it’s been a long July for WIC Western International Communications, which is weathering the loss of president and ceo Doug Holtby and a depressed financial third quarter.

Although revenue is up 7% to $352.5 million over the same period last year for the nine months ending May 31, 1996, wic’s national rights buying spree pounded operating income, which declined from $74.5 million to $65.6 million. Net earnings also declined from $18.5 million to $13.5 million for the nine-month period. Costs associated with severance package payouts and defending the CanWest takeover pitch are also being tagged for the loss.

Revenues for the tv group ran $207.8 million, up 4% compared to the same time last year, but operating income sank from $56.4 million to $48 million. Pay-tv revenues, long a non sequitur, rose to $23.7 million, up from $22.8 million last year, with operating income rising 2% to $4.3 million.

On the brighter side, wic’s 53.7% interest in Canadian Satellite Communications reports revenues of $67.1 million for the nine months, up 15% over last year. Operating income increased by 4% to $10.8 million.

In this strange summer solstice that is seeing network and development corp execs vacating the premises, Holtby’s resignation is perhaps the biggest surprise, coming on the heels of the departure of bctv exec Ron Bremner and the retirement of longtime Westcom TV Group president Don Smith. Smith was replaced by chch president Jim Macdonald.

Holtby resigned July 2, shocking both the board of directors and the industry by leaving while wic is in the eye of the storm on several fronts; pushing into Ontario, pushing back in Alberta, forced to increase its national rights program buys, and pitching a handful of new specialty channels.

Holtby, who has been with wic since 1989 and with Allarcom since 1973, will remain with the company until a replacement is named, and act as a consultant indefinitely while pursuing his own investment interests. Free-floating speculation is running to where he’ll land next, including a rumor that Holtby could potentially launch a wic takeover bid with BCE Inc. He is the largest individual shareholder behind the Griffiths and Allard families, with 541,600 shares or 2.3% of the company. Holtby did not return an interview request.

In other wic news, bctv Vancouver and chek-tv Victoria have been awarded six-year licence renewals, with the crtc saying it is satisfied Westcom has addressed the accounting problems that prompted strong words and a one-year operating licence last year.

chek will continue to produce programming including Nanaimo Report, CHEK Around, Home Check and Up and Coming and will allocate $70,000 annually to program development. bctv will continue to produce Performers, Canada Tonight and Sports N.W. and will allocate $180,000 annually to program development.

The licence renewal is good through to Aug. 31, 2002 and is a year short of the maximum licence period available to broadcasters. The truncated licence is not another penalty, says the crtc. Rather, the six-year renewal is granted to coincide with the commission’s regional plan and to better distribute the crtc workload.