The CRTC has licensed two new radio stations in Southern Ontario — and we are getting one of them.
Bayshore Broadcasting has been awarded a license for a 50-thousand watt Country FM station at 104.9 in Shelburne.
MZ Media has been awarded a license for a 65-hundred watt Classical and Fine Arts station in Collingwood.
Most of the station’s programming will originate in Toronto with 24-hours a week of content directed specifically to listeners in Collingwood and surrounding area.
In making the announcements today — the CRTC said the applications were technically mutually exclusive.
But the CRTC considers Bayshore’s application would make better use of the 104.9 frequency as it will introduce a significant amount of local programming to the community of Shelburne.
The CRTC turned down an application by Frank Torres, on behalf of a corporation to be incorporated, for Shelburne, and an application by Evanov Communications Inc. on behalf of a corporation to be incorporated for Collingwood.
Bayshore applied for a country music service for Shelburne in October, 2008.
General Manager, Ross Kentner, says it has been a long road to approval.
The Commission declined to hear new radio applications during the economic downturn.
It considered two applications for Shelburne and two for Collingwood in September last year. Unable to reach a decision, it called a public hearing for Collingwood on November 21st, 2011.
Issues included the ability of either market to support more radio services.
The CRTC said the Shelburne can but the Collingwood area, with two incumbent stations, couldn’t support the proposal for a full service station called the Breeze.
Meanwhile, it did license MZ Media for a repeater of the classical music station in Toronto owned by Moses Znaimer.
MZ Media will be required to use one of the alternative frequencies identified at the Collingwood hearing.
