Amid a barrage of broadcast, cable and satellite heavyweights appearing before the CRTC as it ponders the future of Canadian TV, a sole grass-roots voice gained a measure of applause Tuesday.

The voice was that of Pam Astbury, president of Save Our CBC Kamloops (SOCK), a Lilliputian of a lobby group out to defend and shore up Canadian content on the box.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been more intimidated in my life,” Astbury said from Ottawa.

Astbury urged the commission to apply a technology known as multiplexing to the Kamloops transmitter to return CBC-TV to local airwaves. She also called on the CRTC to mandate the CBC to include Kamloops on its list of digital conversions for 2011.

“We are lobbying at the front of the wave to ensure there is no further erosion of other stations and we want to see the restoration of what we used to have,” she said.

SOCK has been lobbying for the return of CBC since CFJC-TV disaffiliated from the public broadcaster several years ago. While the group has gained an ally or two, they’ve managed little headway. Much of the public is unaware of what may lie in store for TV in general, Astbury noted.

“Once our repeater gets old, there is no obligation. It will be just shut down. The question is, will CFJC have the money to replace it?”

There is no guarantee that local broadcasting can continue to have a presence in the Canadian digital conversion or rollout that proceeds in 14 months’ time, she noted.

That contention doesn’t square with the view of Rick Arnish, president of the Pattison Broadcast group and general manager of CFJC. Arnish is to appear before the CRTC hearing in Gatineau, Que., Tuesday on behalf of small-market, independently owned TV stations (SMITS).

“We’re solid,” Arnish said of the local station. “I think the media industry in markets like Kamloops will continue to do reasonably well.”

Arnish plans to tell the commission that small-market stations want no place in the pitted battle between major broadcasters and cable providers over fees for carriage. Networks such as CTV Global have been campaigning for the fees they argue are essential to maintain Canadian-produced shows.

Yet the status quo is working from a small-market perspective, Arnish said. Local content is key.

“We’re more interested in making sure the Local Programming Improvement Fund continues in perpetuity.”

The industry as a whole is in a bind, Arnish agreed. Ultimately consumers may pay the cost.

“The (CRTC) chairman’s trying to get the parties to sit down and negotiate fees and obviously the BDUs (cable and satellite providers) don’t want to negotiate fees. You’re in a no-win situation right off the bat.”

Astbury said the CRTC indicated it plans to raise the local transmitter issue with Arnish.

“The way they see it, it should be on his agenda,” she said. “That message was loud and clear.”

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