By James Keller
As MacEwan Hall expansion pushes forward, CJSW’s future location is up in the air.
"My understanding was that we were always going to move, [but] that remains to be seen," said CJSW station manager Chad Saunders. He pointed out that in the original referendum regarding MacEwan Hall expansion in 1995, the Students’ Union used CJSW relocation as one reason to go ahead with renovations. Currently, the station sits in the basement of MacEwan Hall.
In the SLC Viewpoint in the Gauntlet, Sept. 28, 1995, Kate Kimberly–then Students’ Union President–cited "inappropriate, badly ventilated space for CJSW" as an issue needing to be addressed and stated "CJSW and NUTV will also be offered space." Saunders feels that since much of the expansion referendum’s campaign focused on CJSW, the SU should be communicating more with the
station.
"[Moving CJSW was] one of the main selling points [for passing the referendum question]," said Saunders. "If that’s no longer going to be served, then I don’t know why."
Saunders recalled that, due to poor air quality, the campus daycare centre was moved from its original location (which campus security filled) in 1993. Although official records could not be found, NUTV program director Tom Andruik concurred. NUTV’s offices, which were once split between the basement and the third floor, have since moved entirely to the third floor of MacEwan Hall due to complaints from staff about poor air quality on the basement level.
SU President Toby White empathized with CJSW’s needs for space and poor working conditions, but said that there are currently no official plans to relocate CJSW.
"They won’t be moved for a little while anyway because there’s still quite a lot of construction that needs to go on," stated White. He could not confirm where CJSW would be located, or when such a decision would be made, and said that there was no plan to deal with disturbances caused by construction.
Since construction began, CJSW’s station was flooded, which damaged over 5,000 albums and rendered many unusable, while construction noise penetrated the broadcast studios and was heard on-air. As well, Saunders said the station was off the air for up to three hours on Dec. 27, when electricity was shut off without notice.
SU Vice-president Operations and Finance Matt Lauzon echoed White’s uncertainty and added that he does not see a problem with waiting longer to make this decision, even though construction has already begun.