Re: [IRCA] Applications by CKBD-600 and CBU-690 both
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Re: [IRCA] Applications by CKBD-600 and CBU-690 both



Patrick Martin wrote:
What about dual citizenship?  I know of Americans that have moved to
Canada that have both now as the US would not allow them to drop their
US citizenship. But again, I have never heard of a U.S. or Canadian
station moving across the border......

And with good reason - it's simply not done, as such. US-licensed stations must operate on frequencies allocated to the US by international treaty, and must be owned, at least 51%, by US citizens. Canadian-licensed stations must operate on frequencies allocated to Canada by international treaty. I believe (but cannot say for certain) that they must be owned entirely by Canadian citizens.

The closest we've ever come to a station "moving" across the border happened in Winnipeg in the seventies. There was an independent US-based station, KCND-TV 12, operating from Pembina, ND with a tall tower right on the border, aiming its signal at Winnipeg. Then the CRTC opened a third TV allocation in Winnipeg, on channel 9. Izzy Asper, a Canadian citizen, was granted that channel 9 allotment. In order to reduce the amount of competition his new station would face in Winnipeg, Asper bought the "non-license assets" of KCND-TV - the programming, the equipment, even the tower. The KCND license was returned to the FCC. The new Winnipeg channel 9 signal was given the calls CKND, took the same cable dial position KCND had used, picked up KCND's old programming, and so effectively, to Canadian viewers, KCND "moved" across the border.

But the channel 12 allotment remained in Pembina, and was eventually reactivated, a decade or so later, as a relay of Fargo's Fox station.

So how does this apply to 1550 and 1600 in Ferndale and Blaine, Washington? The frequencies themselves can't move across the border, nor can the current ownership of the Washington stations hold a Canadian license.

If a Canadian citizen were to apply for a new station on the vacated 600 frequency in Vancouver, the CRTC would open a call for competitive applications. Here's what would happen next:

The CRTC considers several factors when it evaluates competing applications. It looks at the economics of the market - can it support a new station at all? It looks at the proposed format - would it duplicate programming already available in the market? In border markets like Vancouver, it looks at cross-border listenership, and it strongly favors proposals that would "repatriate" listeners who currently tune in to US-based signals.

So it's not impossible that a consortium of programmers who now operate on 1550 and 1600 could apply for, and even be granted, a new license on 600. But it's also not a slam-dunk, and it wouldn't (and couldn't) stop 1550 and 1600 from continuing to do what they do, with new programmers. And of course there are good reasons to want to program from across the border - all sorts of content restrictions that apply to Canadian licensees, including requirements for specific numbers of hours in specific languages, logging of programs, religious content balance, and so on - don't apply if you're operating from the US side.

s
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