Public Notice
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Ottawa, 28 May 1991
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Public Notice CRTC 1991-56
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A PLAN TO CONDUCT A REVIEW OF STUDENT AND COMMUNITY RADIO
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On 17 December 1990, the Commission published a policy document entitled "An FM Policy For the Nineties" (Public Notice CRTC 1990-111). This document set out a comprehensive policy for commercial FM radio. In this document, the Commission also indicated that it intended to conduct a review of both student and community radio to consider, among other things, how the new FM policy would apply to their operations.
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The notice further indicated that, although the Commission would not generally be prepared to consider applications for new private commercial radio stations until after 1 September 1991, it would continue to accept applications for non-commercial stations where such applications proposed to use the lower 20 channels on the FM band or to use commercial frequencies in areas where there is still a relative abundance of such channels.
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The Commission has now commenced informal consultations with representatives of student and community radio, including existing licensees, and plans to issue and to invite public comment on proposed policies for both sectors in the fall of this year. It expects to publish the final policies in the spring of 1992.
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The Commission considers it important that potential applicants for new student and community stations have the opportunity to incorporate any changes made to these policies in their applications. The Commission therefore will not generally be prepared to consider applications for new stations that fall under the definitions of Student FM, Institutional FM (stations associated with educational institutions but not controlled by students), or Student Carrier Current until completion of its review of student radio.
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As well, the Commission will not generally be prepared to consider applications for new Type B community stations until completion of the review of community radio. It will, however, continue to consider applications for Type A community stations since such stations provide the only radio service in an official language to the communities they serve and operate under a reduced regulatory structure. In addition, the freeze will not apply to Native community stations.
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Allan J. Darling
Secretary General
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