GRANT ROBERTSON

Globe and Mail Update

TORONTO — — The battle for radio listeners in Canada is about to get a little more intense after the country's largest radio broadcaster signalled yesterday that it wants to claim a bigger piece of the ratings pie in several key markets.

Astral Media Inc.,  [ACM.A-T]which bought Standard Broadcasting Ltd. this year for $1.08-billion, told investors at its annual meeting in Toronto that it plans to mount a push in major cities where it has recently acquired stations.

The first priority is Toronto, where each one-per-cent ratings gain is worth roughly $2.3-million in revenue, Astral chief executive officer Ian Greenberg said. After that, the company wants to focus on Vancouver.

"You can do the math on what a one-point increase at each of our three Toronto radio stations would mean to the bottom line," he told investors.

The Standard takeover has turned Montreal-based Astral into an 81-station national broadcaster.

It owns 60 FM stations and 21 AM stations, including Toronto's EZ ROCK, MIX 99.9, and CFRB.

It has also acquired some of the top-rated FM stations in Canada, including CJAY 92 in Calgary and The Bear in Edmonton.

Mr. Greenberg said the country's biggest markets will be the focus of a marketing and advertising push to gain audience share.

"We have our own way of doing this, whether it's research, whether it's sales motivation. But we'll be spending a lot of time making sure we increase the ratings across the country," he said.

As the company digests the Standard purchase — the largest deal in its history — Mr. Greenberg doesn't see any other significant media deals looming on the horizon.

"As we sit here today, there may not be a major acquisition. In fact as far as I know there isn't. But that doesn't mean six months or a year from today, the positions won't be different," he said.

Mr. Greenberg said the company is not hamstrung financially should the opportunity for another acquisition arise. Astral has always been mentioned as a possible buyer of Corus Entertainment Inc., which is controlled by Calgary's Shaw family, who says those assets are not up for sale.

"The fact is, we do our homework. I have a file on just about every media company in the country. So, when an opportunity comes about, we know whether it will fit into our growth strategy and what is the price range we can afford."

Astral increased its annual dividend yesterday to 50 cents from 40 cents, and said it plans to buy back as much as 2.6 per cent of its shares. The company's dividend has more than tripled since 2004, Mr. Greenberg noted.