Q&A: As Canadian private radio falters, how are public stations beating the odds?

How Canadians approach radio has dramatically changed in recent years, according to Barry Rooke, executive director of the National Campus and Community Radio Association. A new report from Statistics Canada suggests people are transitioning away from commercial radio stations, while public radio numbers continue to grow, and Rooke believes that trend won’t stop anytime soon. In an exclusive interview with The Wire Report, Rooke theorizes why the commercial and public radio industries are moving in two different directions, and explains why community radio offers a service that transcends demographic challenges. Recent data from StatsCan painted a rosy picture for public radio in Canada, but how would you assess the state of the industry? The report itself doesn’t overall surprise me. It might paint a bit more of a positive picture because there’s a number of areas that aren’t as strong on our side of things because this data also includes the CBC element. When you look at interest and need, it definitely doesn’t surprise me. We’re seeing more and more organizations reach out to us and say they don’t have local media anymore, so they need a radio station. That happens somewhat frequently. I get a new inquiry every couple of weeks. Last week, we actually just added two new members to our organization. Where are those members located? One is in Tilbury, Ont., a small town between London and Windsor. It’s actually a newspaper group that wants to add the radio element to what they do. The second one is Mohawk College in Hamilton, Ont. Since the college’s broadcasting school is closed, they no longer have the support of professors or anything like that. So, they’re in the process of attempting to figure out how they manage going forward. The StatsCan report showed growth for public radio in Canada, but it also suggested the private radio industry was in a state of free-fall. Do you have any theories to explain that? If I were to guess, it’s really tied to listening habits. When you’re playing in the competition with fewer and fewer competitors, you’re always aiming for that centre mark. The fact is music, as a general ask, is widely available in so many other spaces, it’s hard to cater to people’s attention. So, the drive on your top 40 stations or CHR (contemporary hit radio) stations always pushes toward how many people are going to listen to the most popular music there, but there’s a lot of people that can get it exactly the way they want in another way. It’s a little bit like the wine industry, and I should note that I also run the National Cider Association. Just as there’s no younger wine consumers, there’s no younger commercial radio consumers. They find what they want in a different space, so you’re losing that listenership because it naturally drops off as older people pass on. When you’re talking about campus or community radio, it’s much more local. It’s about presenting people’s ideas, discourse, and all those things you don’t typically see in commercial radio. But could public radio not also face the same demographic challenges? Are you confident that younger people will continue to listen to community stations? More stations recognize they are a space for ideas and information to flow, and less about FM broadcasting. One broadcasts at the people, and one is the people broadcasting for the people. So, I think the younger generation is still drawn to that type of information. Now, are they consuming through different mediums? Absolutely. And, that’s where having a block on Meta Platforms Inc. for campus and community radio stations has been a broader challenge, but I do think our listening numbers in general are trending upwards. There is hope for and awareness around a younger demographic, but we’re still going to be fighting, as with everybody, for total attention and time. You’re describing a pretty fundamental shift in how people approach radio in Canada. Is that fair to say? I think so. With the changing technologies, if stations are not paying attention to what they offer, then the solutions go away. On the commercial side, what typically draws is the number of listeners to draw as much advertising as you can to generate as much revenue for who owns the station. Our organizations operate on much different viewpoints, almost like service organizations to the community. They’re actively looking for ways in which they can make positive impacts in the community that are not tied to generating revenue. Of course, they need to be operational, so there’s always that element of things, but it is still really the focus on listeners and what their needs are, as opposed to how many people are paying attention, so you can sell your ads. If you were to get out the crystal ball, what does radio in Canada look like in 20 or 30 years? Do you think there will still be private stations? Or, will it just be local community stations operating, like you said, as a public service? If I was to parallel what happened in television, with the streaming platforms, you saw Canadian TV make those pivots, like Bell with Crave as a focal point. The idea is that people are looking for content in a different form and they want it on demand. Radio is moving in that direction, and I think commercial stations have been making some adjustments. For example, Global has a series of podcasts that are doing decently well, so I think commercial radio will continue to adapt to those elements. I don’t think it’s going to go dramatically away, but it will continue to be less impactful and more of a generic answer to a lot of what the mass population is looking for. I also think there’s a media literacy element and a need to share stories, which is another angle that community stations are taking leadership in. Whether it’s local information, or people wanting to know what’s happening in municipal politics, or what’s going on in and around town, but also the fun entertainment stuff about festivals or all those hyper-local things, I don’t necessarily see that going away. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. dlegree@thewirereport.ca

Q&A: As Canadian private radio falters, how are public stations beating the odds?

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By Davis Legree
|July 10, 2026

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Q&A: As Canadian private radio falters, how are public stations beating the odds?

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