There are 963 approved and fully functional radio stations in Canada. Out of those, 721 have commercial licenses. It is easy to open a radio station in Canada after getting all the required documents from CRTTC, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. Here are a few you need to know.
The Basics
As an entrepreneur with interests in opening a radio station, you must get the required licenses from the Canadian government. You must be assigned a frequency to broadcast your radio from the governments’ ISEDC, Innovation, Science and Economic Development. You will then visit the CRTTC. The time and cost of the entire project will change based on different factors. If you are too busy to handle everything by yourself, then it is advisable to enrol professionals. However, the process may take more than eight months if the frequency bidding process is competitive.
CRTTC Application Criteria
After receiving your application forms from the CRTTC regional offices, you must satisfy them that you meet some criteria before getting the license. Just like you can play online Poker on Unibet, you can download application forms on their website. You have to give details if it is a personal venture, community or shared investment. That to prevent leadership wrangles that may affect the business in the future. Then you have to give other details like financial capacity, technical ability and programming details. They may ask for a market study to show why the proposed service niche is important and how it will aid in increasing market diversity. The market study also explains how the service niche will affect other broadcasters in operations.
The CRTTC is fair and ensures equality when evaluating the applications. There are no cases of discrimination based on factors like age, gender, religion, and ethnicity. They will review all the forms and ensure that you have provided all the details as requested. You can be summoned for a meeting if there are cases of competing applications. In the eventuality that happens, expect to attend a public hearing process, with documents explaining why you either oppose or proposed services of the radio station.
What is a Public Hearing Process
You can only attend a public hearing process with the invitation of the CRTTC. The purpose is to decide on the cases of competing applications. Everyone invited to attend must provide documents to either support or oppose the initiative. However, if CRTTC decides that they have sufficient information to make a fair judgement, then you might not be required to attend individually.
The CRTTC makes a decision based on the information they have. They may decide to approve or disapprove the application. The good thing is that the chosen decision is made in public. If you get a license, you will have one year to launch your radio station, failure to which it might be revoked.
Why You Should Participate in Public Hearing Process
It is good that you attend the public hearing if requested to do so by CRTTC. The ideas and opinions they collect help them to make a decision. It will help them to evaluate applications of existing and new licenses. Besides, it is also a way for the authorities to update their policies for easier licensing in the future.
What Happens After Getting the Licenses?
You will be good to launch your radio station after acquiring the license. That will depend on your financial ability and how long you can take to launch.