I had first heard of CHCR during my Grade 12 co-op placement at Peterborough's Trent Radio in 2000-2001, when that station's founding father, the late John K. Muir, was involved with the "Full Moon Over Killaloe" audio art camp. Last week, I went to Killaloe, the birthplace of the Beavertail, and began assisting CHCR with some technical and regulatory matters, and although they've had a number of people near and far step up programming-wise in response to the above-mentioned CJOH report and an article in the locally-owned Eganville Leader newspaper, the station needs funding more than anything. Occasional pancake breakfasts in the community have helped CHCR with its fairly low operating costs, but there are some capital things that will need to wait - additional microphones in the studio (the current console can handle as many as three), a dedicated OTA logging computer, and a new machine to run the OpenBroadcaster solution which will enable AlertReady emergency alerting on CHCR.

Station management have also considered a pitch to the Township of Killaloe, Hagarty & Richards, for the municipality to join forces with CHCR to disseminate local emergency information, and also assist with obtaining UPSs and a generator to keep the station on the air during extended power outages. While I was at the station, some good news came through on the phone - there is some serious interest from the nearby Algonquins of Pikwakanagan First Nation at Golden Lake in partnering with CHCR. This would give the local Indigenous community a broadcast voice, and also potentially bring some much-needed funding to the station.

Still, the more funds that CHCR can raise, the better, and if you happen to have some funds and/or hardware (esp. computers and mics) that you could donate to the station, contact them via their website, chcr.org, or send me a message.