EVENT: Help Save CJAM 91.5 FM!

Now that the dust has cleared and the month long campaign to perch Phog atop the mountain as Canada's Best Live Venue on CBC Radio 3, it's time to get serious again. CJAM 91.5 FM still needs your help.

Over the past month, more and more news has been coming out of the CJAM studios, first a trickle, then a leak, that Windsor's Campus & Community Radio Station may be in danger.

The story was quickly picked up by local media, including The Windsor Star and AM800, but it seems it lost a lot of its momentum when the Phog voting started heating up. I suppose that's just the nature of the beast - it's much more enjoyable to jump on a fun train than a potentially tragic one.

But unfortunately it's a problem now that if we don't deal with it now, we may not have a CJAM to worry about later. And we've got just a week left before the CRTC starts making its decisions.

First, the facts. Pure and simple. I can't say any better so here's the words directly from CJAM's website:

CJAM is currently applying for an amendment to our broadcasting undertaking to assume a new signal at 99.1 FM. While CJAM has been broadcasting at about 1000 watts for over 10 years, the station was never granted Protected Status from the CRTC, thanks to pressures from the FCC who were concerned with CJAM’s level of interference with adjacent American stations. Without Protected Status, CJAM faces the risk of losing its signal to other applicants. In fact, CJAM faced that very risk recently when the CBC decided to apply for 91.5 in the fall of 2008. The CBC ultimately withdrew its application, but CJAM still faces possible removal from the FM band thanks to a pending American application for our signal.

CJAM has identified a new signal – 99.1 FM - that could afford the station protected status and has moved forward with applications for this new signal to Industry Canada and the CRTC. The application currently before the CRTC is now open for public comment, and this is where we need you, our community of listeners, programmers and volunteers to make your voice heard. If you value CJAM and community radio in Windsor and Detroit, please express your support of our application.

Letters may be submitted electronically at the CRTC website, by fax at (819) 994-0218, or by conventional mail to the following address:

CRTC
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0N2

So there you have it. Funny thing is, CJAM was harassed by the FCC recently that their signal at 91.5 FM was interfering with an American College Station at 91.7 FM and now they've decided to give a major radio network (SmileFM) 91.5 in the area. Seems odd.

There's also a petition on-line you can sign if you're not the letter writing sort but still want to help out.

Now, I suppose there are many people out there (as seen in the comments board on The Windsor Star's website) who seem to think that CJAM is a waste of time anyway because they play too much stuff that either a) they've never heard or b) is in a language they don't understand.

CJAM strives to be your alternative voice in the community. That means that you are most likely going to hear something you aren't used to. That's the idea.

While other stations in the area cater to the masses with their (mostly) pre-programmed mandate of playing the biggest hits of the day by the biggest artists, CJAM lets it's trained staff of programmers dig deeper into the world of music and program a wholly unique broadcast each and every time. They explore new worlds of electronic music than just Moby, find meaner streets of punk than Simple Plan, discover lusher melody in song than The Killers and unleash more bone crunching rock and roll than Nickelback. Are you going to like everything they find for you? The numbers say no. Chances are you won't. But do you like everything you hear on 89X? Or The Rock? Or CBC Radio 3 for that matter? I doubt it. And no one is saying you can't listen to 89X or The Rock as well as CJAM. Diversity never hurt anyone (except maybe the Roman Empire, but that may just be Nero's fault).

And the wonderful thing about CJAM - something that I think most naysayers don't realize - is the diversity of its programming. It's not just the same people over and over again, each programmer has their own show in their own time slot, each and every week. You may not like everything on CJAM but you may just find you really like the stuff on "Mostly Blues" every Wednesday at 9am while going to work. Perhaps you like to check out the deep vaults of heavy metal on "Sonic North" on Thursdays at 9pm. There is a program that covers just about every genre of music on CJAM, from deep roots to jazz to death metal. Start with one show you really like and you'll find CJAM does indeed have something for you. And if you think these are all just bands that will just disappear, take a look at this list. These are all bands who achieved mainstream success due to national support from college radio stations across Canada and the U.S. (not to mention the world) before mainstream/corporate radio picked up on them: U2, R.E.M., Nirvana, Nine Inch Nails, The Clash, Elvis Costello, Jane's Addiction, Pixies, Sigur Ros, Oasis, Metallica, Green Day, Rancid, Beastie Boys, Slayer, Beck, Amy Winehouse, hell, just about the entire early hip-hop years, up till probably the mid-1990's...the list is infinite. Chances are, unless it was a corporately built entity like one of Disney's Stepford Musicians (Miley Cyrus, The Jonas Brothers, etc.), they were probably played on college radio first. The trickle down to the corporate radio is always underappreciated.

And seeing that CJAM is our alternative voice on the air, it's also not just about the music. CJAM overs programming discussing many hot topics weekly that many stations refuse to mention or give time to - worker's rights and issues are the weekly theme for the long-running "All In A Day's Work" (Thursdays, 4pm) and Windsor community issues are the concern on "Scaledown Radio" (Mondays, noon) to name just a few.

What was that U.S. President Barrack Obama praised Canada for in his recent visit? About how ethnically diverse we were and how understanding we were towards each other? Well, no one has a more ethnically diverse series of programming than CJAM. There are weekly shows for many of the ethnic cultures in our own Windsor community, such as "Chinese Reflections" (Saturday, 4pm), "Croatian Magazine" (Saturday, 3pm), "Macedonian Roots" (Sunday, 3pm) and "Ethiopian Voice" (Sunday, 5pm), again, to name but a few. These are programs that address not only news and issues of the home countries but news and issues of the communities in Windsor. Thinking globally and acting locally.

So the question really, when it comes down to it, is not whether you listen to CJAM. I'd like to hope you do, but again, the numbers indicate that many of you don't (or won't). But your support will at least allow Windsor to have an alternative voice to the ones that the corporate offices are pre-planning for you, that our little pockets of ethnic diversities can feel like their part of our community while maintaining a little sound of home, that we can all be aware and informed, not just about what's good about music in the world but about ourselves.

We've shown the country that we can make a small bar like Phog the Best Live Music Venue in Canada. Now let's show them they can't take away our voice. Not without a fight.