CHNS against C100
–CJCH- Q104-SUN-FM and picking up the rear is CFDR
(Kixx country).
5-2 in favour of NewCap. I don’t think
it’s going a close call for the CRTC who can add
and see the numerical disparity in this market.
I mean back in the 80’s, Arnie Patterson,
then owner of 680 CFRR was in a battle for a license against
Gary Obie. Both Patterson and Obie applied for an FM frequency
and neither got it the first time.
On the second try Arnie pretty well demanded
that the CRTC ‘give him the license to maintain
the competitive balance’.
He pointed out that that CHNS had an FM
counterpart in CHFX. That CJCH had C-100 but he had CFDR
and no FM partner. He got his wish and soon Q-104 became
a reality.
He sold “Q” to NewCap and they
in turned entered into an LMA (Lease Management Agreement
with CHUM) and hence you have the boys at the pink palace
on Robie with five towers pumping music against the team
down town with two.
As for the others, pick em.
There are many good ones to choose and many
big firms or big bucks behind the applications.
Astral, whose application has been aided
by former CHNS manager Garry Parker to Rogers to Global,
and many others comprise the list of potential radio station
licensee owners. Some of these guys have lots of 0’s
behind their firms and money talks.
There’s also several small (50-watts
or less) community stations vying for a place on your
dial and I expect one or two of those to get approval.
One of those, in all likelihood, having the ‘Christian
music’ format.
As a person involved in the media and one
who plans to apply for a low power station within the
next year I will gladly take in the proceedings and take
notes and learn. Never to late to learn. In the words
of a good friend of mine George Jordan: “It’s
what you learn, after you know it all that counts.”
- - - -
I heard that Global News (formerly MITV)
had pushed up to #2 in the suppertime news ratings.
That is NOT the case. And some are wondering
where this rumour came from….maybe from Global itself.
What ever way you want to cut it the ratings
results are: ATV, CBC and Global.
In fact ATV News keeps doing what it has
for decades and that is dominate. Not lead but totally
dominate.
The figures don’t lie. And it doesn’t
matter which way you want to scramble up those figures
when you throw them out, and in whatever combination,
it’s ATV.
Do you want total audience figures? Here
they are between the news hours of 6-7 pm, Monday –
Friday.
ATV slightly over 300,000
CBC (Maritimes) 75,000
Global 21,000
Or some would prefer rating points for the
6: pm news. If that is your preference then the following
is the score:
ATV 21
CBC 5
Global 1
These figures have been the norm for nearly
20 years. ATV is so far ahead of everyone for several
reasons. One, credit has to go to Dick Pratt who was the
person in charge of that newsroom when he became the first
to do 90 full minutes of news.
Those were in the days of Dave Wright at
host and Bruce Graham as anchor.
Then, ATV (again Pratt) had the foresight
to go to ‘live’ satellites hits. I remember
one winter storm nearly 10 years ago when CBC’s
anchor Jim Nunn did his ‘tour of the Maritimes’
with a picture of the reporters and a telephone line while,
the ATV anchor (Steve Murphy) went ‘live’
everywhere.
And finally, I call it the complacency factor.
It is impossible to catch up to the leader, if that leader
keeps hustling every day and that is what happens at ATV.
“We respect our competition and never
take them for granted,” Steve Murphy told me. “In
fact we know many of them because they have worked here
and are very good but we try to get better every show.”
Over the past decade ATV has gotten stronger
and now provides two full hours of news/information with
‘Live at 5’ and the ‘Evening News’
which went to a full hour over a year ago.
While ATV keeps pumping money in their product
(and the ratings show it) the other stations have had
cut backs.
“It’s very hard to catch up
when we keep getting cut,” is one comment I have
heard from reporters at both other stations.
As for ATV, while they do many things right,
they don’t hit 100% in all categories. That news
promo with Peter Mallette and Steve Murphy has to go.
Both of these respectable anchors look like magicians
when they touch that TV monitor and the logo appears.
Can you say cheesy?
- - - -
Way to go CJCH and C100 and it is nice to
see radio do something for the community. In the past
TV has taken the lead with the likes of Christmas Daddies
but in the past few years’ radio has come on board.
C100 and CJCH combined to raise over $400,000
for the IWK. The stations staged a telethon last week
for several days and the result was outstanding.
“I’m very proud of the guys
and gals who worked and worked very hard to raise this
kind of money. We’re blown away by the figure,”
is what C100 / CJCH Program Manager Terry Williams told
me.
Williams added CJCH this year to the telethon
and is glad he did. “It went over well on CJ and
I am really glad to see that radio is in a position to
do some giving back to this community’.
The first year the telethon rose over $100,000.
It was over $200,000 last year and this year they almost
doubled the figure.
Williams points out that with last year’s
money the hospital bought a piece of equipment. That was
the equipment used in saving the boy who was underwater
for a long time last fall on the south shore and was rushed
to the IWK.
Nice going guys.
BTW the telethon had the help of many students
from AMI (The Atlantic Media Institute) who did everything
from manning the phones to other duties. That for any
student is a great experience and looks good on a resume.
It also shows the ‘other’ non-glamorous (if
there is any glamour to the biz) side of radio.
- - - -
If you are a TV news person people know
who you are be it Steve Murphy, Alan Rowe, Bruce Rainnie
or Linda Kelly. But on radio you hear their voices as
they deliver their stories but probably wouldn’t
recognize them if they were next to you at a store.
In the past 15 years metro has had some
great radio news ‘presenters’ and I would
like to recognize three of them. The first left a few
years ago and that was Jim Crichton who worked for CHNS
/CHFX. The man could read or ‘present’ the
news.
The other two are around and you can catch
them Monday – Friday delivering the top stories
of the day. The first is Darryl Good who has been a mainstay
at CHNS for over 15 years and the other is Doug Reynolds
who does the morning news with sidekick Brian Philips.
Both work the early morning shift and can be caught between
6-9 am.
Doug has been doing his thing for nearly
17 years. Both solid radio pros can certainly bring a
newscast to life.
While 15-17 years is a stretch both have
a long way to go to catch up to the retired Clive Schaeffer.
I think Cliver worked six decades with CHNS.
- - - -
I caught the semi weekly (twice a week)
Gail Rice show on Seaside-FM. The lady is good, pleasant
and plays good music. I’m surprised I didn’t
get any high school basketball info when I tuned in the
other day. Gail has spent a lot of her volunteer time
with the St. Pat’s girl’s basketball program.
She resigned after some 25 years with the team some three
years ago but like Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard and all those
boxers, she has made a comeback. And she’s older
than George Foreman!
- - - -
Kudos to CJCH, 97.9 Halifax Information
Radio and Information Morning who really handled the blizzard
we had on Thursday. From the Reynolds/Brian Philips (CJ)
combo to the Don Connolly / Liz Logan duo at the CBC we
were kept informed. In fact the Info Morning show booted
out the ‘not so pleasant to listen to and not local’
‘The Current’ of the air for a while.
I’m not against the ‘Current’
but against the time they bring it to us. Give us national
programming at 9 or 10 am not at 8:30 when we still have
so many commuters on the road heading for the office.
97.9 have been on air for some 18 months
and are really appreciated in times of stress. They were
all over the place with reports during the Hurricane Juan
episode and if there is a problem or a civic situation
they really shine.
They have installed broadcasting equipment
in locations such as ‘the bridge commission, weather
office, and have people like Cam Allen and others reporting
in.
On blizzard day I heard from Lori Patterson
(Halifax Metro transit), the weather office (Environment
Canada) from a meteorologist with updated conditions,
cancellations from the airport, Sgt Don Spicer from the
Halifax Police Department about the whiteout conditions,
Cam Allen (NS Dept of Transportation and Public Works)
with road and highway reports, and someone from the Halifax
Bridge Commission.
The DND (Dept. of National Defense) duty
‘officer of the day’ was on in the morning
and more.
The station is on a continuous loop and
simply asks for ’15-minutes’ of your time
to keep you informed.
It’s a concept that is strong in the
USA and the people in charge have stations in Halifax
(97.9), St. Stephen, NB, and PEI (Confederation Bridge).
97.9 also has other features such as folklore
from Clary Croft, a political comment from Harry Fleming
and Harry has been coming to the station from Ireland
on these past few days and also there is a daily comment
from some sports guy with the middle initial. (I wonder
who that is).
The guys who run these stations have applied
for two more (Fredericton and Moncton) and it appears
that they have got them as the CRTC recently informed
the owners that they don’t have to appear at the
Halifax hearing. That is a good sign.
- - - -
And finally, for this month’s media
column, a word about Hance. Hance Colburne works for CBC
news. He fills in when sportscaster John Hancock is out
of town or on holidays, or doing a jazz show or doing
network broadcasting.
Hance is a good replacement. He has something
that many in sports lack, and that is, energy and he appears
to have a decent sense of humour which is must for morning
radio.
His sports pieces, which aired on both radio
and TV this week, were on the high school brothers who
play hockey for CPA. The story was very informative and
interesting. They stories were about the Tang kids who
are from Taiwan who like hockey and play on the same high
school team. Keep up the good work Hance.
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