MARATHON – CFNO Radio will be staying in Marathon. A community based campaign to keep radio station CFNO in Marathon has generated enough support that the plans to move the station have been withdrawn by the company that owns the station. The move came after 300 interventions were filed with the Canadian Radio Television Commission (CRTC) objecting to the proposed move. Annie Laflamme, the
Director, Radio Policy and Applications from the CRTC wrote Mr. Don Caron stating, “This is in response to your letter to Commission staff dated 23 May 2013, relating to the interventions received in response to the above-noted application. You request that the Commission remove all interventions from its website that were filed by interveners that may not have served you their interventions”.
Community Campaign Saves CFNO
“Although you may have only received service of 14 of the 300 total interventions submitted in the context of this proceeding, Commission staff notes that all of these interventions were posted in the related documents section for this proceeding on the Commission’s website. The interventions were therefore readily available for consultation by the applicant as well as by the general public”.
“While the Commission generally requires interveners to serve their interventions upon the applicant, Commission staff is of the view that the absence of such service did not prejudice the applicant in the context of this proceeding, given their public availability. Therefore, all interventions received will remain on the public record for this proceeding”.
“Commission staff is nevertheless of the view that you should be granted additional time to file your reply to all of the interventions in question, given that you had to take some time to consult the website to see all the interventions. Presently, the end of the 10-day reply period for the applicant to reply to the interventions is 30 May 2013. However, given the number of interventions received in response to this application, Commission staff has extended the deadline to reply to the interventions to 7 June 2013. A copy of this letter and all related correspondence will be added to the public record of the proceeding”.
There was a great deal of public support for the local radio station, and a number of the people expressing their view that the station stay put.
In a letter to the CRTC Mr. Caron requests that the application be withdrawn. That request has been accepted by the CRTC.
The CRTC responded to Mr. Caron stating, “This is in response to your letter dated 3 June 2013 in which North Superior Broadcasting Ltd. requests to withdraw the above-mentioned application, and confirms that CFNO-FM’s studio will remain in Marathon, Ontario. Accordingly, the Commission will not proceed with the above noted application. As such, this application is now considered closed”.
The move demonstrates, once again the power of the Internet in Northwestern Ontario, and that the planned use of social media works in the interests of people.
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