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The battle for Vancouver's first free-to-air ethnic TV station has hotted up as media groups LMTV and MVBC have locked horns presenting fiercely competitive bids to Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), the federal television regulator.

Fielding high-powered advocates such as newly appointed Senator Mobina Jaffer as LMTV's advisory board chair and former Toronto TV personality Monika Deol as MVBC's chair, the two parties harp on the need for an ethnic station, as much as they claim that they are best qualified for the job.

Owned by Toronto-based media giant Rogers Broadcasting, LMTV has the highly successful Toronto ethnic station, CFMT, under its belt, while newcomer MVBC, though inexperienced, has the advantage of being a Vancouver-based outfit.

ON AIR: CFMT's hit shows, The Veggie Table, inspired by South Asian flavours (above); T. Sher Singh, the host of Sat Sri Akaal

"This has been as much a struggle for diversity on Vancouver's media map as it has been a debate about who can deliver it best," sums up journalist Manpreet Grewal. That the CRTC was prompted by the Federal Government to call for this bid says a lot about the struggle-and is a story in itself. It centres around the fact that though Vancouver has an eight lakh-strong ethnic population, including a quarter of a million of South Asian origin whose primary language is neither French nor English, there is no free-to-air station catering to their linguistic and cultural sensibilities.

"In Vancouver they constitute nearly 70 per cent of the population," says Dr Karim H. Karim, acting associate director at Carleton University's School of Journalism and Communication. "This is by no means a minority group," he says. And yet, the only ethnic media on Canada's west coast comprises community-based, non-revenue generating productions which rely on imported programmes from the "home" countries or speciality channels that viewers have to pay for in addition to normal cable charges. As far as mainstream Canadian programming is concerned, it pays little more than token attention-some of it negative stereotyping-to the ethnic Canadian.

"We are local, we have a stake in what happens in Vancouver." Monika Deol, MBVC's chairperson and former media personality

"The experience has proved that in the end, it's all about who has the power." Mobina Jaffer, Senator and chairperson, LMTV's advisory board

It's a gap that CFMT has long felt well-suited to fill. Forming a Vancouver-managed company, LMTV, and bringing in well-connected lawyer and Liberal party member Jaffer on board, it launched its bid for an ethnic station here eight years ago. Confident because of its track record, a commitment of $80 million and Jaffer's success at garnering community support, LMTV was shaken when it lost out to the Toronto-based CTV station, VTV, in 1997.

But LMTV did not give up. In 1998, armed with increasing support and the appointment of Toronto-based ethnic activist Andrew Cardozo, a visible minority himself, on the CRTC board, it made a second bid. However, CRTC turned it down again, licensing Toronto-based CHUM broadcasting in Victoria and a religious station, Trinity, in the Fraser Valley. LMTV realised that CRTC's attitude needed an overhaul. One of its own commissioners, Cindy Grauer from Vancouver, in an unusual public comment, called the decision a "bitter development", while Jaffer, on her part, made up her mind to go "openly political, to the federal cabinet".

In the months of hectic lobbying that ensued, LMTV broadened the campaign significantly and took it beyond the South Asian and Chinese communities, who were already on board, to other ethnic communities. The message was clear: if the CRTC could deny Vancouver an ethnic channel, they could deny the Macedonians, Ukrainians, Italians, Portuguese and Koreans as well. The combined minority pressure, spearheaded by Jaffer, paid off. The cabinet instructed CRTC not only to examine how to create a Vancouver ethnic station, but to do so soon.

"It was unusual to be instructed by the Government," says Cardozo, recalling how in February the CRTC called for bids for an ethnic station in Vancouver-an idea that had cut no ice with it a year ago. But as LMTV prepared to submit what Madeline Ziniak, CFMT's executive vice-president, calls their "best application ever", another player entered the fray.

"MVBC's strength lies in the fact that we are not a corporation sitting somewhere in the east and we are not going to replicate a Toronto model," says Deol. The locally rooted company, whose owners are entrepreneurs, some with ethnic radio experience, has been trying to make up in local knowledge and enthusiasm what it lacks by way of experience and finances. MVBC's proposed $55.5 million investment may be smaller than LMTV's $80 million but, says Deol, "We are local, we have a stake in what happens in Vancouver."

For CFMT, being part of Roger's Communication provides the financial depth and experience that is the only way to make ethnic television viable in Canada. "We have learned that you can't survive with 100 per cent ethnic programming," says Ziniak. When Roger's acquired CFMT in 1986, it was a sick concern with an ethnic advertising formula. Its success has been based on a 60-40 business model-40 per cent of non-ethnic programming to generate the revenues that can support ethnic programming. The CFMT model is now regarded, across the board, as the proven model for a successful ethnic free-to-air Canadian station.

In spite of the synergies promised by CFMT and the enthusiasm generated by MVBC, many ethnic broadcasters bitterly resent these new entrants. Shushma Datt, producer of a popular radio show and long time media personality is worried not only about losing her captive audience, but is also peeved that she and others like her are missing out on a share of the advertising pie.

CFMT and MVBC are both promising to fund local independent producers with dedicated allocations of $27 million and $4.7 million, respectively. But in return they stand to gain considerably from a virtually untapped ethnic advertising market. While Toronto's ethnic advertising revenue has virtually doubled in the past five years and is now nearly $25 million or 5 per cent of total advertising revenues, Vancouver's has remained static at only $8 million, or a mere 2.5 per cent of the total revenues.

"It's disappointing that visible minorities don't make bids for general channels," remarks Cardozo, adding that there haven't been many applications from South Asian Canadians. "That's because it's the last frontier," quips Deol. "They have gone into professions like medicine, engineering and law, but have not seen media as a viable professional or business option," she adds.

The time may be coming, however, when all that could change. For Jaffer, the LMTV experience has proved that in the end, "it's all about who has the power". No matter which of the two, LMTV or MVCB, comes out the winner in this contest, the race to make a visible ethnic impact on Canada's media landscape has begun. And its effects will be felt for a long time to come.