But now Kroes is crowing over discussions she has been having with Hungary’s center-right government. Here’s her latest tweet on the matter:

I also just spoke to Hungarian Deputy PM Navracsics – we are working towards a solution for #media #freedom & #pluralism

All this is happening in the context of Hungary negotiating for help from the International Monetary Fund and the European Union. Observers in Brussels are upset at Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s moves to push hundreds of judges into retirement and replace them with picks favorable to the government. The government’s control over media outlets is also causing static.

“No IMF deal will be contingent on the fate of Klubrádio,” notes The Economist. “But the station’s uncertain future is certainly not helping Hungary’s cause. . . . The station, your correspondent predicts, will be saved.”

Let’s hope so.

The same report said the CBC is considering an online streaming service showing Canadian music in multiple genres.  Sources said “as many as 35 stations” could be added, ideally all streaming from one central website.

Wednesday’s announcement makes that rumor more official, although details of the digital player remain under wraps:

“Through this new relationship with AVLA and the Canadian music labels, CBC will be able to offer its programs on demand complete with music while at the same time building a new digital music service, that will be unlike any other available today in Canada,” Chris Boyce, executive director of radio and audio of CBC English Services, said in a statement.

“As part of our on-going commitment to Canadian culture, this will be accomplished by combining the power of context, curation and community in new and innovative ways,” he added, noting that more details about CBC’s new digital music service will be announced in the coming weeks.

The Toronto Star noted the service is slated to launch later this winter, though it wasn’t disclosed if the digital stations would be free.

Today, much of CBC’s musical content is edited from podcasts and streaming broadcasts due to high licensing fees.  CBC Radio 3, which primarily showcases independent Canadian music, already streams online and on Sirius Satellite Radio.  I can’t recommend it enough if you’re a fan of indie music, Canadian or otherwise.

A subscription model for said services could be a new revenue stream for the CBC, who receives about $1.1b annually from the Canadian government, with approximately $348m going towards radio.  But a 2011 report found 53% of Canadians surveyed would like to see the CBC’s funding cut, with a move towards a model aligned closer to PBS’s.  Online streams could be a creative way to receive more funding from outside the country, although it may be a tough sell for those unfamiliar with CBC’s broadcasting.

KICK FM May Get Booted off FM for Training Students

Word came out today that Canadian campus radio station KICK-FM (CKIC-FM) has heard from the regulatory agency Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) that it is in danger of losing its FM license if it continues to provide radio training to students.

The Winnipeg-based station is located at Red River College and is owned by the non-profit Cre-Comm Radio Inc. The rumor is that this signals a bigger move by the CRTC in which they will be moving all instructional campus radio stations off of terrestrial radio. According to KICK-FM, “Even though the policy suggests the CRTC encourages Instructional Campus stations to continue using their stations to teach, it was made perfectly clear to us today that that is no longer the case. We were told that if we intend to train students, our current license, which expires Dec. 31, will NOT be renewed.” A post on KICK-FM’s Facebook page today stated:

“…today the CRTC informed KICK-FM that, under the new campus radio policy, we will no longer be allowed to train students for a career in radio. As you may know, our raison d’etre is training students from Red River College’s Creative Communications program.

So, what does this mean? It is doubtful that RRC will want to continue funding a radio station that does not work within its educational department. Therefore, it seems unlikely at this point in time that KICK-FM will remain on-air.

There is a possibility of moving the educational radio station to an internet-only feed. We will keep you posted.

It must be stressed here how disappointing this news is to us. I’m sure those students who are keen on pursuing a radio career with our assistance, and those in the local music community who we’ve steadfastly supported for the past 8 years, will share in our disappointment.”

KICK-FM added that, “the new policy is for the station to offer access only to community volunteers. RRC funds the station, but only does so because we help train students.” This is apparently related to CRTC’s revised campus radio station policy, which was released in 2010. The policy doesn’t explicitly require campus instructional stations to go off-air, so this news today is surprising. Based on my reading of the rules it would seem that KICK-FM should be able to request a change in its license status to a campus-based community station. Here are the relevant sections of the revised CRTC policy on campus stations:

“The Commission notes that there are currently only a few undertakings licensed as campus instructional stations. They are distinct within the campus and community radio sector as they operate with close ties to the administration of their respective post-secondary institutions and are often used as tools to attract students.

The Commission has not licensed a new instructional station since 2007. The Commission further notes that instructional stations are meant to train future commercial broadcasters. In the Commission’s view, such training could just as easily be provided through closed-circuit, carrier current or Internet-based broadcasting using much of the same studio equipment. Broadcasting schools that do not currently have a licensed station could therefore offer such training.

As a result, the Commission considers that it is not necessary to maintain a distinction between campus instructional and community-based campus stations. The Commission will not licence campus instructional stations in the future and will instead licence all such stations as campus stations in accordance with this policy.

All campus radio stations provide training to volunteers. The Commission notes the specific role that stations currently licensed as campus instructional play in training broadcasters who will work for commercial radio stations. The Commission encourages these stations to pursue this goal within the new campus station framework, or through alternative means of broadcasting (e.g. the Internet, closed circuit or carrier current).

At their next licence renewal, existing campus instructional stations will have the opportunity to request conditions of licence specific to their circumstances within the campus radio licensing structure.”

At Red River College, students in the Creative Communications program have had access to coursework in broadcasting, which has been augmented by the ability to work at campus radio station KICK-FM.

According to the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union, in December the Council granted a frequency used by Klub “to an unknown company with no broadcasting experience”:

The Authority issued the tender for an all-music radio station, making it clear that Klubrádió cannot continue its operation in its present form unless it transformed its programming into a “light” radio station. The rules on tender procedures for broadcasting frequencies allow the Authority to arbitrarily apply the laws. The evaluation of the bids was not transparent.

A Reuters news story quotes Hungary’s Prime Minister as dismissing the protests.

“If someone applies for a wavelength then they must make an offer that can win,” Viktor Orban declared during a radio interview. “If they want to pay a fraction of what someone else would pay then even the greatest powers in the world may support them, I cannot transgress Hungary’s laws.”

Guess it’s all about cold hard cash these days in Hungary. The HCLU says that’s wrong:

As a consequence of the decision, there are no national left-liberal radio stations remaining Hungary. The remaining news or talk radios represent the rightist political opinion and/or belong to [Viktor Orban's] Fidesz-related interest groups (Lánchíd, Info Rádió).

It should be emphasised that the Klubrádió decision is part of a long-term strategic plan by the Fidesz party and pro-Government media companies to dominate the mainstream media. The underlying mission of the media laws and of the Media Council is to assist Fidesz in carrying out its established goal of acquiring control of the media scene, through both legal and economic means. There has been a general belief on the political right that there is a leftist prevalence in the Hungarian media, and the intention to change this has been expressed by Government officials on several occasions.

Even European Commission Vice-President Neelie Kroes has weighed in on this issue. Decisions like those being made by the Council, “can have wider implications and raise wider concerns”:

Especially when some worry that the underlying motive for setting new licensing criteria is to exclude existing, independent voices, rather than the opening up of new ones.

In such an atmosphere it is especially important that the affected parties have their rights of appeal – in court – fully respected if they do not agree with a licensing decision.

Klub Radio’s fate “is going to be the proof of how the country’s new Media Council will use its limitless powers provided by the new Media Law,” the station warns.

New Ryerson Radio Hopes for Toronto License

Nearly a year ago, campus-community radio station CKLN at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada had its license revoked by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Last month’s “Reclaim Your Radio” event across Canada was meant to bring attention to not only the plight of CKLN, but also to draw attention to the opportunity for another non-commercial group to apply for CKLN’s former frequency. Yesterday was the deadline for new applicants to submit materials to the CRTC in order to compete for the new license and a student group was among the contenders.

The campaign for the new station, The New Ryerson Radio, was the result of surveys that showed that 86% of Ryerson students were not only interested in a new radio station, but that an equal number were also willing to help fund that station through student fees. A press release on the New Ryerson Radio website states:

“‘We would like to encourage people to support the continued existence of campus and community- based radio in downtown Toronto,’ said Shelley Robinson, Executive Director of the National Campus and Community Radio Association. ‘Campus radio is both fun and relevant, helps promote emerging Canadian talent, makes space for under-represented voices and builds a bridge between the university and the larger community.’ Robinson also pointed out that community-based campus radio is not just for media-savvy students, 
but also involves opportunities in marketing and advertising, volunteer coordination, management and engineering. ‘There’s simply too much commercial radio on the dial. New Ryerson Radio will be a not-for-profit station with content created by students and for the students, and will reflect what students want to hear. There will be also a lot of opportunities for all students to get involved,’ said [student Noorez] Rhemtulla…”

One entity competing against The New Ryerson Radio for the license is Christian radio group Trust Communications Ministries, which currently owns Life 100.3 FM (CJLF-FM) in Barrie and hopes to bring its Christian radio format to Toronto.

LIFE 100.3 Competes for Toronto Station

The other contender is Dufferin Communications Inc., owner of the gay-friendly CIRR-FM 103.9 PROUD, which is said to be the first commercial terrestrial LGBT radio station in the world. CIRR-FM put in an application with the CRTC asking to move its frequency from 103.9 FM to the former CKLN frequency of 88.1 FM.

PROUD FM Applies to Move Frequency in Toronto

After its license was revoked, CKLN continued as an online-only station, but its future is a bit murky. A new Internet station, Radio Regent, is set to launch on January 1 under new management. According to its Facebook page, the station will be a service of the Regent Park Focus Youth Arts Centre. It plans to air shows by “many of the individual programmers” from CKLN. Over the summer, after losing its space, CKLN moved its operations to the Regent Park Focus Youth Arts Centre, so it’s not surprising that this partnership is continuing. On October 11, CKLN members approved a motion asking that “CKLN Radio Incorporated seek the permission of the court to dissolve.” If that approval is obtained, CKLN property and equipment was to be donated to the Regent Park Focus Youth Arts Centre.

Oliver “Tuku” Mtukudzi is probably the best known Zimbabwean composer/performer on the international music scene. He also works as music director for Zimbabwe’s Kiss FM pop music radio station, which applied for a commercial private radio licence by the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe. But BAZ awarded the latest two licenses to several prominent supporters of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party instead.

“Our presentations (Kiss FM) at the public hearings for the interviews for the licences were absolutely substantial and convincing and the outcome that we have been denied a licence is very sad news. I am at a loss of words and disappointed,” Mtukudzi told Zimbabwe’s Radio VOP news site on Sunday.

Tuku isn’t the only person bitter about the decision. So is Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister Morgan Richard Tsvangirai. The “granting of the two licences is the final nail on the coffin of media plurality in Zimbabwe,” Tsvangirai declared in a statement made on Saturday. “It is unacceptable. The essence of media plurality is to allow multiple, diverse voices not voices of people and institutions aligned to a political party.”

According to the New Zimbabwe news service, Radio VOP (“Voice of the People”) also applied for a license. It currently broadcasts via short wave from the Netherlands. The site’s front page post quotes a former Zimbabwean finance minister calling the allocations “nonsensical.”

“No one is surprised by that development,” Simba Makoni says. “The outcome was entirely predictable right from the beginning. It confirms what all of us have been suspecting. The intention is to reinforce the propaganda machinery around Zanu-PF.”

One of the licenses went to Supa Mandiwanzira’s Zi Radio. Mandiwanzira ”has been touted as the Zanu (PF) candidate for Nyanga in the next elections,” says The Zimbabwean. Mandiwanzira defended himself in the New Zimbabwe article:

“Who else deserves a licence other than me? Am I not Zimbabwean? For those who are basing their criticism on my being a former ZBC journalist, SW Radio Africa’s Jerry Jackson, VOP’s John Masuku and most Studio 7 staffers are also former ZBC employees and that is not a crime because ZBC was the only institution available to give us broadcasting experience.”

ZBC is Zimbabwe’s state run broadcasting entity. It’s unclear where this controversy is going. Tsvangirai calls BAZ “illegally constituted” and has promised to raise the issue with Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe this week. But expect critics of the radio license allocations to question the integrity of Zimbabwe’s 2008 Global Political Agreement—the power sharing deal that made Tsvangirai Prime Minister—if the government backs BAZ’s license awards.

Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Richard Tsvangirai

Zimbabwe is in a medium-sized uproar over the allocation of two radio licenses to entrepreneurs associated with Prime Minister Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party. The signals will go to Zimpapers and AB Communications. The opposition newspaper The Zimbabwean identifies the principals of both companies as possible pro-Mugabe candidates in future elections.

“Despite having no experience in broadcasting, Zimpapers received a licence for its Talk Radio,” charges the newspaper. “The group dominates the print media, publishing several national and provincial newspapers. It is widely regarded as a mouthpiece for Zanu (PF) and editors and staff are appointed for their loyalty to the party.”

On Saturday, Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Richard Tsvangirai issued a statement denouncing the licensing awards. “A farce that flies in the face of true media reforms and media plurality in Zimbabwe,” Tsvangirai called them.

The “granting of the two licences is the final nail on the coffin of media plurality in Zimbabwe,” he added. “It is unacceptable. The essence of media plurality is to allow multiple, diverse voices not voices of people and institutions aligned to a political party.”

Tsvangirai holds power thanks to a compromise deal known as the Global Political Agreement, reached in September of 2008, following widely contested elections between him, Mugabe, and a third candidate. He charges that the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe, which granted the signals, is “illegally constituted.”

The Zimbabwean identifies the chair of the board as Mugabe stalwart Tafataona Mahoso. The latter, in a recent Zimpaper column, managed to defend not only Mugabe, but disputed the impending demise of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi as well.

“The latest we hear is that [Gaddafi] is being enticed by the same powers to leave Libya in exchange for yet another treacherous deal,” the Mahoso statement warned in June. “Adolph Hitler’s propagandists are credited in history as responsible for discovering the imperialist principle that for lies to be effective in deceiving small people, they have to be big.”

With Mahoso “planning to issue more local radio licences for each of the 14 biggest urban centres, you can expect to have your own local mini-ZBC to remind you just how blessed you are to have lived under a Zanu (PF) government for the past three decades,” The Zimbabwean warns. “What an insult to our intelligence!”

Tsvangirai’s statement says that he will speak to Mugabe this week “about this betrayal of the letter and spirit of the GPA and the agreement by the Principals themselves. This is indeed a sad day for the media industry in this country and it showcases the brazen and deliberate undermining of the executive authority in Zimbabwe.”

Relative stability

The Ofcom report concludes that average (or mean) community radio income (2011/10) is down by 19 percent. In 2010/09 it dropped by six percent. In 2008/7 it declined by 12 percent. The mean income of UK community outlets clocked in at about £63,000 in 2011/10.

But the numbers don’t look so bad for the UK’s more stable community signals. The survey is based on annual and financial reports from 163 stations. The Ofcom report notes that the average income for stations that have offered reports over the last two years (2010/11 and 2010/9) has dropped by only five percent, from £74,500 in 2009/10 to £70,500 in 2010/11.

“This may indicate that the financial situation for those stations that have submitted annual reports for the last two financial periods has remained relatively stable,” Ofcom notes.

In addition, four stations each earned over £250,000 during 2010/11—a total of £1.5 million. This “equates roughly to the total income of the 74 lowest income stations.”

Targeting an interest

Perhaps the most important part of the study is its observation on which kinds of community stations generate the most income:

Stations targeting a community of interest (rather than a geographic community) reported a higher income than the sector average. Stations serving a general audience in an urban area reported a higher average income than town/rural stations (£89,500 as opposed to £45,000).

The “sector average” reference means the community radio sector, as opposed to commercial or BBC stations. No shock that urban stations do better than town/rural stations. As the table below indicates, most UK community radio stations serve general “town/rural” or “urban” audiences. A significant number serve a “minority ethnic group.”

Others broadcast to “young people,” “older people,” or cite their mission as serving the arts, people with disabilities, LBGT listeners, or lovers of a particular kind of music.

For example: Raidió Fáilte, is described in the report as “the only station in Belfast providing broadcasting services in Irish to the Irish language community in the city and to those interested in the Irish language and culture. Raidió Fáilte continues to provide good quality Irish language broadcasting including speech based and music based programmes produced for and by the Irish language community 24 hours per day.”

Community of interest income has “remained stable,” the report notes, as opposed to stations serving a geographic audience in a town or rural region. Those outlets sustained an income expenditure drop of around £10,000. This report table below indicates the kinds of income upon which UK community radio stations draw.

SLAs mean “service level agreements”—typically made between the station and say, a town, city or village council. “SLAs allow community radio stations to engage with relevant statutory organisations for the delivery of output of social benefit, in return for funding.”

All this tentatively supports a suspicion that I’ve always had about community radio stations in the United States and Canada—those that try to be everything to all listeners (often vaguely defined as “the community”) don’t do as well as those that target specific audiences. But I’m still not sure.

Kol Hashalom's frequency ID (International Middle East Media Center)

Haaretz reports that Israeli police and the Communications Ministry have shut down Radio Kol Hashalom in East Jerusalem. Israeli and Palestinian peace activists ran the station, which used broadcasting equipment in Ramallah and was licensed by the Palestinian authority. Kol Hashalom roughly translates as “All for Peace.”

Israeli officials insisted that the station lacked the authority to broadcast. “The Ministry carried out wireless supervisory activities in cooperation with Israel Police against a pirate radio station, just as it carries them out against all other illegal station,” an Israeli government spokesperson explained.

Kol Hashalom manager Mossi Raz calls this conclusion rather belated, since the outlet has been broadcasting for close to a decade. “Of course there is an attack here that is not only on us,” Raz told Haaretz. “If someone came to the conclusion that this isn’t legal, then after seven years there are different ways to go about it,” Raz said.

Israel’s Likud party is celebrating the closure.  ”Shutting down the station was carrying out justice,” declared Knesset member Danny Denon, who requested the action. “The content [broadcast by] the station were unacceptable and the fact that they were a pirate broadcast made it possible for Israel Police to close down the station.”

Indie blog +972 notes that Kol Hashalom took its authority to broadcast from the Palestinian Authority’s right to allocate frequencies based on the Oslo Accords. But this assertion and how to implement it is, like everything else in Israel/Palestine, in dispute. According to +972, the police argued:

that Israel has never granted the Palestinian Authority any frequencies, even though it was obligated to do so in the Oslo Accords. This argument suffers from two problems: Raz noted that the Accords grant the PA the right to grab their own frequencies if Israel doesn’t allocate them within a certain time frame. Secondly, and more importantly, this argument basically says that ALL Palestinians radio stations are, without exception, illegal – yet strangely enough the Israeli police only bother itself with the Jewish-Palestinian one. This can be seen as even more proof of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank: Israel claims the right to shut down a radio station licensed by the so-called autonomous PA.

This stinks to high heaven, and looks suspiciously like – as Raz says openly – a part of the continuing effort of Netanyahu and his right-wing allies to overtake the media and silence their political rivals. Raz, fearing a raid on the Jerusalem offices, ordered the broadcasts to be shut down on Thursday, and now Kol Hashalom is preparing an appeal to the High Court of Justice.

Canada Celebrates Community Radio (Photo: J. Waits)

On Monday, November 14, 22 non-commercial radio stations in Canada took part in a day of action and celebration dubbed “Reclaim Your Radio.”

Organized by the National Campus and Community Radio Association (NCRA), the day-long radio event was designed to bring awareness to the importance of campus and community radio. A special 8-hour broadcast (an archive of the entire broadcast is available here) aired on 22 stations all across Canada and the entire day served as a kick-off for a campaign geared towards establishing policy changes in Canada in order to preserve community radio.

NCRA, a “not-for-profit group of organizations and individuals committed to volunteer-driven, non-profit, community-oriented radio across Canada” explained the purpose of Reclaim Your Radio on their website:

“The airwaves are public. But because of limited spectrum, sometimes communities that want to start their own local non-profit stations find there’s no room for their voices. Over the coming year we will be asking the government and individual MPS to help reserve at least one frequency for campus and community radio stations in every community across Canada.”

NCRA’s statement goes on to point out the plight of campus-community station CKLN in Toronto, which had its license revoked by the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) in January 2011. According to NCRA, “The station had had problems with regulatory compliance, but also had a long and strong history of community involvement and amazing programming. Now that CKLN has stopped broadcasting, it is the only frequency available in greater Toronto.”

NCRA’s hope is that CKLN’s replacement in Toronto will also be a non-profit, community radio station and through Reclaim Your Radio, they wanted to spread the word about the future of the CKLN frequency. The archive of the live broadcast is full of not only testimonials about the importance of community radio in Canada, but also contains more background on the situation at CKLN.