Community radio is about volunteerism, social engagement, independent music, learning by doing, community capacity building, citizen journalism and more.

Here's a quick sketch of NCRA members, in all our mighty diversity (though we've added about 10 more members so some of these numbers should be even higher!)

Total watts of broadcasting power: 85,882

Staff: 182.5 (Full-time equivalent)

Volunteer force: 5,992 working an estimated 21,000 hours per week

Our volunteers are the cultural pioneers and opinion leaders of their local communities. Close to one-half of these volunteers are students and student leaders, they are opinion-makers, newsmakers, and trend-setters in their communities, and future leaders of Canadian culture and society. As well, the majority of these volunteers nationwide are artists, political and social activists, and members of multiple civil society organizations and grassroots movements.

Programming languages: at least 63 -- English, French, Macedonian, Polish, Slovakian, Arabic, Hindi, Croatian, Serbian, Mandarin, Spanish, Cantonese, Somali, Polish, Italian, Ukranian, Ethiopian, Hindi, Punjabi, Pakistani, Hungarian, Assyrian, Eritrean, German, Vietnamese, Romanian, Japanese, Korean, Klahoose, Portuguese, Ahmaric, Khmer, Polish, Kurdish, Azesi, Armenian, Tagalog, Turkish, Mandarin, Finnish, Swedish, Russian, BerBer, Tamil, Haitian Creole, Bosnian, Bangla, Persian, Somali, Eritrean, Cree, Nepalese, Tigrinya, Greek, Ethiopian, Eesti, Gaelic, Urdu, Inuinnaqtun, Inuktitut, Ojibway

Estimated population within signal range of NCRA members: 23,771,000 Canadians
or over 75% of Canada’s population

Membership growth by year:
2002 - 26; 2003 - 31; 2004 - 36; 2005 - 41; 2006 - 40; 2007 - 53; 2008 - 55; 2009 - 72 members!

Some financial statistics: (based on self-reported financial information from our members for fiscal years ending in 2007, figures are not audited)

In 2007, our 52 member stations received approximately $110,800 in public funding, while raising about $871,200 by funding drives in their communities. This means our sector employed one full-time person per $931 of public funding,
and trained 1 volunteer per $32.65 of public funding.

Average revenue breakdown of NCRA membership:
- community fundraising - 14% of revenue
- student fees - 50% (applies only to most community-based campus stations)
- advertising - 18%
- government sources - 3.1%
- other - 15%

Our members are as diverse as the communities they serve, and respond to local realities/needs in their programming, their staffing, community development work, and their services and fundraisinging. There is no typical community-based radio station - i.e. all our members are exceptional!

Much of the economic impact of our members is not reflected in bookkeeping. For example, advertising value in community-based radio is not necessarily monetized; a large portion of advertising service is exchanged for goods and services in-kind, or used to build connections with other community organizations and NGOs.

Community-based radio stations are community-owned, democratically-governed, non-share not-for-profit corporations; therefore they are not subject to aquisition/relocation, they are structurally bound to the communities that they serve.

FINDING Campus and Community stations:

Our members' info is on the Member Directory page on this site.

The current lists of CRTC contact information for all campus radio and community radio stations are here:
http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/lists_b.htm
http://support.crtc.gc.ca/broadlist/datalist.aspx?indx=1&lang=e
http://support.crtc.gc.ca/broadlist/datalist.aspx?indx=3&lang=e