Wednesday, Rick the Boss made the unprecedented decision we should air a re-run and instead of returning to the studio, stay put keep an eye on a breaking story.
And what broke was the patience of the CRTC for the multiple breaches of regulations by Harmony Broadcasting (when it was broadcasting, before MTS cut off their transmission lines on October 15).
At a CRTC hearing into why they broke the rules such as not submitting tapes of on-air broadcasts for review on demand, Yo Radio, a new company controlled by media mogul David Asper, offered to "rescue" the station, maintain the hip-hop Flava format, and was willing to "be the bank" for up to half a million in expenses to revive the non commercial, campus instructional station.
The financial liabilities allegedly accumulated by what is otherwise known as CJWV-FM, at 107.9 on the dial, was pegged at well over $900,000, of which $800,000 is claimed by the outgoing GM.
The CRTC imposed special conditions after the 2006 hearing. When asked why they shouldn't be stripped of the licence for failing to comply, Asper insisted to the 3 Commissioner panel that suspending the licence was not necessary, and that revoking it would be akin to "the death penalty".
With radio executives from other outlets watching in a hearing that unwound like a mystery novel over the course of 12 hours, he assured the CRTC the sins of the past would be rectified, by the professional team he was placing in charge of the revival.
Unfortunately issues like :
- the myriad of inconsistancies in a paper trail that purported to hand
control of the Harmony non-profit board of directors to members of Asper's for-profit Yo Radio board,
- the dubious claim that financial returns has been "reconstructed" to show the non-profit corporation owed over $900,000,
- the former General Manager who unsuccessfully ran the station since 2003,
was nonetheless deserving of a $200,000 payment up front for the company "debts" and an unprecedented contract (on a campus station) for a $60,000 a year, 3 year morning show gig and a job to "mentor" incoming Robertson College students,
did not find immediate favour with the Commissioners.
The GM said he was the "sole member" of the non-profit organization and could make the decision to accept the bail-out deal. The CRTC was told his lucrative employment was offered on the basis of merit.
What may have made the continuation of the licence totally unpalatable was the revelation, uncovered by unusually diligent Commissioners, that Harmony had been operating in violation of it's own Corporate By-Law #1 since 2003, and was operating against its own rules that very day.
After appointing Asper, Yo's radio guru, and their lawyer, to become the new board of Harmony, the GM passed a resolution for his own replacement - appointing Asper as the new "sole member".
Only one of the new directors - Asper- is a member of the corporation. But the CRTC called bullshit because Harmony's By-Law requires ALL the directors be members, and an obscure CRTC condition of the licence required that a majority of the Board be made up of students, alumni, and community volunteers.
The Commissioners threw down a penalty flag saying nothing had changed and Harmony was still operating without proper governance, despite Asper's assurances. (In other words, to start with the old board needed to have 3 members of the corporation to legally do anything, and so would the new board.)
What the CRTC saw, was what appeared to be a straight man-to-man transaction, with Asper funding the "rescue", and the GM who delivered the licence walking away with almost $400,000 in his pocket.
And then the details of a jilted suitor emerged.
A rival group called Ear Hole Inc. opposed the transaction, claiming they had brought the hip-hop format to CJWV after signing a deal with the GM in 2004. It was essentially crafted the same as Asper's deal 4 years later; they claim to have poured in $250,000 and gave the "sole member" a job as GM for $65,000 a year.
Witness after hip-hop witness told the CRTC about subsequent abusive working conditions, refusal to pay wages, and outright harassment and racial slurs, after the deal was scuttled after one of the Ear Hole associates got arrested on a non-radio matter.
At least Ear Hole got one thing right- their lawyer David Kovnats told the panel the non-profit group had sold memberships and appointed three members of the corporation as directors. But he said they had been powerless to stop the renegade GM from shutting them out of the station and ruining the Flava concept.
Kovnats also said that when Ear Hole tried to establish their claim to the licence with the CRTC, they were misled by contradictory directions given by the local CRTC rep. That bureaucrat was nowhere to be seen at the hearing.
Other claims of forgery, bad faith, and manipulating the police will have to wait for another blog post on the unprecedented in-fighting over a little tiny end-of-the-dial non-profit student radio station with no students.
