Last week, a dozen youth aged 10 to 14 took to town to interview locals and public figures in Nanaimo as part of an annual summer radio camp run by CHLY 101.7FM. They spent the week learning about radio broadcasting, podcasting and journalism and learned to record and edit audio.
The radio station’s executive director Jesse Woodward said that in addition to learning recording and editing skills with programs such as Adobe Audition, they also learn about media literacy.
“How do you know what you’re reading on the internet is true or false? What are good sources, that sort of thing,” he said. “This week, they had the opportunity to interview the mayor.”
CHLY has been running the radio camp since 2019 and this year it runs from July 7 until July 25 in three, one-week blocks.
In 2021, camp participants produced The Pizza Podcast, about their favorite pizzas. The camp is sponsored by Mambo’s Pizza and participants have made creative ads for the pizzeria as well as promotions for regular music shows such as Metal Monday.
“Watching the kids create the content and then listen to themselves on the radio after putting it all together, and having other people also hear it, was quite a bit of fun,” Woodward said.
Youth interview Nanaimo mayor and locals
Emelia Kloppensburg and Sophie Stephen, who are both 12, took a break from working intently on one of the station’s computers to speak with me about their experience at the camp. They were editing an interview with Nanaimo Mayor Leonard Krog.
“It was really up close and personal,” Kloppensburg said. “I liked how we got to actually be in a room with him instead of a video of him. It was really nice seeing him, because I’ve never seen him before and it was a really good experience.”
The two had already made a podcast together in which they interviewed one another and made “silly ads” for it about products such as “the un-eyelash curler, which makes your eyelashes thin and tiny instead of trying to enhance them,” Kloppensburg said.
They said they would recommend the camp to other kids.
“It was super fun,” Stephens said.
“If you like tech and you like learning things and hanging out with new people, meeting people, it’s really fun,” Kloppensburg added.
Kloppensburg said she enjoyed learning about things she could use later in life and has made a small circle of friends at the camp as well.
I also caught up with 12-year-old Grace Sutherland inside a record store on Commercial Street where she was interviewing the owner, Steve Lebitschnig.
Lebitschnig said that he got a call that morning that Sutherland wanted to interview him and, as he has a good relationship with the station and the store sponsors a show, he said “sure.”
“They play a lot of music, exposing people to new music they may not have heard before and harder to find things, perhaps,” he said. “People come looking and hopefully we can help them get what they want.”
Sutherland said she’s been to the store before with her dad who owns “quite a few records” and she picked up one that he had on hold in the store when she was there.
“It was really cool getting some more insight on Fascinating Rhythm and seeing how it’s evolved,” she said.
Recruiting future volunteers
Maggie McLaughlin is one of four camp leaders funded through the federal government’s summer jobs program. She started volunteering at the radio station in March and shares the excitement of the kids when they first go on the air.
“It’s kind of how I felt when I first started volunteering here and being like, ‘My god, I’m going to be on the radio,’” she said. “Knowing that their parents are listening — we know one of the kids said that their dad recorded when they were on yesterday.”
McLaughlin said that some of the kids have already said they are interested in volunteering at the station when they are older.
Asked what she would say to a kid who is thinking about attending the camp, McLaughlin said, “I’d say, go for it. It’s going to be fun. You’re going to learn new things, and it’s definitely worth it.”
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