SIFC's student radio station goes on the air

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"Good morning, SIFC students. CFNU, Canada's First Nations University radio station, is officially on the air."

With these words, the first Aboriginal-run university radio station in Canada it the airwaves.

CFNU has been in development since the summer of 1993. It involves 20 student volunteers from the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College at the University of Regina.

The students are getting hands-on experience producing and developing their own radio shows, which feature everything from classical and alternative music, to powwow music.

The host of the powwow show, Francis (Dickie) Yuzicappi says he hopes that his show will promote Aboriginal culture and languages to people who have not had the chance to hear it before. "CFNU is one of the few places where Aboriginal people can enjoy their own music and language," he says.

The station joined the air waves on Monday, January 31, 1994.

CFNU programming also features Indigenous music from all over the world. Native artists need a chance to be heard, said Darren Gowen, the host of the program Just Another Groove.

"There is no other station in Regina where they (Native artists) are played exclusively for any block of time. So, people are not receiving the message these artists are sending," he says. "My show is a medium for these ideas."

The students are also producing a dramatic radio program, a soap opera about the day-to-day operation of the radio station.

The person responsible for the idea of starting the radio station and most of the initial planning of CFNU is Shannon Avison, who is also the program co-ordinator of the Indian Communications Art program at SIFC.

The INCA program is a two year pre-journalism program which qualifies students to apply to the University of Regina's Bachelor of Journalism program.

The idea for the radio station grew out of the first INCA Summer Institute in Journalism, held last June.

"The broadcast students at the Summer Institute spent a wonderful four weeks working with instructors and working journalists developing their radio production skills. But after it was over, they had nowhere to practise because there was no campus radio station," said Avison.

"We had enough equipment to set up a single studio and there was a carrier current system already installed on the campus that wasn't being used, so I started looking into the possibility of setting up a student radio station for the Indian Communication Arts students," she says.

The station is broadcast on a carrier current system at the University of Regina campus. Since they went on the air, CFNU has been broadcast from Avison's 10 by 15 foot office in the SIFC trailer.

"I think we're going to end up pushing Shannon into the women's bathroom," joked Bird.

"At least there I'll have some privacy," says Avison, who sometimes has as many

as eight students in her office co-ordinating their programs and cueing up songs.

Another concern is raising money. The station has been operating on a zero budget so far, with students bringing in their own music and equipment.

CFNU has received some welcome support form the Missinipi Broadcasting Corporation, which broadcasts out of La Ronge in northern Saskatchewan and which CFNU picks up on Cable Regina's FM radio service. MBC provided sponsorship for the cost of a wrap-around service that will be broadcast when CFNU is not on the air.