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More change for Northwest media, as Bell Canada Enterprises
sell off their BC Radio stations to VISTA Radio |
The Broadcast landscape in Canada and in the Northwest has seen another seismic shift this morning that as Bell Canada Enterprises announced that it is selling off 45 of the 103 radio stations that it owns across Canada to a number of different buyers.
Four of those on the selling list today are in the Northwest, with Bell divesting themselves of CFTK, CHTK, CKTK which all operate as Bounce and broadcast out of Terrace, as well as CJFW the country station which also broadcasts from the Skeena Valley City.
The news coming out a larger financial statement that outlined a range of challenges the national communication company has seen in the last year.
"Bell Media announced its intent to divest 45 of its 103 radio stations (opens in new window) to seven buyers, subject to CRTC review and other closing conditions. Once these transactions close, it's our intention that the divested stations will remain part of iHeartRadio Canada, helping to transform Bell Media's radio operation to an innovative audio business." -- From today's Bell Canada Enterprises statement
Once the deal closes the Northwest stations will join the list of the Western Canada based VISTA Radio chain of stations, as part. of their BC North Division.
The new owner for the stations in our region is actually a firm that has some familiarity with the Northwest, with
VISTA Radio absorbing 21 of the properties sold in British Columbia.
VISTA is a radio corporation that has grown exponentially over the last two decades, its creation was one which as time passed came out of the Sale of Okanagan Skeena Group, which once upon a time operated radio, TV and cable-vision operations in the Northwest.
The radio stations were purchased by Telemedia, then by Bell and now they return home so to speak, though many of the principles involved in the creation of VISTA from the days of OSG are now far removed from the corporation.
Vista was created in 2005 and based out of Calgary, Alberta one of the principles towards its arrival was Bryan Edwards, the former President of the Okanagan Skeena Group.
Their first purchases were radio stations on Vancouver Island, as well as in the Cariboo and Prince George regions.
Since those early days and prior to today's announcement, VISTA operated 49 radio stations in three provinces and the Northwest Territories, they have more than 200 employees.
Some history behind the creation of VISTA can be reviewed below
There was no indication from today's announcement towards how many, if any layoffs might be made in the Northwest as a result of the Bell decision and prior to the handover to VISTA.
Though for the most part, the Northwest operations by Bell in recent months have been about as bare bones of business plan as one might find in the media industry.
VISTA has yet to outline what it's plans may be for their return to the Northwest, though a good example of what they future my look like can be found in Smithers and Prince George where they operate radio stations and host a news service, in the case of Smithers,
MyBulkleyLakes Now.
Hopefully for the Prince Rupert area, the new ownership may bring a new vision for the local media scene. And perhaps once again install on air talent and a presence in the community at their Atlin Terminal office.
A location which for the most part of late has been but a repeater station for the Terrace location.
Update: It would appear that Bell Media, CFTK TV and Bounce radio all bounced out of the Atlin Terminal offices sometime before today's announcement.
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