MBC Radio celebrates 40 years of connecting Sask.’s north
CBC
Deborah Charles inspects the tall, white and red transmitter that towers above the Missinipi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) building in La Ronge. The CEO of the Saskatchewan radio network reflects on what the corporation has meant to her.
“It’s like my other baby.
Charles has been at MBC for 35 of its 40 years in operation, including nearly 25 years as its CEO.
MBC’s history dates back to 1983. That year, the federal government created a program to give money to northern Canadian organizations that wanted to start up TV and radio stations to broadcast in Indigenous languages.
At the time, Northern Saskatchewan had a smattering of about 10 small, low-powered radio stations, with broadcasters presenting in Cree, Michif, Dene and English.
It was also around this time that the provincial government scrapped the Department of Northern Saskatchewan, eliminating Northern News — a service that provided news, events and messages to fishers, trappers and citizens of the province’s north.
In August 1983, a small group of people interested in bringing more fulsome Indigenous programming to northern Saskatchewan met in Ile-a-la-Crosse to form what would eventually become MBC using money from the federal program.
MBC’s first broadcast, from its flagship station CJLR-FM in La Ronge, was on Feb. 4, 1985.
“We grew from local to regional to national radio, branching off to being a founding member with the Aboriginal Peoples’ Television Network," Charles said.
“That was the dream of the founding members, that we would … talk about our issues, say it in our languages, in our culture, in our own dialect, in our own way.”
Tom Roberts was one of those founding members. The broadcaster — known for his 27 year career as the host of CBC Radio’s Keewatin Country — was the first voice MBC listeners heard in 1985.
Upon entering the MBC building in La Ronge, he inspects MBC’s original logo, which he helped design. It features a person paddling a canoe and a beaver pelt on a stretcher.
“Every spring, that’s what you would see outside trappers cabins, drying on trees,” Roberts said.
He also recalls helping give the radio network its name “Missinipi,” a Cree term meaning “big water.”
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