Jonny Wakefield/The Ubyssey

Although revisions to campus radio licensing regulations caused one station to think it would have to close its doors, CiTR doesn’t expect to make many changes.

The Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) revised their licensing descriptions of Canadian campus radio stations in July 2010, removing the distinction between community-based and instructional campus radio stations.

CiTR station manager Brenda Grunau explained that despite the new policy, the station’s licence has yet to change from their community-based licence.

“Our licence runs out in 2014, and when it’s renewed it will be under the new policy. We’re still operating under the old policy framework,” she said. “If we wanted to switch over early, we could put in a request to do that.”

As a community-based campus station, programming at CiTR is “produced primarily by volunteers who are either students or members of the community at large.” Unlike instructional campus stations, the training of professional broadcasters is not CiTR’s primary objective.

“We’re required to serve students and community members…There are a few changes that impact us, but they don’t impact how we train volunteers,” said Grunau.

These changes include redistributing limits on advertising time, spoken word requirements and the percentage of third language programming.

In their official policy, the CRTC described that the differences between the two licences “no longer appear to be relevant.”

Patricia Valladao, manager of media relations at CRTC, said, “The only major difference now is that they have to include people from the community, as well as students.” She stressed that stations “can still train students, but as volunteers, on air.”

Nevertheless, the “only major difference” caused confusion for at least one instructional campus station.

In response to the policy, Red River College’s Kick FM in Winnipeg, Manitoba issued a web statement. It claimed the new regulations removed their ability for the “training of students for a career in commercial radio,” and that the station would have to “go off the air” upon the expiration of their current licence.

However, this was a misunderstanding of the policy. Kick FM board chair, David Wiebe explained that the station would be largely unaffected, as it had already been operating as “more than” an instructional station.

“[Kick FM has] been involved with and offered air time to various community organizations over the years, and we’ll just continue to do that,” he said.

Grunau said the licensing changes would either be beneficial or not affect campus stations across Canada at all. In her opinion, the CRTC’s decision to consolidate the two licences was motivated by simplicity.

“There were maybe five small details that were the difference between campus and community anyways, so now they’re just putting them together,” she said. “Some of those differences still exist, just within the same policy.”

CORRECTION: The article originally identified David Wiebe as Kick FM manager, rather than Chair of the Board of Kick FM. The Ubyssey regrets the error.

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