Cambridge Bay turns on and tunes in

SARA MINOGUE

CAMBRIDGE BAY – It’s Sunday night at CFBI headquarters and Mathew Illassewicz is cuing up the next track from his collection of alternative indie rock for his weekly radio show, Eclecticism.

The phone rings in the makeshift studio in what used to be somebody’s bedroom. A young fan is on the other end, calling, like he did last week, to ask for a song by Nelly, a hip-hop superstar. The request couldn’t be further from Illassewicz’s style and he doesn’t have it, but he’s happy to have callers, and promises something good is coming up next.

You hear it in the grocery store, the gift shop, and office buildings all over town. After 15 years without a local radio station, Cambridge Bay residents are showing massive support for CFBI 97.7 FM.

The Cambridge Bay Communications Society formed in 2001, and opened the radio station on August 20 of that year. The hamlet donated space in a duplex, and offered $25,000 to buy equipment.

For two and a half years, the station was run by volunteers, and funded mainly with bingos. Last June, however, they got their first full-time staff member, thanks to wage subsidies offered through a federal government program.

Thirty-year-old Caroline Robinson is the station manager. She also hosts a show every day from 8:30 a.m. to noon, manages seven volunteers who run their own shows, and comes up with new ideas for the station.

“Before I started, [the station] was on the air for four hours a day and for bingos,” Robinson says. “Now’s we’re on from 8:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.”

The station has a winning formula – it’s mainly upbeat music, chosen from the small catalogue of box set CDs the station bought along with its start-up equipment. Hosts also make community announcements, but only for groups or organizations that are members.

Individuals pay $10 a year or $50 for a lifetime membership. Businesses or organizations pay $50 a year, or $500 for a lifetime membership. And membership pays if you want to reach an audience with your news.

Robinson learned just how big her audience is in December, after the tsunami struck in Southeast Asia. She came into work immediately when she saw what happened, and started asking for donations.

“I was only expecting a thousand or two thousand dollars,” Robinson says.

Instead, she raised $5,000 for the Red Cross.

A recent survey confirms that the station is a hit. Forty-six out of forty-seven people telephoned said they listened to the station. If you count up all of the people in each of those households, that’s 290 at-home listeners, aged anywhere from five to 60.

The Northern Store plays only CFBI. So does the Arctic Closet, a specialty gift and souvenir shop just down the street. Offices all over town also tune in all day.

After Robinson’s morning show, Avalak Ehaloak takes over from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.. Tara Niptanatiak, 18, hosts a dance music request show, “A Girl Thang,” from 6 to 8 p.m.

Robinson also has several projects in the works for new shows.

She’s working with Rhonda Vincent to put together a youth talk show, run by and for teenagers, aged 14 to 18. Tonight, they’ll hold their first meeting at the youth centre, just behind the CFBI building.

Some teenagers are already interested in the station.

“After school we do have kids come in to burn CDs or pick out music to play,” Robinson says.

Elders will also find a place at CFBI. Robinson has plans to record elders’ stories and play them on the air during her show.

“From the survey, people want to hear Inuinnaqtun on the radio,” she says.

Only about two to five per cent of people in Cambridge Bay are fluent in Inuinnaqtun – “Our generation just lost it,” Ehaloak says, but several elders who do understand it tune into the station. And both Robinson and Ehaloak want to preserve and promote the language while they still can.

They have other goals too.

“I’d like to see it open 24 hours,” Robinson says. “I’d like to see more volunteers. I’d like to see us get a full-time translator and eventually get a reporter.”

The station also receives funding from the department of culture, language, elders and youth.