This year, CFRC 101.9 FM will continue one of its most ambitious programs supporting local musicians.
In a press release on Dec. 11, CFRC’s Executive Director Dinah Jansen announced the 2026 launch of its Airwave YGK Musicians-in-Residence Program funded by the City of Kingston and Kingston Arts Council. The program combines CFRC’s Airwave YGK DJ and Musicians-in-Residence programs running 2023-25. Applications closed Dec. 31, with winners to be announced later this month.
Jansen conceptualized the program in 2023 after witnessing common needs among local musicians, including lack of rehearsal and recording spaces. “Not everybody has access to a basement or a garage,” Jansen said in an interview with The Journal.
“There are very few studios available in Kingston, let alone ones that are affordable. The idea is to provide local musicians [places] to create music together,” she said.
The Airwave YGK Musicians-in-Residence Program provides rehearsal and composing space for musicians while also offering the chance for them to perform live on-air and obtain high-quality video recordings of their work. Musicians can also participate in workshops led by professional musicians, promote their releases with CFRC, and perform at CFRC’s Airwave YGK Matinee Concert at the Broom Factory this fall.
READ MORE: Broom Factory hosts CFRC’s Airwave YGK afternoon matinee
Holistically, the program helps local musicians “grow in the community, get to know other musicians in the community, [and] make connections with established community folks,” Jansen said. When considering how to “break in in this town,” Jansen said one of the ways is by getting involved with local stations like CFRC, which “cultivates local arts and music, especially amongst our young, emerging talent, including Queen’s students.”
However, the program faced some difficulties this year due to funding cuts.
CFRC received $7,500 in project grants for the 2026 program, down from the $12,000 awarded to the program for 2025. “The difference [is] that we can still run this project, but we can only accommodate so many artists because we have to pay them well,” Jansen said. “They’re creating art. We want to pay them at industry standards.”
Jansen’s confident a smaller participant pool “won’t take away from the high-quality work that we have done and will continue to do.”
According to Jansen, five of this year’s nine applicants will be chosen by a jury comprised of two Queen’s student volunteers, “an established local musician,” a representative from the Kingston Music Office, a “local music festival organizer,” and a CFRC staff member. Jansen is on the jury as project administrator but isn’t a voting member.
Particularly in 2026, Jansen hopes to expand the multimedia component of the YGK Airwaves program to increase social media content made by musicians, promoting their work and CFRC’s many services offered to Queen’s students. “We are a radio station first, but we want to continue to branch out using videography,” Jansen said.
More broadly, Jansen hopes all Queen’s students explore the opportunities CFRC offers to host radio shows, promote student clubs on-air, participate in live sessions, and more. “We’re here for the students and we are powered by students,” Jansen said.
Tags
concerts, local musicians, Music, programs, radio, student radio
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