On July 7th 2020 Heritage Canada announced the final components of Phase 2 of the COVID-19 Emergency Support Fund for Cultural, Heritage and Sport Organizations.
The Community Radio Fund of Canada (CRFC) has been mandated to manage the distribution of emergency funding relief for the campus and community radio sector.
Working alongside the Alliance des radios communautaires du Canada (ARCC), l’Association des radiodiffuseurs communautaires du Québec (ARCQ), and the National Campus & Community Radio Association (NCRA), the CRFC will be distributing emergency funding relief to allow campus and community radio stations to maintain their core local programming operations throughout the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.
The COVID-19 Relief Fund has been set up for campus and community stations that have been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, which has resulted in financial hardship for them, and are therefore in the need for government funding.
To qualify, you must complete the online application by September 25th on the following link: https://MyCRFC-MonFCRC.smapply.io/prog/. If you don’t have an account, you will have to create one. Please refer to our tutorial to do so.
Deadline for application: September 25th, 2020.
Radiometres is the cornerstone of the funding currently distributed by the CRFC and has been running since 2012. A new round of programming is launched each year in January.
Applications for Radiometres 2020-2021 are now closed!
To read the program guidelines, click here: 2020 Guidelines
The CRFC also offers a series of webinars for applicants to help them with their funding application:
My CRFC Project – Success Factors 1 (goals and measurable results)
My CRFC Project – Success Factors 2 (timeline)
My CRFC Project – Success Factors 3 (budget)
Radiometres is characterized by an outcome-based approach. It is designed to offer the funding that the stations need by being flexible enough to find a wide range of activities, but also maintains a focus on measuring success and progress for each project funded.
These outcomes were chosen to reflect the aims of CRFC funding as well as the desired impact of funding awarded on the campus and community radio sector and the broader canadian broadcasting system.
By targeting these outcomes over the long-term, the CRFC hopes to foster the development and sustanability of campus and community radios, and volunteer participation. We are on the right track! To date, Radiometres has had a significant impact on the sector by allowing 124 stations to :
The Local Journalism Initiative (LJI) supports the creation of local journalism that covers the diverse needs of underserved communities across Canada. Funding is available to eligible Canadian media organizations to hire journalists produce local journalism for underserved communities. The content produced will be made available to media organizations through a Creative Commons license so that Canadians can be better informed.
The Community Radio Fund of Canada (CRFC) is one of the not-for-profit organizations administering the Initiative. This project has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada.
Phase 2 :
Deadline to apply: June 23, 2020
To read the program guidelines, click here: LJI Phase 2 Guidelines
Phase 1:
January 21, 2020 – Recipients of LJI funding are announced
A special emergency fund of $356 000 has been allocated by the CRFC to support the creation and distribution of spoken word content by stations created outside of their broadcast studios during the COVID-19 crisis and beyond. With reduced access to broadcast studios in a period of crisis where communities need to be kept informed as much as possible, we feel this funding can help stations fulfill their duties as an essential service to their communities.
The CRFC is offering a micro-grant up to $2,000 to support stations who have had additional technical needs to be able to continue creating and distributing original programming during the COVID-19 crisis.
Eligible applicants are Canadian stations who hold a valid CRTC-issued campus or community radio broadcasting license (as set out in Public Notice CRTC 2010-499).
Download the application form.
Deadline – June 5, 2020.
Since the year 2014-2015, the CRFC allocates a funding envelope to the three largest campus and community radio associations in Canada : the Alliance des radios communautaires du Canada (ARC du Canada), the Association des radiodiffuseurs communautaires du Québec (ARCQ), and the National Campus and Community Radio Association (NCRA). Collectively, these three associations represent the majority of the 180 campus and community stations that possess a valid campus or community broadcasting licence issued by the CRTC.
The CRFC provides support to the three associations so that they may provide specific services to their members. The funds are to be used to reinforce the capabilities of the sectors by helping stations coordinate their activities, train volunteers et employees, and create new musical and spoken word content. This funding allocation has allowed a majority of stations to receive professional coaching and supervision.
Campus and community radio stations depend on the participation of community members. In order to highlight this crucial role and to underscore the importance of youth involvement in community broadcasting, the CRFC launched the pilor program Youth on Air! in 2015. This program is no longer offered.
Youth on Air! allowed stations to offer youths between 16 and 30 years of age a unique experience within the community radio sector through educational grants. This program was geared towards stations seeking to work with young Canadians in seach of mentorship, education, and/or training within a community-oriented radio station. The aim of the program was to develop radio talent, and, at the same time, reinforce station capacities and productivity.
Under this program, the CRFC supported 44 programs across two rounds of funding. A total amount of $419,303 was invested with the aim to promote the presence of youths in the sector.
The aim of the Radio Talent Development Program was to develop innovative local interest programming. The components of this program were: (a) producing local-interest content in the area of spoken word, and (b) providing training, mentoring, and/or education to those producing this content.
As for the Youth Internship Program, the goal wass to increase station capacity and outreach through recruitment, hiring, and training of young talented radio programmers while contributing new and innovative programming to stations. The components of this program were : (a) the mentorship, education, and/or training of a youth intern(s), and (b) music or spoken word programming produced by the intern(s).
From 2009 to 2014, the CRFC financially supported 127 projects under these programs, amounting to a total investments of $956,418. These two programs are closed and not longer offered by the CRFC.