CRTC’s music categories for radio called ‘subjective’

The CRTC’s recent decision to deny a licence amendment requested by Harvard Broadcasting Inc.’s CKEA-FM in Edmonton was based on a difference of opinion over what songs fall into what category, according to the company, while a radio expert says the same could be true of other cases. The regulator renewed the station’s licence last month but denied an amendment to eliminate the requirement that the station select 15 per cent of its music from the special interest music category and that 20 per cent of its blues and jazz selections be Canadian. In the decision, the CRTC said the station appeared to be in non-compliance with the requirement for special interest music during a week in May last year, and that its "general practice is to deny an application for licence amendment when it is directly linked to an instance of non-compliance." Cam Cowie, Harvard's chief operating officer, said the process to determine which songs are considered blues and jazz or are considered specialty music is “quite subjective,” and there were differences of opinion between the station and the CRTC on these questions. There’s no list of songs to follow, he said, and while the CRTC has guidelines, those leave some room for interpretation. “Our programmer wouldn’t go out of their way to avoid a rule. I mean, when they play a song they think is blues and jazz, they honestly believe it’s blues and they’ve done some background work to determine whether or not it had even been on a blues chart or whatever,” he said in a phone interview, adding that the station “honestly believed” it was in compliance. “When the programmers are selecting these songs, they are looking at what they believe are the best blues and jazz songs that meet the requirements for blues and jazz, and their taste or their selection may be different than analyst looking at it.” He said the subjectivity involved in the process is “a little bit frustrating,” and that the procedure would have been easier if the CRTC had clearer rules to follow. David Bray, a radio analyst and president of Bray and Partners Communications, commented in a phone interview: “There is a great degree of subjectivity, and especially if you’re talking about analysts at the CRTC; they’re not musical experts.” Bray said that such conflicts used to be more prevalent before the CRTC relaxed its rules around radio formats in 1995. Before then, the CRTC tightly regulated the music on all radio stations. Now, stations playing Category 2 content, which includes mainstream music such rock and pop, are free to switch between different genres. Stations whose licences require them to play Category 3 music, which includes specialty genres like jazz and classical, must ask the CRTC for permission to change the requirements listed in their licence. CKEA-FM asked for the licence amendment because market research found that the blues and jazz the station was required to play wasn’t popular with listeners, Cowie said. The denial puts the station “at a competitive disadvantage” because it is now the only commercial FM radio station in Edmonton or Calgary with the conditions it sought relief from, Cowie said. “It’s a bit of a handicap, but you play the hand you’re dealt,” he added. The CRTC did not return a request for comment on Harvard Broadcasting’s case. Other stations may have had similar experiences, independent broadcast consultant Andrew Forsyth said in a phone interview. He pointed to Newcap Inc., whose request to eliminate two requirements related to special interest music for CHLG-FM in Vancouver was denied by the CRTC last year, and another decision two weeks ago concerning the licence for RNC Media Inc.’s CHLX-FM in Gatineau, Que. Neither company returned interview requests. In CHLG-FM's case, its licence requires it to devote at least 15 per cent of its music per week to special interest categories, and specifies that 40 per cent of those selections, including 20 per cent from the blues-and-jazz category, played between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., Monday to Friday, must be Canadian. In its decision, the CRTC said the station failed to comply with licence conditions by devoting only 14.1 per cent of its music to specialty music during a week in September 2013. The CRTC noted in a decision posted on its website that although the station had argued that “the non-compliance was the result of a software error and committed to review the station’s category 3 music library on a weekly basis to ensure that all selections qualify,” it is the regulator’s “usual practice to deny” such requests in cases of non-compliance. RNC had asked the CRTC for relief from the requirement that jazz and blues make up least 20 per cent of CHLX-FM's musical programming. The commission said that the station was in non-compliance because 18.4 per cent of the music it broadcast during a week in October 2013 was from that category instead of the required 20 per cent. The CRTC said in its online decision the company had argued that “the non-compliance is not a result of jazz and blues music not being broadcast, but rather of the Commission having reclassified several music selections from subcategory 34 to category 2 (Popular Music).” The CRTC reiterated that its "general practice is to deny an application for licence amendment when it is directly linked to an instance of non-compliance.” Forsyth said this has been a long-standing issue with the CRTC, although his experience has generally been that CRTC staff are understanding if a radio station can prove it didn’t intend to broadcast the wrong category of music. — With reporting by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca and editing by Derek Abma at dabma@thewirereport.ca

CRTC’s music categories for radio called ‘subjective’

Broadcast | September 3, 2015

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