(Montreal) Quebecor’s entry onto Montreal FM radio will not be without opposition.
The Canadian Press has learned that the change in the vocation of CJPX-FM, now known as 99.5, is the subject of complaints to the CRTC, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. Since August 26, 99.5 has been broadcasting the programming of QUB radio, a Quebecor property that until then broadcast its radio content on the Internet and on television.
The CRTC has already banned Quebecor from entering the Montreal FM market more than once in the past, including in 2003 when Quebecor attempted to buy CKAC and other affiliated stations. In 2008, the agency adopted a regulation prohibiting a single company from owning newspapers, television stations and radio stations in the same market.
The CRTC confirms
“We can confirm that we have received complaints regarding CJPX-FM Montreal,” the CRTC wrote following a request to that effect from The Canadian Press. However, the organization refuses to specify the number of complaints received, their nature and the identity of the complainants, indicating that such complaints are not public. We have learned, however, from a source well-versed in the matter who is not authorized to speak to the media that CJPX’s main competitor, Cogeco, owner of 98.5 FM, is not among the complainants.
For now, the CRTC is being tight-lipped on details, saying that it is “reviewing the issues brought to its attention” and, if necessary, “taking appropriate action to ensure that regulated entities operate their businesses.” […] in accordance with the conditions of service relating to their broadcasting licences.” He also recalls in passing that “the CRTC is an independent quasi-judicial tribunal which regulates the communications sector in Canada in the public interest.”
Unpublished puzzle
The arrival of QUB radio on the airwaves of 99.5, however, represents an unprecedented headache for the CRTC. Quebecor finds itself entering the FM market without having purchased the radio station, thereby indirectly doing what the CRTC had prohibited it from doing directly. The station belongs to Leclerc Communication, which acquired it in 2020. Leclerc had then requested and obtained that the licence of what had until then been a classical music station be changed to become a “mainstream music format (Adult Alternative Music – Triple A and Adult Contemporary)”.
Under this license, 99.5 is required to broadcast a majority of hours of French-language vocal music during the week, the week being calculated, according to CRTC rules, from 6 a.m. to midnight from Sunday to Saturday.
Since QUB’s talk radio is only broadcast from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. five days a week, 99.5 is fully respecting its licence conditions, says its general manager and director of programming, Benoît Simard: “That’s why we continue to broadcast music after 6 p.m. on weekdays and all weekend. That ensures that we respect this licence, which was originally for French-language vocal music. So we are fully respecting the CRTC licence at this time.”
Who controls the programming?
On what basis, at this point, could there be complaints? On the basis of legal subtleties, according to Mr.e Pierre Trudel, professor specializing in media law at the University of Montreal: “When the company has a license, it is supposed to have control over its programming, that is to say, it cannot delegate control to someone else. In other words, if I have a license, I cannot say: you take care of doing the programming and you will control everything.”
It is on this issue of product control that the debate is getting tougher. Benoît Simard maintains that Leclerc has not given up any control: “We keep control over our programming. The fact that Mario Dumont (the new morning host at 99.5) is on the morning slot is our approach, our request, and our grid proposal in large part.”
Identify the hierarchical link
However, according to Pierre Trudel, this notion of control, from a legal perspective, goes well beyond the definition given by Mr. Simard: “Among the questions that the CRTC could ask to question Leclerc’s assertion that he fully controls the programming, there is that of hierarchy. Controlling the programming effectively means having hierarchical power over the host,” explains the lawyer.
“If a host goes off the rails on air, it takes someone somewhere in management who can bring him back to order. Do they have that power? Is there such a relationship of subordination between individuals, the hosts and the Leclerc company, or does this relationship of subordination take place with and exist between QUB and the hosts? That’s a question that arises,” suggests Pierre Trudel.
The boss is QUB
However, when questioned more specifically on this issue, Benoît Simard does not hide it: “Mario Dumont’s boss, Isabelle Maréchal, and all that, it remains the people of QUB and Quebecor. We approached the people of QUB to buy their content that we broadcast on our airwaves between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. on weekdays.”
Could he intervene directly with a host in the event of a problem? “No, we go through QUB. He remains an employee of QUB.” It also seems obvious that Leclerc would not have the means, in any case, to pay the salaries of such a group of star hosts. The commercial agreement between Leclerc and QUB provides that Leclerc pays for QUB’s content and collects advertising revenue without sharing. Quebecor, for its part, benefits from the promotion of its product on FM airwaves, as it has wanted for a long time.
“Get (the CRTC) out of its coma”
Will the CRTC intervene? Pierre Trudel strongly doubts it: “The CRTC, for about fifteen years, has been dragging its feet on just about everything. So inevitably, it is perhaps a little poorly placed, now, to start coming out of its coma.”
“They have practiced a policy of disengagement over the last few decades and we see what that has led to here. […] and from the moment they decided not to regulate activities like those that take place on the internet, it’s a little difficult to be too particular about what happens on the FM band, I think,” concludes the lawyer.