The Commission has spoken and here’s what it said: there’s no room for new radio players in either Brampton or Aurora. The conclusion comes after two separate companies applied for licences to serve those communities, with the former asking for – what else? – another ethnic format.
 
To no one’s surprise, the CRTC received interventions from the usual suspects, with Rogers, Bell, Corus and Newcap essentially saying they had no problem with another multi-language station, but worried any licence holder would use the position to target Toronto listeners and take away ears and ads from them. And the owners of the Jewel, Fairchild and all those existing foreign language stations on the X-band filed interventions warning there wasn’t room for any more.
 
CINA, which targets the community that hails from India, was especially vocal, noting Radio Humsafar is coming to the area and there isn’t enough ad revenue to keep another outlet afloat.
 
Meanwhile, the owners of CFMS-FM in Markham, which no one I can ever find listens to or has even heard of, decided they wanted a station to serve Aurora. Threatened with more mainstream competition, the same majors as noted above were adamant there was no place for another signal in the area. And Dufferin Communications’ noted that its CKDX (The Jewel) already serves the area.  
 
In the end, the CRTC agreed with the intervenors and has quashed any new applications for either market.  
 
Brampton Decision
 
Aurora Decision