The CRTC has released a state-of-the-union report on Canadian commercial private radio, with statistics covering 2000-2004.
According to the report, which counts 544 stations, total revenue increased by 2.5% between 2003 and 2004, reaching $1.2 billion. While revenues for English-language and Aboriginal stations grew during the period by 4% and 5.7% respectively, French station revenues dropped by 4.6%.
Not surprisingly there were differences in how AM performed versus FM during the period. For instance, English-language AM held steady with a 0.1% decrease to $259.5 million while FM revenues jumped 5.5% to $738.7 million. Meanwhile, both AM and FM ethnic and Aboriginal radio grew during the period: AM revenues rose by 4.9% to $20.3 million and FM 7.3% to $10.5 million.
On the French-language side, however, it was a different story. While revenues for AM radio declined by 13.2% to $22.6 million, FM revenues also shrank by 3.4%, to $172.5 million.
In 2004, there were 164 English-language AM radio stations and 274 FM stations; 15 French AM and 77 FM stations; and eight ethnic and Aboriginal AM and six FM stations. Twenty-nine new stations started up and 13 AM stations migrated to FM.
