University of Ottawa campus radio must hit massive fundraising target to avoid shutdown

The University of Ottawa’s radio station is under threat. As Kimberley Fowler reports, CHUO faces a nearly impossible fundraising challenge.

Emotions are running high on the lower level of the University of Ottawa’s Morrissett building, where dedicated staff and volunteers are preparing for what could be some of the last broadcasts on CHUO 89.1 FM.

The station’s board of directors has put the station on notice, suggesting $150,000 needs to be raised by Dec. 15 to continue weathering a tricky financial storm, a fundraising hill staff say may be impossible to climb.

CHUO’s station manager says she’s devastated by the news.

“Trust me, I’ve been crying for a whole month now because we all love CHUO,” manager Parujee Akarasewi told CTV News.

According to notes from a Thursday night board meeting, the radio station is facing a $420,000 shortfall for the year. The notes indicate that CHUO will also need to raise $420,000 annually to pay for operations.

In 2023, University of Ottawa students voted to end a levy that provided funding to the radio station.

Station manager Akarasewi says CHUO is where she found her identity.

“It feels so good when you start to know that somebody actually likes you, the way you are on the radio,” she says.

Akarasewi started working with CHUO as a volunteer, and now she manages the station and hosts a radio show Asianfluence, playing K-pop, R&B and underground music straight from Asia.

The station started as a campus radio club in 1975, and in 1985, it became CFUO, but only for a short time. In 1991, the station acquired its FM licence and finally settled as CHUO.

Over its decades long history, the station featured countless voices, perhaps the most famous of the bunch being comedian and actor Tom Green who hosted a show called nightfall in the early 1990s.

Sarah Onyango, host and producer of Black On Black, says CHUO has been a constant in her life for 27 years.

“I feel like I’m about to be an orphan,” Onyango said.

“27 years of contributing, informing, entertaining, and inspiring the community with my sisters on Black On Black and my brothers on Afrika Revisited. I say that figuratively because I’m not related to them, but it is a family.”

Onyango says community radio shouldn’t be treated as a luxury, but an essential.

“A station like this isn’t just nice to have, it is essential,” Onyango said.

“Because there are many marginalized voices underrepresented voices, underappreciated voices like our indigenous communities, I believe we have two Indigenous shows at the station, this is where you’re able to come and find those people.”

CTV News has asked the University of Ottawa for comment, but has not yet received a response.

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