Imagine this:

You get up one morning, turn on the radio, tune in your favourite local station and there is nothing there: dead air. You try several other stations. Same thing. Total silence.

Your alarm is almost certain to turn to outrage once you learn that, because you live outside a large city, you are now going to have to pay big bucks to a cable or satellite company in order to listen to those radio stations.

This is NOT happening to radio listeners. But it IS going to happen to 11 million television viewers in smaller cities and towns across Canada who, like the rest of the country, currently have access to free over-the-air (OTA) signals.

As TV broadcasters such as CTV, Global and CBC switch from analog to digital by 2011, they plan to shut down transmitters in hundreds of communities and force people in rural and small-town Canada to pay for cable or satellite to watch even their local TV stations.

This is not a fair use of our public airwaves.

Take action! Tell them you don't agree.

You have until Nov. 2 to tell the CRTC and the broadcasters that they should change their plans. (If you have already taken action, thank you. But please read on. We have more to ask of you.)

Very few people are aware that one in three Canadians will lose their access to free OTA television. We need your help to quickly spread the word as widely as possible so that your friends and relatives can tell the CRTC and the networks what they think.

We've made it easy to do this. It takes just a couple of clicks to send off a pre-written (and entirely editable) letter to the CRTC. Please take a few minutes to use Open Media's Tell-A-Friend page to alert 10 people you know who should be made aware of the situation.

Letters must arrive at the CRTC by next Monday, Nov. 2.

Subject: Cutting off small-town Canada's free TV is wrong

Dear [decision maker name automatically inserted here],

You need to tell the CRTC to rethink its approval of a plan that would cut 11 million Canadians out of access to free, over-the-air TV signals.

This is a big country with a diversity of regions and population. Canadians have always made an effort to carve out an accessible space on the TV dial where we can find stories and information by and about ourselves.

But now, because Canadian broadcasters want to cut costs, the Commission is proposing that only 29 cities continue to get free, over-the-air TV service after the transition to digital in 2011.

To leave 11 million Canadians who live in smaller cities, towns and rural areas with no other option but to pay for cable or satellite to watch even their local or regional TV stations undermines the purpose of the Canadian broadcasting system that we have built over 50 years.

This is not necessary. There are other options, including helping broadcasters to use the new digital technology to improve TV service in smaller cities and towns. This also stands to help local broadcasting: if improved service encouraged more of us to watch the local and regional stations over the air, stations in those smaller communities would be more viable. Instead, your plans virtually deliver people into the 500-channel universe where the small local stations get lost in the shuffle.

Please ask the CRTC to rethink its model for the digital transition and to find ways to use the new technology to make sure all parts of Canada are served by our public airwaves.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]

cc:
Hubert T. Lacroix, President of CBC/Radio-Canada
Ivan Fecan, CEO of CTVglobemedia
Leonard Asper, CEO of Canwest (Global TV)