This was the first interview I could find. It's with Jenn Clamen of Stella, a sex worker rights org in Montreal. It originally ran on CKLN Radio on December 17, 2007. We talk about the Red Umbrella March, the roots of this day, and more.
(Will I one day think to do this with my print and online articles? Maybe. And I may have regrets by the time I do that, too.)
Tuesday, November 22, 2016
The beginning
I always tell people I started doing radio in 1997. I'm not sure that's true, but I do know that I was in high school at the time. I responded to an ad in what was essentially the classifieds of a newsletter (the kind on pastel paper held together by a single staple), that I did a reading for the launch of (launch launch, issue launch? Can't remember. It was called The Chicklist.) The reading was my first public one—really, we'll call it what it was: spoken word—beyond a reading circle. (For the sake of archiving, both happened at venues that no longer exist—the reading circle was on the backyard patio of Alternative Grounds when they had a cafe on Roncesvalles; the reading was at a lesbian bar on Parliament called Pope Joan.) Someone I met at that reading would wind up being a major part of my sex work life later, but there was nothing to say this particular evening was going to be so consequential later.
Yet, here we are, coming up on 20 years later. While I've not done radio this whole time, and have not been involved with it at all these last few years, it was a huge thing for me. Initially I hosted a long-running queer news program on CKLN Radio (may it rest in peace), 88.1FM in Toronto and nothing online at the time because it was before that. The studio was in the basement of Ryerson's Jourgesen Hall. I had several co-hosts at the start, none stuck. Some were dealing with their own realities of queer/trans life, unstable housing and such, some wanted to be doing more mainstream media. Some reappeared in my life at later times, others didn't. I wound up meeting people who'd hosted the show before me for years to come, I even lived with someone who'd done it years later (lived with them years later, they'd done it years before.) The show had been run by a collective and had been inherited again and again, but was orphaned at the time I took it on. The closest I'd been to being on the radio at the time was probably doing the morning announcements in grade 8.
What doing grassroots radio looked like then: hand-drawing promotional fliers, getting press releases about dolphin sex and European legal stuff. Lots of "first gay whoever in government" and "bill proposed to" but not a lot local, not a lot immediate, lots and lots of folk singers and your run-of-the-mill conspiracy theorists (they come with the frequency).
While no co-hosts really took, I did find a lifelong friend in the person who volunteered to tech my show each week. Jola was a long-time CIUT volunteer, more Toronto underground/live music/radio famous than I understood at the time. Our age difference seemed much greater then than it would later. The show was on Tuesday evenings, between a hip hop show and an Arabic music program, and we'd go for 2-for-1 fajitas at Rancho Relaxo after (also currently not there anymore, though I hear it's coming back). I ate wheat at the time.
Over the years I coordinated many, many Prides at CKLN, did programming for International Women's Day and Prisoner Justice Day. I went to Quebec City to protest the FTAA and also to do radio covering the protests, which ran live in Quebec City (in English) and an hour later in Toronto. So much more to say about that another time. I eventually became Interim News Director at the station, and Programming Coordinator at CFRU in Guelph after that. I produced anti-war programming, covered hate crimes, ran late-night panels on kink, took over a popular weekend hip hop show and played only homo hop, interviewed many artists and writers (some community legends, some of whom have since passed). I did a lot of volunteer trainings, a lot of workshops, ran an internship program, dealt with complaints. I organized conferences, sat on award juries and had more conference calls on shitty systems than anyone should ever have. At the end of my radio days I served a two-year term on the Board of Directors of the National Campus-Community Radio Association, as the HR Director and on the Equity Committee.
This is such a broad-stokes view of any of it, but the story has to start somewhere. Here, I'm going to try to dig up whatever archives I can possibly find. Many are gone. Some lived on cassette tapes for their required period only. Some technology killed. I'm also going to try to brainstorm lists of shows I produced and people I interviewed. I have no rights to anything, so thank you in advance to anyone whose music comes up in these recordings, should that happen. If you love something you hear and can, I believe in paying artists.
Let's see what I can do here...Wish me luck?
Yet, here we are, coming up on 20 years later. While I've not done radio this whole time, and have not been involved with it at all these last few years, it was a huge thing for me. Initially I hosted a long-running queer news program on CKLN Radio (may it rest in peace), 88.1FM in Toronto and nothing online at the time because it was before that. The studio was in the basement of Ryerson's Jourgesen Hall. I had several co-hosts at the start, none stuck. Some were dealing with their own realities of queer/trans life, unstable housing and such, some wanted to be doing more mainstream media. Some reappeared in my life at later times, others didn't. I wound up meeting people who'd hosted the show before me for years to come, I even lived with someone who'd done it years later (lived with them years later, they'd done it years before.) The show had been run by a collective and had been inherited again and again, but was orphaned at the time I took it on. The closest I'd been to being on the radio at the time was probably doing the morning announcements in grade 8.
What doing grassroots radio looked like then: hand-drawing promotional fliers, getting press releases about dolphin sex and European legal stuff. Lots of "first gay whoever in government" and "bill proposed to" but not a lot local, not a lot immediate, lots and lots of folk singers and your run-of-the-mill conspiracy theorists (they come with the frequency).
While no co-hosts really took, I did find a lifelong friend in the person who volunteered to tech my show each week. Jola was a long-time CIUT volunteer, more Toronto underground/live music/radio famous than I understood at the time. Our age difference seemed much greater then than it would later. The show was on Tuesday evenings, between a hip hop show and an Arabic music program, and we'd go for 2-for-1 fajitas at Rancho Relaxo after (also currently not there anymore, though I hear it's coming back). I ate wheat at the time.
Over the years I coordinated many, many Prides at CKLN, did programming for International Women's Day and Prisoner Justice Day. I went to Quebec City to protest the FTAA and also to do radio covering the protests, which ran live in Quebec City (in English) and an hour later in Toronto. So much more to say about that another time. I eventually became Interim News Director at the station, and Programming Coordinator at CFRU in Guelph after that. I produced anti-war programming, covered hate crimes, ran late-night panels on kink, took over a popular weekend hip hop show and played only homo hop, interviewed many artists and writers (some community legends, some of whom have since passed). I did a lot of volunteer trainings, a lot of workshops, ran an internship program, dealt with complaints. I organized conferences, sat on award juries and had more conference calls on shitty systems than anyone should ever have. At the end of my radio days I served a two-year term on the Board of Directors of the National Campus-Community Radio Association, as the HR Director and on the Equity Committee.
This is such a broad-stokes view of any of it, but the story has to start somewhere. Here, I'm going to try to dig up whatever archives I can possibly find. Many are gone. Some lived on cassette tapes for their required period only. Some technology killed. I'm also going to try to brainstorm lists of shows I produced and people I interviewed. I have no rights to anything, so thank you in advance to anyone whose music comes up in these recordings, should that happen. If you love something you hear and can, I believe in paying artists.
Let's see what I can do here...Wish me luck?
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