Landmark for Iqaluit airwaves

CHARLOTTE PETRIE

The raven has landed.

Iqaluit’s first private radio station descended on Iqaluit listeners in early May, with a crescendo of pop-country, classic rock and top-forty hits.

Raven Rock spent its first two years in the nest before it was finally airborne.

The Evaz Group of Companies, better known for its hotel, travel, office supply and construction holdings in Iqaluit and Rankin Inlet, enlisted the help of radio consultants to conduct several feasibility and marketing studies back in 2001.

Since the station went commercial at 99.9 on the FM dial on May 26, the response from listeners and local advertisers has been overwhelming, according to Terri Chegwyn, Raven’s general manager and disc jockey.

“I am blown away by the response of the business community to try something new which they’ve never heard before or done before,” Chegwyn remarked.

Other than Iqaluit resident Bryan Pearson, who owns the Astro theatre and advertises on the Vancouver station Rock 101, most of the local businesses have never tried radio advertising, Chegwyn added.

“We’ve had everybody join in . From the little guy to the biggest guy – they’ve all jumped on board. We’re just hoping we can keep up the momentum and keep everybody happy.”

Outside the station’s door is a tabled filled with flowers left by appreciative clients and listeners.

“We can’t believe the response. This is totally unheard of in the radio business when first starting out. It’s just different in the North, and it always is.”

Listenership does appear to have come on strong. A promotional launch contest has had an overwhelming response, proving that people are tuning in.

“This morning, everybody whose name was announced for the contest called in – every one of them were listening. It’s just weird. Everywhere I go I hear the station,” Chegwyn said.

And the competition? Chegwyn isn’t sweating it.

“We’re so totally different than CBC. Rock 101 always worried me because I’m not Bro Jake. He is so famous. That was a concern, but I though ‘What the heck.’ And the response we got from the community was ‘Ya, we really like Bro Jake, but I love to hear the local news or the temperature outside.”

Currently broadcasting only in Iqaluit, the territory’s bandwidth would need to be widened before it could be broadcast in other communities – a dream the station hopes to one day realize.

With an ecclectic mix of music at the station, Chegwyn says they’re trying to appeal to the nostalgic side of people.

“Everybody has a different song or a different era that means something to them.

“I personally love all kinds of music. It just sort of ended up with a varied mix and we just kind of left it like that. Everyone in the industry that I talk to says, ‘Oh no, you can’t do that!’ but that’s the way it is right now.”

In the earliest days, when she was running the show all by herself, Chegwyn loaded a bunch of songs on the computer, then programmed it to play a selection from several different categories, like country or the early 80s.

“Our direction is light rock. We are currently toning it down a bit during the day by taking some of the hard rock out of the mix. But other than that I think it will pretty much stay the same,” Chegwyn assured.

That’s just the beginning for the little Iqaluit station that could. Plans are in the works to add a variety of new programming and specialty shows. Chegwyn is considering bringing in some local talent to host specialty shows, such as an east-coast music hour.

“Every month we’re going to add some new features. One of the things we really want to do is a topical call-in show which deals with Iqaluit and Nunavut issues that people are talking about on the street. We also plan to have a birthday call-in show and a request hour.”

Expect to hear on-air personalities, commercials and programming in Inuttitut in the very near future as well.

“You always hope to make money at this, but our focus is also to have a bit of fun because things have become chaotic and stressful in the city now.”