Monday, November 8, 2010

Red River College Kills Free Speech on 92.9 Kick FM

The headlines:

- Red River College sent an executive "messenger"
who refused to give Marty Gold a copy of a brief statement read to Marty today.

- The statement said
two Red River College employees and two commercial radio general managers who are on the executive committee of Kick FM, made a decision without any involvement of anyone else on the Board, excluding student and community representatives from the process.

- They claim the station needs to focus on "student outcomes" and
want to exclude all volunteer radio programs (like the recently elevated to CFRW Illegal Curve Hockey show, Beer for Breakfast and Breaking and Entering on Saturdays, and The Winnipeg Free Press’s Stop The Presses) and on the job training. No fewer than 7 students and volunteers trained on TGCTS went on to garner professional jobs as a result of that training in journalism and technical operations. Many others started their own radio programs.

- The RRC spokeman openly stated in front of Rick the Boss that
NO complaints had been received by the Kick-FM board or the CRTC in the 4 years TGCTS has been heard on 92.9.

-
No one spoke to Marty or Rick before silencing the voices of the community. Only TGCTS has aired the fear of the community about
- emergency response being hampered by "Active Transportation" bike lanes and traffic circles,
- derelict buildings,
- the failed 311 and CanAlert systems,
- festering garbage left to rot in core-area neighborhoods, and
- the wasteful pet projects of millionaires such as Upper Fort Garry.

(Or featured local sports stars such as roller girls, the Manitoba Maple Leafs professional hockey team, or internationally known professional wrestlers like Outlaw Adam Knight, Kenny Omega, The Amazing Mentallo, Sgt Tom Steele, Moses Luke, and many others.)

- The Great Canadian Talk Show is only Kick-FM radio program to have been cancelled.

More Details To Come…

You can be heard, and protest this censorship of the community and the alternative media by joining the Faceboo
k page ‘Red River College Kills Free Speech on 92.9 Kick FM
SEE ALSO: http://www.chrisd.ca/blog/31178/marty-gold-kick-fm-great-canadian-talk-show-cancelled-red-river-college/

Here are the voices of the community after reading Chris D's post:

  1. Reed Solomon

    That’s a shame, and oddly sudden as well. Is there a provincial election coming up or something? I quite enjoyed the show and it helped introduce me to other kick FM shows. I didn’t necessarily agree with the guy but he did some good work. Something about this seems underhanded. Nothing new in the media industry, alas.


  2. Claude

    Let us not dismiss the possibility of political pressure eluded to by Reed. After all, what other media outlet is provincially funded? UofM and UofW radio are, but they have yet to break a story that ends up in the script of the opposition at question period.

    No other outlet provided local election coverage of candidates and campaigns like Marty. My source for good local/civic news is gone.


  3. Bomber Fan

    Time to revolt in the streets. I blame this on the new RRC president. Jeff Zabudsky would have never let this happen.