ARCHIVED -  Decision CRTC 91-361

Decision

Ottawa, 31 May 1991

Decision CRTC 91-361

Radio Communautaire du Saguenay Inc.
Jonquière, Quebec - 902858000

Following a Public Hearing in Quebec City beginning on 5 March 1991, the Commission renews the broadcasting licence for CHOC-FM Jonquière for a period of eight months, from 1 September 1991 to 30 April 1992, subject to the conditions specified in this decision and in the licence to be issued.

In granting this renewal for a period of eight months only, the Commission wishes to give the licensee one last opportunity to demonstrate that it can fulfill the responsibilities of operating a community radio station. The Commission again puts the licensee on notice that if it fails to comply with the commitments set out in its Promise of Performance, with the provisions of the community radio policy and with the Radio Regulations, 1986 (the regulations) throughout this eight-month period, it will be called to appear at a public hearing to show cause why an application for further renewal of its broadcasting licence should not be denied. In deciding to grant this last chance to CHOC-FM, the Commission has relied on the statements made by station representatives at the hearing. These representatives appear to realize the gravity of the deficiencies in CHOC-FM's operations over the last few years, including an almost total absence of programming control measures and systems to ensure consistency in management.

It was noted at the hearing that almost all of the station's administrators have been replaced and that a recovery plan has been adopted following a general meeting of the members on 6 February 1991. To ensure more effective control over programming, a monitoring committee consisting of the permanent program hosts and chaired by the station's general manager is charged with ensuring strict adherence to the program logs. A broadcasting guide is to be made available to help train volunteers and ensure continuity. A new notice board and in-house newsletter will be used to improve internal communications.

The Commission also notes that community funding appears to have been declining steadily and rapidly since 1986, indicating that community interest in the station has diminished. The licensee attributed this trend to a lack of regular fund-raising activities, and indicated that new systems have been been put in place to make the station self-supporting.

This renewal is the fourth consecutive short-term renewal that the Commission has granted the licensee. On separate occasions in 1986 and 1988 (Decisions CRTC 86-603 and 88-720), the licence was renewed for a period of only two years due to the licensee's failure to honour certain of the commitments contained in its Promise of Performance. In 1990 (Decision CRTC 90-700), a one-year renewal was granted following the licensee's repeated failure to comply with the Regulations.

Despite the severe warning contained in the last decision regarding the consequences of continued non-compliance, the most recent analysis by the Commission and the self-assessment by the licensee which were conducted in October 1990 again revealed compliance problems with regard to the level of foreground programming, French-language vocal music, Category 6 music (Traditional and Special Interest), and logger tapes.

In this regard, the licensee stated that a new program line-up was launched in February 1991, and that concrete measures have been taken to correct the deficiencies reported in the analyses.

With regard to foreground programming, the Commission's analysis on 18 October 1990 revealed a level of 7.1%, and the self-assessment by the licensee during the week of 14-20 October 1990 indicated a level of 15%. The licensee's commitment in this area is 20%. The licensee stated that its program schedule now includes four new public affairs magazine programs, each lasting 1 hour and 30 minutes. It also acknowledged that, at the time of the public hearing, while it was not meeting its commitment with regard to spoken word programming, it had already replaced 13 hours of musical programming by spoken word material, and that a further 2 hours would be added. With regard to French-language vocal music, the licensee stated that it had broadcast only 59.3% as indicated in its self-assessment, rather than 65% as promised, due to a transmitter failure during the week of the analysis which prevented it from broadcasting 5 hours of primarily French-language music programming. It claimed that its actual level of French-language vocal music is over 65%.

The licensee's self-assessment also indicated a level of 7 hours 50 minutes of Category 6 music, while its weekly commitment is 9 hours 12 minutes. To correct this deficiency, the licensee inserted a program devoted exclusively to this music category in the noon to 1:00 p.m. time period from Monday to Thursday.

The Commission also audited the logger tape submitted by the licensee for 18 October 1990, and found that the tape was of poor quality and often inaudible. Since 1987, the licensee has failed on four occasions to comply with subsections 8(5) and 8(6) of the regulations, either by failing to furnish logger tapes or by submitting unintelligible logger tapes.

At the hearing the licensee indicated that, after unsuccessful attempts to repair its audio tape recorder, it had obtained an audio- video tape recorder capable of high quality recordings and had established a system to ensure that the cassettes are changed on a regular basis.

On this one further occasion, the Commission will rely on the good faith of the CHOC-FM representatives and their assurances at the hearing of their willingness to rectify the problems with the station's operation. The Commission intends to carry out one last analysis of CHOC-FM's programming during the new licence term to ensure that the controls and corrective measures proposed by the licensee have been implemented and are effective. The licensee is again reminded that any failure to comply with the regulations, CRTC policy or the licensee's own commitments, including any failure to furnish logger tapes and any submission of unintelligible logger tapes, could result in the non-renewal of its licence.

It is a condition of licence that the licensee not broadcast more than an average of four minutes of advertising per hour per day, with a maximum of 6 minutes per hour, in accordance with the community radio policy for Type B stations.

It is a condition of licence that the applicant adhere to the guidelines on sex-role stereotyping set out in the the Canadian Association of Broadcasters's (CAB), Sex-Role Portrayal Code for Television and Radio Programming, as amended from time to time and approved by the Commission.

It is also a condition of licence that the applicant 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.

The Commission notes the interventions submitted by the Conseil des usagers des médias de la Sagamie, the Association des radiodiffuseurs communautaires du Québec, the Maison d'animation sociale et culturelle Inc., and the Salon du livre du Saguenay/Lac-St-Jean, all of which supported the renewal of the CHOC-FM licence.

Allan J. Darling
Secretary General