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Community needed to run radio station

BY JASON THOMPSON [email protected] CKLU (96.7 FM) has grown into a thriving entity on the radio dial since its humble beginnings in a Laurentian University dorm room 21 years ago.
BY JASON THOMPSON

CKLU (96.7 FM) has grown into a thriving entity on the radio dial since its humble beginnings in a Laurentian University dorm room 21 years ago.

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Clay Campbell takes to the streets to promote CKLU.
The community radio station ends its Radio Active 2005 fundraising drive today (Sunday). It is appealing to the community for donations to keep Greater Sudbury?s unique source of international, ethnic, spoken word and indie rock programming on the air.

?CKLU is diverse, it?s unique like a fingerprint. We have volunteers here as young as 17 and as old as 84,? says fundraising co-ordinator Sheila Bianconi.
Operations director Carl Jorgensen, who has been with the station since the beginning, has seen it come close to breaking the bank on a couple of
occasions. He is pleased for the first time in its history, the radio station is not losing any money.

With more money to put back into the station, Jorgensen and Bianconi are excited about introducing a wider variety of quality programming.

Despite the positive financial records, donations are still needed at CKLU, and while dollars are appreciated, Bianconi and Jorgensen say committed volunteers willing to donate their time are in high demand and short supply. CKLU relies on about 60 volunteers to keep going.

?That?s really the biggest hurdle,? said Bianconi. ?They?re volunteers who aren?t being paid to come in here, I tell all of my volunteers when they start that they have to treat CKLU like a part-time job.?

Although that may scare off some people, Bianconi sells her volunteers on valuable work experience.

Although Bianconi and Jorgensen are excited about being able to expand their programming to include news and information, as well as slowly going digital and leaving analog programming behind, they understand it all hangs on the willingness of the volunteers to spearhead these ambitious projects.

The station has many time slots for wanna-be radio hosts to fill.In addition to on-air work, there are opportunities for people to become involved in other aspects of the station from clerical office work to cataloging new music .

Anyone interested in donating to CKLU can phone 673-9399. Anyone interested in volunteering should phone 673-6538.

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