Longevity and unique delivery sustains campus and community radio in Guelph

by Mike Treadgold

After thirty years on the dial as Guelph’s most alternative media source, CFRU 93.3FM continues to churn out the hits.

Except, these aren’t your traditional Billboard top 100 or Edge Thursday 30 hits that boom from the second floor of the University Centre; CFRU prides itself in being a medium for alternative listening, focusing on spoken word and musical programming that would otherwise fly under the radar.

On Friday, Jan. 29, CFRU celebrated its 30th birthday and actually, while it has been 30 years on the FM dial, campus and community radio has existed in Guelph since 1939 when the Ontario Agricultural College offered a credit course in radio broadcasting.

The importance of campus and community radio to the greater Guelph region is a concept that all staff members appreciate and understand.

“We’re Guelph’s only alternative media source. We’re a resource for people to learn media skills and consider themselves journalists,” said Sarah Mangle, CFRU’s Community Outreach Coordinator. “I think when people are equipped with that kind of knowledge, it changes how people are accountable to each other in their community. It also means that people can tune in and feel connected to their community.”

Their niche as a sustained source of alternative media has elevated the reputation of the station to the point where individuals with unique viewpoints immediately look to CFRU as a means to express their feelings.

“Our (CRTC) licence dictates that we provide program that you can’t find anywhere else on the dial,” said Mangle. “[Our programs] have to be an alternative to news and ideas that are on the rest of the dial.

“Legally, that’s what we have to do and what we have to be here for. Our mandate has to reflect those laws. [The station is] for people whose ideas and bodies aren’t reflected on the rest of the dial.”

The longevity of the station has reached a point where certain programs have now been featured as a part of CFRU’s regular schedule for decades, namely Nicky Dread’s Crooked Beats and Sound Magic, both part CFRU’s programming for over 25 years.

“We’re part of a very rich history of media programming,” said Mangle. “I think that a lot of different people have been involved over the years and they still [speak] fondly of their time here.”

“We can really be proud of our longevity – the fact that we’ve survived for 30 years,” echoed new station manager Lloyd Bentley.

“University communities are extremely transient,” explained Mangle. “People are here for a maximum of five or six years, so to have a show that lasts longer than that period of time…is extremely valuable for new students and older students alike.”

And where will CFRU be in another 30 years?

“I would hope that all our material in the archives would be really easily accessible,” said Mangle.

“We’ll be very digital, that’s for sure, and require half the space that we do right now,” said Bentley. “We’ll have a massive digital library. We’re currently in the process of transporting our older reel-to-reels over to the University of Guelph Archives. They’re getting right on the digitization process.”

Given the long term success of the station, those archives will also serve as an outstanding teaching tool for new programmers as CFRU continues the tradition of alternative media in the Royal City.

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