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PROTEST AGAINST FORMAT CHANGE AT RADIO STATION Canadian Press Hundreds of people rallied Sunday at a popular French-language radio station to protest an ownership change that will end the station's popular news and talk-radio format.
Listeners and retired hosts at CKAC asked fans of the station to help persuade the new owners, Corus Entertainment, to shelve the planned closure of the Montreal newsroom.
Corus, of Toronto, received approval in January to buy CKAC from Astral Media Inc. of Montreal. CKAC's newsroom will be closed as part of the Corus restructuring plan and 17 of the 20 Montreal journalists will be laid off.
The change of hands will mean a switch to sports and health programming at the station, which has specialized in hard news and talk shows for decades.
Claude St-Denis, a CKAC listener and organizer of the rally, said Corus can be persuaded to maintain the station's current format if enough listeners rally to the cause.
"Nothing is impossible," St-Denis said during the protest. "The people are ready to organize. When people take action the government will change their ideas."
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission last month approved the Corus bid to acquire seven AM stations and one FM station from Astral.
In return, Astral gets five stations from Corus in a deal worth a total of $11 million.
Corus announced earlier this month that it has agreed to local programming levels the CRTC set out as a condition for the swap of the Quebec-based radio stations.
The CRTC required, for example, that CKAC provide at least 60 hours a week of local programming in 2005-2006. The threshold would increase to 80 hours a week as of 2007-2008.
Corus has also agreed to specified levels of local programming in other areas of the province. The company initially offered to provide 40 hours a week of local programming.
In Trois-Rivieres, Que., the Parti Quebecois passed a resolution Sunday demanding the federal government intervene to save CKAC's newsroom.
"This dismantles a team of information professionals at CKAC and it diminishes the presence of information professionals in the regions of Quebec," PQ Leader Bernard Landry said as he proposed the resolution.
"It's liberty that counts, and the right to be informed."
Landry said he has written to Prime Minister Paul Martin and Premier Jean Charest asking them to work to reverse Corus's decision.
Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe has also said he wants the acquisition reversed, and supporters have lobbied federal Heritage Minister Liza Frulla, a former CKAC executive. |
