The CBC goes to Barrie?

It is not suprising the the commecial radio stations in Barrie, Ontario do not want the CBC coming in. After all, Canadians have a strong attachment to the CBC, the CBC is commercial free and in a small (but growing) market CBC Radio can be hard to compete with.

I should state at this point that I am not from Barrie, and that the decision is and should be left up to the local residents. Having said that, If I were from Barrie this would be a no brainer for me. Sure, adding another local radio station would be a good thing, especially a station of the quality delivered by CBC. Ultimately though it is about insurance.

For years people predicted that TV would kill radio. Those people were wrong but now there is an opponent coming that may very well kill local, commercial radio - namely Internet Radio. Satellite radio really isn't a threat. It is with some sadness (because I know people who have jobs in that area) that I say that Satellite radio is, if not doomed, at least playing to a fairly narrow market.

People can already get podcasts, music, television and movies on their cell phones. Very soon they will be able to get Internet radio streams on their phones as well. This will be the turning point for over the air, commercial radio and for the satellite variety as well.

This MIT site lists over 2500 current internet radio streams. That is not all of them and there are more coming online every day. So, when people have access to thousands of radio stations from around the world - at home, in the car or out walking about how do you compete? That is the question that will be facing satellite radio (which asks you to pay $15 a month for 100 stations) as well as local radio, commercial and otherwise.

So, back to the original point: According to counsellor Michael Prowse

“I’m not opposed to the CBC, but I do feel that we currently have several privately owned/operated radio stations currently servicing the city, and I would not want to be seen as supporting a corporation paid for by taxpayers over the private operators who do not operate using tax dollars.”

Those tax dollars are exactly the point. It is those tax dollars that would allow a CBC station in Barrie to operate even if it was not profitable to do so. If I lived in Barrie I would want to insure that there was at least one local radio station on the air. Is it fair to the commercial operations? Maybe not, but progress is not always fair. The commercial stations do not own the airwaves, they borrow them from the public (the owners) to provide a service because they believe they can make a profit. The public airwaves are supposed to be used in whatever way best serves the owners (you) - and ultimately it is in the interest of the owners that local radio be available to them. That is why they need the CBC (after all, they are already paying for it.)