I would like to give you an example of the type of radio station that we have in Canada. The first one is CKIA. It is a community radio station located in Quebec City's lower town, with a good broadcast range throughout the city. It is about 25 years old, and there are 150 volunteers working there at this time. With respect to content, they broadcast a number of public affairs programs as well as a morning socio-political current affairs program. Quite a bit of airtime is dedicated to community affairs in the Greater Quebec City region. As to musical content, the station plays a lot of international and emerging music. They try to play the type of music that one would not hear on commercial radio stations.
Of course, that is their general mandate. They aim to support citizen participation and to produce culturally diverse programming. When I say “they”, I am, of course, referring to CKIA. A great deal of importance is given to local news programming.
This community radio station has evolved over the past few years; it has repositioned itself. As you know, the face of radio has changed. A community radio station must constantly review what it is doing. CKIA has adopted a rather multicultural approach in Quebec City because of the influx of immigrants in recent years.
That gives you an idea of what an urban radio station is all about.