ARCHIVED -  Decision CRTC 95-862

Decision

Ottawa, 27 November 1995

Decision CRTC 95-862

Community Radio Society of Saskatoon, Inc.

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan - 941435000

Licence renewal for CFCR-FM

Following Public Notice CRTC 1995-79 dated 12 May 1995 and Decision CRTC 95-669 dated 30 August 1995, the Commission renews the licence for Type B community radio programming undertaking CFCR-FM Saskatoon, from 1 December 1995 to 31 August 1999, subject to conditions in effect under the current licence, as well as to those conditions specified in this decision and in the licence to be issued.

This four-year term will enable the Commission to consider the renewal of this licence one year prior to that of community radio stations across Canada in order to assess at an earlier date the licensee's compliance with the Radio Regulations, 1986 (the regulations) concerning the provision of logger tapes.

Subsections 8(5) and 8(6) of the regulations require each licensee to retain, for a period of at least four weeks from the date of broadcast, and furnish to the Commission upon request "a clear and intelligible tape recording or other exact copy of all matter broadcast".

In this regard, the Commission requested the station's logger tapes of the programming broadcast for the week of 11 to 17 September 1994. However, the tapes it received were incomplete and of poor quality. In a letter dated 25 January 1995, the licensee explained that the poor quality of the tapes was due to overuse because funding was not available to restock their supply of tapes. In addition, the licensee stated that the current tapes are of varying length making logger tape switches unpredictable. The licensee also indicated that it intended to install a VCR logger tape system as soon as possible in order to rectify this situation.

A second request was made by the Commission for the week of 26 February to 4 March 1995 and the licensee was unable to provide tapes at that time.

The Commission has noted the licensee's assurances that it will replace its logger tape machine and take concrete measures to ensure that the logger tape equipment is being operated in compliance with the regulations. It reiterates, however, the importance of ensuring that the regulations are adhered to at all times and will closely monitor the licensee's performance in this regard during the new licence term.

The Commission notes that the licensee will broadcast 21 hours each week of ethnic programming.

It is a condition of licence that the licensee devote in each broadcast week, a minimum of 15 hours and 30 minutes to ethnic programs of Types A and B. It is also a condition of licence that the programming be directed to a minimum of 16 cultural groups in a minimum of 16 different languages.

The Commission approves the application to amend the present condition of licence relating to advertising by replacing it with the following:

 It is a condition of licence that the licensee broadcast no more than 6 minutes of advertising in any hour of broadcast, and that it broadcast no more than an average of 4 minutes of advertising for every hour of broadcast up to a total of 504 minutes of advertising per week, in accordance with the community radio policy for Type B stations.

In addition, the Commission approves the licensee's proposal to broadcast a maximum of 8 minutes per hour of advertising during ethnic programs, providing that the overall maximum of 504 minutes of on-air advertising is observed.

In Public Notice CRTC 1992-59 dated 1 September 1992 and entitled "Implementation of an Employment Equity Policy", the Commission announced that the employment equity practices of broadcasters would be subject to examination by the Commission. It considers that community radio stations should be particularly sensitive to this issue in order to reflect fully the communities they serve. It encourages the licensee to consider employment equity issues in its hiring practices and in all other aspects of its management of human resources.

Allan J. Darling
Secretary General