The Rock, Yorkton’s Christian radio station will not be changing its format any time soon.
On September 14, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) ruled that the station, call sign CJJC, may not migrate from Christian music to variety or new oldies as it had applied to do last year.
“It’s very disappointing,” said Dennis Dyck, founder and owner of The Rock. “But then, we’ve all had disappointments is our lives. Our character is measured by how we move forward.”
The CRTC considered three issues in coming to its conclusion of denying the application: whether there is compelling economic need, whether it would significantly impact other stations financially and whether it would undermine the commission’s integrity.
On the first issue, it found in CJJC’s favour saying the station “had incurred significant financial losses over the past 10 years and had not reported a single year of profitability since launching in 2005.”
However, the document stated the applicant had not demonstrated how the format change would increase advertising revenue in the radio market, which is already in decline. Without an overall increase, any bump in The Rock’s revenue would negatively impact Fox-FM and GX94.
Harvard Broadcasting, which owns those two stations, intervened in the process saying the format change amounted to an application for a new commercial radio station, which the Yorkton radio market could not sustain. The CRTC agreed with that assessment.
Finally, the regulator noted part of its mandate is to increase diversity of programming available in local markets, which was the impetus for approving the The Rock’s licence in the first place. It concluded the change in format would decrease variety in the Yorkton radio market and thereby undermine the integrity of the licensing process.
Dyck has not made any further plans as yet, but intends to grow.
“Of course you want to grow your business,” he said. “Now we have to sit down and figure out another strategy.
