Ottawa community radio station going off air after 50 years

The University of Ottawa’s CHUO 89.1 FM is going off the air after five decades of broadcasting. CTV’s Kimberley Fowler reports.

After five decades of broadcasting, an Ottawa community radio station will be off the airways.

The University of Ottawa’s CHUO 89.1 FM’s final day on the radio waves will be Monday, Dec. 15, and the station’s manager says its closure will be felt across the capital.

“It’s for everyone. It’s for students, it’s for community, it’s for the next generation to come,” said Parujee Akarasewi, who goes by Mickey on the radio.

In late November, the station revealed that they needed to meet a lofty fundraising target of $150,000 to keep operating. Akarasewi says the decision to shut down the station was made at a Board of Directors meeting on Monday.

According to Akarasewi, the current plan is to move to an online pre-recorded format after Dec. 15.

Akarasewi has been with the station for nearly eight years, first as a student-volunteer and then as an employee. In addition to being station manager at CHUO 89.1 FM, Akarasewi hosts the radio program Asianfluence.

The station began as a campus radio club in 1975 and has featured countless voices over its decade-long history, including actor and comedian Tom Green.

Sarah Onyango, co-host and co-producer of Africa Revisited and Black on Black, has been volunteering with the station for 27 years and she says the CHUO’s closure will leave a hole in countless communities.

“The black community, the Caribbean community has become very diverse over the last 20 years and the one way to know what’s happening in our diaspora community here is by tuning into our shows every Saturday, and that’s just one block of shows,” Onyango said.

Onyango says the station’s imminent closure has left loyal listeners of CHUO feeling shocked and worried.

“This is their source of news in our community,” Onyango said. “So, they’re wondering, ‘how am I going to find out everything I need to know, without having to run up and down everywhere to look for it?’”

For Akarasewi, CHUO is more than just a job, it’s a found family.

“I don’t have family here. My family is back there in Thailand. It’s just me here alone. So, the only place that I can spend my time hanging out with my friends, is here at the station,” Akarasewi said.

While the loss is personal, Akarasewi says she worries for those who won’t have a chance to learn at and listen to the station.

“We allow other people to come to use their voice. To project what they have in mind. We represent underrepresented voice, we represent the community that hasn’t been heard anywhere else, even in the mainstream,” she said.

On Wednesday, students held a small demonstration at the University of Ottawa in protest of the station’s closure.

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