This week, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) is holding the public hearing on the policy that regulates most community radio stations. The last such review was in 1999.

The NCRA submitted recommendations in conjunction with our colleagues at l'Association des radios communautaires (ARC) and l'Association des radiodiffuseurs communautaires du Quebec (ARC-Q). We will be appearing on Monday, January 18th in Gatineau, Quebec and many NCRA members will also be presenting throughout the week.

The agenda is here: http://www.crtc.gc.ca/Broadcast/eng/HEARINGS/2010/ag01_18.htm. To stream the proceedings, go to www.crtc.ca

The full list of written submissions is here: http://support.crtc.gc.ca/applicant/applicant.aspx?pn_ph_no=2009-418&lang=E

And the joint submission prepared by the NCRA, ARC and ARC-Q is here: http://support.crtc.gc.ca/applicant/docs.aspx?pn_ph_no=2009-418&call_id=...

A summary of our recommendations is:

· In French, replace "radio communautaire" with "radio de communauté" ;

· Acknowledge community radio as a local radio sevice ;

· Rescind categories A and B ;

· Provide the sector with an unrestricted financial contribution that will allow our organizations to better play their role ;

· Set the obligations relating to spoken word broadcasting at 15% for all stations ;

· Relinquish the obligation to broadcast 5% of category 3 music ;

· Reorganize the obligations regarding the broadcasting of music : maximum 80% pop music (category 21) and 20% others;

· For campus radio stations, cease to limit advertising to 4 minutes per hour but maintain a maximum of 500 minutes per week ;

· Merge community and campus radios under one single policy, comprising two branches ;

· In all decisions relating to new media, integrate a section regarding community/campus radio ;

· Create a yearly updated database from which data could be acquired via an Internet portal ;

· Take into account the impacts on community/campus radios in all market surveys ;

· Collaborate with Industry Canada in order to protect the current parameters of community radio ;

· Establish regulations so that the CRTC and Industry Canada may plan for access -- throughout Canada, and especially in markets where a minority official language community exists -- to at least one noncommercial FM frequency which could, for example, be dedicated to a community radio station.