Members Hear Updates at AGM

The 2010 Annual General Meeting of Nostalgia Broadcasting Cooperative was held at the West End Cultural Centre on Sunday, November 7. There were 100 people in attendance at the meeting.

Chairman of the Board, Ross Thompson (right), noted that CJNU needs more power, more sponsors and more young people to become involved with the station. He put out a challenge to everyone to try to bring in more new members during the next year. He also advised those in attendance that Bill Stewart has left the Board so that he can concentrate his efforts on the position of station manager which he has held for some time.

Bill Stewart (left) then spoke on a number of topics, including the stations efforts to obtain a full-time broadcast license. Such a license would allow the station to stay on the air continuously rather than having to be off the air at least one day every month. It would also make it possible to increase the stations transmitter power from its current 50 watts. Bill advised that the station has recently purchased and installed a new transmitter that will allow the station to run up to 500 watts, but at present we can only broadcast at full 50 watts, the maximum allowed under the government regulations that now govern the stations operation.

Although the station has been working towards the goal of a full-time license for several years, due to a variety of issues ranging from 'competing' for available frequencies, of which there are very few in Winnipeg, to the fact that a key contact at the CRTC was on medical leave for an extended period of time, progress has been extremely slow. Bill was unable to give any firm indication of when the station might be able to reach its goal of a full-time license and a more powerful signal.

Sheila Down (left) gave the membership report that shows that Nostalgia Broadcasting Cooperative now has 361 Individual Members, 209 Joint Members, and 17 Corporate/Organizations members. One indication of the loyalty of members is that the average percentage of membership renewals for the period November, 2009 to the end of September, 2010 was 82.7 per cent. It was announced that the station has set a goal of 1,000 members by early 2011.

An key part of the AGM is the election of Directors, which occurs each year as the terms of some Directors expire. Newly elected to the Board of Directors this year (click on a person's name to see a photo and short bio of that person) are Allan Cantor, Q.C., a prominent Winnipeg lawyer, Glynis Corkal, currently the Manager, Marketing and Communications for the National Screen Institute, John Crane, who has been associated with CJNU since 2007 and worked as an on-air host until recently, Tom Dercola, CJNU's popular Sunday afternoon host, and Jim Miln, a member since CJNU went on the air, and serves as a phone volunteer. Re-elected to the Board were Hugh Arklie, Brett Buckingham, Bruce Down, Denise Fiola, Susan Hamilton, Frank Liebzeit, and Garry Robertson.