CHON-FM Celebrates 35 Years

Wednesday, 19 June 2019 16:26

CHON-FM is officially celebrating 35 years of Indigenous radio as part of National Indigenous Peoples Day on Friday.

CHON-FM radio license was officially approved by the CRTC on June 18, 1984 with the help and oversight of George Henry and Ken Kane - broadcasting at just 0.6 watts of power.

To mark CHON-FM's broadcast and live coverage of Indigenous day at the Kwanlin Dun Cultural Centre and Shipyards Park throughout the weekend, CHON-FM proudly announced a new logo as part of our re-branding efforts.

The new logo, created by Kaska First Nations artist Bobby Quash, features a wolf and crow within the outline of the Yukon, as well as a traditional drum.

CHON-FM General Manager Morris Prokop says ""I think it's really symbolic of moving forward and kind of getting out of the past and moving on to the future," in regard to the new logo.

Accompanied by the new logo is a new CHON-FM theme song. The tune is inspired by an archival recording of Southern Tutchone Elder Polly Fraser's "The Green Song"..

Matthew Lien, producer of the new theme song, says "CHON has this connection to all First Nations communities, all communities across the Yukon, and that's an incredible responsibility"

Lien continued by saying "We were looking for something ideally that would have traditional song roots,"

There are 32 different versions of the theme song, each reflecting the different communities and traditional territories where CHON-FM airs.

Judy Gingell, chair of the board at Northern Native Broadcasting, Yukon, says the changes are part of a new vision for the future of the organization.

Gingell was one of the founding directors of Northern Native Broadcasting, Yukon, in the 1980s. She says "There were not good things said about First Nations people in the Yukon. What we wanted to have a radio station for is mainly to bring our languages, our stories, our songs, our drumming, our music to the forefront."

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