CRTC authorizes one-year trial for spoken word on FM

By Ahmad Hathout

The CRTC approved Friday a proposal it made this past fall that would allow broadcasters to introduce spoken word programming on the FM dial.

The regulator will allow licensees of commercial FM radio stations to devote more than 50 per cent of weekly programming for that type of content for a one-year trial period.

The companies must notify the commission by letter within 30 days of the end of the broadcast week that they have participated in the trial and whether they intend to continue and for how long. If before the end of one year, the stations stop broadcasting the requisite amount of spoken word content during the week, they cannot re-start without CRTC approval. If they wish to continue broadcasting that amount of content past that first year, they will need to apply for a condition of service to do so.

“The objective of this measure is to support news and other community information, while making sure that communities do not lose access to spoken word content, consistent with the policy objective set out at subparagraph 3(1)(i)(ii.1) of the Act to ensure that news programming that reflects the viewpoints of Canadians is included in the Canadian broadcasting system,” the CRTC said in October.

“The Commission is of the view that the production of spoken word content is essential as it helps maintain diversity in the broadcasting system and is in the public interest,” the CRTC said in that October decision. “Accordingly, the Commission considers it appropriate for FM stations that currently operate under the specialty (spoken word) format to keep their condition of service relating to spoken word content.”

The Forum for Research and Policy in Communications (FRPC), a public interest organization, opposed the proposal because of concerns that it is a policy that will encourage commercial FM stations to pursue a programming strategy that has proven ineffective for inactive spoken word stations, and because the CRTC hasn’t instituted an adequate mechanism to evaluate the trial period.

“FRPC opposed the CRTC’s proposal to enable commercial FM radio stations to transform themselves effectively into commercial AM radio stations,” Monica Auer, the public interest group’s executive director, told Cartt on Friday.

“What is as, if not far more, puzzling, however, is the CRTC’s decision that it need not evaluate the impact of this major policy shift,” she told us. “FRPC proposed that the Commission collect broadcast-log data before and after FM stations take advantage of the 2025-261 change, to enable the Commission to measure the effects of its policy change. The CRTC has instead decided to continue its decades-long practice of not providing Parliament with any objective information about how the Commission is implementing Canada’s broadcasting policy. The CRTC is Parliament’s delegate: regulating without measurement negates accountability.”

In a comment piece this past summer, Auer argued that the CRTC already has a data transparency problem.

Both Rogers and Corus recently pitched the idea of allowing spoken word on FM at a recent hearing and in submissions to the regulator. They noted that electric vehicles are leaving the lot without AM functionality – where spoken word is traditionally contained – and asked for the flexibility to transition spoken word to the FM dial.