No Debate on CIUT-FM

[jon]

Rob Ford, John Tory and Olivia Chow drop out of CIUT debate
By Don Peat
City Hall Bureau Chief
Toronto Star
First posted: Saturday, April 12, 2014 10:13 PM EDT

TORONTO - Mayor Rob Ford, John Tory and Olivia Chow agree on something — they aren't taking part in a mayoral debate Monday.

The three leading mayoral candidates released a rare joint statement Saturday night dropping out of the CIUT debate scheduled for Monday morning at Hart House.

"After much consideration, we the under signed will not be participating in the CIUT debate planned for Monday," the statement read signed by Ford, Chow and Tory.

"After multiple attempts for clarification on which candidates would be attending the debate, our questions have still been left unanswered.

Combined, we feel that we have been misled by the organizers of this debate.

"As always, we welcome opportunities to discuss the issues facing our city with other candidates and look forward to well-planned debates with transparent processes."

At one point, CIUT — a University of Toronto campus radio station — tweeted that the four candidates taking part in the debate were Ford, Tory, Chow and Sarah Thomson. It wasn't clear why they weren't including candidates David Soknacki and Karen Stintz.

When the Sun inquired Friday who was attending the debate, organizers couldn't provide an answer.

Ford was asked about the debate Thursday and complained he had few details about the event.

[jon]

What the writer didn't say is that CIUT-FM just lost their transmitter, and is running on a borrowed one with so little power that coverage is really compromised.

The station is still on the air, with a severely diminished signal and reach, after a radio engineer hooked up a power amplifier to an antenna in the building.
ref. - http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/community-radio-station-ciut-calls-for-help-after-transmitter-dies-1.2604038

They don't subscribe to BBM, but it is still safe to say that the candidates had to be asking themselves if it was the best use of their time be heard on a station with few listeners with a transmitter that does not reach most of those listeners.