A look into CFCR, its origins and student influence, with interviews with Station Manager Neil Bergen and USask student host Greta Mader-Stevens

As Saskatoon’s non-profit community radio station CFCR 90.5 FM approaches its 35 years on-air milestone next year, The Sheaf caught up with its station manager, Neil Bergen, for a look into the station’s history and mandate.

When asked about the origins of CFCR, Bergen explained that: “We actually came about as a result of the UofS campus radio station being shut down many, many years ago. The university pulled the funding for the station, and it ceased to exist. There were a couple of people that were involved in the university station that thought there had to be some kind of alternative radio in the city. There were five of them initially that had a little meeting—they each threw in 10 dollars and said, ‘we’re gonna start a radio station.’ Of course, they had no idea how difficult it is to start a radio station.”

Bergen explained that the many hoops of starting a radio station included the engineering, licensing and legality due to radio being a federally regulated industry. It was the founders’ naivety, Bergen says, that ended up being a good thing for the station. They pieced together the station with help from a recently graduated lawyer from the UofS to get the licensing of the station in working order. 

“One of the beautiful things about this radio station was that the people who started initially decided to go with a block programming kind of format.” The advantage of block formatting, opposed to other community and university radio stations, Bergen says, is the predictability of genres that are set to be played on air every day. 

A typical weekday consists of two back-to-back shows of Green Eggs and Ham, the first from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. and the second from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. This is comprised of a variety of music that volunteers choose to play. After that, So Many Roads, which plays a mix of bluegrass and country music, will run from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., followed by Hot Buttered Soul from noon till 1 p.m., which plays soul and funk music. Jazz on the Swing Shift runs from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., followed by Canadian Waves from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., which showcases a lot of indie and local Canadian artists. Each of these schedules is subject to change slightly from day to day to accommodate new and different programs.

The radio also promotes local events through a brief Community Calendar show that runs four times a day, which is free to nonprofit organizations and cultural groups to advertise on. As Bergen explains, one of CFCR’s main mandates is to “provide a voice for the people who don’t have a voice.” 

Weekdays after 6 p.m. typically include a talk show and subjects will vary depending on the program—for example, Mondays from 6 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. airs Feminist Intersectional Radio Education (F.Y.R.E.!) program, which features diverse social issues with a feminist intersectional lens, while the same spot on Thursdays airs Board On The Air, a father-daughter radio show about their experiences playing the newest board games. 

While those who tune into CFCR generally know what programs will be played at what time, the variety of shows keeps things interesting. “That’s the key to the station,” says Bergen. “We play something for everybody. If you don’t like what you hear, wait an hour, and it’ll be totally different.”

It’s also the personal touch of the volunteers that helps to make each show different, Bergen explains. For example, on a program like Hot Buttered Soul, Bergen says that: “[There’s] a different host every day, so that means a different show every day. One show might be Motown stuff. Another show does British funk stuff … So, even though they’re the same show, they’re totally different because there’s a different host and they have different tastes.”

“One thing we do not play, as a rule, is commercial music … We don’t play in the Top 40. Part of our mandate is to be alternative, so we’re allowed a certain amount of hits to be played, [but] it’s very small.” Bergen explains that this also helps to expose local artists to the community, since they’re not going to be played on a commercial radio station.

The local aspect of community radio is also furthered by a uniquely Canadian law around radio stations having to play Canadian content. As a rule, 35% of what a radio plays has to be Canadian content. Bergen explains they generally exceed that because of the amount of independent Canadian music available.

“When I was in commercial country radio, there were about 15 artists that would get played that were Canadian—and you get sick of that real quick. But because there’s just so much independent music, [we] generally play much more than our minimum CanCon (Canadian content) requirements.”

Bergen tells me that CFCR used to see much more student involvement, but radio is simply a format that isn’t as popular with many young people because of music streaming. When asked what the impacts of technology such as streaming services have had on local radio, Bergen pointed out that community radio still has a lot of advantages that other platforms don’t. 

“One of the advantages of listening to us is that you can find new music all the time. We play music that you may not be aware of. It’s all well and good to be able to play whatever you want on Spotify or Apple Music or whatever, but you have to hear it first to know that you want to go play it.”

A show dedicated to new music on CFCR is called The Buzz, which runs from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. during the week. The Buzz features interviews with local musicians, touring musicians and any kind of new artists that aren’t on commercial radio stations’ radars. 

“You’ll hear lots of stuff that’s been released a day ago. One of the things I enjoy the most is if I’m listening and I’ll Shazam it to try and find out what it is, and lots of times it won’t even be able to find it [since] it’s pretty new.”

“I [also] think we’re fortunate that we have a niche market in the city. We don’t really compete with anyone else because of what we do … We have over 130 volunteers who do shows here on the station every week, so that gives us variety. We have music, spoken word and 14 multicultural programs that run on the weekends, which is another aspect that nobody else does.”

Bergen also explains that CFCR’s talk show programming is just as varied as the music the radio plays. “Again, it depends on what the volunteers want to do. We don’t program it and then look for somebody to fill it. People come to us with their ideas for a program, and if it’s something we don’t have, then there’s a high likelihood that we’re going to try and get it on the air.”

The interest of volunteers remains at the heart of the station. “We don’t choose them, they choose us … You can make people aware that you’re here and that there’s an opportunity to volunteer here, but it’s really up to the individual to approach us and volunteer.” 

Bergen spoke about how the station has been very fortunate to have dependable and passionate volunteers over the years. “Radio is not the kind of thing where if you don’t show up, nobody notices. If you don’t show up, it’s a big problem because something has to go on the air, and somebody has to do something. So we’re very fortunate—the volunteers we have are very dependable.”

Because the radio is a nonprofit and based on volunteers, they host an annual fundraiser entitled ‘FM-phasis’ in the fall. The fundraiser this year saw the community donate a total of $85,000 towards the station. FM-phasis typically offers donors to be entered into a number of prize draws, with this year’s winners taking home prizes such as $800 worth of gift cards to restaurants around the city, a Fender Squier guitar package with accessories, a John Taylor Bass Guitar valued at $3465 and more—all prizes donated by local businesses and community members throughout Saskatoon.

When asked about the ‘community’ aspect of community radio, Bergen explained that “we’re a very niche market, but we have a very loyal audience.”

“It’s a community radio station, but it’s actually a community of people. Everybody sort of identifies with the same things. It’s [also] a very musical community … It doesn’t matter what kind of music you like, whether you’re a classical person or a jazz person or a rock person or a country person—most people who love music love all kinds of music.”

One student volunteer The Sheaf spoke with was Greta Mader-Stevens, who has been a host on Green Eggs and Ham for the past year from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. on Wednesday mornings.

When asked about her initial interest in local radio, Mader-Stevens said that she had always loved music and its variety. “I like finding different music genres and artists, and connecting over music with people from different cultures.”

Mader-Stevens says that she usually plays a variety of music on her program and has a list of local artists that she keeps on her radar for new releases. “I always try to include something from a Quebec artist to get a francophone song. I’ve also been trying to do one German song because I have a friend in Germany who gives me suggestions, and one Portuguese song—just to have some language variety. I’ll include an old artist that maybe wasn’t a hit, but that I really appreciate, so I can have new music and some older ones. I try to get a bunch of different angles.”

Despite being on an early timeslot, Mader-Stevens says she has had numerous call-ins of support from the community in the past year she has been on the air. “One of them was a woman who just called in and was like: ‘I listened to your show and I really enjoy it.’ And she wished me a Happy New Year, because it was the Chinese New Year [at the time]. I thought that was really nice. It was the first time that someone had called in, and I honestly thought no one was listening because you don’t know how many people listen.”

“[One time] I played a Waltons song, a Saskatchewan band from the 90s that had a presence here… I played one of their songs, and this guy called and was like ‘Was that The Waltons? I haven’t heard that in forever!’ That was really nice because it made me feel that my research paid off, because I had been asking my mom about what was big when she went to the UofS, and she had recommended The Waltons.”

Mader-Steven’s pitch for students who may be interested in listening or getting involved with community radio stems from her own experiences with music. “You know when you become obsessed with a song and you just love it and listen to it so many times? That used to happen to me about once a month. [But] with CFCR, if you listen consistently or if you plan a show, because you’re getting so much variety and different things like artists that have very few listeners, or different languages, I get that feeling so often … I love listening at random hours of the day, especially on the weekend when they have their multicultural programs, and you’re just like, ‘this is a German banger,’ and then I become obsessed with it. And then the next week, another one happens.”

“I love that feeling, and I think other people do too. I think that when you look at music that way, instead of just listening to whatever Spotify is throwing at you (especially because some of that is sponsored), it’s just a better way to find new artists that you love.”

She also says that radio has a practicality to it that other mediums can’t offer. “I think people talk a lot about how expensive it is to do things … Radio is free, and everyone has a radio in their car, and you can buy a radio for so cheap at second-hand stores, so you don’t need to pay for a streaming service. I do think that buying CDs and vinyls from artists is good to support local music, but there have been studies showing how little [profit] from streaming services actually goes to the artist, so radio is a great way to do both. And the money from [CFCR] goes directly to [those] being played.”

Mader-Steven’s final point about her time at CFCR is the variety of people she has been able to meet through volunteering for the station. 

“Getting into a community like that is pretty remarkable. I was trained by one host who has been around since they began, and he was one of the people who helped found [the station] … [I’ve] talked to people who have family who are local artists, and they want to help support them. [There’s] high school programs and kids programs that CFCR runs, and it’s such a great way to think about the generational difference—a lot of the hosts are retired, but we have a few people my age, kids, and it’s just so fun.”

CFCR’s radio tower, which has been in use by the station since the first broadcast, will no longer be available in 2026. The station will have to find a new tower to place their transmitter, which is no easy task. Despite the work involved in finding a new tower, Bergen remains optimistic. “We look at it as a positive. Things could turn out to be bigger and better after we’re done.”
CFCR is always looking for volunteers to host radio shows and bring new ideas that they would like to hear or broadcast on the station. Interested students are encouraged to submit an application at cfcr.ca and seek more information.