Well known Vancouver personalities, such as former mayoral candidate Kirk Lapointe and veteran broadcaster Terry David Mulligan, have been hired to host shows later this year when Vancouver’s newest radio station, Roundhouse Radio 98.3 FM, launches.
The radio station on July 21 revealed its line-up of its hosts – a list that also includes author, professor and race relations expert Minelle Mahtani; former Z95.3 morning show co-host Janice Ungaro; voice actor and veteran broadcaster Martin Strong; and music journalist Jana Lynne White.
The station will have a signal strong enough to be heard throughout the city of Vancouver but not much further.
“That will keep us consciously Vancouver focused,” said Lapointe, who will host the station’s morning show, between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m.
“The Internet has done so much in providing us opportunities to hear and see and read about each other around the world yet, in all of that excitement, there’s still this great opportunity to discuss granular neighbourhood and district issues.”
About 80% of Lapointe’s show will be a talk show with the remainder being music. Lapointe was a part-time Canadian editor of Billboard Magazine in the 1980s and told Business in Vancouver that he has a passion for music.
He will keep his day job as publisher and editor-in-chief of Self Counsel Press as well as his part-time gig teaching a journalism ethics course at the University of British Columbia.
Roundhouse won its bid for a license in mid-2014, when the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) assessed 11 applications for Metro Vancouver radio stations and rejected nine.
The national airwaves regulator awarded the other new radio license to South Fraser Broadcasting Inc. (SFBI), which will be based in Surrey and only have a signal powerful enough to be heard in that city and surrounding area.
Both the group representing SFBI and the one representing Roundhouse spent more than $100,000 to participate in what Roundhouse CEO Don Shafer calls the “roll of the dice” that is the CRTC application process.
Had those groups not won their bid, their investment would have been money down the drain.
Ownership groups at SFBI and Roundhouse each had to follow up their victories by spending more than $1 million to build radio stations, erect transmitters and hire about 30 employees each.
Despite the rise of streaming music services, successful business people who own radio stations, such as Jim Pattison Group owner Jim Pattison have told Business in Vancouver that they are optimistic about the future of the medium.