CHCR 102.9 FM & 104.5 FM, Canadian Homegrown Community Radio, is a community radio station broadcasting with an ERP of 33 watts at 102.9 Mhz from our studio in downtown Killaloe, Ontario and rebroadcasting with an ERP of 35 watts at 104.5 Mhz from somewhere in the hills of Wilno.  Scroll below to read about our history!

Mission Statement

• To provide a hub of communication and feedback for the upper Bonnechere and Madawaska river basins.
• To encourage and stimulate discussion, and exchange of, ideas relating to the self reliant pioneering spirit that brought, and continues to make year round life rich, in this rugged land.
• To encourage and present local artists and performers in their craft.
• To provide a global context and understanding to our local experience.
• To provide a forum for the presentation of opinions and observations of individuals and groups to the area.
• To provide an opportunity for people to learn and apply the skills of, operating a radio station, doing journalism and reporting, and bringing people’s thoughts to form and action.
• To provide access to alternative genres of music.

Our Board

Chairperson / Program Director: Shannon Kennedy

Interim Secretary / Technical Director: Ethan Anderman

Treasurer: Catharine Eldridge

Sponsorship Director: Rachelle Clayton

Station Manager: Josh Scully

Membership Director / Tech Guy: Anirudh Swaminathan

Businesses using music “Licensed to Play” with new SOCAN program

SOCAN has launched an awareness-raising “Licensed to Play” program for the more than 125,000 organizations across Canada that put music to work to make their business better.

The “Licensed to Play” graphic symbolizes respect for music creation, fair play and fun, and will be incorporated into all SOCAN licensing efforts throughout the year – and beyond. This is a multi-faceted campaign to recognize the establishments and venues that enjoy and respect music by paying their licence fees.

See more at: www.socan.ca

Website Hosting by Vianet

Vianet is a CHCR sponsor and provides our radio station with website hosting and email services, and we thank them for their long time support!!

Check out Vianet for a wide variety of services including hi speed internet, fax over internet, home and business phone plans and a wide variety of other business communication options. www.vianet.ca

Adopt A Road

Keeping regional roadsides free of garbage and debris is one of the many ways we can all contribute to our vision of creating healthy and vibrant communities. ADOPT-A-ROAD in Renfrew County is a sponsorship program where ambitious and community minded individuals or groups show their commitment to the environment by helping remove roadside litter.

CHCR has adopted a small stretch of highway on Round Lake Road and is gathering volunteers from both the membership holders as well as CHCR DJs to help clean up the litter alongside the road to help keep our community beautiful.

If you would like to volunteer for one afternoon please contact us!

Our History

CHCR originates from the forested hills and rolling, rocky farms of the Ottawa Valley in eastern Ontario. Our main studio is in downtown Killaloe, a wonderful little town with a population of about 700. We broadcast from 14A Lake Street, the oldest building in town (above what was, until recent years, the local harness shop), at 102.9 FM.

Our repeater high atop the Wilno hills picks up our signal from Killaloe and broadcasts our message at 104.5 FM out across the Bonnechere, Madawaska, and Upper Ottawa Valley.

CHCR is celebrating our second decade on the air, having started regular broadcasts in May of 1998. There have been many changes over the years, and we are looking forward to even more dramatic developments in the coming decade. We moved from our original premises above the IDA Drug Store (thank you Moshien, for supporting community radio by being such a great landlord for so many years for us!).

We see this as a temporary move for a year or two as we are in the preliminary stages of working towards constructing our own off-the-grid radio station, maybe at Hoch Park, a new Heritage and Ecology Centre on the edge of town. We look forward to working more closely with other groups in the area, such as the groups at Hoch Park and Stone Fence Theatre, and developing CHCR as an integral part of our community.

Another exciting project is broadcasting to the world from this website. We have updated the look of our site, and are developing content and shows for broadcast. We also are sharing our new tower with Bonnechere Community Internet, a local high-speed internet service provider, so we now have access to high-speed internet in the studio.

Podcasting has already started …

Our radio broadcasts continue 24/7, so if you’re in the area, tune in to 102.9 FM or 104.5 FM for great community radio. Our roster of DJs and shows changes constantly, as we are volunteer run and open to pretty much anyone in the community interested in doing a show. Our DJs range in age from their teens to over 60, and their musical taste is just as varied.

On CHCR you will hear all kinds of music, including, on a regular basis, rock new and old, reggae, classical, fiddle, electronic, world, latin, country, jazz, and spiritual. We also host some very interesting talk shows, covering topics such as issues of the day, environmental concerns, psychic phenomena, and more. To see the current line-up of shows, check our schedule.