CFRO-FM

File:102.7Coopradio.png

Vancouver Co-operative Radio is a non-commercial community radio station in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, on Coast Salish Nation territory. Broadcasting with the call letters CFRO at 102.7 FM, the station operates as a co-operative and is called Co-op Radio for short. A democratic organisation, they have studios and offices in the Downtown Eastside neighbourhood.

The station address is #110 - 360 Columbia Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6A 4J1.

Vancouver Cooperative Radio is a member of the National Campus and Community Radio Association.

History

Vancouver Co-operative Radio received its radio license from the CRTC on May 7, 1974.

The station first went on the air in April 1975 , launched by people mostly from various local activist groups in Vancouver. The station airs programmes in four categories: public affairs and news, music, multi-lingual, and arts. The group producing each programme is mostly self-governing–within the co-operative frame.

Programming

Public affairs programmes and subjects in English include Redeye (radio) (news and analysis on Saturday mornings), Wake Up With Co-op (three weekday mornings), The Brown Bagger (lectures and interviews four weekdays at noon), several programmes by and about aboriginal people, learning Coast Salish, Union Made (labour news), politics, women, international affairs (special programmes on Latin America, the Philippines, and Palestine), health, gay and lesbian, parenting, youth, the environment, animal rights, neighbourhood news, senior citizens, disabled people, yoga, and Democracy Now (from the USA).

Programmes air in ten foreign languages: Armenian, Azeri, Cantonese, Ethiopian, Farsi, Korean, Kurdish, Polish, South Slav, and Spanish.

Music programmes specialise in one or more of these: aboriginal, accordion, African, alternative, bluegrass, blues, Caribbean, classical, Celtic, electronic, folk, fusion, gospel, hardcore, hip hop, house, India, jazz, Jewish, Latin, metal, old timey, punk, reggae, rock 'n' roll, roots, rumba, ska, soul, swing, tango, and world music.

Arts programming includes arts news, poetry, comedy, sound art, show tunes and other music, and story-telling.

Nearly 100 different programme series air each week. Most of the late-night and week-end programmes are music and repeats, with public affairs and specialty talk programmes running mostly Monday through Friday in the day and evening. (See schedule in the external link below.)

Some on-air announcers have built up followings over decades, and some have moved to other media outlets and made names for themselves.

Almost all the programming is "alternative" in the sense that it has great difficulty getting much time or space in the mainstream media.

Technical aspects

Co-op Radio is now broadcast all day and night in four ways simultaneously:

• 102.7 FM radio.
• Cable television-radio throughout most of British Columbia. The cable company in each part of the province provides a frequency, some of which are 102.7 and 104.9.
• The Internet at http://www.coopradio.org. Some sound archives are there, too.
• Starchoice Satellite 845.

The station is licensed by the Canadian government's broadcast regulating agency, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), with occasional license challenges by members of the public who object to some view-points and statements being broadcast.

Structure

The co-operative is run by an annual general meeting, an unpaid elected board of directors and its committees, four part-time paid staff (unionised), and hundreds of volunteers, the latter creating all the programmes.

To volunteer or serve the organization, those aged 16 or older must be dues-paid members, as are thousands of people who join mainly to support the operation financially and to vote at the annual general meeting. The station broadcasts two major fund-raising drives a year, in the spring and autumn. Government grants are a very small part of the budget.

Radio Station Cafe

The Radio Station Cafe, a separate operation in the same building, hosts occasional special live Co-op Radio broadcasts.

Awards

Vancouver Co-operative Radio has received many awards and is sometimes called the leading co-op radio station in Canada. National Campus and Community Radio Association Broadcasting Excellence awards received by Vancouver Coop Radio include:

• 2007 Best Documentary (tie): Marc the Knife: The Overshadowed Career of Marc Blitstein (Steve Bowell)
• 2006 Best Documentary: 30 Years of Prison Justice Day by Emily Aspinwall and Tiffany Chong
• 2003 Programming Excellence; Redeye (radio) public affairs program
• 1997 Programming Excellence "Voices from the 11th International AIDS Conference"
• 1995 Programming Excellence "Earth Day on the Air"

External links

• Radio station website: Vancouver Co-operative Radio CFRO.

Co-Op shows' sites:

* Art of Beatz: http://www.artofbeatz.org/
* Democracy Now!  http://www.democracynow.org
* Wake Up With Co-op http://www.wakeupwithcoop.org 
* Animal Voices  http://www.animalvoices.org
* Eco Shock  http://www.ecoshock.org
* Accordion Noir  http://accordionnoir.org
* America Latina al Dia  http://www.vcn.bc.ca/alad
* New Generation Radio Broadcast (Cantonese)  http://www.i638.com/ngbr/
* Kurdish Voice  http://www.i638.com/ngbr/
* The Storytelling Show  http://www.thestorytellingshow.com
* Come Back Home (Korean)  http://www.comebackhome.net
* Ecos de mi Pueblo  http://ecosdemipueblo102.7.tripod.com  
* Hidden from History  http://www.hiddenfromhistory.org
* Making Contact  http://www.radioproject.org
* Think NDN  http://thinkndn.tripod.com
* Wings (Women's International Newsgathering Service)  http://www.wings.org/
* Voices of Palistine  http://www.voiceofpalestine.ca
* Wax Poetic  http://poetryradio.blogspot.com/
* Radio Bandcouver  http://www.bandcouver.com
* Better Days (roots music)  http://www.betterdaysradio.blogspot.com