Building Clear Sky Radio and launching new stations taught me something that took time to fully appreciate.
Sometimes the best business decision is to walk away from an opportunity, even when the opportunity itself is attractive.
Clear Sky started with a clear vision to apply for new FM licences in smaller and mid-sized markets that were either underserved or dominated by a single owner. At the time, the CRTC was licensing new stations and looking to encourage greater diversity of ownership. We believed we had a realistic chance of winning a licence by focusing on markets where our proposal could make a meaningful difference.
When the CRTC invited applications for a new station in Calgary, I saw an opportunity that was hard to ignore. Winning would have been a major achievement. But Calgary was outside the parameters we’d established, and I let the excitement of the opportunity pull me away from our original plan.
While I was working on the Calgary application, the CRTC issued a call for applications in Lethbridge, a market that fit our vision perfectly. By then, we’d already invested significant time and money in Calgary, so I pressed on with that application while starting work on Lethbridge.
Then, just a week later, the CRTC issued another call, this time for Fort McMurray. On paper, it also fit our criteria: a smaller market with just two stations under one owner. So I added it to the list.
Suddenly, I was preparing three CRTC applications simultaneously. I’d never written one before, let alone three, and I was doing much of the work myself. What had started as a clear strategy had become an enormous, stressful undertaking.
Looking back, I can see that I let the excitement of Calgary pull me away from our original strategy. And with Fort McMurray, I focused on how well the market fit our criteria on paper without giving enough thought to the economics and logistical challenges of operating a station in such a remote location.
We ultimately won only Lethbridge, which became the foundation of Clear Sky Radio. It was the right market for us, and the outcome couldn’t have been better.
I can’t say with certainty that we would have won Lethbridge if it had been our only application. What I can say is that pursuing those first three opportunities taught me a great deal about the difference between finding an opportunity and deciding whether it was right for our business. I didn’t fully appreciate that distinction at the time. It took experience for me to understand it.
As the CRTC continued to issue calls for applications across Western Canada, I began to approach opportunities differently.
Not long after I had completed those first three applications, the Commission issued a call for Medicine Hat, Alberta. Applying was an easy decision. The market was only two hours from Lethbridge, in the same region, and fit our strategy well. Medicine Hat became our fourth application and our second CRTC win.
Just as I was wrapping up the Medicine Hat application, the CRTC issued calls for Saskatoon and Regina. This time, we didn’t automatically add two more markets to the list. We took a closer look at market size, ownership, the fact that our other applications were all in Alberta, and what expanding into another province would mean for the business. After weighing those factors, we decided not to apply.
I wanted to build a large, independent radio company and Saskatoon and Regina were attractive markets. Saying no wasn’t easy. My ego was telling me to do otherwise. But I came to believe that passing on those opportunities was the right decision for the company at that time. Perhaps I was learning after all.
As Clear Sky grew, we made other decisions not to pursue opportunities because we recognized that doing so would keep us focused and make the business stronger. The experience taught me that strategy isn’t just about identifying opportunities worth pursuing. It’s also about having the discipline to recognize when an attractive opportunity isn’t the right one for your business.
That discipline takes time to develop, and I certainly haven’t perfected it. That doesn’t mean it’s never valuable to take chances or reach beyond defined goals. Sometimes those exceptions lead to the best opportunities. But I’ve learned that sometimes the lesson comes from mistakes, and sometimes from the opportunities you choose to leave on the table.
Even when you know better, the temptation to make an exception never entirely goes away. The challenge is remembering what you’ve learned—and applying it when the next opportunity comes along.
