COMMUNITY
TUNE INTO COMMUNITY RADIO STATIONS
Whether it’s broadcasting music, current affairs or culture, community radio speaks the language of its listeners.
By Valerie Howes | Illustration by Benjamin Mills
If you tune into your local airwaves on any given day, you can find mainstream radio stations playing commercial music hits alongside syndicated news and ads. But you can also find independent community radio stations that do things a little differently, whether they’re playing a new band’s first single, taking calls from locals, sharing info about road closures or broadcasting a spelling bee from the nearby elementary school. It’s a unique approach to programming, one that amplifies real-life moments and hands the mic to people in the communities they serve.
Across Canada and across the dial, vibrant, active community stations act as grassroots, homegrown platforms to share culture, ideas, music, events and news. All you need to do is listen in.
EAST COAST LISTENERS CONNECT WITH COMMUNITY
Founded in Glace Bay, N.S., The Coast 89.7 FM has been a reliable presence on Cape Breton’s airwaves for almost 20 years. The station got its start in Glace Bay, but these days, The Coast broadcasts from a custom-built studio in Sydney’s New Dawn Eltuek Arts Centre, where it’s right at home at the heart of the local cultural scene.
The station showcases East Coast sounds from country and folk to shanties, fiddle tunes and pop. Local listeners tune in from their homes and cars, and music lovers from as far afield as Australia, Scotland and Germany can stream their favourite music shows on the station’s website.
In addition to music programming, The Coast covers regional, national and international stories through a local lens. “We are old-fashioned radio. We do newscasts on the hour, every hour,” says general manager and music director Bill MacNeil.
In a region sometimes battered by extreme weather, The Coast also offers a steady voice, delivering vital updates — for example, which gas stations are open, so you can refuel your generator — as well as a sense of human connection that larger commercial stations can’t match. During 2024’s massive “Snowmageddon” storm, The Coast took calls around the clock to reassure snowed-in listeners. During Hurricane Fiona, when the power was out across Cape Breton, “one elderly lady was in tears, telling me she’d been in the dark by herself for about nine days,” MacNeil recalls. “Our voices, she said, literally kept her sane.”
Live-called bingo games are the station’s main fundraiser, providing a reason for folks to get together. “It’s taken on a life of its own,” says MacNeil. In seniors’ residences, people play while gathering around the radio with tea and sandwiches. Some families even make it a Sunday ritual. “A son or daughter buys cards, goes to Mom or Dad’s, and they play and have supper together,” MacNeil says. “It’s all about community.”
“They’re never out of their community, so they were really out of their element. They listened to us, because we were giving [updates] in their languages.”
INDIGENOUS ISSUES ON THE AIRWAVES
On the other side of the country, the Missinipi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) draws multigenerational First Nations and Métis audiences in northern Saskatchewan, broadcasting in Dene, Cree, Michif and English.
“We have 140,000 people listening to us, from four to 90 years old, because the mothers or the grandparents at home are trying to teach their kids at a young age about language,” says Deborah Ann Charles, MBC’s chief executive officer.
MBC celebrated 40 years on the air in 2025. And thanks to Heritage Canada support, radio bingo proceeds, local advertisers and ticketed events, MBC has 30 paid staff, with reporters stationed in Regina, Saskatoon, Prince Albert and La Ronge. Collectively, they provide news, traffic, weather and missing person updates as well as coverage of cultural events, from treaty signings to spelling bees in Indigenous languages.
Hosts seek to keep cultural traditions alive. For instance, a show hosted by Cree broadcaster Abel Charles explored the benefits of traditional Cree moss bags — womb-like swaddling carriers deeply comforting to newborns. Contemporary issues get coverage, too. On another program, correspondent Danielle Dufour spoke with a university professor about Indigenizing math and science. Music programs span genres including country, soft rock, roots and hip hop, and regularly showcase Indigenous artists.
During the record-setting wildfires of 2015 and 2025, MBC played a vital role supporting evacuees displaced far from home, especially elders. “They’re never out of their community, so they were really out of their element,” says Charles. “They listened to us, because we were giving [updates] in their languages.”
LOCAL ISSUES AND UNIQUE SOUNDS ON NIAGARA COLLEGE RADIO
“Hey, what was that song you played Tuesday at 3:05?”
This kind of question is music to the ears of Deborah Cartmer, the program director at CFBU (103.7 FM) in St. Catharines, Ont. She loves hearing the follow-up stories that make her work feel worthwhile — say, about a dad and his teenage son who heard a new bop on a car ride and needed to find out the artist. “How amazing to be able to provide that?” she says.
Broadcasting from Brock University, CFBU’s specialty is delivering under-the-radar songs and sounds. “Because of our mandate, we don’t play mainstream music — basically, the music you hear on commercial radio, you don’t hear [with] us,” says Cartmer. Instead, listeners can expect psychedelic rock, calypso, ska, electronic dance music, reggae, indie, experimental, cinematic anthems, ‘found sounds’ and everything in between.
Run on donations, small grants, local ads and community sponsorships, the non-profit station is stretched too tight to sustain regular news broadcasts, but it goes deep into social justice issues that matter locally. Speak to It, for instance, is a show created by participants in St. Catharines’ Willow Arts Community, who bring lived experience of mental health and substance use challenges. They receive hands-on radio training and choose the stories they want to tell.
“We’re more likely to cover stories not being covered by mainstream giant corporations,” says Cartmer. “The more grassroots journalism you have, the better.” CAA