The Southern Ontario/WNY Radio-TV Forum / Will This CRTC Plan Help Save Local Radio News?

**Posted by RadioActive** November 4, 2024 12:29 pm

The Commission is launching a "public consultation" to explore using money being sucked out of foreign streamers to help fund local radio news, which has taken a big hit in many smaller markets.

As outlined in their press release:

"The fund will be administered by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters and will be available to stations outside of Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, and Ottawa-Gatineau."

So the big stations won't benefit but those in smaller markets could. The deadline for submissions on this is very short - comments must be in by December 4, 2024. a month from now.

My concern with this is that if they do it, how will they ensure the money goes to where it's supposed to? I can easily see station owners siphoning off these funds for other things, including increasing the bottom line. How can they be sure that doesn't happen? What guarantee is there that it will actually go to local news?

CRTC Notice of Consultation

**Posted by paterson1** November 4, 2024 2:13 pm

Looks like it will be up to the CAB to ensure that stations are using the money properly. I don't see why this would be a difficult thing to do.

**Posted by RadioActive** November 4, 2024 2:18 pm

I hope you're right. I'm not a fan of forcing the streamers to pony up, but if they're going to be forced to, at least the money should go to its proper place. But unless the rules are very firm and specific, I fear it will too easy to "use it somewhere else."

**Posted by BowmanvilleBob** November 4, 2024 2:36 pm

Based on a quick review of both documents raises for me an essential question: How do you define what "radio news" is in the context of providing funding? Does it mean hiring a reporter to cover issues around the community (council, school boards, local politics)? What about hiring some kid fresh out of broadcasting school to do the "community cruiser" bit on weekends/holidays? Does it mean more newscasts with more local content? Or could it simply mean opening up some spots outside of morning/afternoon drive to air some local spoken word content (One station I knew in Saskatchewan used to run raw, unedited audio of local council meetings or school board discussions between 10:00-11:00 pm to fill its local content quotas).

A more nuanced discussion of what could be classed as "local radio news" should be provided to set the parameters for the consultation.

**Posted by RadioAaron** November 4, 2024 2:42 pm

BowmanvilleBob wrote:
Based on a quick review of both documents raises for me an essential question: How do you define what "radio news" is in the context of providing funding? Does it mean hiring a reporter to cover issues around the community (council, school boards, local politics)? What about hiring some kid fresh out of broadcasting school to do the "community cruiser" bit on weekends/holidays? Does it mean more newscasts with more local content? Or could it simply mean opening up some spots outside of morning/afternoon drive to air some local spoken word content (One station I knew in Saskatchewan used to run raw, unedited audio of local council meetings or school board discussions between 10:00-11:00 pm to fill its local content quotas).

A more nuanced discussion of what could be classed as "local radio news" should be provided to set the parameters for the consultation.

Does the wording require some kind of expansion of the stations' news presence? Because if not, it will be used by stations to be able to simply continue what they're already doing,