Abstract

The first part of this study examines the academic and official (CRTC) discourse regarding the regulation of radio broadcasting in Canada from the 1920s to the present. It examines the limits of earlier historical frames through which radio broadcasting policy has been explored. It introduces Foucault's model of study and frame of analysis termed governmentality. The second part is an ethnographic examination of specific policy, programming and operations of campus-community radio station CKUT-FM (Montréal), and, as a related object, the policies and interventions of the National Campus-Community Radio Association (NCRA). It provides a critique of campus-community radio itself, and of the complex term, community. The third part is a detailed exploration of governmentality. This term refers to the process of thinking about, and practising government. One of its main components is the study of power relations. Conclusions are formulated in terms of future research and policy intervention in the area of FM radio regulation.