Myself, I prefer buffalo more than moose,” Mike Beaver says when Wanda McLeod asks him how the kill tastes. As he explains the cooking, cleaning and sharing of the meat, McLeod gently asks if he checks the liver for diseases, and Beaver obliges, sharing the knowledge with the ease of someone who’s been hunting for years. It is 12:25 pm, on the CBC Radio One program Northwind, which McLeod hosts from Inuvik. With roughly 20,000 listeners daily across the Northwest Territories, CBC Radio North is the standard in the region, operating throughout the territories since 1958.

At the same time, on a different frequency, a noon-hour request show plays on CKLB, a private station from Yellowknife. The two stations are miles apart-literally and figuratively-but CKLB offers northerners an alternative. Primarily a music station, it encourages the participation of Aboriginal youth and focuses on local and Aboriginal content. That distinguishes it from the nation’s public broadcaster, which reflects local life with shows such as Northwind, but still emphasizes national news more than CKLB does.
Started by members of the Dene Nation more than two decades ago, CKLB broadcasts First Nations Assemblies live and participates in community events such as Folk on the Rocks, a yearly music festival in Yellowknife. Though it’s difficult for small independent radio stations in the North to secure accurate audience data, CKLB gauges its success through increases in ad revenue, listener feedback and website traffic.
CKLB’s content is much lighter than CBC’s. A typical news item on the private station might be an awards ceremony honouring the region’s top athletes or a community meeting, without additional commentary. Joking that the programming doesn’t include anything like CBC Television’s the fifth estate, Tesfaye admits the station is uncritical of assembly decisions. “Usually those who are looking for more hard news content have come from the South.”
Indeed, CBC North is often a training ground for young journalists
He found it at CKLB. Director of radio since 2007, Greenland has a daily show and helps train aboriginal youth in journalism. This past year the station joined with the Aboriginal Sports Circle of the Western Arctic to create the Junior Radio Reporter program, preparing five young people to cover the North American Indigenous Games on Vancouver Island. “I hosted the first show, but I told the kids, it’s not about me, it’s about you, ” says Greenland. “You need to come back with the stories.”
Marvin Apples felt like fainting from the pressure when he heard that. Nevertheless, Apples, who grew up in Behcho Ko, a small town outside Yellowknife, completed the program despite struggles with reading and school work and says, “It was the best thing I ever did.”
Earlier this year, CBC also ran an outreach program, sending a team of six to the Sahtu Dene hamlet of Deline to create a radio documentary with the community, focusing on its traditional history and the cultural gap between the younger, English-speaking generation and the Slavey-speaking elders. CKLB’s junior reporter program, however, stresses giving youth responsibility. “I watched them on air and I started to cry,” says Greenland, “It made me think, I came here with a grade-seven education, and here I’ve trained all these young kids!”
At 12:55 p.m. on Northwind,McLeod says goodbye and “mahsi cho,” which means “thank you” in Gwich’in. Hundreds of kilometres away, Apples sits through another day of school before heading to his new job at the Rae Edzo Friendship Centre, a community centre with a nightly broadcast. Life has been busy lately, juggling school and work, but he laughs it off, saying simply, “I like a challenge.”
About the author
Claudia Calabro was the Director of Circulation and Advertising for the Spring 2009 issue of the Ryerson Review of Journalism.