Radio celebrates birthday

Page 14

On March 13, the community of Cadotte Lake, 550 km out of Edmonton, had a chance to celebrate their radio station CHWC's first birthday and to enjoy a bingo social with the CFWE bingo crew. The celebration at Cadotte Lake School included bingo, a dinner of Kentucky Fried Chicken, karaoke singers and a performance by Cadotte Lake's FMX and Rock City break dancers. More than 200 people attended the event.

"The celebration and social turned out really well. I'd like to thank everyone who donated their time or the food and the pop for the celebration. There were quite a bit of people that came out to both meet the CFWE radio crew and to celebrate our birthday," said Dwayne L'Hirondelle, CHWC's radio station manager.

"Since the new bingo format is going to be starting up it would be a really good idea for our station to take our equipment over to the school at least once a month, to get the people to come out and play bingo. The community would raise money off of a food concession and it would also give the people who do not have telephones a chance to play. It would turn out really well," he said.

For the radio station L'Hirondelle had this to say.

"Its been an interesting year. We started out with nothing more than just a radio station with hardly any music as in CDs or tapes. A year later we are now on the air for three-and-a-half hours a day. We are strictly non-profit and we are treating it as a community radio. We do ads for people but we do not promote ads that are harmful like cigarettes or alcohol. Things like that are definitely not a part of our programming. We air ads like allergy alert, drug and alcohol awareness and anti-drinking and driving campaigns," he said.

According to L'Hirondelle, having the local radio station has been a blessing to the community.

"Our radio station here has such an advantage from the information that we are getting out to the people in our area. The highlight is the interaction we get from surrounding communities. We are on for five days a week from Monday to Friday," he said.

The day begins at 7:30 a.m. when the radio covers the bus monitor program, which informs the pubic on bus schedules or cancellations. From 8 to 9 a.m. the early bird show highlights employment opportunities, news on leadership and upcoming community events. The 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. show is dedicated to health, human services and social development. From 3:30 p.m. until 5:00 p.m. is the All Request Show.

CHWC radio is under the Woodland Cree Communications Society.

"We encourage people to come down to use our facilities, people to get involved. I enjoy the interaction that I get with the people," said L'Hirondelle. He says because he works in radio, when he is out in a public place people ask him about it. "That is what the radio station is designed for. It is to be informative. It's been a busy year for our station and we are looking forward to the next one hundred years."

Comments on the bingo social from community members was positive.

"I thought it was great. We should have more bingo socials. We should have them on an ongoing basis," said Dianne Laboucan, school secretary. "To be quite honest, it was a good time. It was nice to see the different people that attended. Everyone enjoyed it. We got a good response from the community," she said.

Staff members from the school also had a chance to get together with the community.

"I actually played bingo which was a lot of fun. So did a lot of the teachers, it was good. It was a nice chance for our staff to come out and be a part of the community. To blend in with some of the community members," said Kris Hryniw, vice principal. "We had a good turnout. It was a lot of fun," he said.