Cancon on Radio 50 Years Old Today

[paterson]

January 18 1971 was the first day of the 30% Canadian Content rule for AM radio stations in Canada. On this anniversary of cancon what do you think? Has it been a success? Has the regulation achieved what it was intended to do? Should radio stations still be mandated to play a regulated amount of homegrown music or is it time to move on? Should cancon for radio (now generally 35%) be dropped, modified or if it is working alright just left the way it is?

I know this topic has maybe been debated to death over the years, but today is a good chance to reflect and consider if cancon has helped or hurt radio. Some will say yes because they have never liked the regulation, others will say no that it may have had the opposite effect since generally the Canadian radio industry is in better shape than our friends to the south.

Anyway, let's talk about this and hopefully we will receive some comments from members who are not in the industry and possibly have a totally different take than those of us that grew up and worked with cancon all through our careers.

THE HITLINES ARE OPEN...