Canadian Heritage committee  We've had radio stations operate on budgets of $500. I don't know how they manage it, but somehow they do. I think Manitoba has CJJJ, which is a tiny community station. They're one of those stations that operate on less than $5,000. If something goes catastrophically wrong.... We

Canadian Heritage committee  Hands down it's Canadian music. Canadian content is the bread and butter of our radio stations. CiTR in Vancouver produces a magazine highlighting local musicians and they release compilation albums. On the whole, 15% of programming is spoken word and news, and the rest of it i

Canadian Heritage committee  Sadly, yes. I think the government advertises through one particular agency, and that agency won't work with campus and community stations because we don't have Numeris data, and Numeris is the listenership project. It's simply too prohibitive and costly for our stations to parti

Canadian Heritage committee  I'm actually really excited by the developments that are happening. VIBE, which is based in Toronto, has 45,000 online listeners a week. It's a phenomenal number and they have something like 10,000 Instagram followers. They've really reinvented themselves in the online space. We

Canadian Heritage committee  I was actually surprised to learn that the CRTC said 22% of Canadians stream a radio station, because I was under the impression that it is all streaming services such as Spotify. You save 22% of your data, like 22 times saving on data. Most smartphones, minus the iPhone, have an

Canadian Heritage committee  It's interesting; I think on the whole it is decreasing. We just did a major report on it, and I can send that along. For community stations, about 48% of the revenue comes from advertising—the rest is grants and fundraising—and that is on the decline. You mentioned the local pl

Canadian Heritage committee  It would be exploring ways to ensure more stable funding. Despite all the volunteer work that goes into it, we are not able to become charities, and that is a major barrier. The funding that we do get prohibits renewable funding, and it doesn't support station staff or equipment.

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, I think we have two or three members in Nova Scotia.

Canadian Heritage committee  That's a brilliant station.

Canadian Heritage committee  For campus stations, the majority are supported by student levies. However, what we're seeing is a major push-back from student unions across the country. We've seen campus stations have to move off campus after being defunded from their student levies. We're seeing campus statio

Canadian Heritage committee  Absolutely. I was talking to a station yesterday, and it was the only one in the community where you would get free training on broadcasting. You would walk in, and I think the community would pay $20 and for students it was free. It was one of the campus stations; I forget which

Canadian Heritage committee  Certainly. The radio fund is funded by the Canadian content development requirements for all commercial broadcasters. As a condition of licence, commercial broadcasters are required to give I think around 5% of their revenue to develop Canadian content. This money goes into FACTO

Canadian Heritage committee  Okay. For example, I produce a show for gender and sexual minorities, which is available on the exchange and has a strong online following. The NCRA has also launched a national campaign with partners to pressure the manufacturers and network providers to ensure that FM chips

Canadian Heritage committee  I'm from southwest Wales originally.

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you, Madam Chair and members of Parliament. My name is Luke Smith. I am the membership coordinator for the National Campus and Community Radio Association. The NCRA is an association of mostly English-language not-for-profit radio stations committed to volunteer-driven,