CKCU’s annual funding drive wrapped up on a musical note at Café Nostalgica on Nov. 6.
The drive featured live local bands Snake Church, Maggie’s March, and Okies.
The show was organized by CKCU’s Indie City Madness radio show hosts Elly Laberge, Rick Vaughan, and Julie Cormier-Doiron.
All proceeds from the show contributed to the station’s funding goal of $135,000 for the year ahead.
The station, which first went on the air in Nov. 1975, is funded through a combination of Carleton student levy fees, program sponsorships, and the money raised during the annual funding drive. Currently, undergraduate students pay $13.69 per year to keep CKCU on the air.
Shane McDiarmid, an Ottawa local who attended the show, said he grew up listening to the radio station on Friday nights.
“It was 7 p.m., and it was early 2000s rap. I’d be listening in my G-Unit tee,” McDiarmid said. “Community radio is awesome. It’s not listened to enough.”
Pat Crosby, bassist for Snake Church, associates the radio station with more recent experiences.
“CKCU is about art. It is deeply into local music. It’s eclectic,” Crosby said.
These varied experiences with the radio station are intended. Eric Stolpmann, one of CKCU’s volunteer hosts, said the station cultivates different parts of the Ottawa community.
“[CKCU] attempts to try to create, curate, and connect different parts that might not otherwise have the opportunity. That is why I’m so happy to be with CKCU,” Stolpmann said.
CKCU, which is Canada’s oldest campus-based radio station, raised funds the classic way—pushing funding drive -focused content from Oct. 21 to Nov. 6, backed by a room full of volunteers and phones.
The various show hosts used humour, persuasive reasoning, and phone number repetition, to remind and to encourage listeners to call in, go online, or mail in their contributions towards keeping the station operating into its 41st year.
Jack Spinks, lead singer of Snake Church, said the best thing about radio stations like CKCU is the community aspect.
“Everybody comes in and has their own slot. That’s what radio is supposed to be, in my opinion. It’s my favourite radio station,” Spinks said. “It’s the little radio stations that are helping music. Those are the people you need to give money to.”
As of publication, CKCU has raised over $125,000 of its $135,000 goal, and fundraising is now in the final stretch.
Lindsay Morrison, CKCU volunteer co-ordinator, said the funding doesn’t usually all come together until around Christmas or New Year’s, but the CKCU team is confident it will come in this year as well.
