Akash Broadcasting sues over CRTC denial of Calgary AM station

A British Columbia-based broadcaster is suing the federal government over the CRTC’s denial of a sale of a BCE Inc.-owned radio station in Calgary. Akash Broadcasting Inc. sought approval to buy two AM stations, one in Winnipeg and one in Calgary. Only the Manitoba sale was approved by the regulator. In an action filed in the Federal Court of Appeal, Akash says the CRTC was in error when it released Decision 2025-273 in October. The decision permitted the broadcaster to take over CFRW in the Manitoba capital but disallowed a similar purchase of CKMX in Alberta. Both AM stations have been off the air since June 2023. In its ruling, the commission stated that since it is soliciting applications for a new radio station in Calgary, the CKMX sale should not proceed. Akash maintains that is an error of fact and of law. The CRTC said Akash could apply for the new Calgary frequency if it so desired. “The majority’s decision was unreasonable and unjustified in light of the factual and regulatory regime that applied to the decision,” the broadcaster states in its notice of application for judicial review. Akash also filed a motion for leave to appeal. “The majority failed to apply considerations properly applicable to an asset sale of a licenced broadcasting undertaking and instead applied considerations going to the issuance of a new licence under a competitive application process,” it alleges. The broadcaster noted the dissenting opinion of Commissioner Bram Abramson. When the October decision was announced, Abramson filed a dissenting opinion stating he believed that Akash should have been given the CKMX station. Concerns that the broadcaster would convert the station to an ethnic channel in a way that might disrupt the local ethnic station market could have been handled through regulation, he opined. Similarly, the CKMX frequency could have been redeposited into the Calgary call for applications for relisting. “But the majority did neither. Instead, and with the greatest of respect, it seems to me that we are instead left in an awkward limbo that shrinks the number of radio stations in Calgary, keeps out of the market a group that was willing to invest in the declining AM radio band, and does so for reasons that are, in my respectful view, both unusual and underspecified,” he wrote. “General invocations of hard-to-evaluate market diversity criteria that do not relate to our long-standing market concentration rules make it difficult to future applicants to know how to frame their proposals. I dissent, and would have allowed the transfer.” None of the allegations in the suit has been tested in court. The CRTC declined to comment, saying “as this matter is before the Federal Court of Appeal, it would be inappropriate for the CRTC to comment.” ppark@thewirereport.ca

Akash Broadcasting sues over CRTC denial of Calgary AM station

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By Paul Park
|December 1, 2025

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Akash Broadcasting sues over CRTC denial of Calgary AM station

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