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Nakusp students take to the airwaves

Arrow Lakes’ station The Arrow started airing the noon news in partnership with the Arrow Lakes News.
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CJHQ The Arrow 107.1 FM logo.

Arrow Lakes’ community radio station CJHQ The Arrow 107.1 FM started airing the Noon News in partnership with the Arrow Lakes News on Monday.

The radio station successfully applied for a youth engagement grant earlier this year. some of the youth at Nakusp Secondary School (NSS) took on the role of radio hosts, while others will do some of the writing, recording and editing.

“We don’t want to limit our options,” said Chris Ewings, the manager of the radio station.

A team of teachers is involved in making the program happen, with two credits awarded for every 60 hours of work the students put in.

“It gets them that much closer to graduating,” Peter Gajda, the NSS principal said.

The teachers at NSS have welcomed this opportunity and started brainstorming about options for the youth programming.

Gajda added, “Sheena Delong is the multimedia teacher, Robin Stille is doing drama, and Tessa Wiseman is doing English, so they each have an opportunity to engage their students in one way or another.”

This initiative has plenty of opportunity to open future career options for the students.

“There are some who may not want to be on the radio but are good at writing or computers, who can do the editing,” noted Gajda.

The youth engagement project started in mid-May. According to the radio station, “at the end of the last school year, Lisa Bjarnason’s Grade 9 English worked on anti-bullying ads, soon to be aired as part of the youth program. The students started with varying degrees of interest in the project, the topic, and the radio component, but they all ended up working on something and presenting a finished project in the end.”

One of the students in that class, Jayda Pedersen-Bodner, showed potential for broadcasting. She demonstrated the perfect voice and presence, so she was named the first host of the updated noon news. Bjarnason hopes to have “inspired her to choose a direction in life.”

Across the street at the Nakusp Elementary School, one of Leslie Leitch’s Grade 7 students, Oriah Leeson, read a story she’d written for one of her classes entitled “Water.” Leeson is starting at NSS this year and is one student the radio station hopes will host the noon news.

The Mayor’s Corner has been airing since the beginning of 2017 in the noon hour spot. The mayor interviews various community stakeholders that work on interesting projects pertaining to the community. The updated noon news starts with the S.S. Minto whistle and is then followed by the news read by one of the youths, which will soon include news from the schools in School District 10, the Mayor’s Corner, and then “How I Met Nakusp,” where a local resident talks about how they ended up here and what made them stay.

The radio component will be part of NSS and NES class projects. Gajda hopes to form and supervise a radio club, hosted by the radio station. It will be open to any students with an interest in any part of making radio shows.