A long-held vision of a dedicated cadre of community members hits the airwaves on Thursday, Sept. 18 at 9 a.m. as the “switch” will be flipped to bring live radio to the Gulf Islands at 107.9 on the FM dial.
“It’s actually a digital switch in the computer, not a physical lever,” said Gulf Islands Community Radio Society president Damian Inwood in talking to the Driftwood about the launch last week, but that won’t make the moment any less dramatic for those involved.
“It’s pretty exciting,” he said from the station’s location in a portable building on the Salt Spring Island Multi Space property.
The trek to bring a radio station back to Salt Spring after the privately owned CFSI lost its licence in 2015 has been anything but smooth — or short.
“When we applied for the [CRTC] licence in 2018, we never imagined it would be another seven years before we’d actually be able to do it,” he said, noting the Covid pandemic and other unexpected challenges slowed them down.
But Inwood, a retired print journalist, and other volunteers slowly but surely eliminated each physical, bureaucratic and financial obstacle as it arose.
Thursday’s debut show will be cohosted by Inwood and David Crouch, who are the regular weekday morning show hosts: Inwood with a show called Coffee Break on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and Crouch with Tonic on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
CHiR so far has six other local shows, most of them music related, but with gardening and movie discussion programs as well, and with another six in development. Thirteen syndicated music programs, including Terry David Mulligan’s Tasting Room Radio and CITR’s Saturday Edge, hosted by Steve Edge from the Rogue Folk Club, will also be heard.
“Gradually, as we get more local shows, we’ll start to cut down on those and bring up the local stuff,” he said.
Covering the island’s political meetings and live music events will hopefully be done in future, he said.
Inwood said more local program suggestions are welcomed, including from people on Saturna, Mayne, Galiano and Pender islands. He said the station’s licence stipulates a certain amount of airtime must be filled with people talking, so the more voices heard on the air the better.
People in the island’s south end won’t yet be hearing CHiR because a repeater needs to be installed on Mount Bruce for that to happen, which Inwood hopes will occur by December or January. When that is done, he said, “From our mapping it looks like well over 95 per cent of the island should be covered. So that’s about the best we can do.”
Much-needed financial support has come from Capital Regional District grants, the Legion, Larry Woods and Sue Walker (for whom the broadcast room is named) and other individuals who chose to donate anonymously. Regular income is derived from Saturday sales of vinyl records and CDs in the station building.
While CHiR is currently an all-volunteer effort, Inwood said the society would like to be able to hire a station manager at some point.
For more information or to inquire about joining the radio station program roster, send an email to Inwood at president@gicrs.ca.