CBC Whitehorse’s AM transmitter, located in the city’s Porter Creek area, was supposed to be shut down in September. However, CBC Radio One listeners outside Whitehorse may keep tuning in on the AM dial as the Yukon government says it will extend the public broadcaster’s lease on its existing AM transmitter site for three years.
Member of the Legislative Assembly for Lake Laberge, Brad Cathers, delivered the news on Monday afternoon in an email sent to concerned constituents like Pete Beattie, who had been calling on both the CBC not to drop its Whitehorse AM signal in favour of FM. In the email, addressed to Mayor Bev Buckway, Cathers said the lease for the land where the CBC’s AM transmitter sits will be extended to September 2012 so that CBC can continue with AM broadcasting.
CBC officials had earlier said that the Whitehorse AM transmitter, located in the city’s Porter Creek area, had to be removed - at the city’s request - to make way for residential development in the new Whistlebend subdivision. Simply moving the transmitter elsewhere would cost upwards of millions of dollars. Officials said it would be far cheaper to add another FM transmitter to the Radio 2 tower in the city’s Grey Mountain area.
But Mr Beattie said switching from AM to FM would have left him and other residents outside Whitehorse without access to essential information such as road closures, forest fires and severe weather warnings. “It’s a shame that they’re spending the money on that, when it could be better spent to relocate the AM transmitter because FM, as I understand it … it’ll be patchy and local,” he said. “You can put in a transmitter in a location, but it’s not going to blanket the whole area in the same manner that the existing [AM] facility does.”
Cathers’ letter states that leaving the AM transmitter where it is would not interfere with the Whistlebend development. He added that city planning officials agree with the lease extension.
However, John Agnew, regional director for CBC North says the Yukon government’s move does not necessarily mean the broadcaster will scrap plans to switch from AM to FM. Mr Agnew said the proposal to change over from AM to FM is supposed to be reviewed by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) on 21 July. Extending the AM transmitter lease by three years may be too little too late, he said.
The CBC will be meeting with the Yukon government and the City of Whitehorse to discuss the AM transmitter’s future. Mr Agnew said a decision has to be made soon. “The CRTC hearing is July 21, and we have a series of financial commitments we have to meet [in] early August, so this all needs to be resolved very quickly,” he said.
(Source: CBC News)
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