Radio talk, not talk radio, is lighting up the dial in northern Alberta's FM landscape.

Nineteen applicants are setting their sights on new FM licences for the booming communities of Fort McMurray and Grande Prairie - some are applying for both - and have recently completed presentations before the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) in Edmonton.

The applicants include major market players such as Standard Radio Inc., Canada's largest privately owned broadcast company and Newfoundland Capital Corp. (Newcap), which holds 73 licences across the country in small- and medium-sized radio markets.

Smaller players include Calgary-based Vista Broadcast Group, which is seeking to become a significant operator in western Canada, and the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group Ltd. partnership based in Kamloops, another regional participant.

Commissioners say as many as two or even three licences per market could be awarded.

But industry analyst Ian Morrison of Friends of Canadian Broadcasting - a national group that promotes quality Canadian programming - says while the commissioners may muse about licensing two or three (stations), "they might just be doing that to tease out comments from people appearing at the hearings."

He adds that it could take six months before the actual decisions are announced.

Both Fort McMurray and Grande Prairie each now have two radio stations, plus CBC Radio and public broadcaster CKUA.

Station formats proposed by applicants for Fort McMurray are generally classic hits or adult contemporary, with listener demographics targeting the 18- to-54 age group.

In Grande Prairie, the applicants are suggesting either classic rock, classic hits, adult contemporary or some combination, going after an overall wider audience range of 18-64.

Two applicants, King's Kids Promotions Outreach Ministries Inc. and Touch Canada Broadcasting Inc., want to broadcast a Christian music service in Fort McMurray, while one, Grande Prairie Radio Ltd., is seeking the same for that market.

"Both of those radio markets (Fort McMurray and Grande Prairie) are booming and there is considered to be a lot of disposable income available and that is what attracts the applicants," says Morrison.

"The income of the communities is what attracts the advertisers."

Applicant CJVR Ltd., eyeing a classic-hits station in Fort McMurray, estimates that there could be $2 million to $2.5 million available in annual ad revenue to a new entrant there, though they said they expect it will take some time for them to reach those numbers should they be licensed.

In Grande Prairie, the O.K. Radio Group Ltd. forecasts that by fiscal 2007, the first full year of operation for the new station, it would generate more than $1.1 million in sales, though it noted the revenue would not entirely be new- market spending.

While revenue predictions vary, several applicants told the CRTC hearings that they have also allowed for higher operating costs because of the booming economy, especially in Fort McMurray.

All the applicants said they feel their operations can be adequately staffed, even in the tight labour market. In some cases, applicants with existing stations elsewhere said they may be able to transfer staff if necessary.

"You can find them (employees) as long as you pay them. Everybody gets that part," said Paul Mann, Vista's senior vice-president of operations.

"And housing them (in Fort McMurray), well, we're going to face no different a challenge if we are successful in that licence than any other company.

"We understand the concept of having to compensate people appropriately to live and work in some of these destinations in the North."

Morrison says the CRTC is somewhat predictable as to who will ultimately receive a licence.

"They're quasi-judicial in the sense that they like to be consistent with their rulings," says Morrison. "They don't say so, but they tend to like the big station groups. Generally speaking, these groups follow the rules and the commission knows them. I have found that there tends to be a bias in their favour. It (the CRTC) tends to trust the people that it knows."

He notes there are very few profitable single radio stations in Canada. "The economics of radio is that if you own a lot of stations, you get an economy of scale and have an advantage over a standalone."

Regardless of how many stations get the green light, radio broadcasting jobs will likely be created in both markets.

"If we're looking at it from an educational standard, training for radio and television, this means more opportunities," says Patrick Galenza, program chair for radio and television at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT).

Galenza says NAIT already has a number of radio students being placed at Grande Prairie stations, and would welcome the chance to expand.

(Laura Severs can be reached at laura@businessedge.ca)