93.3 CFMU FM launches on-air appeal

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March 4, 2005

One of Canada's oldest campus radio stations — McMaster's CFMU — will raise its voice this weekend for its annual fundraising campaign.

With a goal to raise $21,000, the on-air appeal, called “Raise Your Voice” will run March 5-11. The fundraiser will continue throughout the spring.

“Over the last quarter century, 93.3 CFMU FM has been on the airwaves, broadcasting community radio to the residents of the Hamilton-Wentworth region and beyond,” says CFMU program director James Hayashi-Tennant. “We have been successful in leading the way in alternative news, independent music and arts and diverse cultural programming.”

The 27-year-old station is one of the three oldest campus radio stations in Canada (along with CKCU Ottawa and CFRC Kingston). CFMU hosts more than 15 different cultural communities, has programming that has been syndicated to other stations and broadcasts around the world on the Internet. Some shows have been on the air for more than a decade.

The station involves nearly 200 volunteers, about half of which are McMaster students. The others are from the community-at-large. Volunteers range in age from 10 to over 70, and are trained at the station. Most begin with no radio experience and some ride the bus from other cities to do shows at CFMU.

“Some of these volunteers have mobility challenges and still take a bus all the way to CFMU to do their show,” Hayashi-Tennant says, adding there are former CFMU volunteers working around the world at TV and radio stations.

“CFMU is a public meeting place for many voiceless dimensions in our society – local cutting-edge artists and musicians, marginalized groups, multicultural families, and people with a keen social conscience,” he says. “On about 12 programs, our dedicated volunteers freely address important ethnic questions, target news and culture in the community, and welcome everyone to get involved. Big media is a different animal; they are not able to focus on burning issues in other languages the way that community radio can and does.”

To make a donation call 905-528-9888 between March 5-11 or contact James Hayashi-Tennant at ext. 27208, for credit card donations or further information.