The radio station has been broadcasting from the old mission house since June 1985. The OKâlaKatiget Society was first incorporated in 1982. The building, shown in the picture below, was originally built by the Hudson Bay Company and became a Cottage Hospital before being a boarding school house, and then finally its incarnation as Radio and TV centre.
This summer a new building project is being undertaken and will be hopefully completed by February 2008 allowing the OKâlaKatiget Society to move into new premises.
Fran started working at the OKâlaKatiget Society in Nain back in May 1984, and she is now a part of a team of 10 people, 4 of whom work on Radio, 4 on TV, and 2 in management roles. I have listed the current employees below.
The radio show broadcasts from Nain and can be heard from Happy Valley Goose Bay all the way up to Nain, with a potential target audience of roughly 7,000 people. There is live content broadcast from 1pm-3pm and 4pm-5pm Monday to Friday, and while they are not on air then CBC North is played.
On a Sunday morning they have two hours devoted to religious content. From 10–11am they broadcast the Nain Moravian Church Inuktitut Service live as the Church has been equipped with the necessary technology allowing this to happen. This means that this native language service can be heard across coastal Labrador by anyone with a radio. They also broadcast from 1-4pm on a Sunday afternoon, giving 20 hours total broadcast time per week.
There is a real mixture of content on the radio, including local news and interviews, a mixture of music styles and lots of requests. Fran says she enjoys the variation that her job brings, which means the job is never boring and allows her to keep up-to-date with both regional and national news, and meet lots of interesting people. Also as it is plays such a key role within the community they are very quick to receive feedback on the things that do and don’t work.
They have a great website set up with loads of information and it is well worth checking out at www.oksociety.com This is updated by the radio team daily with community news.
Current Employees of the OKâlaKatiget Society are as follows:
Fran Williams (in picture below)
Mitchell White (in picture below)
Bonnie Lyall
Joanna Dicker
K.Naeme Tuglavina
Maria Harris
Sarah Abel
Sybella Tuglavina
Paul Murphy
Fran, finally after all these years!
ReplyDeleteSarah