CRTC has responsibility to TSN 990, listeners

“As a long-time supporter ... I’ve appreciated that it offers something different.”

TSN 990, the city’s Englishlanguage all-sports radio station, is on life support, but if the CRTC lives up to its mandate there should be a future for the station.

The station is in jeopardy because of a CRTC regulation that limits the number of stations that can be owned by a single entity in any market. Bell Media, which owns TSN 990, is planning to buy Astral Media, which owns CJAD, CHOM-FM and Virgin Radio.

Bell said it had hoped the CRTC would grant an exemption that would have allowed it to keep all four Englishlanguage outlets. When it was told that such an exemption was unlikely, Bell decided to convert the all-sports station to a French station under the RDS brand.

There is still a ton of paperwork and a series of hearings to be held before all the pieces fall into place, but if the CRTC commissioners take a look at their raison d’être as outlined on the agency’s website, they should recognize that there is not only an opportunity, but also a responsibility to find a way to keep the station alive.

According to the website, the CRTC’s mandate is to “ensure that both the broadcasting and telecommunications systems serve the Canadian public.” Which raises the question: How is the public served by eliminating one of the five commercial English radio stations in Montreal?

The website goes on to say: “In broadcasting, the CRTC ensures that all Canadians have access to a wide variety of high-quality Canadian programming as well as access to employment opportunities in the broadcasting system.”

Any decision that the CRTC makes that leads to the demise of TSN 990 will ensure that those Canadians who live in the Montreal area will have less access to a wide variety of programming and there will be about 30 fewer employment opportunities. Many of these jobs represent talent discovered and nurtured by TSN 990.

As someone who has been a long-time supporter of the station and a frequent contributor, I’ve appreciated that the station offers something different. Mitch Melnick’s afternoon drive is an eclectic mix of sports, music you don’t hear anywhere else and social commentary. He has fostered local talent like the Jimmyriggers, Solstice and Shane Murphy, and introduced Montrealers to international acts like the Dropkick Murphys.

There are shows and commentators on TSN 990 I can live without, but the total package serves a wide spectrum of interests. While the listening audience is the smallest in the market, the loyalty of the fans is reflected in the response to the threat of the station’s extinction.

Since plans to axe the station were announced last Tuesday, there have been more than 600 interventions filed with the CRTC in relation to this matter. Some are rather benign messages of support for Bell’s takeover of the Astral properties, but more than 90 per cent of them express outrage over the impending loss of TSN 990.

The easiest way would be to grant Bell an exemption, although that presupposes that we can take the media giant at its word that it wishes to continue supporting a station that has been losing money. But the commissioners should recognize that they are public servants and this mess offers them a chance to serve the public.