EditorialEditorial
The Future of Radio
November 19, 2009
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Students at the University of Waterloo recently voted in a referendum against funding their campus radio station, SoundFM. The station now has until Dec. 4 to come up with a new business model or face dead air for good.
The demise of UW’s radio station is a sad and — for now — isolated case. However, coupled with a general lack of interest in campus radio amongst students and the changing face of the medium, SoundFM’s closure opens the discussion of where campus radio is headed.
The concept of campus radio faces a unique set of challenges. One of the most obvious being that its mandate tends to favour serving the community over generating a profit. Unlike corporate stations — which rely heavily on Top 40 hits, predictable programming and advertising dollars — campus stations generally focus on supporting local events, talent and issues. For example, Western’s 94.9 CHRW fosters an environment where students are encouraged to volunteer and its programming reflects a diverse range of campus and local interests.
While this democratic model is important to the Canadian media landscape, it often results in hit-or-miss programming. It can be frustrating for listeners to get into a station that jumps from rock to talk to hip-hop in the course of few hours. The amateur feel of many shows can also act as a deterrent for many potential listeners.
However, without stations like CHRW and SoundFM, Canadians would face a very different media industry. Without these community stations fulfilling their Canadian Content requirements with local, up-and-coming talent, our airwaves would become further saturated with mass-produced pop by the likes of Nickelback and Celine Dion.
Furthermore, these local stations cultivate young talent. Where do you think Canadian broadcasting heavyweights like Kevin Newman and Stephen Brunt got their starts? They got them at CHRW.
Unfortunately, the importance of campus radio is not enough to keep them afloat.
The entire face of the radio industry is changing — people no longer listen to the radio as they did a decade ago. Satellite radio removes the once limiting geographical barrier of radio waves and the rise of the iPod allows consumers to become their own DJs with the ability to create personalized, commercial-free playlists.
Going online is undoubtedly the direction radio is headed. Internet-based radio stations allow for the interaction and personalization media consumers now crave. While start-up costs may be steep, by offering these updated services, radio stations can compete with newer technology.
Campus radio also needs greater support from its community if it is to survive. If you’re unsure of how your student fee contribution is being spent at CHRW, turn on your radio or listen online. Or, the station is located in room 250 of the University Community Centre if you’d like to volunteer and make a difference.
[...] unfortunately wasn’t shaken after the last referendum. The commentary extends to other media who, in my opinion, didn’t even look into the issue and just supported them because they were [...]
One minor detail–we’re actually not unique. Other stations have undergone the same battle as Sound-FM faces now. Some, like the Fredericton station, have overcome their obstacles and the funding has been reinstated. Others, like the University of Regina station, have gone bust. Still others, like Queens (Kingston) are facing trouble and the money they receive isn’t enough.
Fortunately or not, radio is a public medium, and the airwaves are technically “free,” so no one wants to pay for it, even a paltry amount like the $2.50 per term we were asking for it. Add competition from radio on demand and the Internet, as well as the consumptive “What’s in it for me?” attitude today’s university students have, and the future of campus radio is bleak at best. In particular, as democratic as people think the Internet is, it still requires a certain level of skill and resources to be a competitive part of the Internet market, and other outlets simply have the funds that campus radio stations do not.
What campus radio offers that Internet and commercial radio don’t is a real sense of your own peers, your own community. Example: A few months ago, the Spanish-language show Estellos de America had a Guatemalan marimba band set up here in the Sound-FM green room area. They left, I did my show, and the show after mine, The Smokin’ Word, held a live wedding on air, all in a four hour period. This sense of shared space and the unexpected is what’s kept me devoted to campus radio for fourteen years. I’m proud to have been part of it, and I will continue to fight for it, because I know exactly what it offers. I’m only sad that future generations of UW students won’t have the same opportunity.
On the Simon Fraser University campus in BC, student interest in radio is booming. Volunteers do collaborative multimedia projects, get free hands-on training and experience, support emerging music in a huge way, and cover news and public affairs geared to student and community interests. We’re podcasting and on the web, but also iPod is adding FM tuners. Anyone who says campus-community radio doesn’t change is just not looking.
People keep talking about how ‘radio is changing’ but the truth is that commercial radio (which has changed its content very little in at least 15 years) has seen profits in the London market double from 2004-2008.
http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/publications/reports/BrAnalysis/rm2008/rm34.htm
That plus the fact that Apple has put a radio tuner in the new iPods suggests to me that local radio is alive and well and with a very bright future!