Urban aboriginal listeners should have access to better radio programming.
At least that is what the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) believes. The regulatory body has revoked the broadcasting licences of Aboriginal Voices Radio (AVR), a radio network that has stations in five Canadian cities, including Toronto, Vancouver and Ottawa.
The cancellation of AVR’s services means that new frequencies will open up for other broadcasters and the CRTC says that content targeting Aboriginal Canadians will be given a priority in its decision-making.
The commission listed five major reasons for its decision to revoke the licences, and said that it had made these demands repeatedly. These included the broadcaster’s failure to file: complete and accurate program logs and logger tapes, annual returns for the 2013-14 year for all five stations, broadcast daily newscasts on a regular basis, annual updates regarding achieving business objectives, and audited financial statements for each station. All of these are required under various sections of the Radio Regulations, 1986.
“The CRTC firmly believes that Aboriginal communities in Canada must have access to radio stations that address their realities and keep them informed of events that impact them,” CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais said in a press release. “For that reason, we will be issuing a call for licence applications as soon as possible. We will open the door and invite applicants to submit projects aiming to serve and inform these urban Aboriginal communities – services that we hope will be by, for and about the Aboriginal communities.”
In May the broadcaster – radio call sign CKAV – appeared before the commission to make a case for its continued existence. Acknowledging the violations, CRTC said it was unable to offer a suitable course of action.
The decision comes after repeated efforts by the CRTC to get the broadcaster to respond to its failure to comply with certain radio regulations. In its decision, CRTC referred to renewing licences in the short term to give the network more time to correct these failures.
Since fall 2014, the Ottawa station has failed to broadcast any content, including the music and spoken word programming that it has continued to receive. Expected to deliver local programming specific to Aboriginal communities, the broadcaster had failed to do this in all of its markets.
The revocation of the license is effective end of day on July 25.
Image courtesy of Shutterstock
