Emily Plihal
Local Journalism
Initiative Reporter
Nord-Ouest FM in Falher is in full swing of its annual fundraising campaign, and they’re hoping you are interested in helping them raise money to help continue operating.
“Like most community media across the country, we don’t presently have permanent or organizational funding for our non-profit organization,” says executive director Gisele Bouchard.
“We’re reliant on project-based funding, on sponsorship and on advertising revenues. Though we have managed to diversify our sources of revenues with our own start-up initiatives like radio bingo and our equipment rental and tech services, we’re still a relatively young organization,” she adds.
Bouchard explains that although Nord-Ouest FM is a francophone radio station, they strive to bring all of the Peace Country to the forefront, from promoting local musicians and artists to focusing on local news and events.
They are hoping to raise $50,000 this year, including advertising contracts. Bouchard says they are offering a special $2,000 per year with guaranteed placement during the bilingual RadioBingo.
“It includes sponsorship opportunities for organizations and businesses as well as membership sales and donations,” she says.
“We already have about $20,000 collected, but running a radio station is expensive. In royalties alone, we pay almost $10,000, staffing costs are about $250,000 for three permanent staff, summer students and contract staff.”
Bouchard explains it costs about $350,000 a year to operate the station.
“We’re local people creating content for our communities and the ripple effect of what we do goes beyond the official language minority communities,” Bouchard expresses.
“Supporting our station is supporting our participation in the Honey Festival, Bluesky Festival, Carnaval de Saint-Isidore, and SongRise Conference. No donation is too small.”
Bouchard says there are many ways to help the station. People can purchase memberships, donate money, play radio bingo every week, share their social media posts, and host a show. They are also looking specifically through the campaign to sell advertising, secure memberships and sponsorships and hoping people will donate to their efforts.
“We have a very big capacity building project this year, we’re looking to create portable satellite studios in St-Isidore, Grande Prairie and McLennan,” Bouchard explains.
“We have pockets of people, especially youth under 35, interested in creating content and one of the main hindrances is access to equipment. We’re looking for three businesses that would be interested in sponsoring each of these portable studios to the tune of $5,000.”
Bouchard says they are also hoping to acquire two stage sponsors for Laurier Tiernan’s visit to the area. Laurier is a Franco-Albertan living in Tokyo who hosts a show on Nord-Ouest FM.
“He’s a multi-talented artist and author who will be on tour in Alberta promoting his new graphic poetry book at Cultural Days next September,” she says.
“We’re looking for two sponsors for that at $1,500 each.”
Part of their extensive month-long fundraising bid will be their very popular Radiothon that will be hosted May 23-24. Bouchard says there is an extensive lineup of entertainment being featured over the two days, all that can be found on their social media page or by phoning their office.
Some of the talent being featured includes the Smoky River Region and Grande Prairie Association canadienne- francaise de l’Alberta hosting a show, Réseau santé Alberta, the Société historique et généalogique de Smoky River, the CAFÉ nord-Ouest and École des Quatre vents are hosting shows.
“Our regular staff members and volunteers are also hosting content throughout the weekend, and we have Simerjeet Sylvain hosting a two-hour wellness talk in English on Friday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.,” Bouchard notes.
“We also have local musicians involved with Joël Lavoie hosting a live jam Friday night, Community Futures hosting SongRise show on Saturday night.”
Bouchard says people can listen to it at 97.5 FM, at nordouestfm.ca, or use Radioplace, Radioplayer, or YouTube applications.
“We’re big supporters of local talent and we’re so glad to be involved with artists like Joel and Community Future’s Sherry Crawford,” Bouchard says.
“We get so much support from the music community, and they are glad we’re around.”
Bouchard says they use their Radiothon like an open house, with people welcome to attend in person and check out their studios at the Smoky River Community Hall.
She adds that space is limited for the musical shows, but people are always welcome to go to the studio and spend time with the staff.
“There’s content for everyone and it’s a great way to keep up with what’s going on,” says Bouchard of Nord-Ouest FM.
“We still have a few spots left if anyone is interested in coming in, we’d love to involve more people from the community, the radiothon is a great way to test the waters.”
Bouchard says this year in particular is a year they really need the community to rally together and help their fundraising efforts. She says in years past they’ve been fortunate enough to be approved for a variety of grants, but this year they are struggling to attain funding.
“It’s a common occurrence for a good many community radio stations across Canada and you could say our luck has run out,” Bouchard explains.
“It’s the main problem with project-based funding, you’re not building on what you have, you’re basically re-inventing the wheel every year,” she adds.
For bingo enthusiasts, a very popular Falher tradition is returning in the way of a Car Bingo on May 25. The bingo will be hosted identically to the regular radio bingo, but people will have the opportunity to play from their cars.
“We’re playing with people’s heart strings a bit with the return of car bingo, and we’ll be selling hotdogs and drinks between 5 p.m. and 7 pm.,” Bouchard says excitedly.
“Our radio bingo is also bilingual so it’s a great opportunity to get everyone involved and maybe get new players for our radio bingo. Marianne Houle and I will be calling bingo that evening, and we hope people will be texting me for shout outs and messages to other players.”
Bouchard suggests people think of the essential role that local and community media play in community cohesion and asks that people reach out if they’re willing and able to help.
For an extensive coverage of the various fundraising opportunities and a complete lineup of musical talent during the month, including the impressive SongRise artists, please call Marianne at (780) 837-2346 or email her at info@nordouest fm.ca.
There is also a plethora of information available on their website www.nordouestfm.ca