In an in-camera session, MUNSU Board of Directors voted to cease funding to CHMR. By June 1st MUNSU employees assigned to CHMR “shall no longer spend their paid working time on broadcasting” according to the motion passed at the April 1st meeting.
A previous version of the motion was ruled out of order by Board of Directors Chair Mackenzie Broders because it included MUNSU taking over the $2 per semester student-levy that partly funds CHMR.
The motion that passed says that the “levy will continue to be collected and remitted in accordance with existing referenda and bylaws.”
At the meeting, MUNSU Executive Director of External Affairs Nathan Gillingham said that they need to make cuts to address their deficit of nearly $300,000, and that if the financial situation does not improve at the student union, it will face bankruptcy.
Station Manager Rhea Rollman says she’s seen MUNSU in debt before, and has come back from it by making a longterm plan. “As someone who’s worked here for 20 years, I can guarantee without a shadow of a doubt MUNSU is not going bankrupt anytime soon.”
She says that when she was on the board of MUNSU it was in a worse financial position, and got through it by limiting spending and making a multi-year plan.
Rollmann says that back in December, she had approached the MUNSU board with a five year plan for independence from funding from the Student Union. She says this was rejected by the executive.
At the meeting, Rollmann instead asked for a one-year continuation of funding as the station prepares for independence. This was not granted.
Community support
In the past week, a massive wave of support at local, provincial, and national levels came in favour of keeping CHMR funded. People such as former Open Line host Paddy Daly, CBC’s Tom Power, OZ FM’s Hugh Campbell, musicians and more called for MUNSU to keep the station operational.
Before the in-camera session, community members were invited to the MUNSU meeting and were given the opportunity to publicly discuss their thoughts on MUNSU’s decision to potentially shut down CHMR, including a number of current undergraduate students.
About 140 members of the community and students attended the meeting virtually.
‘Taking away marginalized voices’
One of the biggest concerns mentioned at the meeting was the fact that taking away the campus radio station would be taking a voice away from marginalized people.
Sarojini Ramnarine-Lang says she has been hosting a show at CHMR for nine years.
She said “I have given my time to CHMR and see CHMR shut down, you’re gonna have something else coming to you… I have hosted consistently black history month, women’s history month, the Islamic functions, the Hindu functions, the Buddhist functions and more.“
“If you shut down CHMR I want you to write to me and tell me who is gonna be the voice of black, Indigenous and people of colour community on campus.”
Greg O’Grady, Chair of the Newfoundland and Labrador stuttering association said that hosting his own show at CHMR helped both him and the rest of the stuttering community in St. John’s find their voices.
This was arguably the biggest concern brought up at the meeting. Almost everyone who spoke was worried about the potential of taking voices away from marginalized communities, including undergraduate student Drake Rose, who said “you have several voices within students that are not often represented. I know for sure there are some people who come from Ukraine, Malaysia, Bangladesh that currently have shows at the station.”
‘MUNSU only surveyed 84 people’
Many people were critical of the survey handed out by MUNSU that saw only 84 people respond.
Jeff Rose-Martland was said “you’ve conducted a straw pole of 84 people, and you’re basing this decision on such a low sample, for such a large population… If you’re going to shut down the station, you need to consult the students, and if your justification is nobody’s listening, you need to be able to show that, and 84 people doesn’t do it.”
Kody Gardner, the stations technical director said “I think it’s such an injustice to pull 84 people and make a decision on closing or, you know, removing the funding from CHMR. I can’t imagine making a decision this big with 84 people.”
‘Importance in arts community’
Many in the arts community stressed the importance of CHMR in promoting stuff within the arts.
Cullam Lockhart, a member of the arts community and MUN alum, said “I understand that in a modern era, a lot of things like radio are less relevant because there’s Facebook now.”
“But the fact is, as someone who is very involved in theatre and trying to get these things out, things like Facebook, Instagram and social media are not working very well for these community outreach programs anymore. It’s being replaced with a lot more algorithmic content.”
Brad Mercer said “I want the MUNSU executive to consider that, you know, this is not a decision you want to have associated with your reputation. If you ever want to have a future claiming you support the arts, that you support the growth of artists, that you support the growth of a local or artistic community. This is not a decision you want to have associated with you. I really want you to think about it and consider it.
‘Importance for future journalists’
A lot of people highlighted the importance CHMR has for honing the skills of future journalists and giving them job opportunities.
VOCM’s Russell Bowers was in attendance, and he says he got a job at VOCM less than a year after starting at CHMR, crediting the campus station for giving him that opportunity.
MUN undergraduate student Gracie Gallant, who hopes to get into radio in the future said “I was genuinely so confident CHMR was going to be the reason that I could have a career in radio after graduating MUN… I think to get rid of such a vital community and training ground for prospective journalists at MUN and other creative minds would be just such a deeply felt mistake for years to come.”
The future of CHMR is still uncertain, as the motion passed does not preclude the station to continue independently.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this article said it was a unanimous vote. This is incorrect. We have since been informed that there was one vote opposed.
