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The History of Community Radio
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In a word ... (citations)
For
a quick overview,
we suggest either the chronology or the
editor’s choice of quotations. You may consult the entire text by
clicking the
headings on the table below.
Quotations by theme
Quotations
The
special character
of community radio
Thus, by contrast in particular
with
private radio, community radio is preoccupied with community
development before
market development. By contrast with public stations, the focus is on
the local
community rather than the national one.
- Michel
Sénécal
According to the established
model, radio characteristically
attracted people by creating its own “community of listeners,” what in
the
industry is commonly called the audience. This audience is quantified
using
ratings and market share. Community models of communication tried to
reverse
this commercial relationship by postulating the existence of
already-formed
communities, to whom the media were obliged to adapt and not the
reverse. This
is due in large measure to the fact that community media see their
publics
first as groups of citizens with particular communications needs and
not as
consumers whose percentage of listening time is sold to advertisers.
- Michel Sénécal
Some of the permanent staff felt
that it
was sometimes necessary to professionalize activities to enable
grassroots and
community groups to find a voice. Nonetheless, it remained important
that
community radio not “over –professionalize,” as this would have reduced
access
to the airwaves. Between the two ends of the spectrum there appears to
be an
equilibrium that, fragile as it may be, must be found if the station is
going
to endure.
- Michel Sénécal
A
common characteristic of the two experiences, both for the U.S. version
and the Quebec one, was financing. Each station was financed
individually from
within its own community. Similarities existed as well in the area of
programming, more particularly with respect to urban community radio.
>From the
beginning, the Pacifica stations were known for their daring
programming and
for their very clear intention to change and develop community
interests. The
idea of Pacific served as an inspiration to many activists. Not just a case of Utopian thinking,
community
radio quickly showed itself to be an original alternative to
traditional […] radio.
- Roger F. Rhéaume
Urban radio stations in Montreal
and
Quebec City are broadcast on an FM band alongside many private
French-language
stations. They target social, cultural or economic groups which do not
see
their needs and interests reflected in the programming of the big
commercial
stations. In this they differ from private and public radio, both of
which seek
to gain and maintain the allegiance of a particular audience. By contrast, it is rare that one listener or
type of listener will be interested in everything that an urban
community
station broadcasts in a single day.
- Michel
Sénécal
Programming on urban community
radio is
highly eclectic, sometimes broadcasting in many languages. Further,
community
stations are often associated with younger, more marginal or
avant-garde
audiences than the other stations. These segments of the population are
reflected
among the volunteers […] Urban radio stations are also the ones that
have the
biggest financing problems: the competitive urban media landscape makes
selling
advertising difficult, the more so since many city-dwellers are not
even aware
of the existence of community radio. This latter condition can often be
exacerbated by the fact that programming is fragmented and so is not
able to
gain and keep the loyalty of its listeners amidst the high media
concentration
of the big city.
- Michel Sénécal
The solution for community urban
radio
lies with the government, which is the last of our missed
opportunities, the
two others being the labour movement, which never understood the
importance of
an outlet like CIBL, and the cooperative movement, which is no longer
what it
once was. We could call the project Radio Québec. We are talking
about a radio
network along the lines of TV’s Télé-Québec, but
with a mixed financing formula
involving both the government and the community. With this network, we
guarantee an effective structure both administratively and in the
area of
news services with correspondents in all the regions. The majority of
programming would have to remain accessible to the bulk of the
volunteers. We
envision a structure involving community participation.
-
Jacques Primeau
One thing stands out in
considering campus
or student radio stations across Canada. While French-language, Quebec
and
Acadian community radio is mostly associated with community stations,
community
radio in English-speaking Canada is primarily campus-based.
- Michel
Sénécal
Since they are associated
with
universities, these stations are usually found in urban and regional
contexts.
They enjoy a certain amount of independence with respect to public and
commercial structures because, as campus stations, they are financed
directly
from student fees. [...]With so few obligations towards the government
or the
corporations, campus-community radio has
a “sound”, so they say, even more eclectic than its urban community
cousins.
- Michel
Sénécal
While French-language community
stations
are proud to be among the first to discover a little-known musician,
before she
becomes the darling of the private stations, campus-community radio is
proud
instead of playing music that is not heard and will never be heard on
the
private airwaves.
- Michel
Sénécal
Promoters [of CIBL] maintained
that the
commercial and public networks were presenting “information that is
deformed by
the interests that these networks defend.”
[...] groups “dedicated to promoting the interests of the people
did not
usually have access to broadcast media.”
- CIBL Statement of Principles
We were expecting that Jane and
John Q.
Public would be there, sharing their musical tastes, sort of in the way
that
ladies at a sewing workshop gather to share their interest in knitting.
In
fact, however, the station attracted more educated people who tended to
share
cultural interests
- Pierre Fortin, CIBL pioneer
The idea was for citizens to
appropriate a
means of communication and thereby have access to speech in the public
arena” Fortin
explains. People spoke of the new radio as an electronic town hall. The
neighbourhood was overflowing with community organizations and we
wanted to
create a marketplace managed by the people and groups themselves, with
an
authentically democratic structure, not infiltrated by any party or
group.
- Pierre Fortin, CIBL pioneer
This wasn’t radio for UQAM, or
for the
intellectuals, it was popular radio in an era when people cared about
what was
happening in Montreal’s neighbourhoods.
- Jacques Primeau, former
chairman of the
board of directors at CIBL
I thought we were the
forerunners and that
we could find our niche in both municipal and cultural news and
information[…] We
were constantly seeking a balance between local radio and alternative
radio,
between social and cultural news and information and between an
informative
medium and a creative one.
- Yves Bernard, CIBL pioneer
In the wake of
anti-globalization and as a
kind of swing of the pendulum back again, I noticed a desire to go back
to the
roots of social radio on the part of a number of producers at
CIBL.
- Yves
Bernard
In the 1990s, programming was
less focused
on social issues and community development. [...]cultural content had
an
important place in programming and in the affection that the audience
had for
its “free” community radio. [...]With the help of its new success, CIBL
became
the darling of the performers, of the record industry and of the
cultural
industry more generally.
- Roger F. Rhéaume
The situation had changed over
the
airwaves in Montreal. In addition to CIBL, there were now four other
non-commercial stations on the media map of the city: Radio
Centre-Ville (CINQ
FM), CISM, university radio at the Université de
Montréal, CKUT FM, McGill’s
university radio station, and Radio Ville-Marie, a religious station.
Many of
the so-called alternative media offered a product that seemed quite
similar,
but CIBL continued to stand out in the area of Quebec vocal music in
French.
However, all of these stations were soliciting the same sources of
revenue, whether
they were commercial or public; it became increasingly difficult to
operate in
such a competitive market.
- Roger F. Rhéaume
The Francophones and Anglophones
were not
expected to represent the whole of their communities but this was not
the case
for the other teams” Hyman
Glustein observed. The constraints differed so much from one team
to
another. For example, the news source in French was the Agence de
presse libre
du Québec, well known for its sovereignist positions, while the
source for
English information was the Liberation News Service. The
Hispanics
proposed political information ideologically in line with certain
left-wing
governments like Chile or Cuba, while for the Greeks, whose country was
under
the rule of the “Colonels”, news became a gesture of resistance.
[...]each team
tended to become a universe unto itself. “Communication between the
teams could
have been better” explains Kevin
Cohalan, another pioneer who was involved from the beginning.
Marked by
counter-culture values in French and in English, the station offered a
political alternative in the other languages. At the end of the 1970s,
following a period of conflict, the station adopted a position
respecting
different points of view and remaining open to pluralism.
- Roger F. Rhéaume
Broadcasts offered to the cultural
communities are devoted to intercultural and community activities, to
news from
countries of origin and of course to the information that will help
community
members integrate into the new society they have chosen. Shows having
to do
with elections in other countries attract many listeners. Each of the
production teams is able to contact correspondents in the field to take
the
pulse of the situation. At times, these volunteer journalists have to
take
risks (for example, elections in Haiti are not always serene events).
Where
news is concerned, the cultural communities served by the station
enjoy, to a
certain extent, the best of two worlds: information from their
countries of
origin and information about their adopted country.
- Roger F. Rhéaume
Some have criticized this
format. They
would prefer to see more collaboration among the teams leading to a
hybridization of programming rather than intercultural enrichment. This
type of
collaboration has been implemented in the context of events, radiothons
for
example [...] but not enough [...]On the other hand, Radio Centre-Ville
offers
a rare opportunity for members of linguistic minorities to hear radio
produced
in their mother tongue or the language that is current in their lives.
From
this point of view, programming at Radio Centre-ville might be
considered as
halfway between a first service community radio for particular ethnic
communities and a French-language, urban community station..
- Michel Sénécal
People from the four corners
of the
world were able to sit together, to discuss and to enter into debates
and (…)
were able to move things forward; they influenced and through their
influence
helped thousands of people understand how the society we live in works
[and] become
aware that despite our differences, in fact we are very close to each
other;
and that we can live in harmony and contribute, every one of us, to our
society
- Evan Kapetanakis, CINQ pioneer
One day, a CRTC commissioner
asked me how
I went about finding out what was being broadcast in Greek. I told them
that I
had faith in the team. This was the approach that we took.
- Hyman
Glustein
Community radio should not be
just
informative and entertaining. I find, for example, that some of the
programming
in French is not socially engaged enough, even though it contains its
share of
gems. This is no doubt due to the influence of the other stations.
- Mikhaïl Kapellas, Radio
Centre-Ville pioneer
If I had it to do over again, I
would take
a very well-structured approach from the very beginning,” says Kevin
Cohalan. I would opt for a more coherent programming vision and a
more
directive management style. This way, we would no doubt have succeeded
in
having more impact. To begin with, we want the radio to become a
vehicle for
the whole community, not just the artists, thinkers and philosophers of
the
Carré Saint-Louis. I still think it’s important for the radio to
open its doors
to everyone.
- Kevin Cohalan
[...] the station intended to give preferred
access to “those neglected by
other media.” We continued with what must be considered the
multi-ethnic credo
of the organization: “Radio Centre-Ville will respect our
community's
diversity in a spirit of impartiality. The minorities' right to airtime
will be
respected as much as the majority's. As a community medium, CINQ FM
will invite
ethnic groups to express themselves in their own language. The
development of dialogue
and communication between the different ethnic and linguistic groups
will be
encouraged, in order to promote mutual understanding. We will work to
bring
about the objective conditions necessary for the active participation
of
immigrants in Quebec society.
- CINQ Statement
of principles
LNI on
the radio
Theatre on the radio was a rare
thing
then, not to mention the fact that some LNI improvisations were silent,
quite a
challenge for a radio broadcast!
- Roger F. Rhéaume
Kevin Cohalan,
one of the station's pioneers, had fashioned a wok for me, in the shape
of a
bowl and a microphone that we placed over the heads of the actors, that
is,
above the skating rink. We had built a tiny booth on the stage. From
here, an
actor would do the play-by-play and interview players between periods.
We also
installed a big cable for doing 'on-ice' interviews. I was in charge of
producing the show and sometimes I would open in "Hockey Night in
Canada" style, imitating Jean-Maurice Bailly of La Soirée du
Hockey.
- Benoit Fauteux
Rock et
Belles Oreilles on CIBL
Every
Friday night, the RBO team and their fans literally took over the
station, some
worked at the discotheque, others in the studio. Jacques K. Primeau was
publicity director at CIBL at the time and then became the group's
manager,
throughout its career. Primeau recounts that listeners who were
particularly
devoted to the group's gags and non-sequitors would drive around in
their cars
in order to be able to catch the station, then broadcasting at sixteen
watts. [...] There was no doubt about the success of the show,
even
though the station management was called on to put out a few fires.
Some
announcers were none too keen on our comedians' sense of humour,
starting from
when they directed it against the station's advertising messages.
- Roger F. Rhéaume
Virgule 5 on CIBL
[The
magazine] Virgule 5 would often go to
where events were taking place to cover them. The show was broadcast
live from
a municipal swimming pool for one whole summer and was one of the
first
to broadcast from the Museum of Contemporary Art. At the "Festival de
musique actuelle de Victoriaville," the team broadcast from a local
station. Bertrand Roux claims that the wildest spot he broadcast
from was
a glass cage at the Foufounes électriques. "At the Foufounes we
had to
protect ourselves from the surrounding 'wildlife'", he muses,
still
smiling at the memory.
I was in the heart of a Plateau
that was
really happening. The magazine Voir got started and became
wildly
popular right away but it took us a while to get on board. We had to
respond to
what was going on and we did, by setting up teams of as many as
twenty-five
people, recruited from all points on the cultural map. We covered it
all, from
dance to visual arts, architecture, geopolitics, film and music. We
could
afford the luxury of having different reporters for pop, jazz, blues,
'musique
actuelle' -- you name it! We even created characters, like Sylvain
Lafrenière
did with 'le Capitaine Rock' to mention just one.
-
Bertrand Roux
Souverains
anonymes
From
the beginning, news of this groundbreaking
show [produced by Mohamed Lotfi] spread quickly, a show that gave
inmates in
Bordeaux jail a voice and saw them play host to guests of all sorts.
[…] It is
difficult to think of other activist radio shows that pay as much
attention to
the form of the show as to its content. For the "Souverains
anonymes," once the questions have been asked, the answers are
reconstructed during the editing process and delivered as such, in a
spirit of
utmost respect. We as listeners imagine an entire universe based on a
single
question: what can an inmate say in front of a radio microphone? and we
may
add: what does a guest from the outside, from the free world, have to
say to
the inmates?
- Roger F. Rhéaume
Activism
It has taken time for public
participation
to become the watchword for a greater democratization of our society
and the
institutions dedicated to managing public affairs. For the community
radio
movement, however, citizen involvement has been a priority from the
outset. [...]The
different social groups that make up the community need community radio
to find
a voice and to get their point of view across. In return, the radio
station
must rely on volunteers for management, for program production and even
the for
financial survival of the organization.
Giving a platform to people, to ordinary citizens, demystifying
the
news, making the radio station a true medium of communication, all
became major
objectives in blazing the path of creating and developing community
radio in
Quebec.
- Michel
Sénécal
Whether it be the
counter-culture movement
of the 1970s or today’s anti-globalization movement, activism in and
through
the voices of community radio stations has constantly be re-invented.
All the
major social causes of the past decades have been supported. The
women’s
movement, education, health, housing, ecology, immigration, etc., all
these
social causes have found supportive echoes on community radio. This is not only because it was part of the
stations’ mandate to reflect the values and interests of their
communities but
also because the active members of these stations were also
stakeholders in
these social movements.
- Michel
Sénécal
it is quite appropriate to speak
of the
pioneers of community radio and community media generally as
communications
activists. Starting in the 1960s, many of these activists were on the
job to
defend a particular vision of the media. They wanted the media to give
a voice
to citizens, to representatives of grassroots and community groups and
to
up-and-coming artists, in short, to those whom the traditional media,
electronic or written, commercial or public, rarely handed over the
microphone.
[...]Through their activism, all contributed to one of Quebec’s finest
experiments in grassroots and cultural education, an experiment in
free,
community communications.
- Roger F. Rhéaume
Community radio is a necessary
alternative
because of the way that radio works today. The federal government
through the
agency of the Board of Governors and the CRTC is responsible for this
state of
affairs. These organizations have never done a thing to ensure
community access
to the media and active community participation, or to guarantee that
the
listeners are the ones who are truly responsible for what is broadcast
to them.
The fact is that all they have done is to grant licences to
millionaires, to
let them run their little businesses, to broadcast their
advertisements, to
squeeze all they can out of the public. It is the CRTC’s responsibility
to
regulate the stations [... in order to] offer some choice within the
system.
- Hyman Glustein, a pioneer of
community
radio in Montreal
We are living at a time when the
lifestyles, values and interests that hold centre-stage have engendered
an
alternative, anti-capitalist culture. Perhaps this is another form of
protest,
appropriate to a new socio-political context, where individualism has
overtaken
collectivism and where social involvement tends to com from an appeal
to human
solidarity rather than to institutional politics. Campus and community
radio
stations are part of this wave, which is characterized by new modes of
expression through words, music and different cultural and political
manifestations.
In fact, more than just a media project, community radio in itself is a
project
for social affirmation and change.
- Michel
Sénécal
[...] community stations must
still follow
CRTC regulations with respect to “Canadian content.” A minimum of 30 %
of the
music broadcast must be Canadian in origin. French-language radio must
ensure
that 65 % of its vocal music is in French. Private industry has always
resisted
such regulations, on the grounds that quotas harm the quality of music
they
offer and hence hurt their ratings. It is interesting to note that some
community radio stations have protested against the same policies but
for less
commercial reasons. They suggest that content rules reduce the room
available
to broadcast music from other parts of the world, which prevents
community
stations from fulfilling their goal of cultural diversity.
- Michel Sénécal
Finally,
the
following are a few of our interviewees who have been involved in
community
radio (the links lead to sound clips of interviews on our sound
heritage):
|
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The History of Community and University Radio in Montreal |
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The special character of urban radio (urban life, social connections) |
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Last update June 7, 2004
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