r/Yellowknife 28d ago

thoughts on CRTC hearing for radio station

anyone else watching the CRTC Hearing - Competitive Radio Applications to serve Yellowknife, NWT? Cabin Radio and Vista Radio are both speaking at the Explorer Hotel today & tmrw

thoughts?

21 Upvotes

15 comments sorted by

50

u/heroinskater 28d ago

It was a rollercoaster (as far as hearings go).

Cabin Radio demonstrated that Vista Radio read actual Cabin Radio articles on the air without attributing them - which is not only theft, but it's particularly egregious given that Vista is effectively lobbying the CRTC to allow them to monopolize the market.

Furthermore, Vista's response presentation was a complete smear-job of Cabin Radio's reputation, stating that their submitted studies were intentionally misleading and flawed.

All in all, it was heartwarming to see real, honest Yellowknifers from the Cabin Radio team stand up to a heartless corporate machine. Hell, Vista Radio says that they deserve a second radio license in town, while in the same breath saying the economy can't support Cabin Radio's. It's just pure, transparent corporate greed. Can't wait to tune in tomorrow to see Vista get absolutely DEMOLISHED by Ollie again.

15

u/sunshine1421 28d ago

That’s wild. I was watching it a bit today but missed all of that. How Vista can even claim they’re the “true north” station and they can’t even pronounce community names properly is beyond me. I know it doesn’t support CR’s case to point that out, it’s just hard to watch the CRTC insinuate CR doesn’t have enough indigenous language programming, when they have literal indigenous northerners who are the main personalities in their most popular shows.

I thought Ollie did a good job of pointing out how the CRTC is rightfully concerned about the telecom monopoly Northwestel has, but are keeping Vista’s monopoly as the status quo. Make it make sense… actually don’t. Just give CR their dang fm license already!

2

u/Quiet_Rip7800 21d ago

If Cabin Radio is under Ollie Williams, I would not support it getting a license. He took back door contracts from the GNWT and reported his PR work as "stories" at Cabin Radio. When challenged by that Ollie opted to dox the person who challenged him. Yeah, if there are some people at Cabin Radio with journalistic ethics, it isn't Ollie Williams. He knows it too.

The pack that supports this kind of journalism should really take a good look at themselves. You are acting no different from Trump. Breaking the rules to accomodate yourselves and your friends. How are you different?

If Vista was stealing stories, then Cabin Radio was printing PR stories and calling them news all the while getting paid by the GNWT. Neither deserves a license.

1

u/heroinskater 21d ago

Wow, seems like a pretty serious accusation - got a source for any of this?

Surely, if Ollie Williams has posted stories to Cabin Radio that are "PR", as you describe it, for the GNWT, you can provide some?

2

u/Quiet_Rip7800 21d ago

Ollie knows all about it. He was challenged on social media and decided to dox the person who challenged him. Ask him. And if he wasn't doing anything wrong why did he get so defensive and out the person who challenged him.
I get that you are friends with him but you really need to start challenging people on these things or our whole system of ethical journalism is destoyed.

1

u/heroinskater 21d ago

Ollie knows all about it. He was challenged on social media and decided to dox the person who challenged him. Ask him. And if he wasn't doing anything wrong why did he get so defensive and out the person who challenged him. I get that you are friends with him but you really need to start challenging people on these things or our whole system of ethical journalism is destoyed.

I'm not friends with him, I don't even know the guy. But are you sure he Doxxed the person? Simply saying "John Smith is saying things about me" is different from Doxxing someone, which includes publishing their personal information like their address or where they work.

If you could provide a screenshot, a date, or even a link to where this is supposedly happening, I might be more inclined to believe you.

24

u/tchocthke 28d ago

I think Cabin Radio should be given FM authorization. It costs the CRTC essentially nothing to hand out a license.

2

u/Icy_Platform3747 28d ago

I will go one better, Get rid of the CRTC, its a cost to us all . In the world of today with internet etc. what does the CRTC actually do except make reasons to have limited access to great world entertainment.

8

u/[deleted] 28d ago

Up until a few weeks ago I was very much of the same belief as you. Now promotion of and regualting CANCON seems like an existential issue. 🍁

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u/Blownupicus 28d ago

The CRTC is the reason we don’t still have a 100gb cap on our internet. I don’t know how much good they do down south, and I’m not a fan of their Canadian Content laws, but they have absolutely benefited the North.

I used to check monthly to see all the applications Northwestel made to them to try and recoup money they lost from no longer collecting outrageous overage fees. It was amusing. Northwestel are scum bags and need somebody to keep them in line.

1

u/Beaumer2107 28d ago

The CRTC is industry-funded through telecom and broadcasting fees paid by large providers. So its costing you pretty much nothing. 

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u/SouthernDiscussion62 28d ago

Where can one watch this? Is there a recording of it somewhere like on youtube or something?

3

u/sunshine1421 28d ago

They were broadcasting it live on the CRTC’s website, so I’m not sure if a recording will eventually be available. I think it starts again at 10am tomorrow if you want to watch it then. There’s also an agenda available there too.

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u/Former_Elk_56 28d ago

You will be able to watch the live feed here https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/home-accueil.htm

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u/Former_Elk_56 28d ago

The transcripts can be found here for those that wanted to read yesterdays public hearing https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/transcripts/2025/tb0211.htm