Le5 Communications

Last updated
Le5 Communications
Company type Private
Industry Media
Founded Sudbury, Ontario (2008)
Headquarters Sudbury, Ontario
Key people
Paul Lefebvre
President / CEO
Products Broadcasting, publishing

Le5 Communications is a Canadian media company. Based in Sudbury, Ontario, the company operates radio stations and newspapers in the Northeastern Ontario region. The company operates the only francophone commercial radio stations in Ontario which originate their own programming; with the exception of one station in Eastern Ontario which primarily rebroadcasts a station from Montreal with only a few hours per week of original programming, all other francophone stations in the province are public or community radio stations operated by non-profit groups or Radio-Canada.

Contents

Owned and operated by Paul Lefebvre, at the time a lawyer with the Sudbury firm of Weaver, Simmons, the company was incorporated in 2008 after Lefebvre reached a deal with Haliburton Broadcasting Group to acquire the company's francophone radio stations in Sudbury and Timmins for $425,000. [1] The deal was approved by the CRTC on October 31, 2008. [2]

The company's name is a pun on Lefebvre's surname. If the numeral 5 is pronounced as in English (i.e. "five" rather than "cinq"), the company's name is very close to the French pronunciation of Lefebvre.

History

Although originally established by separate owners in the 1950s, CHYC-FM in Sudbury and CHYK-FM in Timmins had been under common ownership since their acquisition by Mid-Canada Radio in 1985. The stations were acquired by the Pelmorex Radio Network in 1990, and subsequently by Haliburton in 1999, before Le5 acquired the stations in 2008.

On August 4, 2010, Le5 Communications applied to operate a new French-language FM radio station in West Nipissing, operating at 97.1 MHz with an adult pop-music format. [3] The company received approval to operate the new station on January 6, 2011. [4]

On March 28, 2015, Lefebvre was chosen as the Liberal Party of Canada's candidate for the Sudbury riding in the 2015 federal election. [5] He won the seat in the 2015 election. The company subsequently operated in a blind trust, for compliance with parliamentary conflict of interest regulations. [6]

Holdings

Radio

All three stations are branded as Le Loup, and air common programming for the most part. Each station formerly produced its own distinct morning show, but for the remainder of the day each station was the host studio to at least one daypart within a shared region-wide simulcast, though the three stations aired separate identifications and commercials. Programming has since been centralized so that all three stations now broadcast virtually identical programming at all times, predominantly produced in Sudbury except for some syndicated programming; as of 2020, the only locally targeted programming that remains separate on the three stations is local weather updates.

The Timmins station CHYK-FM formerly operated rebroadcasters in Kapuskasing and Hearst, which were decommissioned in 2016, [6] [7] and a community group holds a separate license to rebroadcast the Sudbury station in Chapleau.

Newspapers

The company launched L'Express de Timmins, a weekly francophone community newspaper in Timmins, in 2010. In 2011, it also purchased Sudbury's existing francophone community newspaper Le Voyageur . [8] In 2013, L'Express de Timmins and Le Voyageur merged to form Le Voyageur La voix du Nord, with expanded coverage throughout the Northeastern Ontario region. [9]

Controversy

Although it was not opposed to Le5's application to take over ownership of CHYC, Le Voyageur (which was still owned by a different company at that time) published an editorial in 2008 criticizing the CRTC for its handling of the application process. The paper took issue with the fact that the CRTC's original notice of hearing was not published in any of the region's local media, but only in the Ottawa newspaper Le Droit , a publication with very limited readership in the Sudbury or Timmins areas — thereby giving the region's Franco-Ontarian community little notice of either the pending transaction or the deadlines for reviewing and submitting comments regarding the application. [10]

Related Research Articles

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CKNY-DT is a television station in North Bay, Ontario, Canada, part of the CTV Television Network. Owned and operated by network parent Bell Media, the station maintains a transmitter adjacent to Ski Hill Road in Nipissing.

The Pelmorex Radio Network was a system of Canadian radio stations in Northern Ontario, owned and operated by Pelmorex.

The Haliburton Broadcasting Group was a Canadian group of FM radio stations, located primarily in smaller markets in Ontario. The company was purchased by Vista Broadcast Group in 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CHYC-FM</span> Radio station in Sudbury, Ontario

CHYC-FM is a Canadian radio station, which broadcasts at 98.9 FM in Sudbury, Ontario. It broadcasts a francophone hot adult contemporary format for the city's Franco-Ontarian community. It is owned by Le5 Communications, and branded as Le Loup 98.9.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CHYK-FM</span> Radio station in Timmins, Ontario

CHYK-FM is a Canadian radio station, which broadcasts at 104.1 FM in Timmins, Ontario. It broadcasts a francophone hot adult contemporary format for the city's Franco-Ontarian community. It is owned by Le5 Communications, and branded as Le Loup 104.1.

Le Droit is a Canadian French-language digital weekly newspaper, published in Gatineau, Quebec. Initially established and owned by the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, the paper was published by Martin Cauchon and his company, Capitales Médias, from 2015 - 2019, when a cooperative was formed by the employees to continue publishing the paper.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CJMX-FM</span> Radio station in Sudbury, Ontario

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">CKGB-FM</span> Radio station in Timmins, Ontario

CKGB-FM is a Canadian radio station that broadcasts a hot adult contemporary format in Timmins, Ontario. The station uses the on-air brand KiSS 99.3 and is owned by Rogers Radio, a division of Rogers Sports & Media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CBBS-FM</span> CBC Music station in Sudbury, Ontario

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CBON-FM is a Canadian radio station. It broadcasts the Société Radio-Canada's Ici Radio-Canada Première network at 98.1 FM in Sudbury, Ontario. The station also serves much of Northern Ontario through a network of relay transmitters.

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CJTK-FM is a Canadian radio station, which airs Christian music and programming at 95.5 FM in Sudbury, Ontario. The station is owned by Eternacom, and was licensed by the CRTC in 1997. The station is branded as KFM and uses one of the current slogans as "Positive & Encouraging".

CHIM is a Canadian radio station, which previously broadcast Christian music at 102.3 FM in Timmins, Ontario. The station also currently broadcasts at 1710 AM.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mid-Canada Communications</span> Former Canadian media company

Mid-Canada Communications (Canada) Corp. was a Canadian media company, which operated from 1980 to 1990. The company, a subsidiary of Northern Cable, had television and radio holdings in Northeastern Ontario.

Le Voyageur is a weekly community newspaper in Greater Sudbury, Ontario, serving the city's Franco-Ontarian community.

This is a list of media outlets in the city of Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada.

Media of Timmins, Ontario includes:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vista Radio</span> Canadian radio broadcasting company

Vista Radio Ltd. is a Canadian radio broadcasting company. The company only owned stations in British Columbia until 2007, when it expanded outside the province by acquiring an existing station in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories and launching a new one in Grande Prairie, Alberta. It has since also expanded into Ontario, with the acquisition of Haliburton Broadcasting Group in 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CHYQ-FM</span> Radio station in West Nipissing, Ontario

CHYQ-FM is a Canadian radio station, which broadcasts at 97.1 FM in West Nipissing, Ontario. It broadcasts a francophone hot adult contemporary format for the local Franco-Ontarian community. It is owned by Le5 Communications, and branded as Le Loup 97.1.

References

  1. Broadcast Dialogue Archived 2015-02-14 at the Wayback Machine , May 29, 2008.
  2. CRTC Decision 2008-296
  3. Broadcasting Notice of Consultation CRTC 2010-551
  4. Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2011-2
  5. "Sudbury Liberals choose Paul Lefebvre as their federal election candidate". CBC Sudbury, March 28, 2015.
  6. 1 2 "Le Loup-FM ne diffusera plus à Hearst et Kapuskasing". Ici Radio-Canada, June 8, 2016.
  7. Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2019-179, CHYK-FM Timmins – Licence renewal, CRTC, May 27, 2019
  8. "Sudbury's French newspaper Le Voyageur sold". Points North (CBCS-FM), May 20, 2011.
  9. "Le Voyageur expanding". Morning North (CBCS-FM), April 18, 2013.
  10. "Le CRTC au service des gens, vraiment?". Le Voyageur , September 24, 2008.