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Decision
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Ottawa, 13 August 1990
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Decision CRTC 90-700
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Radio Communautaire du Saguenay Inc.
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Jonquière, Quebec - 894300300
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Following a Public Hearing in Montréal beginning on 13 March 1990, the Commission renews the broadcasting licence for CHOC-MF Jonquière for a period of one year only, from 1 September 1990 to 31 August 1991, subject to the conditions specified in this decision and in the licence to be issued.
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As a consequence of its repeated failure to comply with Commission regulations, the licensee is hereby put on notice that further non-compliance in relation to CHOC-MF's performance during this one-year renewal period may result in it being called to a public hearing to show cause as to why its licence should be renewed.
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The two previous licence renewals granted to CHOC-MF (Decisions CRTC 86-603 and 88-720) were for terms of two years only, because of difficulties encountered by the licensee in adhering to various programming commitments included in its Promise of Performance. In Decision CRTC 88-720, the Commission required the licensee to take whatever measures were necessary to strengthen the control mechanisms employed at the station to ensure full compliance at all times with its Promise of Performance and with Commission policies and regulations. At the 13 March hearing, the licensee outlined its efforts during the current licence term to fulfill the requirements set out in Decision CRTC 88-720. It noted that it had recently introduced a number of mechanisms designed to provide more effective control over its programming, including the maintenance of music logs and other monitoring; it has also developed a program production guide, and has improved training for volunteer staff, who account for 50% of the station's production.
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Despite the measures taken by the licensee, the Commission is seriously concerned with the licensee's failure to comply with a fundamental requirement of the Radio Regulations, 1986 (the regulations): subsections 8(5) and 8(6) of the regulations require that a licensee retain and furnish to the Commission upon request "a clear and intelligible tape recording or other exact copy of all matter broadcast" for a minimum of four weeks from the date of the broadcast.
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The licensee was in fact unable to meet a Commission request for logger tapes of the CHOC-MF programming for the week of 4 to 10 June 1989 as a result of technical malfunctions. Moreover, the logger tapes submitted for the programming broadcast during the week of 23 to 29 July 1989 were unintelligible.
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At the hearing, the licensee explained that it had its recording equipment repaired in summer 1989 immediately after it became aware of the malfunction. It claimed that, because it had only one tape recorder at the time, it was not able to verify adequately the quality of the recording, except at night when the station was not broadcasting. It added, however, that it has subsequently acquired a second, higher quality tape recorder capable of recording without defect, allowing it to perform the required quality checks.
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The Commission denies the proposal to increase the maximum repeat factor for category 5 music selections from 10 to 14 on the grounds that such an increase would not foster musical diversity as advocated in the community radio policy. Accordingly, the licensee is required to file with the Commission, within 60 days of this decision, a revised Promise of Performance reflecting a maximum repeat factor of 10.
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The Commission reaffirms the particular importance it attaches to the development of Canadian talent, and encourages the licensee to develop new initiatives for the support, development and on-air exposure of local and regional talent during the new licence term.
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It is a condition of licence that the licensee not broadcast more than an average of 4 minutes of advertising per hour per day, with a maximum of 6 minutes per hour, in accordance with the community radio policy relating to Type B stations.
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It is a condition of licence that the licensee adhere to the Canadian Association of Broadcasters' (CAB) self-regulatory guidelines on sex-role stereotyping, as amended from time to time and approved by the Commission. It is also a condition of licence that the licensee adhere to the provisions of the CAB's Broadcast Code for Advertising to Children, as amended from time to time and approved by the Commission.
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The Commission has noted the written intervention filed by the Association des radiodiffuseurs communautaires du Québec in support of the renewal of the CHOC-MF licence.
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Alain-F. Desfossés
Secretary General
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