Paul Bickford
Northern News Services

Fort Smith (Sep 12/05) - Community radio in Fort Smith is switching frequencies after being told to tune out by a larger aboriginal programming broadcaster.

George Lessard: Kaskiw was merely keeping the frequency warm for NCS.

The Kaskiw Radio Society has moved its community broadcasting from CHFS 101.9 FM, a frequency licensed to the Native Communications Society (NCS) of the NWT.

Kaskiw president George Lessard says the change was made after a call from an NCS worker, who had read a News/North article about the Aug. 23 broadcast in Fort Smith of a program prepared by locked-out CBC workers in Vancouver.

Lessard says the Kaskiw Radio Society was threatened with legal action if it continued to use the 101.9 FM frequency.

No threat

"I was totally aghast," he says. "It was certainly something that threw me for a loop."

However, Dane Gibson, the executive director of the society, says the organization would never take Kaskiw to court. "There's no threat of any lawsuit whatsoever."

Gibson said the call to Lessard was made by an NCS worker who is not authorized to speak publicly for the organization. He says the society simply doesn't want community radio using its signal, noting 101.9 FM is the standard frequency in 24 NWT locations to rebroadcast CKLB - aboriginal programming from Yellowknife.

"It just sends a mixed message," he says.

Under its CRTC licence, NCS is responsible for what is broadcast on the frequency.

Gibson says the issue has nothing to do with Kaskiw's broadcasting of the program from the locked-out CBC workers.

Pure speculation

CKLB hasn't broadcast to Fort Smith for about two years. Lessard says he was surprised by the society's reaction.

"Suddenly, it became very public they weren't broadcasting (in Fort Smith)," he says, referring to the newspaper article.

Lessard says there was a verbal agreement between Kaskiw and the NCS on the use of the 101.9 FM frequency. He says that agreement permitted Kaskiw to use the frequency, since technical problems prevented NCS from rebroadcasting CKLB in Fort Smith for two years.

"We were filling in for them," Lessard says. "We were keeping the frequency in use."

Gibson says he is not aware of any verbal agreement.

Even though he knew there was something on the 101.9 FM frequency in Fort Smith, Gibson says, "As far as we were concerned, we were off the air."

He says Fort Smith is going to receive a new satellite dish and a new receiver by the end of October. "We're going to re-establish ourselves in the community."

Lessard says Kaskiw will now use its own licensed frequency - 92.3 FM - for locally-produced community programming.

That frequency also rebroadcasts CIRK-FM (K-Rock) from Edmonton.

The Kaskiw Radio Society will seek a CRTC licence for a second frequency exclusively for community programming. That might take a year to obtain.