Our radio stations also foster the development of new and local musical talents much more than anyone else by providing them with a showcase for their music.
In fact, not one single commercial broadcaster in Canada could boast about putting as much energy into helping budding vocal and musical artists as community and campus radio stations.
Even though our stations are not all necessarily the “cornerstones” of their communities’ social and community activity, in that they do not deal with comparable markets in terms of size and type, they must nonetheless make the same, sometimes superhuman, efforts to properly fulfil their mandates as open and inclusive broadcasters.
If we want to be able to provide effective coverage of local, community and social components that the CBC/Radio-Canada or private broadcasters cannot or do not want to provide, community radio stations need to have the appropriate budgets.
Because, regardless of what some people say and think, and despite all the good intentions of the public and private sectors, they are not the ones who open their airwaves to social and community discussion boards, cover local and regional news or give voice to people, to cite only those examples. Our community radio stations do. And to do so, now and in the future, they must have the capability.
The Alliance des radios communautaires du Canada (ARCC), the National Campus and Community Radio Association (NCRA) and the Association des radiodiffuseurs communautaires du Québec (ARCQ) bring together about 140 community radio stations in Canada and have over 500 employees and 10,000 volunteers.
Because they wanted to ensure the development and sustainability of the third sector of broadcasting, our three associations created the Community Radio Fund of Canada.
In our view, our radio stations need at least $30,000 each annually to carry out their duties. This would allow them to at least maintain one permanent position per station.
That is why we have worked very hard recently to urge the Government of Canada to contribute $4,200,000 annually to the Fund. So far, Astral Media has been the only company to contribute directly through two programs managed by the Fund. Other financial backers have also expressed an interest in contributing through the Canadian Content Development program, for which the Fund was named an eligible recipient by the CRTC.
But let us not kid ourselves. Without recurrent funding from the Government of Canada, we fear that our radio stations’ situation will worsen, given that employees and volunteers are increasingly running out of steam.