By Alexei Summers (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: April 11, 2012
Changes are on the horizon for CIVL Radio. As of March 21 CIVL Radio, which is based out of the Abbotsford UFV Campus, found its station approved by Industry Canada for a permanent broadcast certificate. This means big changes for CIVL, as it is possible it will now be heard between Chilliwack and Langley, on 101.7 FM.
Staff at CIVL seem excited about this new improvement to their station. “We’re finally able to serve Langley,” said CIVL station manager Aaron Levy.
CIVL also has acquired a new tower that it can broadcast from, allowing it to be heard more clearly throughout the Fraser Valley. The new tower is located near the Mount Lehman overpass in Abbotsford.
“We share the new tower with CBC. We started testing [the new tower] on February 14,” said Levy.
“It’s just a point of procedure for the CRTC [the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission] to perform tests. There is always a testing period to ensure that when an operation does begin it’s not interfering with NAV CANADA, or airplane radios, or radars, or not interfering with police scanners.”
CIVL Radio hopes to officially and permanently supply the Fraser Valley with diverse, alternative, progressive, informative and community-oriented programming.
However, not all things have gone well as of late for CIVL. Levy expressed disappointment with the CIVL referendum results which were released last week. The referendum was regarding a proposed $2 student fee increase which would allow CIVL to hire a second full-time staff member and the necessary resources to bring CIVL to Chilliwack – as such, the permanent broadcasting certificate does not allow for nearly as much improvement to the station as it had potential. After a long campaign, and much hard work, the referendum results came back with 538 students voting for and 735 voting against the fee increase. Levy expressed that he does not feel that this reflects a negative opinion of CIVL radio, but rather a negative opinion of any type of student fee increase.
This was the second referendum for a student fee increase that CIVL has held this school year, the first being in December.
Due to the recent failure of the referendum, CIVL may now have to rely on fundraising and donations in order to fund its projects, better its programming and increase its broadcast range. When asked if CIVL had any intention to hold another referendum in the future, Levy stated he had no interest in holding another one.
“There’s a lot of things we can’t even think about now, because the money’s just not there,” Levy said. “All we can do right now is run the best radio station we know how to run.”
