With the threat of York Region losing a big local radio station, regional council agreed Feb. 13 to look at how it supports local media.
Representatives from 105.9 The Region pleaded to council about the state of the station. With the station on the verge of closure and sending out layoff notices, the representatives asked council to commit to having 25 per cent of York Region advertising budgets go to local media, similar to what the provincial government has done.
Owner Debra McLaughlin said the issue for her station is municipalities and other advertisers not always being willing to buy advertising versus expecting free publicity. She said over its 11 years of existence, the station has received less than $100,000 in regional advertising in total.
“We’re at the point where we’re probably going off the air next week,” she said, adding they have also sent out layoff notices. “We’ve hit critical here. We don’t have a big window, and we can continue to invest, but with no hope in sight, I don’t want to give up my house.”
The radio station offers an array of local content, spotlighting area traffic, weather and news. McLaughlin and radio host Jim Lang talked about the programming they do to cover the area, including interviews with local politicians and highlighting local charities.
“There’s so many people in York Region who don’t know what’s happening in their own backyard,” Lang said.
Council was sympathetic to the plight and asked staff to come back with further information on its advertising breakdown.
McLaughlin stressed that the ask was to support all local media more, not just her station. Newmarket Mayor John Taylor said council would have to take that approach.
If local media disappeared tomorrow, “how are we going to get our message out?” Taylor asked. “We get so much earned media from these sources. You can’t earn that media if they’re not there. We would have a significant challenge on our hands. In an age of social media where people don’t believe half of what they see, and they scroll past it, I do think there’s an immense value in a world we live in today to supporting local media.”
Newmarket Deputy Mayor Tom Vegh said he supports looking at more local media advertising but asked what difference it could make for the station now.
“It’s shocking when you’re a week away from closing down,” he said. “Even if we rallied all the king’s horses, all the king’s men, we won’t be there in time.”
McLaughlin replied that they hoped to schedule the conversation in December, but it could not happen. However, she suggested the station could close for a time and come back on the air after regrouping. Investors could also potentially help, but she said it is hard to get investors when the local municipalities are not even showing enough support.
The important thing is to turn the situation around to save the radio licence for the area, she said, which could be hard to get back otherwise.
“I was raised in a small town. Radio was the community square for me. I have a passion,” she said. “This is an idea, and this is a concept, that still works today and, in fact, is more needed than ever with all the misinformation.”