Nunavut community radio announcers to learn do’s and don’t’s

Nunavut community radio announcers will head back to school this fall because of complaints made to the Canadian Radio, Television and Telecommunications Commission.

To clean up the airwaves, the community radio announcers must take a course on proper on-air protocol and how to enforce that, the legislative assembly learned March 18.

The course, offered by Nunavut’s municipal training organization, comes as a follow-up to the complaints received by the CRTC.

Nunavut’s culture department, its department of Community and Government Services, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. and the CRTC worked on the course, said Lorne Kusugak, community and government services minister, in response to questions from Akulliq MLA John Ningark.

Ningark had remarked that some language “is not suitable for broadcast in the community radio stations.”

All Nunavut communities have community radio stations and announcers, Kusugak said.

“Some of the individuals have been there for a long time. There is a need for a training program to be made available regarding what should not be said on the airwaves,” he said.

The training will begin in September.