CRTC orders Surrey’s Radio India to cease operations by midnight

Maninder Gill of Radio India 1600 AM. Handout/Vancouver Desi

PETER O’NEIL
POSTMEDIA NEWS 

OTTAWA – Canada’s regulator of the airwaves has taken perhaps the final step in its recent crackdown on B.C.’s “Pirate Radio” industry, issuing an order Thursday demanding that Radio India shut down operations by midnight Pacific time.

After years of tolerating three Punjabi-language stations broadcasting illegally into the Lower Mainland from U.S.-based transmitters, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission said it’s had enough.

“Operating without an authority is one of the most serious offences under the Broadcasting Act,” Tom Pentefountas, the CRTC’s vice-chairman of broadcasting and chairman of the three-commissioner panel that heard arguments from Radio India last month, said in a statement.

“We will not tolerate any business or individual that is broadcasting illegally in Canada.”

The latest action against pirate stations “demonstrates that we are committed to maintaining the integrity of the Canadian broadcasting system. We will not hesitate to act when necessary,” he added.

The CRTC had already struck undisclosed compliance agreements with the two other stations targeted since August, Sher-E-Punjab and Radio Punjab, requiring them to cease operations.

Maninder Gill, the managing director of Radio India that is owned by his sister, initially vowed in media interviews to challenge the CRTC by rallying his listeners.

A supporter of the federal Conservative party, he cited his political supporters at the federal, provincial and municipal levels who have regularly appeared on his open-line shows.

But Gill, after obtaining legal advice, shifted his tone at last month’s hearing and instead pleaded to be given four months to shut down operations.

But Pentefountas showed little sympathy during the hearing while aggressively questioning Gill’s operations.

Two CRTC-licensed, B.C.-based Punjabi-language competitors to the pirate stations testified at the same hearing, saying their unsanctioned rivals have had an unfair advantage in scooping up millions of advertising dollars in a large and growing Lower Mainland market.

That includes the estimated $2 million to $3 million that Gill said goes annually into Radio India’s coffers.

poneil@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/poneilinottawa

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Radio India – Issuance of mandatory order

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