A last chance to save CHUO campus-community radio in Ottawa!

From March 2^nd – 6^th as part of the annual elections, undergrad students at the University of Ottawa will be voting on whether to add a $3 fee to support CHUO 89.1 FM, the long-standing campus-community radio station.

The three weeks leading up to the vote are a campaign period to convince students of the importance and value of the station, and why they as students would want to support it.

In early December, the station’s board of directors made the decision to cease operations due to lack of funds. CHUO’s last live broadcat was December 15, 2025; since then it’s been broadcasting pre-recorded content, mostly re-runs, in order to continue to fulfil its CRTC license requirements through the end of March.

If this referendum is successful in establishing the $3 fee, the station will be in a position to operate again.

So this referendum is a bonus last chance to save CHUO, after we mostly thought there was no more chance..

Anyone who wants to help with the campaign, sign up via this online form:
https://forms.gle/tfceUSETpRPTTqv56
And let anyone else you think might be interested, know too!

Note that the electoral rules say you don’t need to be a student to help with the campaign.

---

I’ve been listening to both CHUO and sister-station at Carleton, CKCU, since the mid-90s.

At CHUO, there are a number of shows I’ve either been a guest on, helped arranged for someone else to be a guest on, and/or contributed pre-recorded content to: Monday Night Scribes; Click Here; The Five O’Clock Train; The Underwhere Show; The Circle; and, Third Wave.

This was all somewhere between 2008 – 2018. Since the pandemic, I’ve only had one such interaction with the station, and that was to get coverage through their news department for a protest and subsequent arrests.

During the 2023-2024 referendum campaign – where the station lost their existing $5 adjusted-for-inflation student levy – I only randomly came to learn about it happening, and it wasn’t through the station itself; it didn’t ever seem to be mentioned on air, at least when I was listening. I don’t think a lot of people, including the on-air volunteers at the station, even knew the referendum was happening and that CHUO was at risk.

Hopefully with this referendum on a ‘compromise’ $3 fee, we can reach people who want to help resurrect the station, to make sure they know there is this opportunity and that they can help if they want.

I don’t know the likelihood of the campaign being successful, but I know the importance and value of campus-community radio, and I figure it is worth doing what we can now to let the students make the best informed decision they can. I hope this reaches others who want to give it a shot too.

Fill out the form if you want to help on the campaign!

PS – I started writing a lot more than what is above, especially about some more in depth of my involvement, what I think about community radio, some of the history of CHUO, and also some multimedia archived content, including taped-off-the-air, now-digitized recordings.

But it was too much to gather together and get ready for the moment. What is most urgent now, is to make sure people know about the vote and the campaign and the opportunity to get involved, so I’m publishing this short version now and will work on getting the rest published relatively soon, with the goal sometime enough in advance of the voting period starting March 2^nd.