RadioActive wrote:

Now that CKTB is being piggybacked on CKLH's HD signal (it officially started on July 2nd although it's been there before that) owner Whiteoaks has confirmed it's planning to expand its news and program coverage from the Niagara Region to include Steeltown as well. 
It follows the closure of CHML in 2024, one of the only radio stations in the city that offered extensive local Hamilton news.
"That wider lens will be heard across the station’s programming, including the newly rebranded Steph Vivier in the Morning. Listeners will still get local, national, and global news, along with sports, traffic, and weather. The difference is a broader local focus, with Hamilton stories included alongside St. Catharines and Niagara coverage." 

Are they allowed to solicit Hamilton advertising - even with CHML gone?
 

RadioActive wrote:

I'm not sure why there would be any restrictions if someone was willing to pay for ad time. 

Competing stations in the Hamilton market might complain; isn't this one of the bases for regulation?

Smart.

How's 620's signal im Hamilton? If it's any good, the AM is more relevant to the situation than the HD.

Last edited by RadioAaron (July 2, 2026 8:53 pm)

RadioAaron wrote:

Smart.

How's 620's signal im Hamilton? If it's any good, the AM is more relevant to the situation than the HD.

Well, 610 comes in great in Toronto, so I'm assuming it's equally good in Steeltown. 

Well so far listening, I think there is less news at the top of the hour and there appears to be no news now on the half.

RadioAaron wrote:

RadioActive wrote:

And one more thing - since CKTB is now on CKLH's HD feed, couldn't they then rightfully claim they're now part of that market?

Not to the CRTC. If they considered HD for market presence, almost every station currently using HD would be over ownership limits.

There's noting currently in CKTB's license preventing them from soliciting advertising in Hamilton. You usually only see that come up from a group launches a new station in a smaller market adjacent to a bigger one. I can't see Corus complaining; it might get pointed out that they don't even have studios in Hamilton anymore.  Durham might.

Agreed, conditions of licence for not selling to/impacting other stations in a market were usually imposed for competitive formats in adjacent markets. Like, a Brampton licence being granted on condition the owners do not sell to Mississauga to impact a station of the same format there. Or a similar but reverse condition, like with Bell Media, that they were required to accept advertising from other mobile/cable competitors on their stations if allowed to acquire Astral.

Even if there were complaints about a station from another market taking advertising business from their market, which in CKTB's case they've been operating since the 1930s, other radio stations are not radio's biggest competitors anymore. As the CAB petitioned the CRTC and politicians last month, radio makes up just 11% of our own Canadian gov't $78.15 million ad budget, with digital media being the biggest at 63% or $40.57 million. All money going past our own elbows (supposedly up), and to the tech giants.

Local advertisers (for this topic, but also national) who know the effectiveness of radio campaigns are a win for all station owners, big or small. I think it would be wasted energy for a station owner to complain to the CRTC about advertisers choosing to give their business to another station "out of market" - a normal free will business decision. Not to mention the wasted energy complaining to a regulatory body that does nothing to enforce or address critical concerns from broadcasters, like non-ethnic formats flagrantly disregarding rules by broadcasting in third languages, and in many cases not serving their market of licence (in English) to reach an ethnic group elsewhere. Like CHSC in St. Catharines having their licence not-renewed because of complaints they targeted Italian audience in Toronto.

It's been happening all over again, because there's no enforcement. From Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver and Toronto, groups like CHIN, Evanov, Fairchild, and Whiteoaks have been filing complaints about several in the GTHA with no response to date. It took 8 years for the CRTC to hear Evanov's urgent filings and finally revoke a travel advisory low-power licence that was being used for ethnic programming to get into Winnipeg! It's really laughable, especially when considered this part of the CRTC's mandate is over what Stingray's Steve Jones said on July 1, is the world's 3rd largest radio market.