One radio station's loss could be another's gain
- Tiffany Head | June 29, 2015
Aboriginal Voices Radio (AVR) has had its licence revoked, and now another Aboriginal radio station may step into its place on the airwaves.
AVR has had its licence since the early 2000s; unfortunately, it made some serious errors that resulted in losing their licence.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications (CRTC) repeatedly found serious incidents of non-compliance with several sections of the radio regulations and with conditions of licence.
AVR was given many opportunities to rectify the situation, and on May 13, 2015 appeared before the CRTC to explain why the Commission should not suspend or revoke its licences. AVR failed to demonstrate its ability to rectify or resolve its numerous instances of non-compliance.
According to the CRTC, AVR did not:
- Honour its commitments or mandates to reflect the distinctive place of the Aboriginal community in Canadian Society.
- Provide the local programming or news required and relevant to the Aboriginal communities in the urban centres of Toronto, Ottawa, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver.
- Adequately serve the Aboriginal listeners in the communities targeted by this station.
CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais quoted in a press release that AVR let its listeners down by failing to inform them on issues important to them.
“We find ourselves in an unfortunate situation where licence revocation is not only necessary; it is the only option,” he said.
CRTC issued a call for applications for the operations of the frequencies that will become available as a result of this decision. Proposals by service looking to serve Aboriginal communities will receive priority.
“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,” said Blais in the release.
CEO of Missinipi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) Deborah Charles was at the commission in Ottawa and says that AVR did not submit their audited financial statements. They did not do what they said they would do in terms of their mandate and vision.
Charles says MBC, on the other hand, has always been in good standing with the CRTC, as it has always been very consistent in submitting audited financial statements and in applying for its broadcasting licence.
The company is very dedicated to the preservation and stimulation of Aboriginal cultures of Saskatchewan and provides a vital service to the communities of the North.
“I think we provide a good coverage of local programming, Aboriginal language content, the different languages, the word of the day, sentence of the week, phrase of the week. I think we do a lot in enhancing our Aboriginal language and culture, which is our mandate,” said Charles.
Charles says MBC will apply to the CRTC for the frequencies available that the AVR had access to. MBC would go nationwide and they have the infrastructure set up with APTN in Winnipeg and Native communications Inc., (NCI) and the use of CBC transmitters.
“I am hopeful this will become a reality. It was like APTN: it was a foggy dream one day and it became reality,” said Charles.
Click here for more Arts & Culture stories.