The CRTC has rescinded the station licenses for Aboriginal Voices Radio’s five stations in Canada.
AAA/World Music “Voices Radio” 106.5 CKAV-FM Toronto, 106.3 CKAV-FM-2 Vancouver, 88.1 CKAV-FM-3 Calgary, 89.3 CKAV-FM-4 Edmonton and Silent 95.7 CKAV-FM-9 Ottawa will be required to sign-off by the end of the day on July 25. The Commission stated that its decision to revoke the licenses “based on AVR’s repeated and serious non-compliance with its regulatory obligations over four consecutive license terms as well as the Commission’s complete lack of confidence in the licensee’s ability to broadcast in compliance with those obligations going forward and therefore meet the unique needs of Aboriginal people.”
At its license renewal hearing in May the licensee admitted to the non-compliance of the following license terms:
- failure to file complete and accurate program logs and logger tapes, as required under sections 8(4) and 8(6) of Radio Regulations, 1986 (the Regulations)
- failure to file annual returns for the 2013-2014 broadcast year for its five stations, as required under section 9(2) of the Regulations
- failure to broadcast regular daily local newscasts on each station that include at least five distinct local news stories of direct and particular relevance to the Aboriginal community within the market served (condition of licence 2)
- failure to file complete annual updates on the achievement of its business objectives (condition of licence 9)
- failure to file audited financial statements for each of its stations (condition of licence 10)
Aborginal Voices Radio admitted at the hearing that it had not been providing the local programming and news it had committed to offer in the four markets it was operating after taking Ottawa dark.
The CRTC will issue a call for applications for the licenses in those markets in the near future with priority given to those broadcasters seeking to target Canada’s Aboriginal community. The full order can be read here.
only1moore 
tdotoutlayer
This is sad for AVR and the Aboriginal communities who needs a outlet. Let’s hope that someone in Canada can fill the void soon.
Only time will tell whether another operation that may have the skill and business dexterity to operate successfully within the CRTCs restrictive framework will come along. Rest assured that it will be at least two years before the vacated 106.5 or 106.3 frequency in Toronto alone is filled let alone 106.3 Vancouver, 89.3 Edmonton, 88.1 Calgary and 95.7 Ottawa are filled. I think the CRTC should in the future when it comes to undertakings of this kind be more weary of a network of any kind attempting to start up and instead give much priority to stations that will, under a legally binding condition of license be strictly local operations. It doesn’t really matter if a network will come in the form of a lineup of syndicated programming fed to separate stations (under a common ownership or not) or a network of semi-satellite rebroadcasters (if that’s even what they are in the case of CKAV) originating from a primary station. Instead, I believe serious preference and priority should be given to applicants willing to commit under a legally binding condition of license to run a strictly local operation.