CHMA has made a respectable showing on this year’s shortlist for National Campus and Community Radio Association (NCRA) awards, with four finalists.
- Finalist for “Best Classical Music Program”: Allegro (Sundays at 9am)
- Finalist for “Women’s Hands and Voices”: Full Disclosure (Saturdays at 6pm)
- Finalist for “Best in Jazz or Blues Music Program”: Hour of Jazz
- Finalist for “Best in News Programming”: Tantramar Report (weekdays, 9am, noon and 4pm)
The awards are presented to campus stations across Canada for excellent programming every year.
Programming director Kevin Brasier is one of the station’s finalists for “Best Classical Music Program,” for Allegro. The early Sunday morning show features “everything from baroque and romantic to new contemporary classical music.” Brasier says the show is very much a passion project, and “it’s such a pleasure to share what [they’re] listening to in classical music with everyone in town.”
Brasier has been an off-and-on presence at CHMA, and Allegro was their very first project at the station in 2014. After a multi-year hiatus when Brasier left town, they felt compelled to bring the show back during the COVID-19 pandemic. While they weren’t in the studio, Brasier brought classical music to the airwaves during CHMA’s “Stay Home Radio” initiative (spearheaded by current station director James Anderson and former programming director Vanessa Blackier). Brasier credits that time broadcasting Allegro from home as the start of their journey to their current position as programming director.
“For that show to be a finalist is very meaningful to me, and it’s an honour to be a finalist,” says Brasier.
Another finalist has moved on from their position as CHMA’s communications coordinator to become the Human Rights Intern at The Carter Center, Aura-Lynn Groomes. The show is up for the “Woman’s Hands and Voices Award,” a category meant to elevate radio shows produced by women that covers topics that are relevant to women’s issues.
Groomes’ talk show Full Disclosure puts the “campus” in “campus and community radio.” Each week, she discussed a variety of issues impacting students from coast to coast, including the mishandling of sexual assault cases on Mount Allison campus. That episode (available on demand) earned Groomes the finalist spot, and featured activist Michelle Roy who sparked protests on and off Mount Allison by calling out administration’s mishandling of sexual assault cases in her graduation photos.
Groomes is currently a member of CHMA’s board of directors, and can occasionally be found staffing the station’s farmers’ market booth. Full Disclosure is still on the air, and listeners can tune in Saturdays at 6pm to hear more contemporary conversations about student life.
Anna Hardie’s Hour of Jazz is also a finalist from CHMA, and could win “Best in Jazz or Blues Music Program.”
Hour of Jazz is exactly what it sounds like, a full hour of jazz music from Billie Holiday to Astrud Gilberto, hosted by a Mount Allison alumna who continued her show after graduation.
Brasier remembers how thrilled they were when listening to Hour of Jazz for both the music and Hardie’s charisma.
“Anna is a great host during Hour of Jazz. She’s got this incredible voice and plays these great tracks, always a great focus on Canadian [jazz], and also a great focus on contemporary jazz. Besides the classics, you get to know who’s producing current, excellent jazz music.”
Hardie is sadly not returning to CHMA’s airwaves in 2021-2022, but Brasier hopes Hour of Jazz will be sent off and commemorated with an NCRA award.
“It would be a great nod and congratulations to her incredible two seasons at CHMA.”
The last finalist is the Tantramar Report, hosted and produced by journalists Erica Butler and Meg Cunningham. The show, which plays every weekday at 9am, noon, and 4pm, is up for “Best in News Programming.”
Butler is a newcomer to Sackville, while Cunningham is a long-time off-and-on resident. The two joined forces in the summer of 2020, and produced news from their kitchen tables without ever meeting in person until 2021.
Tantramar Report has covered topics from the 2021 municipal election, harm reduction initiatives, local COVID-19 updates, border rules and protests, and cultural events. Now that at-home journalism is no longer mandatory, locals might spot Butler with her portable recorder (complete with homemade faux-fur windscreen) and Cunningham getting the scoop in person.
Regardless of whether any of the shows bring home the gold, Brasier is certain CHMA will get the “spirit award,” an award of their own invention. It’s been about nine years since the station won an NCRA award, and Brasier is optimistic that at least one of the four finalists will be honoured at the online awards gala on August 20.
