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Broadcasting - Commission Letter addressed to Carmela Laurignano (Evanov Radio Group Inc)

Ottawa, 11 July 2022

BY EMAIL

Carmela Laurignano
Vice-President & Radio Group Manager
Evanov Radio Group Inc.
5312 Dundas Street West
Toronto (ON) M9B 1B3
carmela@evanovradio.com

Re: Audit of Evanov Radio Group Inc.’s Canadian content development contributions

Background

As part of its processes to audit Canadian content development (CCD) contributions and tangible benefits payments made by radio stations, the Commission discovered that Evanov Radio Group Inc. (Evanov Radio) may not have made its required contributions and payments as follows.

CHVS-FM

In Broadcasting Decision 2016-323, the Commission imposed a condition of licence on CHVS-FM requiring Evanov Radio, the licensee of CHVS-FM, to make an over-and-above CCD contribution of $65,000 over seven consecutive broadcast years upon commencement of operations as follows: $10,000 in year one, $9,500 in each of years two and three and $9,000 in each of years four through seven. Accordingly, for the 2017-2018 broadcast year, CHVS-FM was required to make an over-and-above CCD contribution of $9,000.

In its annual returns for the 2017-2018 broadcast year, Evanov Radio reported that CHVS-FM had made an over-and-above CCD contribution of $1,800 to FACTOR and of $7,200 to Desi Celebration for a total of $9,000. No supporting documentation was provided at the time, however, to demonstrate how the Desi Celebration qualified as an eligible discretionary CCD initiative.

CFMB

Further, pursuant to Broadcasting Decision 2016-323, Evanov Radio was directed to fulfill the outstanding tangible benefits related to the purchase of CFMB by making a contribution of $68,700, spread out equally over a seven-year period, as follows:

During the 2018-2019 broadcast year, in addition to fulfilling its obligations in relation to bullets 1, 2 and 4 above, Evanov appeared to have made an additional expenditure of $1,886 to the Radio Starmaker Fund towards meeting the requirements of the 3rd bullet above without providing the necessary proof of payment and demonstrating how this payment to Radio Starmaker Fund was a direct payment for performances by Canadian ethnic music artists.

Evanov Radio was asked to respond to the above noted issues.

Evanov Radio’s response

In a response dated 11 November 2021, in relation to CHVS-FM, Evanov Radio indicated that due to a typographical error, the organization that received the $7,200 contribution was incorrectly listed as Desi Celebration. Evanov Radio submitted that the contribution was in fact made to Coast2Coast Music Canada (Coast2Coast). Evanov included proof of payment for its CCD contributions to the Coast2Coast discretionary initiative.

In the case of CFMB, Evanov Radio submitted that it mistakenly made a payment of $1,886Footnote1to Radio Starmaker Fund (it provided proof of this payment as part of its response).  However, the licensee now realized the payment was directed to the wrong initiative. To rectify the error, on 11 November 2021 Evanov Radio made a subsequent additonal payment of $1,636 to FACTOR and provided a cancelled cheque as proof of this payment.

In regards to its discretionary CCD contributions to the Coast2Coast events, Evanov Radio provided evidence from the events’ organizers and marketing materials demonstrating that the funds from its radio stations were used to cover Canadian artists talent fees and any direct costs associated with the events in question, including the staging of live performances to the general public, recording and producing music, artists’ performance fees, and marketing of any digital compilations. Evanov Radio confirmed that it did not receive any direct or indirect benefits from either of the initiatives.

Commission Analysis and Determinations

The Commission notes that consistent with the Commercial Radio Policy, 2006, the Canadian Content Development Contributions and Eligible Intiatives page on the CRTC web site provides that discretionary CCD contributions can generally be directed towards organizing concerts for Canadian artist performances to the general public and to fund the recording of performances.

Based on the above and the evidence submitted by the licensee, the Commission is satisfied that the CCD contributions made in the 2017-2018 broadcast year towards the Coast2Coast events qualify as an eligible discretionary CCD initiative.

With regard to the $1,636 tangible benefits contribution by CFMB in the 2018-2019 broadcast year to any eligible CCD initiative as direct payment for performances by Canadian ethnic musical artists, the licensee admitted to not having made the payment. The Commission appreciates the licensee’s candour but nevertheless finds Evanov Radio in non-compliance with the Commission direction in Broadcasting Decision 2016-323. However, because the licensee has since made a contribution of $1,636 on behalf of CFMB to FACTOR (an eligible CCD initiative), no further action is required at this time.

Yours sincerely,

Original signed by

Claude Doucet
Secretary General

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