CRTC to consider new funding models for community and campus radio stations

If many community and campus (C/C) radio stations have their way, broadcasters, BDUs and even telecom companies will be forced by the CRTC to begin subsidizing community radio. It’s a controversial proposal, and one of many that will be hotly debated at a November hearing to consider new funding models, micro-radio stations and radio stations operated by elementary and high schools. On Monday, the CRTC announced that it would hold a public hearing Nov. 30 to look at updating its nine-year-old regulations governing C/C stations (2009-418). The notice follows a cross-Canada consultation held between March 25 and April 21 with 49 stations and several industry associations to discuss issues affecting the sector, including funding, programming, regulatory requirements, new media and the representation of official language minority communities. The deadline for written comments is Sept. 11. During the consultations, C/C representatives stressed that the single biggest issue facing their sector is sustainable funding. “Representatives from across the country repeated that the priority for their stations is survival rather than advancement. Like other broadcasters, though with often far inferior revenues, the C/C sector faces challenges paying for such basic necessities as rent, staff, rights management, equipment and training,” states a June 15 background report on the meetings prepared by the CRTC. C/C stations rely on a mix of limited advertising, fundraising drives, grants, donations and, for campus radio stations, student fees to barely sustain their operations, with little or none left over for new initiatives. In comparison, commercial radio services generated $1.5 billion in 2007, a 6% or $87 million increase over the previous year, and CBC received $1 billion of its $1.6 billion in revenues from Parliamentary appropriation for the 2007-2008 broadcast year. “Commission staff was reminded that the C/C sector neither generates revenues, nor does it receive funding, which approaches the magnitude of the revenue generated by the commercial and public sectors,” the CRTC report notes. There was no shortage of ideas from the C/C sector on possible solutions to its core funding problem, which they estimated would require an annual cash influx of between $40,000 to $100,000 per station. They include: Redistributing a portion of the Part II licensing fees collected by the CRTC from radio broadcasters Mandated contributions from commercial radio sector (as they currently do with contributions from FACTOR and MUSICACTION) Mandated contributions from all companies regulated by the CRTC (radio and television broadcasters, BDUs and telecom companies) The CRTC is willing to consider the issue, and is soliciting ideas on what funding models for C/C radio are viable in the short, medium and long term. High school radio coming soon? As part of its review, the CRTC is considering reversing its longstanding policy of not allowing elementary and high schools to operate an AM or FM community or campus radio station. It began softening its stand two years ago when it licensed a radio station in the National Capital Region targeted at children aged 4 to 18, and a French-language one in Quebec that is broadcasting about 20 hours a week of programming produced by students at a local high school. In this current review, the regulator asks for feedback on whether it should award elementary or high school based stations licences or exempt them from licensing, and what requirements should go with such approval. The CRTC is also floating the idea of “micro radio stations” for smaller towns and rural areas, as well as for Anglophones living in predominately francophone communities and francophones living in majority Anglophone communities. These stations would operate a very low power and offer limited local programming mixed with programming from other communities. Like the school-run stations, they would also be either licensed or licence-exempt. “The model would involve limited production facilities in a number of locations across the province. All programming would be linked via the Internet so that it is shared on a centralized server. Programming could therefore vary across the entire network at the discretion of the operator of each station. Such a model would also allow for local programming inserts,” the CRTC states. On the programming side, the commission is considering adding a new category called “experimental music”. The move was prompted primarily by the emergence of “turntablism”, also known as “DJ-ing”, which uses turntables as musical instruments to alter and manipulate the sound of recorded music. Unlike conventional forms of music, turntablism is difficult to apply Canadian content requirements to (MAPL criteria), considering the source music and lyrics are not always Canadian. As a possible solution, the CRTC has proposed an experimental music category which would cover turntablism, audio-art, musique actuelle, electro acoustic, and sound ecology: “When determining the requirements of the MAPL designation system, the artist component could be fulfilled if the turntablist or sound artist is Canadian,” states a study the commission prepared on turntablism.

CRTC to consider new funding models for community and campus radio stations

Broadcast | July 15, 2009

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