Community radio is growing at a much faster rate than any other radio sector. The number of new licences issued to community radio stations is significant, particularly in recent years.
The issue is that there is no stable source of operational funding. There are grants available. Stations engage in fundraising initiatives. Some in larger communities are very successful. In the smaller communities, they have a harder time raising enough funds to operate a station. When they're associated with a university, they have the added support of infrastructure, premises, all sorts of utilities and whatnot that community stations have to pay for out-of-pocket.
I would say there is an increasing interest across the country in developing community radio stations, but we're also starting to see some close at a rate faster than we've ever seen them close before. All those that have closed have closed because they are unable to meet their expenses. They can't raise enough revenue. In some cases, because they can't afford to hire staff, their volunteers burn out and just don't have enough energy to continue operating the station.
The requirements that stations have to meet in terms of their CRTC licences do require a lot of ongoing supervision. There are significant amounts of paperwork, being cognizant of what's being played on air and calculating percentages. In some cases, this is very difficult for volunteer-only stations to do on a long-term, ongoing basis.
While we're seeing a definite increase in the interest in community radio across the country and in the number of groups that are applying for licences, we're also seeing more struggles to continue operating, particularly by the smaller stations.