Lynn Lau
Northern News Services

Arctic Red Rive (Oct 08/01) - The folks in Tsiigehtchic tune their radio dials to FM 101.9 every weekday morning to listen to James Cardinal.

In radioland, Cardinal is otherwise known as Jimmy Jones of the Jimmy Jones Country Show.

Cardinal has been on the airwaves since 1993, spinning the tunes that everyone loves to hear, and making sure the community gets their announcements and weather reports.

Cardinal, who works band office as the community co-ordinator, runs the community station on $6,000 a year in government grants, doing his show from 9:30 a.m. to noon.

"I'm here every morning. Rain, fire, earthquakes -- I'm still here," Cardinal says. " People can't go without their messages. They got to know what the weather is like. I'm at work 15 after eight every morning. I've been on too long to just walk away from the radio station and leave it dead."

He says he doesn't ever get sick, but he does take weekends off. On Saturdays, Sundays as with weekday afternoons and evenings, the station turns over to CKLB, aboriginal radio out of Alberta, or CBC.

The Jimmy Jones Country Show came into being about four years ago. Cardinal named it for Nashville country singer George Jones.

"Everybody wanted me to play George Jones every day," explains Cardinal. "I got so sick of it, but I still had to play. So I said 'Let's call this the Jones show.'"

Besides George Jones, Cardinal also plays a lot of fiddlers, and other regional musicians, and he often helps out new artists who send their demos to him.

"My music is a mix of just about every kind of country music there is," Cardinal says. "It's interesting to work because you don't know who is going to call and say, play this for me. I get calls all the time from Yellowknife, Vancouver, Edmonton."

The radio station only broadcasts in Tsiigehtchic, but people know if they want to reach anyone in this town, the radio station is the way to go.