Ottawa, Canada, Sep 7, 2008 / 14:26 pm
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) is drawing criticism and allegations of bias for denying two separate applications from an individual and a corporation seeking to start two Christian radio stations in the Ottawa area, just weeks after the commission approved a pornographic television station. The case again directs attention to Canada’s onerous broadcasting regulations which require religious stations to provide programming space for other religious faiths.
Christian Hit Radio Inc. (CHRI) had arrived at the commission hearing in Ottawa with 780 letters of support for its new proposed FM station that would have played Christian music, hymns, and classical music while targeting an older audience, the Ottawa Citizen says. A certain Fiston Kalambay Mutombo also attended the hearing to propose a French-language Christian radio station.
Of the two open radio broadcasting slots, one went to Astral Media Corp., which had 77 letters of support for its soft adult music station targeting an audience of older women, while another went to a blues station.
According to the commission web site, the decision ruled that the proposed station format of the applications by Christian Hit Radio Inc. and Fiston Kalambay Mutombo was “already available in the market through the programming of the specialty radio station CHRI-FM.”