Star Ray TV

August 25, 2000 Press Release

For immediate release, Toronto:

Local TV to broadcast via the Internet

Corrupt CRTC Commissioners Won't Stop Beaches Community Television

Star Ray TV will give a new media voice to East Toronto via the Internet after a close 3-2 vote denied its' application to transmit local news and culture on UHF channel 15.

Station owner Jan Pachul also announced today his intention of vigorously responding to this latest assault on media democracy by filing an appeal of the decision to the Federal Cabinet and making a complaint against the CRTC via the Competition Bureau.   "The community needs a platform to express itself and I am committed to providing that platform," said Pachul from his Toronto broadcast facility. He has spent the last five years building a fully functional television studio. "I had hoped the Commissioners would support all the local news, sports, and cultural programming we were proposing, especially in light of recent cutbacks in this area. But I guess some of their terms are coming to an end and they'll need to get a job in the industry soon", said Pachul.

That a majority of the CRTC Commissioners are in the pockets of the current Canadian broadcasters has become common knowledge recently after a series of expose's by Mathew Fraser in the National Post and a number of condemnations by other prominent community members. Lawyer Clayton Ruby has said that "the CRTC has favoured a lot of large wealthy corporations. The end result is people of modest means don't get licences."

Commissioner David McKendry, in a biting rebuttal to the majority decision, stated that, "Mr Pachul's proposed urban LPTV station would play a vital role in Canadian broadcasting policy with respect to East Toronto". Commissioner Barbara Cram supported this view, emphasizing the importance "of bringing new fresh faces, ideas, and programming into a system that is at present facing increased concentration which is inevitably leading to fewer voices and faces. Because of the increasing demand for local news and non news programming which we on the Commission hear constantly , my choice would have been to grant a licence to Mr. Pachul."

"The whole idea of a community television station is to have fun and profile the activities and opinions of average citizens," said Pachul. "These same people will be on our Internet TV station. We will build a local viewer base that will be irresistible."