OTTAWA – Campus and community radio stations in Canada must maintain their current levels of Canadian content, the CRTC said Thursday. It also declined to set requirements on volunteer participation.
While the Commission originally released its revised campus and community radio policy in July 2010, it launched three follow-up proceedings calling for comments on amending the radio regulations, Canadian content requirements and volunteer participation, and the structural and operational plan proposed by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.
In Thursday’s follow up proceeding, the CRTC directed campus and community radio stations to maintain their current level of musical selections – 35% from content category 2 (popular music) and at least 12% from content category 3 (special interest music) to Canadian selections. It expressed concern that that increasing the level of Canadian content could “increase the repetition of certain selections, thereby decreasing the diversity of programming that campus and community stations provide”.
This prompted a dissenting opinion by Commissioner Peter Menzies who said that there was no longer a compelling argument as to “why community and campus radio licensees should not support the country that supports them by dedicating at least 40% -if not 50% – of their musical selections to the music of Canada”.
“For the most part, this argument focuses on the Anglophone sector as there are differences in the structure and funding of the Francophone sector in Quebec that tend to define it uniquely”, Menzies wrote. “There is, however, no reason to exclude the Francophone/Quebec sector from the argument. Indeed, given the high priority and necessity for the preservation and promotion of Canada’s Francophone culture, this specific argument in terms of Canadian content expectations is even more vital.”
The Commission also said that while it is not necessary to establish general requirements on volunteer participation, it reserved the right to impose such requirements by condition of licence on a case by case basis, as necessary.
“The Policy states that the campus and community radio sector has provided, and should continue to provide, distinctive programming opportunities and other means of access to the Canadian broadcasting system in the communities its stations serve”, the decision reads. “The Commission therefore expects that programming produced by campus and community stations will be produced, in part, by volunteers and that volunteers will form a part of the overall operations of campus and community stations.”
The amended regulations will come into force on 1 September 2011.
