Sustaining a space for alternate radio

(HALIFAX, January 21, 2004)--Halifax's community and campus radio station is gearing up for its 19th annual funding drive, and it's looking for support.

CKDU 97.5 FM aims to raise $45,000 to sustain its unique media programming, a vibrant alternative to monchromatic media. Seems a lot but if many people make donations of amounts between 5 to 50 dollars, or even more, it all adds up. CKDU broadcasts 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and its programming is the work of over 130 volunteers.

Programmes have such non-generic names as Eco-Freako, a new weekly environmental show, that debuted on January 13, from 5:10 pm to 6 pm. It discusses environmental news, features, and interviews on green challenges and opportunities, with some music in the mix.

Then there's Tales from Pickle Lake -- storytelling and outdoor adventures --which airs at noon on Mondays. Wallflower's Revenge hosted by Lyse Boyce airs, 3-5 pm Wednesday, a weekly farm report about ecological farming adventures along with old time folk or alternative country music. Sound flaky? It's been going for six years. Ms Boyce talks about some of her experiences from her organic farm in Hants County and her visits to other farms.

CKDU is receptive to ideas for programming and to new volunteers. Drop them a line. Like shunpiking, they have a small core of professionally-trained staff who have mostly made a personal commitment to media empowerment, and they're quite happy to share their expertise and train the next generation. The station also provides a forum where many community groups can be heard as guests on shows or by creating their own shows. The Atlantic Film-makers'

Co-op has a weekly show called Kino Pravda-cinema of the mind which airs on Wednesday at 5:30 pm.

CKDU has also offered serious programming of independent views on such topical international questions as the rights of Palestinians, the war on Iraq and of First Nations. Indigenous visions reports on native issues and music at 11 pm on Mondays. Guerilla Radio zeroes in on social justice and environmental issues, at 5 pm, Thursdays. There's also a Women's radio collective, Wednesdays from noon to 1 pm.

And there's not a few music shows.

Here's the quid pro quo. Pledging your support to CKDU gets you prizes:

• for a 50$ pledge you get a t-shirt, a friends of CKDU discount card that

gets you 10% off at various local businesses, and 50$ worth of CDs and/or

books from the prize room.

• for a 25$ pledge you get the friends card, and 25$ worth of prizes.

You can pledge now and pay later. The prize room opens on March 1st. The sooner you pay, the better the choice of prizes.

CKDU's on-air portion of funding drive runs from February 13-20th. You can tune in then and call in your pledge. Many unique prizes are offered on air.

In the Halifax area you can listen to CKDU at 97.5 FM, or tune in on the

internet at: http://is2.dal.ca/~ckdufm/listen.html