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CJLO receives funds for broadcasting workshops 

By Russ Cooper

Concordia’s community radio station CJLO 1690 AM has been awarded a grant from the Community Radio Fund of Canada (CRFC) to begin an after-school broadcasting program for local high school students.

The grant, totaling $6 730 from the CRFC’s Youth Internship Program, will fund hands-on workshops for 10 at-risk students aged 16 and older to teach the skills and tools needed to launch a career in radio.

CJLO Manager Katie Seline says the grant will contribute to the long-standing CJLO commitment towards community outreach and engagement. “We’re really happy we’ll be able to offer this to students with little or no broadcast experience, but a lot of interest,” she says. “It’s really something anyone can do.”

In the summer months, CJLO people will be contacting local schools to gather applications for the program, which will run this fall.

When the workshop series commences, students will work in groups of two and learn how to edit sound, produce newscasts and documentaries, control studio equipment, record live bands, and harness the power of podcasting and social media.

At the end of the workshops, students will be given two weeks to produce a 15-minute show. “We want this to be something they’re proud of,” says Seline, citing CUTV’s summer video boot camp internship program as inspiration for applying for the grant this winter.

Announced May 13 in Ottawa, CJLO was one of twenty local community radio stations to receive a portion of $160 000 in funding from the CRFC, a national not-for-profit organization dedicated to the growth and sustainability of campus and community radio.

CJLO began broadcasting online in 2003, and hit the airwaves at 1690 on the AM dial in October 2008 (see Journal, Oct. 9, 2008). In 2009, the station was listed among the top 10 best local radio stations in the Montreal Mirror’s annual Best of Montreal issue.

The station has also been gathering a number of awards from New York-based CMJ network (formerly the College Music Journal), essentially the authority on college radio in North America. Music Director Omar Husain has won the Music Director of the Year three times (2006 to 2008); the station won Best Student Run Non-FM Radio Station and Best Team Effort awards in 2008; CJLO repeated with Best Team Effort and Hip Hop Music Director Brian Joseph won Best Specialty Music Director in 2009.

As well, CJLO has recently been listed on iTunes radio.

“These things mean we’re getting recognition from the industry, and we’re trying to do a lot more with it,” says Seline, who’s been with CJLO for six years as a program director, DJ and now manager for the past year. She also completed her masters in Music Business from NYU in 2009. “Community outreach is part of this; it will allow us to get more people involved.”

Currently slightly limited in its broadcast range (it has a hard time reaching radios in neighbourhoods on the other side of the mountain from its fourth floor CC Building location), the station will be working over summer to boost its signal to reach more of the city.