Campus and community radio stations should not drop CAB Code of Ethics

From where I sit On The Kowch, the National Campus and Community Radio Association (NCRA) is on a collision course with reality when it comes to replacing the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) Code of Ethics to introduce its own code.

The CRTC has agreed to hold public consultations on the proposal to drop the CAB Code of Ethics to go with a new NCRA Code of Ethics.

My vote would be to force the NCRA to keep the CAB Code of Ethics. It is wrong to create two sets of standards for broadcasters.

Professional broadcasters would be held to a higher standard than broadcasters on community and campus radio stations.  If anyone needs the CAB Code of Ethics to guarantee high standards of broadcasting content it is the inexperienced campus radio announcers and the more militant and agenda driven announcers on community radio stations.

The CRTC Notice of Consultation has set Thursday, February 16th as the deadline for interested parties to present written comments about the NCRA's request to drop the CAB Code of Ethics. The NCRA would have until March 7th to respond in writing to any comment filed to the CRTC.

From where I sit On The Kowch, there can't be two sets of rules for what people say or can't say on the radio. kowchmedia is a strong supporter of campus radio stations. My support was outlined in a recent blog. I am a professor at two Toronto area colleges where I teach intro to radio at Humber and talk radio at Seneca. I also do a lot of online mentoring of broadcast students and new broadcasters.

My role is to prepare them for a future in radio. To do that I need to teach them the rules of the game and have them execute those rules every time they turn on the microphone at a campus radio station. If we let campus radio stations adhere to a watered down NCRA code of ethics, we are setting up the next generation of broadcasters to fail or get into trouble when they get a job in the real world.

The same is true at community radio stations staffed by volunteers and inexperienced broadcasters who will now be guided more by their agenda and outmoded belief that codes are a form of censorship instead of a guide to doing good radio.

Steve was in charge of programming Canada's two largest newstalk radio stations for 14 years

You can email Steve at steve@kowchmedia.com

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