tranquileye free media papers

In this public notice, the Commission sets out an integrated policy framework for community-based media. The framework includes a replacement for Community channel policy, Public Notice CRTC 1991-59, 5 June 1991, a new licensing framework for community-based television undertakings and a replacement for A licensing policy for low-power radio broadcasting, Public Notice CRTC 1993-95, 28 June 1993.

This CRTC public notice detail's the Commission's 2000 policy on community-based campus radio.

Introduction: This document sets out the Commission’s revised policy for campus radio broadcasting, concluding the review announced in Public Notice CRTC 1997-105. The policy it replaces has been effect since 1992 (Public Notice CRTC 1992-38). The revised policy set out in this document provides more flexibility to campus radio stations by streamlining the various regulatory and administrative requirements to which they are subject. In developing the revised policy, the Commission has considered the written comments submitted with respect to its proposed new policy for campus radio contained in Public Notice CRTC 1999-30... Section 3(1)(b) of the Broadcasting Act (the Act) provides for a Canadian broadcasting system composed of public, private and community elements. Campus radio stations are an important element of the Canadian broadcasting system. The primary purpose of such stations is to offer programming that is different in style and substance from the programming offered by other types of radio stations... Campus radio stations are not-for-profit undertakings associated with institutions of post-secondary education. Campus radio stations rely almost exclusively on volunteers from the campus, and from the community at large, for their programming and operation. For the purpose of the policy, the term "volunteers" includes students.

By Dr. Jo Tacchi, CIRAC, Queensland University of Technology, and Eryl Price-Davies, Radio Broadcasting, Thames Valley University. Radio, Television And The New Media: Australian Broadcasting Authority Conference, May 3 & 4 2001.

From introduction: This paper emerges from what began as a tightly focussed project commissioned by the UK’s Community Media Association (CMA). The CMA began life in 1983 as the Community Radio Association. In 1997 it changed its name to allow for community TV, and to reflect the changing media environment and incorporation of new media technologies that might be used for community building purposes. Since its inception it has been fighting for the right to broadcast community radio. Finally, in the UK, after years of lobbying, the opportunity to change the broadcasting legislation and allow for a ‘third tier’ of radio broadcasting has arrived... Rather than spending time thinking about why it has taken so long, this paper hopes to make explicit the current concerns about the processes involved in legislating for, regulating and putting into practice such an ambition.

November 4th 2004. National Campus and Community Radio Association presentation to the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission in response to Broadcasting Notice of Public Hearing CRTC 2004-6.

August 2, 2005. Appeal to the federal cabinet in regards to the CRTC's decisions to grant broadcasting licences for both CSR (Decision 2005-246) and Sirius Canada (Decision 2005-247) to provide satellite radio services in Canada from Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA), American Federation of Musicians (Canada) (AFM), Canadian Auto Workers (CAW), Canadian Conference of the Arts (CCA), Canadian Film and Television Production Association (CFTPA), Canadian Independent Record Production Association (CIRPA), Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), Communications, Energy & Paperworkers Union (CEP), Directors Guild of Canada (DGC), Friends of Canadian Broadcasting (FCB), National Campus & Community Radio Association (NCRA/ANREC), Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers (SOCAN), Songwriters Association of Canada (SAC), United Steel Workers (USW), and Writers Guild of Canada (WGC).

November 4, 2005. This is the response to the call for comments on CRTC Broadcasting Public Notice 2005-94, from the National Campus and Community Radio Association/l’Association nationale étudiantes et communautaires (NCRA/ANREC), l’Alliance des radios communautaires du Canada (ARC du Canada), and l’Association des radiodiffuseurs communautaires du Québec (ARCQ).

A brief report detailing the efforts of the National Campus and Community Radio Association (NCRA/ANREC) to the lobby the Ontario government to provide funding for community and student radio stations in the province in 1988 and 1989.

Student and community broadcasters have mixed feelings about the Commission's current movement toward deregulation. On one hand, we are very encouraged by the prospect of a regulatory environment which is more responsive to the needs of community radio. On the other hand, we are concerned that deregulation could mean a serious decline in the quality of commercial radio. We believe a simplification of regulation can encourage the development of a radio system which is varied and comprehensive, of high quality, and predominantly Canadian. We are concerned that commercial broadcasters may not be able to accomplish this if left to themselves. One need only look south of the border to the United States for a model of how not to deregulate.

John Stevenson's submission in response to CRTC Public Notice 1991-118, the review of campus radio.

Exerpt: The commission and college broadcasters had intended to capture something of the 1970s university culture in student radio. But by the early 1980s, the campus environment had changed significantly, and a majority of students were listening to formatted commercial FM radio and enjoying the mainstream music it played. In order to maintain (or in some cases recapture) its vitality, college radio had to latch on to a new genre: new music. At CKDU-FM Halifax they called it the "the Fall of the Bearded Ones." Most campus stations seem to have a story from this period about a music director who went through the record library throwing away huge piles of music. Depending on the station, it was either all the old dinosaur rock and disco, or all the punk and new wave. Regardless, the die had been cast, and "alternative" cameto mean something more narrowly sub-cultural. Instead of an enlightened student body, the audience was now the punks, new mods, and other "alternative" types.

As essay by Tim McLaughlin on the 1990s campus radio crisis.

In April 1992, a referendum was held to decide if Ryerson's CKLN should continue to receive student funding. The referendum was the result of a petition signed by 131 students "who complained that most of Ryerson's 12,000 students don't listen to the music" (Globe and Mail, 31 March 1992). The petition was started by engineering student Bruce Avery who claimed that "They (CKLN) use our money to play stuff that a very select number of students listen to, like calypso and ska. Not a lot of students are into that" [Eyeopener, 20 Mar 91]. CKLN, however, sees the referendum as a reaction to its programming policies: "This situation facing CKLN is only one instance of the conservative backlash against progressively student-supported groups on campuses across Canada, and the backlash against all progressive communications both nationally and globally" [CKLN Program Guide, Jul-Sep 91.] On Dec. 19th, CBC's Prime Time correspondent Sue Gardner, listed stations that were feeling pressure similar to CKLN; among them were CJSR (Edmonton), CJAM (Windsor), and CHSR (Fredericton). CHRW (London) may also be added to this list. Mario Circelli, station manager for CHRW, comments:

If we start walking the path of CKLN in Toronto, we're dead. CKLN is almost dead. The students at CKLN are going to put out a referendum; they don't want their money going there any more. Advertisers don't want to advertise on that radio station any more. How do they expect to pay their bills? How do they expect to have equipment? [Personal communication.]

Alternative stations across Canada are under pressure to justify their position in the mediascape. In response to this pressure many have changed their program content and mode of operation. These changes are significant enough to mark a break from what has been formerly understood as alternative radio. This shift is best understood in relation to four primary models for radio broadcast.