The Community Radio Fund of Canda is pleased to award $1,998,123 to 44 campus and community radio stations through its Radiometres program.
The CRFC had already announced an increase in the financial contributions of up to $50,000 per station with the intention to offer substantial grants that would allow stations to fulfill their mandate and efficiently serve their community. Therefore, the total funding envelope has doubled from $ 1 to 2 million.
“Our stations have a unique place in the broadcasting market as they are the product of the communities they serve,” says CRFC’s President Roger Ouellette. “People want to know what’s happening near their home, their school, and their workplace. They want to learn about local issues, in addition to listening to their neighbours. And herein lies the great strength of community radio!”
Radiometres funds initiatives that are geared towards producing local programming, whether it’s musical or spoken word, training and retaining volunteers, and facilitating community participation in all spheres of activities of the stations.
Funded projects include core initiatives for some stations such as setting up regular news bulletins, digitizing their music library, and creating partnerships with local not-for-profit organizations. But there’s more. We’re also funding a partnership project between four New Brunswick stations aiming to identify and promote the Francophone identity in urban Acadian cities as well as innovative projects like the installation of devices to listen to the station in strategic locations throughout the city and the development of a collaborative mobile application called EnRue.
“CJRU is excited to be a part of the future of radio and thrilled to have CHHA radio as a partner. Building new digital tools for community radio production will attract young volunteers and make all our c/c stations more dynamic. We could not have contemplated doing this project without CRFC and thank you from the bottom of our hearts for recognising the need and responding,” says Jackie Tuinstra Harrison, General Manager at CJRU in Toronto.
Fr. Hernan Astudillo adds that “CHHA-1610 AM is profoundly and full of gratitude for this enormous financial support which will empower our alternative voice with our Latin American and Canadian community around the GTA. In the same way, it will enable an immense opportunity to our youth in order to expand our radio station with a high quality of news production.”
For a complete list of recipients and their projects, and to find more details about the CRFC and its programs, please visit our website: www.crfc-fcrc.ca.
The Radiometres program was first launched in July 2024. Since then, it has awarded more than $6.2 million for the implementation of 227 radio initiatives, bringing the total funding distributed through all CRFC’s program to $7.3 million. Moreover, the CRFC is proud to have helped a total of 123 campus and community radio stations, nearly 70% of the sector.
The funding for Radiometres is provided by Canada’s private radio broadcasters through a portion of their Canadian Content Development (CCD) contributions, a funding mechanism established by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). These contributions play an important part in strengthening the campus and community sector of the Canadian broadcasting system.
Have your say: