CKUT Time Capsule CKUT 90.3fm Montreal

Chloe speaks to DJ Static and Professor Groove of WEFUNK and discusses the origins of the show, its beginnings on the internet, and its international reach.

This one is for the heads... a long form hip hop history lesson with Butcher T interviewed by PRO-V of CKUT's All Da Way Live. This interview is part of a series exploring Canadian vinyl hip hop releases and the history of hip hop in Montreal produced by Pro-V as part of his North Of The Border project.

Butcher T has been credited as being the person who brought hip hop to Montreal – by regular trips to New York City – hauling music over the border to bring to the record store he worked at “Stretch’s Records”.

Suhrid Manchanda was a force in Montreal’s music community before decamping to the United States and eventually to (his motherland) New Dehli, India.

He was studying at McGill but ultimately spent most of his time playing guitar around the city. The mighty Detroit Metal, the unforgettable Bloody Gashes, with Chloe Lum, Yannick Desranleau and Joel Taylor were both Suhrid’s babies.

He formed Aum Supreme with Dane Mills, the original drummer in the Arcade Fire. Suhrid booked shows, ran festivals and was generally a personality on the Boulevard. He was eventually hired as Fundraising Coordinator at CKUT in 2004. Suhrid was tireless in his devotion to the radio station’s community, the city’s musicians and DIY music in general.

No one was surprised when Suhrid turned up as Su Real, dj/producer and star of India’s Desi Bass scene. Music Coordinator Alex Moskos sat down to talk about it all with his old buddy and colleague Suhrid.

In 1969 a group of students occupied the 9th floor computer center of Sir George Williams University (currently known as Concordia University) to object to racial bias in academic grading.

50 Years later we revisit this page in Montreal history through an event called Protest & Pedagogy. Khalid M'Seffar of Funky Revolutions interviews Kaie Kellough, spoken word artist, (& Soul Perspectives alumni) one of the event organizers to discuss the events that shaped this incident.

This piece explores racial tensions, student activism, Montreal Black history through the music of the era, through documentation of the event, personal connection and historic legacy.

Sunday Aug 19th The Goods Radio show went live from Casa Del Popolo for a live interview with Andy Williams conducted by Doug Miller (co-host of Amandla, CKUT's African News Programme since 1987). They go through Andy's musical origins in Derby, England, Jamaica, Toronto, Lennoxville and now Montreal. He speaks of the music he listened to growing up and his insatiable hunt for sounds that are sweet to his ears.

As part of CKUT's 30th Anniversary Oral History project, we interviewed Martha Marie Kleinhans who was one of the key driving forces behind CKUT's FM licence application and move to FM. She says that Concordia University was expected to get the licence because of their active ties to the local scene however, CKUT's (McGill) application put a strong focus on community programming and she believes this is what worked in the end. She also said there was some internal resistance as programmers knew that they would be evolving to a different kind of radio station. She volunteered prior to the license and ran for station manager on the basis of delivering the fm licence. She was the first station manager at CKUT 1986-87. She said she worked closely with Don Rossiter and had the help of McGill Legal Professor Dr. F.H. Buckley who said "they rejected my idea that they go All-Monkees, All the time." She and Donnie went around to various cultural communities with a large hypothetical grid and said "should we get the licence would you be interested in producing radio". "We got the licence based on a promise." The rest is history.