No Holds Barred

The radio wars

Letters to the Editor have been pouring into our Arnprior office and to our sister papers in Renfrew for and against the idea of a Heritage Radio community station to serve the Valley area.

Supporters of CHIP Radio in Quebec are dead set against the idea, saying the establishment of such a station would sink their operation.

Detractors of CHIP say they feel alienated by the station and that it does not properly represent the interests of residents on this side of the Ottawa River.

Unfortunately, both sides are right on at least some of their arguments.

Having spent the majority of my career in broadcasting, I think I have a unique perspective on the current situation. For those who may not remember, I managed Arnprior’s CKOA radio in the mid-1980’s and was involved with sister station CKOB in Renfrew.

One of the key organizers of the Heritage Radio movement approached me some time ago to garner ideas for such a station, and to be quite honest, I was not too encouraging.

The idea presented was to try and cover a huge area from Kanata to Carleton Place, west to Barry’s Bay and points in between.

To begin with, that big an area presents some major engineering challenges and only a few locations such as Kinnelly Mountain near Mt. St. Patrick will really give that coverage.

However more importantly, the communities the station would claim to cover, simply would be forgotten with the financial limitations of not having resources dedicated to properly serve the communities.

That is the precise problem that Star Radio has in Pembroke.

When the other Valley stations were bought and eventually closed, the promise made to the Canadian Radio Television Commission was to continue to serve Renfrew and Arnprior. It was part of their Promise of Performance when they applied to close the AM outlets. Plainly speaking, that has never happened, nor is it likely to. With the number of staff they have, it is a stretch to cover Pembroke.

To expect CHIP to give personal coverage of Ontario is unrealistic when a commercial operation on this side of the river can’t.

On the other hand, running a radio station by committee is a stupid way to operate. It just plain doesn’t work; there is no long-term stability or direction. The staff and programming are subject to all kinds of internal politics with no one really in charge.

The same would happen with a wide coverage Heritage Radio. It would become another sinkhole for money. Many will argue the point but the fact is the bluegrass, country music and fiddle lovers are a dedicated and vocal group but they are not the market that big advertisers are looking to cover, generally speaking. They are also spread out thinly over a large area.

The Valley is changing, and with younger people moving in daily, they have little interest in that kind of programming. However, they are the market that advertisers are looking for with larger disposable incomes and no entrenched buying habits.

The fact is a real community station has a narrow focus of interest or area. That is the way the Killaloe station is set up. Low costs and a clear small local focus make it marginally viable.

Two wide area old style country music stations based on a community format simply will knock each other right out of the arena.

It would be much more economical to attract a less musically eclectic audience in a smaller geographic area, which it may be more realistic to properly serve with news and community events.

This was the premise that CKOA and CKOB used. Play more commercial-type music, but focus on news and community involvement in a small geographic area. In other words, reach a more general audience in a smaller area you can properly service. The simple fact is when that approach was used, the stations made money; when the focus changed, they didn’t.

These very newspapers work in exactly the same way. Reach a small geographic area, with local news and events readers can’t get anywhere else and attract a wide spectrum of people. They too, are highly successful. If we tried to combine and cover a huge area with a single publication focusing on a more eclectic audience, we would not be so viable.

For that reason, another radio application for a commercial station in the Renfrew area, which would focus on a smaller, more generalized audience is much more likely to be successful in the long term. It would fill the hole left by the mistake made by the Toronto owners of Star Radio, and not pull too many dedicated listeners away from CHIP.

Meanwhile, CHIP needs to re-evaluate its method of operation if it ever hopes to gain the recognition and acceptance it needs to be successful with the larger country music community.

Its “personalities” need to be out in the field at all the events across the Ottawa Valley. CHIP’s presence needs to be felt at every country event if it ever hopes to be a financial success. A lot of money needs to be spent and the right people need to be hired and retained to make that happen.

The New RO has managed to do that by investing large amounts and focusing on a younger audience and being everywhere the audience is.

CHIP could do that for country music but the investment needs to be made and a community-based station is not the way to do it.

The first thing that needs to occur is to abandon the current rule by a committee that really knows nothing about radio at all.

It is abundantly clear that the current system is not working, despite on-going claims that things are “now” getting better. I have heard that story for 20 years and so have the Heritage Radio supporters. Trouble is – they are heading down the same wrong road.