Tune in for nasty battle over Canada's airwaves by Morley Walker

Cliff Gardner is likely howling in dismay as he surveys Winnipeg's radio landscape from the Great Beyond.

The brave new world of satellite delivery may force his beloved conventional stations into acts of civil disobedience to defend themselves against what they feel is unfair competition.

The first hint came Tuesday when an insignificant FM outlet, Gardner's onetime employer, took the drastic step of blowing itself up. That's radio lingo for firing the staff and changing the format.

What happens in the coming months could set the stage for a major battle of the airwaves.

In the summer of 2002, 15 months before Gardner died at age 75, the esteemed local radio personality and musical theatre performer appeared before the federal broadcast regulator. He was part of a consortium that wanted to obtain a licence for a station devoted to music for seniors.

The proposed station was CHNR -- Canadian Home of Nostalgia Radio -- which had begun life a decade prior as CKVN, a temporary low-power signal playing big-band-era tunes on special occasions.

The suits at the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission knew full well that commercial radio aimed at fogeys is a risky business.

Advertisers steer away from listeners over 55, except on No. 1-rated station CJOB, where every second ad is for a hearing aid company or denturist.

"What would stop you," a CRTC official asked Gardner, "from flipping the licence in a couple of years to owners who weren't committed to nostalgia music?"

Gardner's response, with tears welling in his eyes, is local radio legend: "We would never do that."

CHNR was granted its licence. Within a year-and-a-half, the station's major investor, a Transport Canada employee named Lee Smith, proved unable to overturn conventional wisdom.

The station had loyal listeners but few advertisers. Smith quietly adjusted the format and changed the station ID to "The Breeze," staying within the letter if not the spirit of his CRTC licence, to attract a younger demographic.

Grannies and grandpas raged. Many were peeved because they had bought $25 CHNR "memberships" to keep the station afloat.

Then, last February, two-and-a-half years after he obtained the licence, Smith announced CHNR's sale to Newcap Inc., a subsidiary of Nova Scotia-based Newfoundland Capital Corporation Ltd., which owns 70 radio stations from Alberta to Labrador.

Newcap paid Smith's company, Radiolink, $1.8 million, which the CRTC, in approving the sale two weeks ago, said was not "an unreasonable financial gain."

A failed intervention, by the way, had been filed by three other big corporate players, Rogers, CHUM and Corus, who among them own half the 14 commercial signals in town.

It's rare that three competitors join hands in this way. Fittingly, Gardner's son Ford is a veteran programming executive with CHUM.

Meanwhile, since last May, some of the old CKVN gang have been trying to service the nostalgia market. They obtained a special-events exemption from the CRTC and have set up a signal, CJML -- Come Journey down Memory Lane -- which operates sporadically on KY 58's old AM frequency.

Under Newcap's reign, CHNR had been playing largely elevator music -- again, somehow, within its licence vow -- until it switched to all-Christmas music Nov. 20. To measure both listenership and advertising revenue on the station, you need a fine set of calipers.

On Tuesday, management canned its lone two local on-air people. On Boxing Day, the format will likely change again. Don't expect nostalgia music for the senior set.

Some insiders think that Newcap might copy the Breeze's sister station in Ottawa, Hot 89.9 FM, which has had success airing a noisy mix of hip-hop and adult contemporary.

This would have only to notify the CRTC of any impending format change. But, hey, what else is new? All sorts of stations figure out ways to squirm out of what they promised to program.

An apocalyptic view holds that Newcap may be willing to fight this one all the way. After all, conventional land-based broadcasters feel they compete on an unlevel field against the new satellite signals whose Canadian content restrictions are less onerous.

Some think that a land-based station could prevail in a court challenge against the CRTC. Then all future bets would be off.

Cliff Gardner is probably rolling over in his grave.

© Winnipeg Free Press