Proposed changes to the management structure of Queen’s radio station CFRC won’t go through, following a failed motion at last night’s AMS Board of Directors.

The Board is the financial overseer of CFRC and meets bi-weekly. A potential restructuring of CFRC was first brought up in an Oct. 25 letter from Board of Directors Chair Mitch Piper to the radio station’s Advisory Board.

Piper said both the Board and CFRC agreed that the original proposal wasn’t the best option and an alternative plan should be made.

“We are working right now … to look at how we can move forward in a way that really meets the needs of both areas,” Piper, ArtSci ’11, said. “We both recognize the status quo wasn’t okay and so … by voting this down we’re just saying this is not the option we want to go with.”

According to Piper, proposal to restructure CFRC management was meant to bring accountability to the station and align it with other AMS media outlets.

Discussions surrounding the motion to restructure CFRC’s management had been tabled at the Feb. 10 Board of Directors meeting.

The changes would have included creating a head manager position to oversee three assistant programming manager positions. The proposal also sought to make the positions available to full-time students only.

Since it came to CFRC’s attention, the plan was strongly opposed by radio station representatives, who argued that making the positions available to full-time students would only further increase the station’s projected $10,000 deficit and negatively affect programming content.

The station’s Operational Officer Kristiana Clemens said she thinks the AMS voted against the changes because it breached the station’s broadcasting licence.

“I think they realized that they were putting the station’s broadcast licence in jeopardy,” she said. “I was cc’d in a lot of messages from other broadcasters, from former AMS staff and volunteers, students and non-students urging them not to move ahead with the decision.”

Irina Skvortsova, CFRC’s business manager, said she was relieved when the Board decided against the proposed changes.

“There was a serious misunderstanding between CFRC and the Board of Directors,” she said. “We’re relieved that we’re moving in the right direction.”

According to Skvortsova, a decision was made between CFRC and the AMS to gradually increase CFRC’s autonomy from AMS over the next two years. CFRC is currently an AMS-funded media service, garnering 40 per cent of its revenue from an annual $4.93 AMS student fee.

Skvortsova said the motion failed in order to allow CFRC to comply with a new Canadian Radio and Telecommunications Commission legislation that requires local community stations to operate their management and finances independently.

“We’re hoping by the end of April to have a concrete timeline with milestones and a process that will unfold,” Clemens said. “Hopefully we’ll determine a plan for us to become more autonomous.” As for right now, Clemens said the station will keep its current management structure.

“We’re hiring right now for three new programming managers for next year.”