ARTS first anniversary special

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LAC LA BICHE - How time flies. Especially when time is spent travelling the airwaves of northern Alberta for three hours each morning, Monday to Friday. This is what the Aboriginal Radio and Television Society (ARTS), a sister organization of the Windspeaker Newspaper, has been doing since October 18, 1985.

At this particular time radio was then called "AMMSA News Magazine" and operated out of CKUA Radio in Edmonton. The name was later changed to "Windspeaker" and it continued this way for several months until, on February 3, 1986, the "Native Perspective" was born and ARTS offered listeners one hour of radio programming through the CBC Television, from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. each weekday.

CKUA listeners can still pick up the "Windspeaker" broadcast every Friday from 8:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.

On that special day, exactly one year ago, February 3, a team of qualified radio announcers, technicians and writers, under the direction of Radio Director, Ray Fox, hit the airwaves of northern Alberta, bringing news, music and sports broadcasts that dealt strictly with Native people for the first time in Alberta.

Broadcasted out of a small radio studio from the Windspeaker building in Edmonton, the show gradually began to add to its air time from one hour to where it is today - three hours of broadcast time.

The Native Perspective eventually moved to its present location in the town of Lac La Biche and on February 20, Windspeaker members, management and staff got together with the radio personnel and their board members to celebrate with ARTS, on their one year anniversary of broadcasting to the Native public in Alberta.

The Native Perspective begins its broadcast at 8 a.m. every morning and guests who happened to arrive very early, were invited to sit and talk with the radio announcer that morning, Ray Fox, on the live show.

One of the guests Fox talked with was the Member of Parliament for Athabasca, Jack Shields who ventured to say a radio such as this that dealt with Native people was a long time coming and something that was needed.

Shields went on to say that ARTS does indeed have a bright future and commended Fox and the ARTS staff for their performance.

ARTS President, Roy Randolph, flew to Edmonton from Fort Vermilion and drove the rest of the way by car to Lac La Biche, in support and appreciation of his ARTS team's one year anniversary.

Jack Shields presented Randolph with a picture of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip in recognition of their anniversary.

President of AMMSA, Fred Didzena, also made the trip from his home to Assumption to attend the special occasion, along with Windspeaker General Manager, Bert Crowfoot.

Nine year veteran of CFCW airwaves, Broadcaster Bruce Makokis, who came

on board with ARTS over a year ago, was also on hand to make guests feel comfortable and to answer any questions regarding radio.

A buffet was set up for guests and later in the afternoon people were invited to attend a dinner which closed the day's celebration.

Windspeaker would like to congratulate ARTS on their one year of broadcasting to the Native public and wish them many more years of fine tuning and "guess what happened?" on the Native Perspective.