Winnipeg’s Nostalgia Radio finds supporters and success as non-profit co-op

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This article was published 28/03/2015 (4091 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There’s one radio station on your dial where you will be greeted by the sounds of the Everly Brothers, Anne Murray, the Beach Boys, Guy Lombardo, Frank Sinatra and Benny Goodman.

It’s also a place where you will hear local broadcasting legends such as Lee Major, Ernie Nairn and Roger Currie.

It’s 93.7 CJNU — Nostalgia Radio — and 20 years after it first started as a temporary signal to help remember the country’s military veterans, it now beams out tunes and talk with the strongest signal it has ever had on a permanent place on the dial.

Bill Stewart, CJNU’s manager and chief operating officer, said, “Radio still represents about half of all the listening people do. The other half is all kinds of other things. Traditional radio still commands a large amount of listening.”

Stewart said the station had a long odyssey before becoming the station it is today. As CKVN, the station began by broadcasting for two weeks with a low-power signal in the mid-1990s to commemorate Canada’s veterans. He said the response from the public was so supportive they did it annually until 2002, when the station became licensed as CHNR, trying but failing to broadcast for most of each month.

They tried again in 2005, but the station also failed after a few weeks.

It wasn’t until 2006, when the late Garry Robertson — who operated a dance DJ service — brought together radio supporters to help found CJNU as a non-profit community co-op that the station found success.

“Wendy Hart was doing a lot of work with us, and she said we should be a co-op,” Stewart said.

“That was a stroke of genius. It allowed us to develop a membership base, and it made it clear this was a public station.”

Much like Pollock’s Hardware and the Co-op gas bars and grocery stores, the Nostalgia Broadcasting Co-operative sells annual memberships. It has about 1,000 members.

Stewart says while the station doesn’t pay out a cash dividend, “The dividend you get is you can feel good about tuning into your favourite radio station every day and know you helped.”

In 2013, the biggest change occurred: The station moved from 107.9 FM to 93.7 FM and no longer had the type of broadcast licence that forced it to close down for at least one day a month.

With its new 500-watt transmitter on top of 55 Nassau St., listeners throughout Winnipeg and the capital region can tune in.

Stewart said in the early days when it had to shut down at the end of the month, the station would set up its equipment and broadcast out of various organizations around the city.

The station now has a permanent location — taking space on the same floor in the Richardson Building as the Winnipeg Foundation — but still does most of its broadcasts remotely at charity organizations.

“We call them our host sponsors,” he said. “They are mostly non-profit organizations like Winnipeg Harvest, the Shriners, Red Cross.

“We’re the gypsy radio station… but now the Winnipeg Foundation has donated this space to us for eight years. We are very grateful to them.”

Rick Frost, CEO of the Winnipeg Foundation, said it’s pleased to assist CJNU because the radio station does so much good work in the community.

“They’re a volunteer operation that supports a lot of charities,” he said. “They do a lot of public-service announcements. They are a voice for the charitable sector, and we see that as a good thing.

“For us, it’s a good fit.”

Lee Major’s broadcasting career began at the CBC’s brand-new radio station in Yellowknife in 1958 and lasted 35 years. Since retiring, he has hosted a show three mornings a week on CJNU, and in recent years also teamed up with Don Percy to host Two Grumpy Guys in the Kitchen on CTV.

“I still prefer morning shifts, because then you have the rest of the day off,” Major said, chuckling. “I do it to keep alive. I love radio, and I do like talking to the public and playing music.”

Major’s show includes jazz, but also pop favourites from the past.

“I also like that you’re helping out a cause, like the Kidney Foundation, Heart and Stroke, Winnipeg Harvest and Siloam Mission. You’re doing something that helps,” he said.

Ernie Nairn was a sports broadcast fixture during his 30-year career with CBC television and radio in Winnipeg. He was named the country’s top sportscaster in 1986.

He has been broadcasting on CJNU for six years and continues to dabble in sports at 20 minutes after the hour.

“It has been super,” he said. “I was just amazed at the number of people who responded to me…

“It’s because we’re in the community, and we are involved. We’re there to be the voice of the community.”

But Nairn says it’s the music that causes most people to tune in.

“When you have veteran announcers like myself and Lee Major, we know the music people are interested in. It’s the kind of music people want to listen to,” he said. “We have a very positive audience.”

Susan Hamilton was a secretary in the Winnipeg School Division until retiring in 1997. She is now an announcer on the radio, sets up the monthly on-air schedules for the station’s broadcasters and operators, and hosts her own music show. She is also on CJNU’s board of directors.

“I love music, but I just never thought I’d do broadcasting,” Hamilton said. “It just happened.”

Hamilton said while it takes hours to put together the monthly schedule, “It is fun.”

She plays lots of jazz on her show, but also other music.

“I like all kinds of music — I’m eclectic in my taste. I play (music written in the 1890s). If it’s good, it lasts.”

Hamilton said she is gratified the station’s listenership includes younger people.

“They are in their 20s, 30s and 40s,” she said. “They are looking for something good, and they find it with us.”

Hamilton said because the station is also streamed on the Internet, she gets music requests from as far away as England and Russia.

Tom Dercola, the station’s vice-president and an announcer, also came to the airwaves after decades of teaching. After his retirement, he was volunteering at Winnipeg Harvest when the station came to broadcast out of the food bank for a month in 2009.

“I went over to talk to them,” he said. “One thing led to another, and by the next week I was on the air.

“I’ve been on the air for six years now.”

Dercola said one difference between CJNU and other radio stations is while other stations have a prearranged play list of songs, CJNU DJs pick their own songs to play.

“For my Malts, Mustangs and Memories show, you’ll hear music from the ’50s through the ’60s and ’70s, while for my The Memories show, you’ll hear the big bands,” he said. “A lot of young people tell me it’s so soothing to listen to these groups, or they tap along to the beat.”

Dercola said he loves the fact the radio station mostly broadcasts out of different places monthly.

“It’s enjoyable getting out and meeting new people,” he said. “It’s refreshing, because our listeners can come up and speak to us. You can’t see the smiles when you’re in a radio booth.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca