About CHSR 97.9 FM

CHSR 97.9 FM

Overview

CHSR-FM is a campus-community radio station broadcasting at 97.9 MHz in Fredericton, New Brunswick, with an effective radiated power of 250 watts. It is the radio station of the University of New Brunswick, operated by CHSR Broadcasting Inc., and its studios and record library are located in the Student Union Building (the SUB) shared by the University of New Brunswick and St. Thomas University. Most of its members are students at the two universities, but it also relies on many non-student community volunteers. CHSR is one of the oldest community radio stations in Atlantic Canada: the organisation was founded in the late 1950s and officially went on air on January 22, 1961, as Radio UNB. Its call sign is rendered by the station as "College Hill Student Radio." The station streams live on the internet in addition to its FM signal.

History

CHSR's roots lie in student radio organising at the University of New Brunswick in the late 1950s. The station officially went on air on January 22, 1961, as Radio UNB, beginning more than six decades of continuous campus broadcasting in the provincial capital. The CRTC's licence renewal Decision 93-168 (May 25, 1993) renewed CHSR-FM's licence from September 1, 1993 to August 31, 2000, and described the undertaking in terms that still define it: a campus-community station offering a blend of programming representing the varied political, artistic and cultural interests of the university and the local community, and providing media access to groups and individuals under-represented by conventional radio. The 1993 decision recorded that the station would broadcast 12 hours and 15 minutes of ethnic programming each week and that 55 percent of the broadcast week would be devoted to specialised block programs; it also required, as a condition of licence, that the majority of the licensee's directors be students.

Funding was a recurring source of friction between the station and student and university leadership. A persistent dispute was largely resolved by an agreement signed in 1999, which stabilised CHSR's largest source of funding — the media fee paid by undergraduate students at the University of New Brunswick. Under that agreement, changing or removing the fee requires a signed petition and a referendum, whereas previously funding could be, and once was, removed by a simple motion of Student Union Council. CHSR is a founding member of the National Campus and Community Radio Association (NCRA), and hosted the association's national conference in Fredericton in 1985 and again in 1994. Its licence was renewed again in Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2014-295, and most recently in Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2023-76, the group renewal of campus stations, which renewed CHSR-FM from September 1, 2023 to August 31, 2030. Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2026-216 lists CHSR-FM among the campus licences that will move to an indefinite licence term beginning September 1, 2030.

Programming and Content

CHSR's schedule is built on the specialised block programming the CRTC described in 1993: individual programs devoted to particular kinds of music or to identifiable groups within the community, hosted by trained student and community volunteers. The station makes a deliberate effort to reach beyond campus, playing local content and providing on-site training for new DJs who then host their own shows. Its music library — which the station itself describes as the largest music library east of Montreal — holds music across a wide variety of genres on vinyl, cassettes, compact discs and other formats gathered over six decades.

Long-running programs illustrate the range. "The Crazy Train" was Atlantic Canada's longest-running heavy metal radio program and won CHSR's "Barry Award" for Best Specialty Music program in 1994 during the five-year span when it was hosted by Jason Shipley. "According with Carmen," hosted by Carmen Kilburn — a 2006 inductee into the New Brunswick Country Music Hall of Fame — featured old country, pop, Bajan, Cajun, Irish, Newfoundland and other island music, with live guests and requests. "Diversions," a classical and opera program hosted by Dr. Adrian Park, marked its 20th anniversary in April 2010. Fredericton's first hip hop show, "More Of What You Like With The Mistress," hosted by Mindy Crawford, aired from 1989 to 1994, and "Strictly HipHop," hosted by DJ STV, marked its 20th anniversary in 2013. A more recent addition, "Testing For Echo," a progressive-rock program hosted by Tim Scammell, first aired on June 25, 2022, and won the station's 2024 Barry Award for Most Streamed Online show; new episodes continued to air into 2026, with Episode 97 carrying an original air date of February 21, 2026 — current evidence that volunteer programming is still being produced and broadcast at the station.

Audience and Reach

CHSR serves greater Fredericton: the students, faculty and staff of the University of New Brunswick and St. Thomas University, and the wider community of New Brunswick's capital city. At 250 watts its FM signal is a local one, but its volunteer base and its programming remit extend well beyond the student body, and its live internet stream makes its programming available worldwide. The station is a voting member of the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) and of the Grassroots Radio Coalition, and it has participated in national alternative-media projects including the NCRA's Dig Your Roots. Its audience relationship is unusually direct: the station's core funding comes from a student media fee protected by the 1999 petition-and-referendum agreement, and it has periodically turned to listeners directly. Its February 2014 Fundrive, organised through a crowdfunding campaign, ran from February 10 to 28 with events around Fredericton — concerts, a barbecue and a games night — and appealed to the alumni who had passed through the station since the 1960s, noting that CHSR had by then been "educating, entertaining" its audience for 53 years.

Digital Presence

CHSR's website is chsrfm.ca, and the station's broadcast signal is streamed live on the internet; streaming directories list its live feed. Programs such as "Testing For Echo" are also archived online as podcasts and episode posts, with episode listings and air dates published through the host's article archive — the trail that documents new episodes airing in January and February 2026. The station's online presence supports its volunteer model, publicising training for new DJs and community access alongside its program information.

Ownership and Organisation

The licensee is CHSR Broadcasting Inc., a non-profit corporation whose governance has long been tied to the student body: the CRTC's 1993 renewal made it a condition of licence that the licensee retain full control over management and programming decisions and that the majority of its directors be students. The station is housed in the Student Union Building shared by the University of New Brunswick and St. Thomas University, and draws its members from both student populations as well as from non-student community volunteers. Its largest single funding source is the University of New Brunswick undergraduate media fee stabilised by the 1999 agreement, supplemented by fundraising such as its Fundrive campaigns.

Contact and Availability

CHSR 97.9 FM broadcasts at 97.9 MHz in Fredericton, New Brunswick, from studios in the Student Union Building on the University of New Brunswick campus. The station can be heard over the air in the Fredericton area and via its live internet stream; program and volunteer information is published on its website, chsrfm.ca.