{"id":7601,"date":"2013-08-29T15:53:10","date_gmt":"2013-08-29T15:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stylusmagazine.ca\/?p=7601"},"modified":"2013-08-29T15:53:10","modified_gmt":"2013-08-29T15:53:10","slug":"ckuw-celebrates-50-years-on-the-air","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/2013\/08\/29\/ckuw-celebrates-50-years-on-the-air\/","title":{"rendered":"CKUW Celebrates 50 years on the air!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"80sdude2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

by Victoria King,<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0photo from the CKUW archives, circa mid-80s.<\/em><\/p>\n

More often than not, we\u2019re mistaken for a secret study space. People wander up our flamboyant yellow stairs, hoping to find repose and peace amidst a sea of textbooks and cell phones. Instead they stumble upon a den of music geeks, activists, anarchists, journalist-types, etc. There are posters on the walls, stickers attached to almost every surface, and odd pieces of nostalgia that have been propped up on bookshelves and cabinets (see the Hillary Clinton nutcracker above Program Director Robin Eriksson\u2019s desk, for one example). This attic-like sanctum is home to CKUW, 95.9 FM; that campus-community beast on your radio dial, smack-dab in the heart of downtown Winnipeg.<\/p>\n

CKUW began in 1963 as a radio club that existed only in closed-circuit format until 1999. Current station manager Rob Schmidt arrived at CKUW in 1996, and recalls that, \u201csome people were putting all this energy into just three speakers,\u201d and doing full-blown radio shows.<\/p>\n

The station\u2019s first home was in the Bulman Centre, where many records were played (sometimes backwards) and many cigarettes were smoked. As Ted Turner, CKUW\u2019s Outreach and Sponsorship Coordinator recalls, the pre-FM CKUW was, \u201ca hideout from the world in the basement.\u201d Ted stumbled through CKUW\u2019s doors in his first year of university, having heard about the station as a teen. He says he knew immediately that this place would be an important and pivotal part of his life as, \u201cit gave me a place to belong on campus.\u201d<\/p>\n

For many (if not all) of CKUW\u2019s volunteers, that\u2019s a common response. \u201cPeople learn incredible skills while doing radio \u2013 maybe they come in and they\u2019re shy, or maybe they have a fear of public speaking . . . radio helps them learn to do these things, and improve themselves and their community,\u201d attests Manager Schmidt. \u201cWe\u2019re not just here to feed people\u2019s egos and play music, we\u2019re here to improve the community and the people in our community.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year, CKUW celebrates 50 years of radio in the downtown area. To mark this occasion, we hosted the National Campus Community Radio Conference and welcomed campus\/community stations from across the country to participate in several days\u2019 worth of workshops and events. There\u2019s also the Lieutenant Governor’s reception for the station in September, in recognition of the contribution of our many former volunteers. Moreover, whispers are flying around about birthday party-like celebrations . . . stay tuned for more details!<\/p>\n

\"ckuw19802\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There\u2019s definitely a gap in CKUW\u2019s history though, particularly between the mid 60s to early 80s, where it\u2019s damn near impossible to find records of volunteers, programs, activities, etc. We can probably safely assume that CKUW was the radical & righteous soundtrack as girls marched outside and burned their bras, or as a T-Bird inspired crew snuck out the Ellice doors for a quick drag, never to return to class again.<\/p>\n

Those are only assumptions though. That gap in CKUW\u2019s history has a \u201cromantic ghost-like reputation,\u201d says Turner. Apparently there were jackets made, with the slogan \u201cDowntown Underground\u201d emblazoned on them. Unfortunately, like so many other pieces of our history, these have disappeared and been forgotten over time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking for memories of the station,\u201d explains Schmidt. \u201cMaybe you dated someone who use to DJ here, maybe you sat on the couch, maybe you heard stuff for the first time on CKUW, like R.E.M. or the Sex Pistols . . . \u00a0At that time, you only would have heard that on closed circuit [stations] because they wouldn\u2019t play it on the mainstream.\u201d<\/p>\n

This station \u2013 a refuge for the alternative \u00a0\u2013 doesn\u2019t always get the credit it deserves. While she\u2019s no beauty queen, CKUW has trained thousands of citizen broadcasters and has been serving up a healthy dose of controlled community radio chaos for 50 years. We\u2019d love to get the whole story.<\/p>\n

If you want to get back in touch, or have photos, charts, programs, set lists, pre-90\u2019s memorabilia, send them our way \u2013 we\u2019re happy for anything. You should e-mail Rob at ckuw@uwinnipeg.ca<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Victoria King,\u00a0photo from the CKUW archives, circa mid-80s. More often than not, we\u2019re mistaken for a secret study space. People wander up our flamboyant yellow stairs, hoping to find repose and peace amidst a sea of textbooks and cell phones. Instead they stumble upon a den of music geeks, activists, anarchists, journalist-types, etc. There […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[193],"class_list":["post-7601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","tag-ckuw"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7601\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}