GATINEAU – The CRTC decided Wednesday to eliminate restrictions on the broadcast of hits by English-language FM radio stations in English-language markets, but to uphold the restrictions in the bilingual markets of Montréal and Ottawa-Gatineau.
And at least one radio broadcaster is unhappy with the Commission’s decision. Calling the policy “insane, inane and asinine”, Chuck McCoy, executive vice president of programming and marketing for Rogers Radio, said that there is “no logical reason” for the decision.
“If you live in Medicine Hat, Lethbridge, Winnipeg or Toronto, you can listen to stations that play hits, the music that the consumers and the programmers have determined is ‘quality’. But if you speak English and live in Ottawa or Montreal, why should you not be afforded that same choice or right?” asked McCoy in an interview with Cartt.ca, shortly after the decision was released.
Rogers Media owns five radio stations in Ottawa, including four commercial FM stations.
“Hit music is available (in Canada), but the CRTC doesn’t feel it should be available on the radio,” McCoy continued. “No country in the world would regulate music this way. When I talk to Americans (about Canada’s regulatory requirements), one of them said that it’s like (the CRTC) is legislating bad taste.”
The Commission called for comments on its policy of the broadcast of hits by English-language commercial FM radio stations in January of 2008, posing, among other questions, whether the policy “is still relevant and effective in today’s broadcasting environment”.
“It’s 2009,” added Susan Wheeler, vice president of regulatory for Rogers Media. “You can’t dictate to consumers anymore.”
Wheeler said that the decision could drive listeners away from radio to alternative forms of music such as satellite radio and the Internet, which are not subject to this regulation. And this, she told Cartt.ca, could very well undermine the radio industry’s funding commitments to Canadian content.
“Our obligation to Cancon and cultural institutions like FACTOR, (the Foundation to Assist Canadian Talent on Recordings), and a host of others, provides funding that the independent music sector relies on to survive,” she said.
According to CRTC policy, English-language commercial FM radio stations can not play more than 50% of hits in a given broadcast week. The CRTC defines a hit for English-language markets as “any musical selection that reached one of the Top 40 positions in the charts used by the Commission to determine hits”, on or before December 31, 1980.
But in the bilingual markets of Montréal and Ottawa-Gatineau, the CRTC says that a hit is “any musical selection that, at any time, has reached one of the Top 40 positions in the charts used by the Commission to determine hits.”
The Commission last reviewed its policy on broadcasting hits back in 1997. At that time, it adopted a less restrictive definition of a hit for FM radio stations in English-language markets to allow for the development of the ‘Contemporary Hit Radio’ or ‘Top 40’ format on FM radio. And it elected to uphold the policy “in order to protect AM stations offering the ‘Oldies’ format from competition by FM stations, which broadcast with superior audio quality”.
In the same policy review then, the Commission opted to maintain the use of a stringent definition of a hit for English-language FM stations serving the Montréal and Ottawa-Gatineau markets, to protect French-language broadcasters in the two markets.
French-language broadcasters are allowed to play “minimum levels” of French-language vocal music and, in 1997, the Commission found that the broadcasters could be “severely disadvantaged” in retaining francophone listeners if they were “forced to compete with English-language stations offering unlimited amounts of Top 40 music released since 1980.”
The Commission received comments from 17 parties in response to its request for comments on this issue, including from Rogers, who wrote “that the policy is in place for the benefit of very few AM stations.” (Rogers owns Oldies 1310 AM in Ottawa).
In Wednesday’s determination, the CRTC agreed that the primary purpose of the policy restricting the broadcast of hits in English-language markets was to protect Oldies AM stations, and acknowledged that “the financial evidence shows that the policy has not achieved its intended effect.” It has now dropped the restrictions, effective immediately.
But despite urging from Rogers, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) and Evanov Radio Group to eliminate the policy in bilingual markets, the Commission determined “that no convincing evidence was presented that indicates that the restriction on the broadcast of hits in the bilingual markets of Montréal and Ottawa-Gatineau is ineffective and should be modified. The policy continues to have a positive effect on linguistic duality in the bilingual markets” and “will therefore remain in effect.”
And that decision has left Rogers’ McCoy less than satisfied.
“The reasons (why) were not made clear in the decision,” he said. “There is no justification for maintaining this regulation in the bilingual markets.”
Lesley Hunter is a senior writer for Cartt.ca.
