NOVEMBER 30, 2004

Dear Editor

I’ma student at UPEI, and I give the Cadre a read now and then to pass the time. Ido enjoy reading this paper, but Ihave begun to notice something. This paper is quite biased towards liberals, i.e. you guys are very anti-Bush. Every time I open this paper, “wow!”; anew and exciting slander against our neighbouring president, George W. Bush. It’s not like I don’t hear it enough in the everyday bigotry of Canadian pop culture. Join the bandwagon of “anti- bushism”. Come on everyone is doing it right? It seems that most Canadians are hateful towards Bush and even American people in general. Not everyone has jumped on this bandwagon. I just thought I would voice an opinion from the other side for once. I don’t agree with everything Bush does, but I also don’t hate him, nor the American people for voting for him, and I would trust him as much as I would trust Kerry. The election obviously shows that the American people like Bush and trust him to run their country. I think we too can trust himas the president of our “‘big-brother” neighbouring nation, and show a little bit of respect. The anti-Bush stuff is just starting to get a little boring. I’m sure you guys can find something else to talk about. Hmmm....maybe CANADIAN politics? I mean, for people who dislike or think that George W. Bush is an idiot, you sure do talk about him a lot.

OPINION & COMMENTARY

THE CADRE @ 5

Founded: UPEI Independent Student Media

Students amass in droves to purchase tin cans, string

Alec O’Hanley A&E Editor

Tired of being force- fed commercial radio fodder? Collective of like-minded students seeking an alternative have formed the UPEI Independent Student Media. We’re starting a web radio station and would like you to be a part of it. We'll play anything with a heart and a mind behind it. And we’re not CIMN.

Ah yes, CIMN. Once the student body’s humble radio station; now, four letters that inspire disgust in certain circles, particularly among the lofty echelons of the Student Union bureaucracy. But who could blame them?

“CIMN was restricted to the campus, and if you turned your radio the right way on a Tuesday night in Brown’s Court, you might pick it up,” remembers one student. “I didn’t live in Brown’s Court,” he finishes dejectedly.

Yes, UPEI’s old radio station was a bit of a stinker. The independent ideal was there, but the support wasn’t. It was plagued by soaring operating costs, laughable transmission range, and a general indifference towards

everything they were doing.

Wait — indifference? I refuse to believe that UPEI is any more apathetic than any other campus in Canada. I mean, people get excited about things here, right? Of course we’ve all run into students who passionately avoid getting passionate about anything, lest they be deemed uncool. Well, these people are wankers, and do not represent the student body.

We sought to dispel the generalization that UPEI students could care less whether their ideas were being represented in local media by asking some students at the Wave what they thought of UPEI having it’s own web- radio station.

“You could broadcast live shows. Local bands would get a lot more publicity,” one student chimed in.

“You could have people requesting songs,” another started, “but really requesting songs, not like on MuchMusic where they select people and only people calling for Britney Spears get put on, whereas if you asked for some really obscure band [on a student radio station], they’re going to play it.”

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“Even aside from music, you could have beat poetry, political shows... it’s another venue. — why wouldn’t UPEI want that?”

Indeed, why wouldn’t UPEI want that? Consider this: anyone will be able to record and broadcast his or her program with no cost, people all over the world will be able to listen to it, and what is played will be driven by individuals rather that corporations.

“Not enough people know that, CBC aside, our major print media are all owned by a Montreal-based company and all our radio stations are owned by MBS,” says Mark Hemphill, staff advisor for the web radio project. “We have very little independently owned media outlets and it’s a fairly dry media landscape when you look at it that way.”

The possibilities for this radio station are limitless. The group hopes to have the radio station up and running in January 2005, along with a how-to guide for creating your own radio show.

(On a personal note: I’m really excited about this radio idea and we need as many contributors as we can get, so if you want to record anything, whether it be your own music program, a comedy skit, some writing you’ve done, or anything at all, email me at peipunk@hotmail.com andT’ll help you out.)