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.

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.

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.

This pirate kid was no Hard Harry.

So that kid I posted about on Monday, who was running a pirate station in Ottawa, Ontario and accused of threatening to kill another local radio personality? He was convicted Thursday of criminal harassment of both the DJ and the officer from Industry Canada who was investigating the station. He was also convicted of violating Canada’s Radiocommunications Act. The teen is due to be sentenced on the 24th.

My question is, if some other DJ on a licensed station made threats against a DJ on another station, would there be a similar police response? (This is a sincere question, not a loaded one…)

Word to the wise: death threats make radio regulators cranky.

Xtra, Canada’s Gay/Lesbian news service, has strongly questioned the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council’s decision to declare Dire Straits‘ song ‘Money for Nothing’ “unacceptable for broadcast” over the airwaves. But judging from the reader comments, Gay and Lesbian Canadians are divided on the matter.

The song itself is about a crabby home appliance installation guy bitter about the supposedly cushy lives of famous pop singers, and includes the following stanza:

The little faggot with the earring and the make-up
Yeah, buddy, that’s his own hair
That little faggot’s got his own jet airplane
That little faggot, he’s a millionaire

To which the CBSC declared on Wednesday: “[L]ike other racially driven words in the English language, ‘faggot’ is one that, even if entirely or marginally acceptable in earlier days, is no longer so.  The Panel finds that it has fallen into the category of unacceptable designations on the basis of race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, age, gender, sexual orientation, marital status or physical or mental disability.”

Xtra’s Friday response begs to differ. “Let’s just get this out of the way immediately: the use of the word ‘faggot’ in ‘Money for Nothing’ isn’t offensive,” the magazine insists. “The song is written from the point of view of a working person complaining about the easy life of rock stars.”

Xtra concedes that ‘Money for Nothing’ is offered from “the perspective of a homophobic dick,” but argues that it “certainly doesn’t glorify him or his detestable opinions. Rather, it ridicules his viewpoint.”

The post suggests that the station sanctioned for broadcasting the song could have done a much better job of explaining the tune’s context. But many readers see the context differently:

“I’m sorry but I think Xtra is totally out of touch with the sentiment within our community,” one writes. “The ‘f’ word is vulgar and associated with violence against us. It is often the last word we hear before we get bashed in the face by some thug with hatred in his eyes. Would the person who wrote this article be OK with the use of the ‘c’ word to describe a woman in a lyric of a song?”

And:

“The author is full of it. Nobody teenage boy sang ( then or now) along to this song thinking, ‘oh the lyrics are written from the point of view of a disgruntled working class guy who directs his angst again artist in general- musicians particular.’

They heard faggot. Faggot was legitimized as a useful derogatory term against gays. Homophobia was sanctioned- through pop music.”

On the other hand,

“There are, apparently, still a few Canadians who think that the censorship of derogatory words can produce a more tolerant and respectful society,” the last commenter so far says. “I think the notion is misguided, however, because I can’t think of an example in history when censorship ever produced that result.”

Whole Xtra post here.

And the release continues:

“Canadian music fans will have access to the free Slacker Basic Radio for up to 30 days. After 30 days, they can upgrade to Slacker Radio Plus, featuring all the same great benefits of Slacker Basic Radio along with station caching for supported mobile devices, ad-free listening, complete song lyrics*, unlimited song skipping, song requests and more. Station caching enables mobile listeners to store their personal stations on selected smartphones for listening anywhere, anytime, uninterrupted.

Listeners can store a station by simply selecting “Cache Station” from within the supported app. The station can then be downloaded via Wi-Fi, over USB or through the cellular network. Cached stations are stored on the smartphone and can be accessed on planes, subways and everywhere in between requiring minimal battery usage and eliminating the need to access the mobile carrier network to play music.”

One question we had about the statement. It calls Slacker “the first personal radio experience to service Canada.” Hey Canadians, is that the case? We know that you can’t get Pandora up there (except maybe by proxy). What about last.fm? Here’s a comment from a disgruntled Canadian. What are the  availabilities?   Send us your comments.

On my recently ended radioshow I tried to reguarly to give updates on unlicensed radio. To me it’s one of the still lively modes of civil disobedience in electronic communications, especially in the internet age.
Although there is low-power FM in the US, and a growing community radio movement world-wide, the urge to broadcast without government sanction is still strong and too hard for some resist. For some it’s because a license still isn’t available, and for others it’s because they don’t think they should need a license. And some pirates just don’t even care about the FCC or other regulators in the first place. As we get 2010 off to a start I’d like to take an opportunity to take look at some of the pirate radio news, at least in North America.

FCC Actions Up, Actual Busts not so Much

At least once a year my pal John Anderson at DIYmedia.net does an overview of FCC action against pirates. He finds that in terms of raw numbers 2009 was a record year, with 429 enforcement actions. That number may sound high to many people since we don’t hear too much news these days about pirate broadcasters who aren’t in a movie. But the record is deceptive, since most of the “actions” aren’t busts, where FCC agents employ law enforcement muscle to charge in and confiscate gear. Rather, most of these actions involve unaccompanied visits to suspected transmitter sites and threatening letters.

In fact, John reports that

the number of actual, painful punishments have dropped: five Forfeiture Orders (compared to 13 in 2008); 6 Notices of Apparent Liability (versus 13 in 2008); raid-arrests and seizures remain constant from year-to-year (5/3 in ’09, 5/2 in ’08 – and at least one of the “seizures” last year was voluntary).

Those statistics lead John to conclude that an unlicensed broadcaster has something like an 8 in 10 chance of avoiding any major punishment, aside from a threatening letter delivered via certified mail.

Austin Pirate Says FCC ain’t got Jurisdiction, Still Gets Fine

As John also notes, the year kicks off with the FCC confirming a $10,000 fine it levied against a pirate station in Austin, TX. As RadioWorld observes, the Commission acted with unusual swiftness, marking only five months since the first complaint about the station was registered.

The station continued broadcasting after being notified by the FCC, and contested when issued a Notice of Apparently Liability. Operators Jerry and Deborah Stevens then appealed, telling the FCC that it has no jurisdiction because their station operated only in Texas and could not be received across state lines. Not surprisingly the Commission rejected such an argument that, if accepted, would otherwise completely undermine it’s ability to regulate the vast majority of radio communications.

Collecting on that fine…. well, that’s another issue.

Ottawa up in Arms over Strip Club Pirate

Up in the Great White North it appears that quite a number of folks are in a tizzy over a station operated by a teenage boy out of the back of his father’s strip club in Ottawa. According to the London Free Press the station received a cease-and-desist order in early December, went off the air, then started up, and went off again on Dec. 14. Finally, on Christmas Eve, the station returned to the air, and apparently continues broadcasting.

Aside from being unlicensed there don’t seem to be any complaints about the station’s programming, which is characterized as “pop music around the clock.” Apparently the strip club has little influence, or if it does, nobody minds that.

Canadian consumer electronics website Digital Home files the most strident grievance with the station while trotting out the reddest herring in the anti-pirate’s rhetorical arsenal alongside a good old-fashioned dose of fear mongering:

Although many will consider the operation of an illegal radio station as nothing more than a youthful act of rebellion, the reality is that operating an unlicensed radio station can be dangerous since it can possibly jam communications at surrounding airports, interfere with commercial radio signals, and even emit dangerous radiation to individuals near the transmitter.

Certainly this tired old saw of aircraft interference has been repeated time and again by authorities looking to sway public opinion against otherwise harmless unlicensed broadcasters. But the fact of the matter is that the danger of is minute, and much more of a threat from licensed stations at the top end of the dial operating out of spec using kilowatts of power than with any pirate operating with tens of watts.

The radiation argument is so absurd that I seriously wonder if the writer knows anything about radio transmitters at all. Yes, it’s true that you don’t want to get too close to a aerial transmitting a signal at 1000 watts or more, lest you suffer what are known as RF burns. But most pirates operate between one and a hundred watts, comparable to cell phones at the low end and amateur radio transceivers at the high end. Furthermore, these are FM signals operating at relatively long wavelengths of 91.9 MHz, not gamma rays, X-Rays or even microwaves.

Look out Ottawa! Strip club pirate’s gonna give you cancer while planes drop out of the sky around you!

That’s all for this time. Next up, we’ll see what’s happening across the pond in the UK and Ireland.