Community Media

by Corey Matsumoto and Eva van Loon

The recent uncertainty surrounding the future of CJMP 90.1 (JUMP FM) raises questions: Why is a free and open public forum for ideas, issues, and critical viewpoint so greatly under-utilised? Can JUMP FM be turned around to become a flourishing broadcast centre?

It occurs to us at Immanence that there are parallels between independent community radio and independent community print media What Bruce Girard, communications strategist and founder of comuica.org, said about community radio stations goes as well for us: they are community-based, independent, not for profit, pro-community, and participatory.

Could a symbiotic relationship between community and independent media be the key to their success and longevity? Community media face the challenge of survival in a well developed, billion-dollar advertising industry. Community media can also benefit from advertising, but ads that try to persuade people to act in ways contrary to the principles of community media compromise its role as an independent community voice. That can limit the scope of advertising. For community radio, the CRTC also dictates a maximum quantity of six minutes’ commercial advertising per hour, as well as requiring ownership by a non-profit organisation.

Structuring community radio in this way protects the station from editorial persuasion by advertisers as well as preserving the medium’s right to decide what it will air, even if material contradicts the interests of advertisers. The downside of this protection is the need that immediately arises—to find other revenue sources. Like community radio, Immanence, devoted to being a “safe room” for anyone to discuss and explore the re-invention of Powell River, enjoys a limited scope of ads—local businesses and organisations.

by Corey Matsumoto

Community Radio was my prefered choice of radio listening throughout my youth. I was lucky enough to have grown up in a city with a thriving community-radio station, Calgary, providing me with a continuous stream of new music and stimulating spoken-word programming.

Upon moving to what I thought of as the semi-remote community of Powell River in 2004, I was surprised and excited to discover CJMP 90.1FM (JUMP Radio)—a community-radio station broadcasting from the heart of the old downtown core. The fact that only 18 community-radio stations are listed on the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission website, in a province with over 150 towns and municipalities, makes JUMP Radio a bona fide rare gem indeed.

To my dismay, I realised shortly that this little gem of a radio station was massively under-utilised. According to a report released in October, 2007, by the Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA), the station is not alone in its struggle for community recognition. One of the common difficulties faced by community-radio stations is a population unable to recognise fully the wide-ranging benefits of community-radio development.

So what does community radio mean to a community?

Community radio not only provides an outlet for music lovers with a broadcasting bug, it also empowers members of a community to have their own radio shows to promote clubs and organizations, share ideas and information, or just speak their minds. Community radio also provides a means of improving one’s self-confidence through broadcasting, and provides a valuable training ground for those interested in broadcasting as a career.

by Corey Matsumoto

As is the case with many underground publications, Immanence is a rapidly evolving project full of challenges and fueled by many contributions of knowledge, opinions – and of course –advertising dollars.

The largest challenge has been printing. We are intent on having a magazine that is entirely locally produced and printed. This is quite the task in a community where the local printing “industry” consists of a handful of color copiers and an assortment of obsolete museum–quality machinery as old as the mill itself.

There is an unfortunate catch–22 scenario where money is not invested in local printing because the local printers don’t get enough business to afford the gear needed to print the large local jobs. We refuse to let Immanence become a part of the imbalance and hope to bring back the days of locally produced and printed publications (remember Powell River News?). We are finding ways to support 2 or 3 local printers by giving each a bite–sized portion of our monthly print run. It’s working out so far.

The higher cost of printing locally means a reduced number of pages and a shorter print run per advertiser than we’d like. Other local publications produce huge volumes of copies for a much cheaper price. It is my belief, however, that the market is being flooded with stacks and stacks of copies that end up sitting around and dumped in recycle bins by the handful. Ever looked through the paper bin at the recycling depot? This is money spent out of town and wasted every month for the sake of “high distribution”. The worst example is a tourism magazine that touted impressive distribution figures. We were given a box of 500 to distribute at our business –we only needed about 60 to display for the summer, and another 40 lasted the rest of the year. If every business that advertised got a box of 500 magazines, I could imagine how easy it would be to fulfill their “high distribution” figures.