DOWNLOAD OUR MEMBER PDF HERE (Nov 2022)
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What is the value of your NCRA/ANREC membership? 2020-2021
The NCRA/ANREC was founded on July 14, 1986. Since then we have grown from less than 20 members to 110 (As of July 2020). 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 more than 65 languages, collectively have more than 10,000 volunteers who produce a phenomenal 700 hours of programming a week! These stations reach a significant online audience and regular daily reach over an estimated 500,000 listeners across Canada.
The NCRA/ANREC is able to continue to offer support and grow our number of resources and services as a result of the financial support of the 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 and new online training resource and wiki information regarding c/c radio regulations (over 300 unique sources).
- The continued benefits of 1.9% saving from SOCAN fee for Broadcasting Licenses. We continue to liaise with SOCAN/CMRRA/CSI to represent the needs of our sector including automation of this system.
- 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.
- The Community Radio Exchange continues to be a free service offered to our members, which is a highly-priced service in other jurisdictions.
- 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 participate.
- 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 $12 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. For 2020-2021 the CRFC now funds the Local Journalism imitative via PCH which happened because the NCRA/ANREC lobbied for it.
- 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, Our accessibility microgrants and the disAbilities Handbook.
- Our !earshot-Distro 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.
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, amendments and other regulatory issues in 2019-2020. The NCRA/ANREC draws on nearly 50 years of regulatory experience through devoted volunteers and staff to support this important work.
- We run an annual successful Annual Returns campaign ensuring that stations remain in compliance with their regulatory obligations.
- We launched the national distribution network for artists, labels and distributors to deliver content directly to programmers via the !earshot Digital Distribution system.
- We updated the disAbilities handbook. Free for members!
- We completed year two of the National Strategic Learning and Development Platform which includes online training through NorthPass, 3 rotating annual conferences/summits, a mentorship program and more
- We updated our member-only website with dozens of resource pages.
- The NCRA/ANREC created a Wiki with over 100 entries! The Wiki has now become the central location for shared knowledge on c/c radio.
- We funded 55 member stations $30,000 to air support announcements about bilingualism in their communities through the “Rendez-vous de le Francophonie” program offered by our partner Fondation Dialogue & Canadian Heritage.
- Ongoing consultations with MPs, Senators, CRTC Commissioners & sector partners.
- Had high level consultations with Canadian Heritage in order to advocate for more funding options for c/c stations. This has including meeting with the Minister of Heritage to lobby on behalf of campus and community stations and submitting to the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Act Review Panel.
- The NCRA/ANREC provided promotional support to the Marathon programming for homelessness, Election night coverage via the Alternative Election broadcast live from Ottawa and the Wetlands project for Earth Day to our membership.
- 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.
- Podcast Network and storage infrastructure needed to convert radio programming to podcasts!
Some of the things we’re working on for the coming year:
- A new regional conference in the fall of 2020
- My Community My Radio public-facing website. This will be an initiative to show and promote to the public what campus and community radio do in Canada.
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 2020 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).
DOWNLOAD OUR MEMBER PDF HERE (Nov 2022)
