**Here’s the LINK to our extended “50 Songs for 50 Years” version ON BANDCAMP
“Still The Mighty – Celebrating 50 Years of CKCU 93.1 FM” (the LP version) is on limited (to 300 copies) GOLD vinyl featuring 13 tracks by Ottawa Artists: The Atomic Tempunauts, Crisis Party, Slo’ Tom & The Handsome Devils, Sleep Late, Claude Munson, Tara Holloway & Naviger, King Kimbit, The PepTides, LH Express, James Leclaire, Vicki Brittle, OK Naledi & Smelloship
LP LINER NOTES (back cover):
While out at a local pub recently with longtime friend Lester Bear, (also host of Bear Necessities on CKCU) part of our conversation zoned in on some of our earliest memories of buying records. Les told of how he converted one unwanted Barry Manilow record obtained through a Columbia House mail-order mishap into TWO records (Teenage Head & the first Clash LP), at Records On Wheels (before it was even on Bank St.) – brilliant by any standard past or present..
Needless to say, ROW was a hub for many like-minded music fans like Les and me. For me, before initial ventures to Treble Clef at Carlingwood Mall, the only records I had were K-Tel at Xmas or whatever, so heading out with your own hard earned $$ felt like a magical, autonomous experience that landed me on selections like XTC, Siouxsie, B-52’s, Television, SLF, that I barely knew what they would be, but my instincts were pretty good! Early 80s, there were limited ways to discover new music but for a couple of discography style books that I obsessed on which influenced my early choices.
By the time I found International Discography of the New Wave a few years later, I was already a goner, but now a well-informed one.
From there, a short path to that deeper dive, discovering even more fascinating, independent bands & record labels and then the whole DIY ethos of all-ages gigs held in community centres and other unlikely venues, like on campus. Most of our audience, and even many of us organizers, weren’t old enough to be in bars anyway, or didn’t feel comfortable when we were! Living in communal houses where bands rehearsed (and partied) to play said gigs, connections with other like-minded music nerds was what eventually led to discovering CKCU.
University was foreign to me, which added to early CKCU being this somewhat intimidating, mystical hub with ‘structure’, that felt like home somehow. I recall going to CKCU music department meetings where the office was full of ‘announcers’ (‘DJ’ or ‘hosts’ wasn’t used much back then) clambering to get a look at what records we’d been sent, and there was an abundance. It required real time spent in the listening booth. There was no instant gratification, look it up on your (suspect) device and stuff an airpod in your ear back then haha!
Even with the glut of easy access and everything just a search engine away now, there never was and hasn’t been since, a better place to be connected to so much great content and music than CKCU. It really has always been a hub that ebbs & flows, emitting so many ways to be creative and inspire creativity.
Curation is the key, from those with passion and a sense of pride in the great, under-represented diversity the station can audaciously present every day. So, being able to connect this special CKCU anniversary with our love of records and the community is a real joy & privilege! A connection so intrinsic, countless interviews, the thousands of events presented, even festivals started because of CKCU. Ottawa mightn’t necessarily be dull without CKCU (as some have often stated), but it would be less refined, dynamic or world class if The Mighty 93 hadn’t prevailed all these years!
When Jeff Larocque, host of Thursday Special Blend. proposed a CKCU album it was hard not to concur on the timing to showcase and represent a glimpse into our rich music scene in a significant way. And I assure you: we acknowledge that it is but a fragment of all the tremendous music from the region past & present. Hence, we invite you to check the Bandcamp version of this compilation (see ckcufm.com/LP for details), which will include many more tracks! We are extremely grateful to ALL the artists that have contributed to this project.
It especially feels like epic times here at CKCU right now. Although no stranger to adversity, we’ve encountered some unusual and unwieldy challenges in recent years and have still come out with our spirit/soul very much intact and ready to embrace the next 50 – truly a result of the collective effort of so many dedicated volunteers, listeners and donors. Here’s to 50 billion more magic moments, constructive interactions and radio gold. Some, perhaps, less than perfect, but always human…. when something resounds & just ‘clicks’? …nothing like it anywhere.
Carefully planned out or spontaneous/ stumbled upon, unique & remarkable has happened here time & again. An incalculable value, and best of all, a learning experience for the creatives and the listeners alike. We’ve all been enriched by these enlightened moments, let’s keep passing them along including these cool tracks. Happy Listening!
Yours in community building,
~ davE aardvark
