Ottawa Community Radio
featuring literary, spoken word, story telling & nonfiction
Image description: TEXT in red: Ottawa Community Radio. Logos: CHUO 89.1 [IN GREEN] FM in a circle. CKCU FM 93.1 surrounded by a circle with alternating black and white sections within a black rectangle. TEXT: OPT IN TO YOUR FUTURE/CKCUFM.COM/ YOUR CAMPUS / COMMUNITY RADIO STATION
I believe it is important to support community radio and I appreciate the volunteers and staff who keep things going. My own experience in community radio was the support and interest Bywords.ca and AngelHousePress have received over the years on shows such as Mitchell Caplan’s Click Here, a great program that was on CHUO FM for years and featured music and interviews with local artists, writers and publishers. I miss it greatly. Mitchell was the only person in any discipline other than contributors to take an interest in Experiment-O, for example, the online magazine published by AngelHousePress from 2008 to 2023. Another program that often features Bywords.ca, AngelHousePress and my own literary efforts is Friday Special Blend hosted by Susan Johnston. Starting in 1997, Literary Landscape was a mainstay of Thursday evenings with Jane Crosier and after her death in 2009, the show continued with hosts from the local literary community. I still miss Literary Landscape a great deal and as you can see from the program guide below, Thursday has no shows with literary etc content anymore, to my knowledge. Here’s a history of the show thanks to
!Every year in the fall, Ottawa’s community radio stations have fundraising campaigns, which I share via Bywords.ca’s News and calendar and in our social media accounts and my own.
To my knowledge, Ottawa has four community radio stations:
Algonquin College’s CKDJ 107.9 & AIR AM 1700
Carleton University’s CKCU FM 93.1
University of Ottawa’s CHUO FM 89.1
Both Carleton and the University of Ottawa stations include programs that feature creators of literary, spoken word, storytelling & nonfiction work. I am unsure about Algonquin College’s content at this moment. If you know of any shows that contain such content, please let me know.
Here are the list of current shows that I know about with L, SW, ST & NF content that I know of. You can visit the events calendar at Bywords.ca for links to these shows as well. If you know of other programs featuring such content, please let me know and I’ll be happy to add them to the Bywords.ca calendar:
SUNDAY
An Indian Morning celebrates not only the music of India but equally its various arts and artisans, poets and potters, kings and patriots. (CKCU)
Culture géniale: La culture est la possibilité même de créer, de renouveler et de partager des valeurs. Culture géniale est une émission hebdomadaire animée par Jean-Paul Moreau qui explore le monde du cinéma, de la littérature, des arts vivants, et bien plus encore. (unique FM)
MONDAY
NAMAASHOUM: Promoting the Persian culture, especially its music and literature. (CKCU)
TUESDAY
Words and Culture weaves conversations with Indigenous language and knowledge keepers together with music by Indigenous artists. (CKCU)
Words and Culture weaves conversations with Indigenous language and knowledge keepers together with music by Indigenous artists. (CHUO)
WEDNESDAY
LITERARY NEWS Reports, features and interviews in English, French and German. (CKCU)
ASIAN SOUNDS - primarily music but also writers; Music from the Indian sub-continent, such as Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India. In addition to a segment on classical music, we have a segment on fusion music as well. The show also includes popular Bollywood hits, Bollywood industry's gossip and news. We feature local community events, interview local celebrities who have excelled in their respective fields. (CKCU)
FRIDAY
FRIDAY SPECIAL BLEND with Susan Johnston: Susan is passionate about the transformative power of stories, and how they help us better understand one other and our community. (CKCU)
I would like to encourage readers who have the time and energy (I know that is difficult these days) to consider volunteering to host a radio show, especially one that promotes and engages with the local literary, spoken word, storytelling and nonfiction community. If you host a local radio show, please let me know in the comments. I’d love to check it out.
My favourite podcast, Between the Covers with David Naimon began on the radio on KBOO in Portland, Oregon and changed with the pandemic’s start in 2020 to a show that features writers from around the world.
Podcasts…also of interest to me…one of these days i’ll do a round up of literary etc podcasts…I ran one from 2016 to 2023, the Small Machine Talks and it was a great experience, enriching and community-oriented.
I am grateful to all those who support and promote community, especially when you amplify and support voices that have been and continue to be excluded from canons. These radio shows do so beautifully, in my opinion.