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By Shari Narine
Windspeaker.com Contributor
EDMONTON
“I heard one person say, ‘You’re either growing or you’re dying.’ I prefer to keep growing, keep expanding, keep getting better. I think that’s something you can never stop trying to do,” said Aboriginal Multi-Media Society (AMMSA) CEO Bert Crowfoot. AMMSA owns and operates the CFWE-FM radio station, which tomorrow celebrates 30 years on the air. (Listen Live at http://www.cfweradio.ca/player/)
“I don’t know what the next 30 years will hold. I don’t know. I don’t want to find out, because once you get it, you quit,” he said.
What he does know is that a viable Indigenous voice is coming from AMMSA and it will continue to develop.
“It’s a long work in progress and I’m really proud of how far we’ve come and we’ve got a long ways to go.”
On Aug. 30, 1987, CFWE-FM made its initial broadcast as a community radio station in Lac La Biche, broadcasting for a total of 12 hours per day. By June 1989, it had doubled its broadcasting time.
Crowfoot remembers those days. AMMSA accessed a Heritage Canada grant available for both radio and television. But wanting to do it right, he says, AMMSA decided to focus on radio.
Soon, the small station was being heard in 46 Indigenous communities in Alberta’s north. And it kept growing. Now there are six large regional transmitters allowing Indigenous people in the south to listen to music made by their own artists, to hear news told from an Indigenous perspective, and even tune-in to their own language coming out of their speakers.
“A lot of people like listening to our station,” said Crowfoot. He’s received numerous compliments about the mix of music, which is a blend of old-time and top country songs with modern Indigenous tunes “and every now and then a powwow breaks out.”
But more than playing good music, says morning man Wally Desjarlais, is the connection that has grown between the radio personalities and the listening public. Desjarlais recalls developing an over-the-telephone friendship with a grandma in Wabasca, who played radio bingo, which CFWE-FM broadcasts two or three times each week.
When she passed away a couple of years ago, he felt as if he had lost a family member. And then there was the woman on the Blood Reserve, who he “met” through the station’s request program. One day, she and two younger women made the trip to Edmonton to visit him.
“How many opportunities does one actually have to do something that they can say they actually love and still love doing after all these years? It’s all about the job and connecting with people and connecting with people you can relate to and hopefully people that can relate to you as well,” said Desjarlais.
The man, who spins the morning tunes and talks weather and news with co-host Candice Ryan, began his career with CFWE-FM through work experience as a high school student in 1990. On those long bus rides from his home community of Buffalo Lake Metis Settlement to Lac La Biche for school, he listened to the radio and wondered how they did it.
Initially he was occupied by the behind-the-scenes operation. But working on the air on weekends soon consumed him and he transitioned to the station’s morning man. But when CFWE-FM moved from Lac La Biche to Edmonton in 1993, it did so without Desjarlais.
“I wanted to see what else was out there,” he said. “But I missed it.”
Returning in 1996, he became the voice of the morning again four years later. Since 2010, he’s regularly had a co-host. Ryan joined him last December.
Coming back to CFWE-FM was an easy decision. And staying was just as easy.
“Being able to be a platform for Aboriginal artists out there. Just being able to work with our people, be somewhat of a voice for our people, with what’s going on in the world, keeping people educated that way. And really the music itself, being able to see a lot of the great Indigenous artists out there get heard,” said Desjarlais. He is also proud of the station’s strong cultural component.
CFWE-FM is live 12 hours every day, running from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. The evenings run automated programs, including shows previously recorded in studio by staff.
The Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission requires that 40 per cent of music be Canadian content. Desjarlais says Indigenous music easily accounts for 30 to 40 per cent of what’s played on CFWE-FM “and the nice thing about it is that a lot of people don’t realize that they’re Aboriginal artists because they just blend and fit well.”
Both Desjarlais and Crowfoot are pleased with the hand-up that CFWE-FM has been able to offer to Indigenous musicians.
“Over the years a lot of Indigenous artists have gotten their start here and that’s something we’re really proud of. We will continue to do that,” said Crowfoot.
“The last 30 years has been slowly building a solid foundation,” he said. “I see us continuing to grow. We will look at whatever opportunities arise.”
Editor's Note: Windspeaker.com publishes under the AMMSA banner and works as a sister publication to CFWE-FM.