By Jeff Gard

A grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation will enable Northumberland 89.7 FM to expand its news and programming to area listeners.

Executive Director Peter Dounoukos said Friday during a gathering of board members, volunteers and visitors, including Northumberland-Peterborough South MPP David Piccini, at the station, the funding of $66,500 will be used to hire personnel, purchase equipment and create new programming to keep local residents dialed in to what's happening in Northumberland County.

By late April of this year, the benefits of the funding will be put in place to “give people in the community ongoing programs and news coverage at the radio station for years to come,” Dounoukos said.

Funded through the OTF's Resilient Communities Fund, the station will be able to hire a sales professional to secure revenue as ongoing support for the station's facility at 1000 Elgin Street West.

In addition, the grant helped in the purchase of specialized equipment for a mobile broadcast studio to help create new programming, including by new Canadians and Indigenous communities.

“With live mobile abilities, we can now cover cultural events such as the New Canadians Festival, the Alderville Pow-Wow and the Canada Day Waterfront Festival along with any new opportunities without having these groups leave the safety of the geographical area,” Dounoukos said, adding that thanks to the grant “the people of Northumberland will benefit from our ability to serve and report beyond the limits of our studio.”

MPP Piccini said the $42 million Resilient Communities Fund started during the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic when tourism, sports, arts and culture were hit hard and would take on a long time to recover.

“I was glad that governments of all levels were there to support community and this Resilient Communities Fund is designed to do just that – keeping communities resilient,” Piccini told the gathering at the station. “It means supporting independent broadcasting, local radio, which is special in communities like ours.”

Northumberland 89.7 chair Barry Walker, on behalf of the board, staff and volunteers at the radio station, thanked the Ontario Trillium Foundation for the grant that will help create more diverse programming.

“Being active out in the community has been a high priority for our station from day one,” Walker said.

Walker also said the grant will “further our ability to be self-sustaining by strengthening our ad revenue potential. This grant is going to allow us to get to the next stage.”

The Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF), an agency of the Government of Ontario, and one of Canada’s leading granting foundations celebrates 40 years of grant-making in Ontario and making a lasting impact in communities. Last year, the OTF invested nearly $209M into 2,042 community projects and partnerships, which included funding for the Government of Ontario’s Community Building Fund. Visit otf.ca to learn more.

“Investing in local, trustworthy news sources is very important, both to support local jobs and to ensure that people know what’s happening in their communities,” MPP Piccini later stated in a press release. “89.7FM is a deserving recipient of this grant, and I look forward to seeing their continued journalistic contributions to the people of Northumberland.”

In the release, member and former treasurer John Davidson stated from day one in 2009, the founders of 89.7 had a dream that a community radio station could be a force in Northumberland for boosting the work of municipal government, economic growth, showcase local cultural institutions, enhance the work of our not-for-profit services and a be a voice for citizens.

“The Ontario Trillium Foundation’s Resilient Communities Fund speaks directly to this dream,” Davidson stated. “Thank you OTF, with your help we have taken a giant stride to our goals and look forward to the journey along with our many friends and supporters.”