Vista Radio

Vista Radio Ltd. (also formerly known as Vista Broadcast Group) is a Courtenay, British Columbia-based media company. Owned by Westerkirk Capital, Vista is the second-largest owner of radio stations in Canada.

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.[1] With its acquisition of Haliburton Broadcasting Group, the company expanded into Ontario in 2012. In 2025, the company acquired 21 additional British Columbia stations from Bell Media.

History

Vista Radio was founded by Paul Mann, Jason Mann, Margot Micallef, Barb Fairclough and Bryan Edwards in 2004.[2]

On April 23, 2012, Vista announced that it had agreed to be acquired by Westerkirk Capital. With support from the new owner, Vista announced a concurrent agreement to acquire Haliburton Broadcasting Group, a broadcast group with 24 stations in small to mid-sized markets in Ontario.[3] The deal was approved by the CRTC on October 19, 2012.[4]

In July 2017, Vista announced its intent to sell CJUI-FM in Kelowna to Avenue Radio, Ltd., a company owned by former CILK-FM owner Nicholas J. Frost.[5] In September 2023, Vista announced that it would acquire CAB-K Broadcasting, owner of two radio stations in Olds, Alberta and one in Vegreville.[6]

On February 8, 2024, Bell Media announced that it would sell 21 of its radio stations in British Columbia to Vista Radio. The applications were approved by the CRTC on February 13, 2025.[7][8] In April, Bell also reached an agreement to add Vista's current and future stations to iHeartRadio Canada.[9] Vista relaunched all 21 stations under new brands on April 14, with most of the Move Radio stations rebranded as Go FM, Bounce Radio stations rebranded as Summit, and Pure Country mostly rebranded under Vista's existing country brand The Ranch.[10]

In May 2025, Vista filed an application to acquire CJGY-FM in Grand Prairie, Alberta from Golden West Broadcasting.[11]

Stations

Many of Vista's stations operate under standardized brands, including:

Alberta

British Columbia

Northwest Territories

Ontario

Many of Vista's small-market radio stations in Ontario are branded as Moose FM, although the company uses a variety of other brands on its larger-market stations.

Former stations

References

  1. ^ "Vista Radio: The Big Fish in the Small Pond". Broadcast Dialogue
  2. ^ "A small-town start tunes the dial on the big time", The Globe and Mail, March 15, 2008.
  3. ^ "Westerkirk Capital Acquires Vista and Haliburton Broadcast Groups". Broadcaster, April 26, 2012.
  4. ^ Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2012-577. Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, October 19, 2012.
  5. ^ "Castanet Media, which operates Kelowna news website castanet.net, has struck a deal with Vista Radio". Broadcast Dialogue. 2017-07-06. Archived from the original on 2021-06-08. Retrieved 2021-06-08.
  6. ^ Thiessen, Connie (2023-09-06). "Vista Radio to acquire CAB-K Broadcasting stations in Olds, Vegreville". Broadcast Dialogue. Retrieved 2025-06-04.
  7. ^ "'Not a viable business anymore': Bell Media selling 45 radio stations amid layoffs". Toronto Star. February 8, 2024. Retrieved February 8, 2024.
  8. ^ "Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2025-44". Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2025-44. CRTC. Retrieved 13 February 2025.
  9. ^ Hathout, Ahmad (2025-04-02). "iHeartRadio Canada adds 51 Vista Radio stations". Cartt.ca. Retrieved 2025-04-08.
  10. ^ a b c d e Thiessen, Connie (2025-04-14). "Vista Radio launches simultaneous rebrand of 21 former Bell Media stations". Broadcast Dialogue. Retrieved 2025-04-14.
  11. ^ "Broadcasting Notice of Consultation CRTC 2025-92". CRTC. Retrieved 7 May 2025.
  12. ^ a b Thiessen, Connie (2019-06-07). "Vista Radio rebrands its new Lethbridge stations". Broadcast Dialogue. Retrieved 2019-06-21.
  13. ^ "Juice Flows Into Niagara Falls – RadioInsight". RadioInsight.com. July 15, 2016. Retrieved May 8, 2017.
  14. ^ "Niagara station 101.1 gets new name, format". Niagara Falls Review. Retrieved May 8, 2017.
  15. ^ Thiessen, Connie (2021-09-03). "Vista Radio launches 102.7 Moose FM in Bolton, ON". Broadcast Dialogue. Retrieved 2025-05-02.
  16. ^ Williams, Ollie (December 3, 2020). "NWT's Moose FM to become True North FM from Friday". Cabin Radio. Retrieved December 4, 2020.
  17. ^ a b CRTC Decision 2008-323
  18. ^ Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2020-165, English-language FM radio station in North Bay, CRTC, May 25, 2020
  19. ^ "CJUI-FM Kelowna – Acquisition of assets". CRTC. Retrieved 2017-10-18.
  20. ^ "Castanet buys Juice FM". Castanet. Retrieved 2017-10-18.
  21. ^ "Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2016-258". Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. 8 July 2016. Retrieved 6 September 2016.
  22. ^ "CJLT-FM Medicine Hat - Acquisition of assets". CRTC. 2023-12-04. Retrieved 2023-12-13.
  23. ^ Dialogue, Broadcast (2023-12-07). "Radio & Podcast News - CRTC approves UCB acquisition of CJLT-FM Medicine Hat". Broadcast Dialogue. Retrieved 2024-01-10.
  24. ^ "CJFB-FM Bolton – Change in ownership and effective control". CRTC. Retrieved 2025-04-15.