Vancouver: Rogers Media and CanWest Global are among the six organizations expecting to file full proposals by June 29 to start an over-the-air multilingual station for the Vancouver market.

Letters of intent were also filed by IT Productions (run by South Asian broadcaster Sushma Datt of Vancouver’s Rim Jhim Radio), Vancouver-based Mainstream Broadcasting Corporation (operator of multilingual radio station AM 1320), Vancouver-based Focus Entertainment Group and an applicant represented by Richmond, B.C., law firm Campbell Froh May & Rice.

While letters of intent were due May 15, there is no barrier to other organizations such as multilingual television broadcaster Fairchild Media Group to file full proposals by June 29.

The new station competition is the third television race for the Vancouver market since 1995 and the third attempt by Rogers Media to start a CFMT-style station on the West Coast. After Rogers Media’s last application in 1999 was denied in a decision that split the CRTC commissioner panel, advocates for local ethnic television successfully lobbied the federal Heritage Ministry to intervene and order a new round of applications.

The Rogers applications is expected to offer viewers local programs and Canadian content in at least 15 different languages to 18 communities.

According to multilingual station supporters, the Vancouver market has 800,000 residents for whom neither English nor French is a first language. *