FORSETH – Nothing surprising in Stingray’s response to CHNL concerns

AFTER MANY WEEKS of back and forth emails with the Canadian Radio and Television Commission (CRTC), and their request for the owners of Radio 610 CHNL in Kamloops to respond to my concerns, I received a response from Steve Jones, President of Stingray Radio.

To be honest, I was not surprised by anything he had to say. Further, it only backed up my belief that they, and other media conglomerates, have (and will continue to) decimate local radio.

Take, for example, this comment from him: “As an AM undertaking, CHNL is not required to broadcast any local programming specifically.”

I don’t know about you, however I don’t believe that’s anything to be proud of. In fact, any of the large broadcast companies (Bell, Corus, Stingray, and others) should be ashamed to make that statement.

He then goes on to say:

“Despite having no regulatory obligation to do so, CHNL maintains a local newsroom staffed by three people and provides hourly news updates throughout the broadcast day.”

A radio station operates 7 days a week, and they’re going to cover the news with just two people?

Those two, Jeff Andreas and Paul James, are doing a herculean job as far as I am concerned. The third person, referenced by Jones, would have to be sports reporter Jon Keen (whose work is done in partnership with the Kamloops Blazers — InfoNews, Sept. 24).

I spent some time on the CHNL website looking at posted news and sports stories going back all the way to Oct. 31 – Jon Keen is there on just one from Dec. 4, with regards to the Kamloops United Football Club … that’s it.

So tell me, Mr. Jones … is there in reality a three-person news room?

Stingray Radio president Steve Jones goes on to say, “Ultimately, this fall we made the difficult decision to streamline our operations so that CHNL could avoid the fate of the stations noted above. Thanks to these programming changes, we hope to keep CHNL on the air and a vibrant part of the Kamloops community for many years to come.”

I have to again ask, though, given this, to whose benefit is it keeping CHNL on the air?

Again I reiterate that all programing other than news, and Kamloops Blazer’s play-by-play, originates from outside our community. The music aired on CHNL is pretty much found on other stations, and there is little to no information of happenings in our community, or within the region.

Over the years, the station shut down repeaters in the North Thompson, Merritt, and Ashcroft/ Cache Creek – I suspect the one in the Shuswap won’t be far behind.

Given all that, really the only benefit to anyone, that I can see, is to Stingray alone as they can now operate a radio station with virtually no staff other than two news people.

Stingray Radio may as well just shutter CHNL and shift those two news people over to Country 103 and K97.5 … and then pick one of the two to air Blazers games.

Do I want to see that happen?

NO, of course not!

What I do want to see is for the CRTC to obligate ALL radio stations (whether AM or FM) to provide local programming, because as I stated on Dec. 4:

“ … without a strong local presence, there is NO reason for anyone to tune in to local(?) radio, and audiences will continue to decline as the final nails are pounded into the coffin.”

To be honest, I have no real hope this is going to happen, and so one way or the other the likes of Stingray, Corus, Bell and others will simply continue to turn off the lights at one radio station after the other …

… and that is sad.

In Kamloops, I’m Alan Forseth.

Alan Forseth is a Kamloops resident. For 40 years he has been active, in a number of capacities, in local, provincial and federal politics, including running as a candidate for the BC Reform Party in the 1996 provincial election. He is a member of the BC Conservative Party and was the campaign manager for the party in the Kamloops-North Thompson riding in this year’s provincial election.