CRTC? Working for Ma Bell!

Haven’t given the Commission much thought lately even though I spent most of my long broadcasting career working for radio companies who lived under the shadow and in fear of the Radio-Telelevision Telecommunications Commission. Today a thunderbolt recalled the life and times of the COMMISSION and how it has laid waste the country’s broadcasting landscape. A Facebook post from Elaine Loring and another by Evelyn Macko, both broadcasting veterans, declared CFRB and CKFM had been savagely put to the sword. A Canadian telecoms publication, Cartt.ca politely reported 210 employee will be laid off. Laid off? Is that how you put it? Fired! is the brutal truth. They were made redundant by a corporation that has more than 5 billion dollars in the bank and has just received 122 million dollars from Canadian taxpayers in Covid-related labour subsidies as Mother was busy signing larger dividend payments to shareholders. What is Ma Bell?

It is probably one of the largest broadcasting companies in the world. It claims an empire streaming 215 music channels, operating 109 licensed radio stations in 58 markets across Canada. It owns a swath of this country’s most viewed television stations including TSN, CTV, BNN Bloomberg, CP 24 and others too many to mention. And now this fiscal bully has put the boot to the long serving radio combo CFRB/CKFM. Naturally there is an explanation from a Bell spokesperson who claimed the “programming changes reflect Bell Media’s streamlined operating structure.” What’s that mean? Saving money! What the goal BellBoy? “……we’re focused on investment in new content and technology opportunities, while also ensuring our company is as agile, efficient and easy to work with as possible.” Perfect explanation if you’re a car company. Puerile nonsense from a broadcaster. …”agile, efficient and easy to work with”…oh please! Ma while you’re still in your drive-by hit job mode, get a spokesperson who can actually make sense.

Here’s another thing. At a time when a relentless pandemic continues to ravage this land and we are spending tax money to shield families from evictions, paying millions to those aged 15 to 17, vacating hotels so that the homeless and normally downtrodden have a place, Ma Bell throws 210 people into the street. After a year of living in uncertainty, more uncertainty. Do I hear the cavalry? Oh yes that’s an American thing. Anyway don’t expect anything from a country that doesn’t know the insurrection is two thousand miles from Washington DC. And such a pathetic reaction from the Premier to the news that devastated the ‘RB-200. And I quote, “Keep your chin up. You’re going to come back. You’re going to get back on your feet. Maybe you’ll find a career within the media or you might find it outside the media.” That’s Dougie’s message of hope. No wonder the handling of the Covid challenge has turned into a cattywampus. Maybe the Ontario Premier knows this but let’s suppose he doesn’t. Premier Ford there’s no comeback, most everybody at CFRB/CKFM thought they had a career. Media jobs at a living wage are as rare as hens teeth. Why? Because decisions made by the CRTC over the past 30 years have ripped away the talent and shredded the honesty of the Broadcasting industry.

So the real villain in the piece is the Commission responsible for regulating Media. The CRTC. Here’s a regulatory body that should have been abruptly closed down 30 years ago. No other agency had the power to do so much for so few. The Commission, through wilful negligence, allowed Bell, Rogers, Corus, Quebecor to divide the spoils. Face it. Bell Media is larger and more powerful than the CRTC . That means Ma Bell, like her name sake Ma Barker, can fiscally mutilate the people that work for her and change the programming of radio stations they own at will. They can fire hundreds. It is what it is.

Like so many other critical areas of Canadian life, the gift of owning a broadcasting facility no longer is the people’s to give. Whom do you serve you might ask Bell?

Bell answers, we serve no one not even the Canadian Radio-Telelvision and Telecommunications Commission.

Simply said, today’s broadcasters no longer work under the shadow and in fear of the Commission.

They used to walk cap in hand to get their licenses. Now they arrive wearing jackboots.