June Playlist Highlights

Song (iTunes)	Artist	Category	Origin
Buscandote	The Latin Brothers	Salsa	Colombia
De Canarias a La Habana	Moises González	Timba	Cuba
Donde Estan	Este Habana	Timba	Cuba
Mi Montuno	Alberto Caicedo	Salsa	Colombia
Boogaloo Con Galé	Grupo Gale	Boogaloo	Colombia
Frío, Frío (feat. Romeo Santos)	Juan Luis Guerra	Bachata	Dominican Republic
Be My Baby	Leslie Grace	Bachata	USA
Así Es Mi Vida	Gaitanes	Merengue Fusion	Panama
San Francisco Tiene Su Propio Son	Brian Andres and the Afro-Cuban Jazz Cartel	Son	USA
Como Le Gusta a Tu Cuerpo (feat. Michel Teló)	Carlos Vives	Vallenato	Colombia

Edmonton Independent Radio – CJSR 88.5 FM 

There are a surprising number of radio stations here in the city of Edmonton.  Yet even with all of those stations it seems that you hear a lot of the same music especially when listening to commercial FM radio.   I admit that I enjoy some of that music but what I find truly disappointing is that on these well funded, well advertised stations there is next to no programming dedicated to niche music markets.  This is despite the fact that Edmonton is a city made of up of people who love music of all types and from all places.  Personally, I have a taste for Latin music as do many other Edmontonians.  However, you will be hard-pressed to hear Latin music on any radio station in our fine city outside of mainstream cross-over artists like Shakira, Pit Bull or Jennifer Lopez.  Even commercially successful and internationally famous artists like Mark Anthony get little to no exposure on Edmonton airwaves.

It’s this lack of true variety that turns a lot of people off listening to FM stations, which is unfortunate because there is an alternative: independent, community driven, Edmonton owned and operated radio.  Case in point, CJSR 88.5 FM is Edmonton’s awesome independent campus based community radio station. It’s existence dates back to 1946 when it was known as the Alberta Student Radio Directorate and the station has continued on in various forms since that time.  This year marks CJSR’s 30 year as full broadcast FM station. Though the station has moved around a bit and changed it’s name a few times it has always been true to its cause, which is to offer community based, independent radio programming.  Looking at their schedule you will find programs dedicated to anything from soul and funk music (Rankin B’s Fortress of Soulitude) to Bhangra (5 River Beat), from programming in Polish (Polskie Radio) to programming in Persian (Ghasedak).   The shows on CJSR not only play music that you will hear nowhere else on Edmonton airwaves but also provide community, cultural and independent spoken-work programming that no other station can offer.

Now I mention all this for a couple of reasons.  First, CJSR is a small station that opperates on a very small budget, does next to no advertising and still manages to run a successful radio station 20/7, 365 days a year.  That said, the station doesn’t get a lot of exposure so you may never of heard of it before.   My second and related reason for highlighting CJSR is because this blog is dedicated to Latin music and CJSR has a program dedicated to just that.  No where else in the city will you find a radio station playing great Latin dance music from salsa to vallenato from bachata to reggaeton. The program is called Agua Latina and it airs every Sunday night from 8 to 9pm.  So if you want to take a break from commercial radio and want to listen to some great Latin music and learn a little about the artists that make then check out the show.  And while your at it have a listen to some of the other great programming that only an independent, community minded radio station can offer.

That’s it for this month. Questions, comments, requests? Send me an email.

Hasta la próxima