Anne-Marie Jennings
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jul 24/98) - The French-Canadian population of Yellowknife is working on a plan to set up a French-language community station.

Michel Lefebvre, president of the Franco-cultural Association of Yellowknife, said that while there is some French-language programming in Yellowknife now, the idea is to expand the programming far beyond city limits.

"We currently broadcast three hours of programming on CKLB on Sundays," Lefebvre said. "What we are hoping to accomplish now is to join a network of community radio stations across Canada."

There are 20 French-language community radio stations in operation across Canada, with the majority of stations located in Quebec, the Maritimes or Northern Ontario.

A project is currently under way to link up the proposed Yellowknife station into a national radio network, which would allow for transmission of programming to different parts of the country.

The cross-country network is being funded in part by Heritage Canada and a large part of the initial organization is being done by the Association of French Community Radio Stations. Once the idea of establishing a radio network was proposed, Lefebvre said it was up to the stations themselves to declare their interest in the network.

The association carried out a feasibility study of the viability of a French-language community radio station in Yellowknife, and Lefebvre said there was a keen interest for participation in such a project.

The one thing Lefebvre said poses the biggest obstacle for the time being is money.

"To buy our own equipment would be expensive. We would also have to find our own building if we wanted to set up our own radio station," he said.

"But we are in the process of hiring a full-time employee who will be given the task of taking charge of organizing our connection to the network."

The new employee will be expected to have an excellent grasp of the technical aspects of the position -- something which not all the current volunteers at the station possess.

"We do this on our own time, out of a love for this," Lefebvre said.

"If we want to move forward, we will need someone who knows the technical side of the business to help us."

Lefebvre said the signal will still only reach the Yellowknife area, but that one day all residents of the NWT could have access to the community radio station.

"It would be very expensive to set up and uplinks with the smaller communities of the North," he says.

And while the idea of swapping programming with other community radio stations is stimulating enough for Lefebvre, he said he is more excited with trying to connect with other French-language radio stations.