DOWNLOAD OUR MEMBER PDF HERE (January 2025)
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What is the value of your NCRA/ANREC membership? 2025-2026
The NCRA/ANREC was founded on July 14, 1986. Since then, we have grown from less than 20 members to 120 (As of January 2025). We have worked to facilitate the continued growth of the sector (8% growth a year over the past 5 years) and encouraged stations to join our family of community-focused stations. NCRA/ANREC members broadcast in over 65 languages and collectively have over 7,000 volunteers who produce a phenomenal 700 hours of programming a week! These stations reach a significant online audience and regularly reach over an estimated 500,000 listeners across Canada daily.
The NCRA/ANREC can continue to offer support and grow its resources and services due to the financial support of membership fees. Without the support of members, the NCRA/ANREC couldn’t sustain a national office and service our stations.
The NCRA/ANREC continues to make available the benefits of:
● The Regulatory Survival Guide, the Copyright Handbook, Board of Directors, new online training resource, and wiki information regarding c/c radio regulations (over 500 unique sources) and a team of volunteers to support regulatory and CRTC Compliance.
● The continued benefits include 1.9% savings from the SOCAN fee for broadcasting licenses. We continue to liaise with SOCAN/CMRRA to represent the needs of our sector, including automation of this system and keeping Tariffs low.
● Private consultation on grant applications (for example, CRFC grant design and support).
● The Community Radio Awards in Broadcast and Online continue to be a significant benefit, which has helped earn stations granting funds, recognition and prestige.
● Health and Station Insurance partners, we’ve been informed that stations save on average $200+ by switching to our national partners. We continue to find group-buy options to help reduce operational costs for stations. Over 25 stations participated.
● Our email lists continue to be a significant resource for stations as they crowd-source solutions to issues they may face.
● Co-founded the Community Radio Fund of Canada (CFRC), which to date has distributed more than $25 million to Campus/Community stations. The NCRA/ANREC maintains a presence on the board of directors for the CRFC. The NCRA/ANREC also
works on a sector-wide working group with the CRFC and the francophone stations to solicit new revenue sources for our members and the sector at large, such as The Local Journalism Iniative, the Community Radio Iniative and more worth millions annually.
● The NCRA/ANREC continues to provide the resources generated from previous projects, such as equity-based projects and resources like Rendez-vous De La Francophonie, accessibility micro-grants and the disAbilities Handbook.
● Our !earshot-Distro.ca system has launched fully and allows radio stations and their programmers to get direct access to music from all across the country, reducing the waste produced by CD distribution and increasing access at no cost to members. It also now distributes finished programs and Public Service Announcements (PSAs)
Some successes from the past year:
● We supported more than 35 individual stations interacting with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) with licence applications, renewals (over 45 this year), amendments and other regulatory issues in 2024-2025. The NCRA/ANREC draws on nearly 60 years of regulatory experience through devoted volunteers and staff to support this vital work.
● We ran a successful annual returns campaign to ensure that stations comply with regulatory obligations.
● We grew the national distribution network for artists, labels and distributors to deliver over 40,000 songs directly to programmers via the !earshot Digital Distribution system.
● We are laughing a new Strategic Learning and Development Plan (SLDP) that includes training through two rotating annual conferences/summits, a mentorship program and more.
● We updated our member-only website with dozens of resource pages.
● The NCRA/ANREC expanded its Wiki with over 350 entries!
● We annually fund member stations $30,000 to air support announcements about bilingualism in their communities through the “Rendez-vous de le Francophonie” program.
● We have had over $100,000 in advertising and run CanAds to expand our national advertising for our members.
● Ongoing consultations with MPs, Senators, CRTC Commissioners & sector partners related to C11, C18 and much more, with high-level consultations with Canadian Heritage to advocate for more funding options for c/c stations
● The Public Service Announcement Network, an initiative to bring national PSAs from Canadian charities and non-profits to a central depository for c/c stations.
● Ran another season of the Podcast School for members via podcast.ncra.ca
Some of the things we’re working on for the coming year:
● Supporting the Community Radio Iniative via My Community My Radio public-facing website to show and promote to the public what campus and community radio do in Canada.
● New sponsorship and partnership programs.
● The launch of the Community Broadcasters Foundation of Canada for Charitable receipts.The NCRA/ANREC continues to work on finding ways to provide services and products of value to our members while also diversifying our sources of revenue to offset operational costs. The NCRA/ANREC has calculated that stations in 2025 had the potential of making over $17,000 in savings, or cash, through grants and advertising, we will continue to work to increase this number while also providing substantial intrinsic value for our members (Excluding the value applied to the !earshot-distro system). Contact barry@ncra.ca for more information.
DOWNLOAD OUR MEMBER PDF HERE (Jan 2025)
