Ryerson is well-known for its radio and television arts (RTA) and journalism programs, but the university doesn’t even have a radio station of its own.

Two groups of Ryerson students are arguing whether to direct funds gained from students’ tuitions to support a new student-run station. In previous years, $10.35 of students’ tuition was allocated to CKLN, the campus’s now-defunct station. 

Kolter Bouchard and Noorez Rhemtulla are third- and fourth-year RTA students who are trying hard to convince the campus crowd that New Ryerson Radio—the proposed replacement for CKLN — is worth it. 

“We don’t have an outlet to express our voice, to express our opinions, as students,” Rhemtulla said. “I think that having a Ryerson radio station that’s student-owned and student-operated would be beneficial to the students and to the community around us.” 

CKLN voted to dissolve as a corporation last week, leaving the frequency 88.1 FM open. Bouchard says that the money already collected from the CKLN levy for this school year —  about $250,000 — is just waiting to be used and a new station could cut costs in the future by involving marketing students in soliciting advertising. 
 

On the other side is Mark Single, the chief agent contesting the fee. He gained notoriety for suing the Ryerson Students’ Union (RSU) earlier this year when it wouldn’t allow him to opt out of his health and dental plan. 

He said it’s not fair that the entire Ryerson student body has to pay for a station that, he argues, they won’t listen to. Single wants the RSU to refund the money collected for the 2011-2012 academic year and stop charging a fee in future. 

  “New Ryerson Radio will be no different than CKLN,” Single said. “So they can complain all they want, but the fact is that for 20 years we had a student-run radio station that couldn’t organize itself, that nobody listened to, and it cost students hundreds of thousands of dollars, and to me that’s totally unacceptable.”
CKLN was infamous for infighting that led to a staff lockout and unfilled annual returns and also for what Bouchard calls “an utter lack of student focus.” 

    “The special interest groups and the unions got their horns and tentacles into the station and just took it away and sucked it dry,” Bouchard said. 

Bouchard and Rhemtulla briefly joined CKLN’s board of directors last spring, after the station had already lost its broadcasting licence due to mismanagement by other staff and board members. When the pair realized the situation wasn’t improving, they resigned in protest at the end of June.     

Bouchard called CKLN’s treatment of students a “slap in the face” and said out of about 50 shows on the station, he can only recall five having any student involvement. 

Ryerson journalism professor Suanne Kelman said she thinks students are capable of running the station if they correct CKLN’s mistakes.     

“I never understood how it was run, and I would like to see a transparent leadership process and a transparent process for assigning airtime to students, because we could never figure it out,” she said. 

Bouchard and Rhemtulla insist that this time, it would be different. 

 “There are slots for every student who wants one,” Bouchard said. 

“We can write the bylaws around everything that failed with CKLN. We can basically outlaw that within the terms of the corporation,” he said.  

 The new station would have no affiliation with CKLN or any of its previous staff or board members. There would be three students, three faculty and three community members on its board and a full-time manager who would be committed to the vision of a student-run station, Bouchard said.  

   Even if they get the vote, New Ryerson Radio also has to apply to the CRTC for the frequency, competing against several other bidders. But Bouchard said he is confident that his and Rhemtulla’s group can beat out the competition because they would be offering something different than other commercial stations.

  “If this doesn’t go through, Ryerson will not have a radio station in the foreseeable future,” Bouchard said. 

“This is such a, literally, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.” 

A referendum vote will be held from Oct. 24 to 26.