CJAM staff: music director Gin Ebony, station manager Brady Holek, and program director Carley Schweitzer.
A referendum seeking a $3 per semester increase in the student levy for campus-community radio station CJAM-fm will run in conjunction with the University of Windsor Students’ Alliance elections, March 14 and 15.
The boost from the current $5 per semester from each full-time undergraduate will allow the station to hire a news director and a volunteer co-ordinator, while making the position of music director full-time.
Station manager Brady Holek says the fee increase would be the first since 1980.
“While we gather roughly $25,000-30,000 from our generous community each year during our fundraising drive, and obtain government of Canada grants on a regular basis, after so many years, inflation is catching up to the organization,” he says.
He notes that this fall will mark 35 years since the station began FM broadcasting, but its roots go back to a music appreciation society founded in the 1950s.
“CJAM has a very proud history of being the alternative voice in Windsor and Detroit, and I’m proud to say we offer learning opportunities that have led many on career paths that shaped their lives,” says Holek. “To celebrate 35 years of FM by creating new job opportunities would go a long way to help us continue to redefine radio and reach higher ground in Windsor and Detroit.”