CKCU is scrambling to make up for major losses, with the launch of their annual funding drive.
The cuts come as a result of the Student Choice Initiative (SCI), which allows students to opt-out of a set list of deemed non-essential fees.
According to Michael Houston, CKCU’s treasurer, the station lost a total of $77,000 for the fall and winter semesters. This amount exceeds the station’s annual rent for office space.
Matthew Crosier, CKCU’s station manager, said this year’s funding drive is especially important as the station faces financial uncertainty.
“This one is definitely different, because with the SCI and the loss in student fees, we don’t know what will happen going forward,” he said. “It’s not just this year, it’s every semester, and there’s no historical way of gauging what will happen from year to year.”
Graph showing some of CKCU’s costs in comparison to losses from the SCI. [Infographic by Tobin Ng]
“This makes it difficult to do budgeting, and it highlights the fact for ourselves that we need to have more streams of revenue to balance out our funding better,” he said.
To cope with the major losses in student revenue, CKCU has increased its funding goal from last year’s $135,000 to $240,000 and extended the duration of the drive by a week.
A grant writer and a salesperson have also been brought in to explore alternative sources of funding, according to Crosier.
Crosier said CKCU relies on community funding.
“The phrase, ‘There’s no CKCU without you’ is true.”
– Matthew Crosier, CKCU’s station manager
“The contributions from the audience, from the students, from businesses and organizations are the reasons why the station is able to continue operating.”
This year’s campaign marks the 40th edition of CKCU’s annual funding drive. The station has been in operation since 1975 and runs over 100 programs.
Joel Elliott, co-host of The Brew: Monday Special Blend, said community radio is crucial to local musicians.
“I’m a musician myself and my band would never get played on local commercial radios,” he said. “But CKCU, CHUO, CKDJ, those types of community stations, they’re like a stepping stone, that starter block for artists. I think that’s wonderful and I think we should be promoting it as much as possible.”
Elliott added that CKCU is still relevant in the contemporary mediascape.
“Radio is not listened to as much, now that we’ve got the internet, we’ve got podcasts,” he said. “You can spend your media consumption time on anything you’d like, but when it comes to what’s on the ground and in the community, you’re not going to get anything as hyper-local as we’ve got on CKCU.”
As the nation’s first community-based campus radio station, CKCU serves Carleton as well as Ottawa communities within its broadcast range.
Gabby Calugay-Casuga, Carleton student and host of CKCU’s radio show Talakayang Bayan, said the radio station helped connect her to her ethnic community. Her show explores issues important to the Filipino community.
“My show gave me a direct link to the Filipino community in Ottawa,” said Calugay-Casuga. “You can’t always get that outside of community radio, and that’s why I love community radio and specifically CKCU… It gives people a chance to connect, learn and share music and news that is important to them.”
Crosier agreed, adding CKCU plays an important role in fostering a diversity of voices.
“[CKCU] gives people the opportunity to reach out to their community, but at the same time reaching a greater community as well,” he said. “What makes us quite different isn’t just our focus on being local—it is so many different voices in one place, not just one voice in one place.”
CKCU is seeking donations from businesses and individuals online, over the phone and through its fundraising events. The drive runs from Oct. 25 and ends on Nov. 17. As of Sunday, the station has raised a total of $81,577.
Feature image from file. With files from Laura Blanchette and Tobin Ng.
