Village 900 embraces evolution to digital
Invites listeners to join the media revolution
Victoria, B.C. - Victoria’s Global Roots music station Village 900 announced today that preparations are complete and on March 4th the station will move its activities entirely onto its digital distribution platform villagenow.net. “The media landscape is evolving and so are we,” said Brad Edwards, Village 900 Station Manager and executive director of the CKMO Radio Society which operates the station. “Several years ago we realized we needed to do business differently, to stay relevant, both for our listeners and for the students in the Applied Communication Program at Camosun College who use Village 900 as part of their training.”
Edwards says the society has been building the station’s online community and network and they are now ready to fully embrace the new media world. “We’re excited to move from a traditional broadcast model of one-to-one, to a new collaborative model of many-to-many.
Edwards invited supporters, listeners and others who want to share their voice, co-create and engage, to join their media revolution online. “VillageNow.net will not only continue to live stream the music and programming Village 900 listeners have come to love, but it will also act as a media centre and idea sharing community hub,” Edwards said.
Edwards said the change will not affect the strong partnership the station has with Camosun College and students in the Applied Communication Program (ACP). “We think the changes Village 900 is moving towards reflect a trend in media and we’re quite excited about what it means for our students,” said Andy Bryce, ACP chair. He said today’s employers are looking for employees who are skilled communicators familiar with all forms of new media.
“With VillageNow.net our students will have the chance to participate in and see how the audio, video and publishing content they produce can come together in one place.” He said as the online community grows and the sharing of content expands, feedback and comments would be valuable real-life evaluations. “That applied learning experience will be significant.”
Edwards said their partnership with Rogers Communications over the last 12 years has been “substantial” and when the society really needed support last year, the company’s general manager came through.
“Rogers radio stations have employed some amazing Applied Communication Program graduates, many of whom got their start on Village 900,” said Jim Schneider, General Manager of Rogers Communications in Victoria. “When we realized early last year the society wouldn’t be in a position to take over and run the AM transmitter site, we didn’t want to leave them hanging.”
Schneider’s company had been running the AM transmitter for CKMO under a ten-year agreement. When that agreement ended they stepped up and kept the transmitter operating while the society built its resources and developed a solution that worked for ACP students and Village 900 listeners. “We see now their time has come,” Schneider said.
Meanwhile, Edwards said an audio documentary highlighting broadcast education at Camosun would be aired during the weekend of Village 900’s final terrestrial broadcast March 4, 2012. “We wanted to reflect on the last 40 years and look ahead to the next 40,” Edwards said. “A lot of technological changes have taken place over the years. This is just another step in that evolution and I can’t wait to see where it will take us.”
The CKMO Radio Society, a registered non-profit society, operates Village 900 and VillageNow.net. Its mandate is threefold: to provide an alternative radio service to the people of Victoria; to train broadcast students in co-operation with the Applied Communication Program at Camosun College; and to produce and air educational programming for university transfer credit. Under VillageNow.net, the online media centre will continue to help train new media students and offer a venue to showcase their produced content.
