Turn your radio on

I’ll admit I’ve sounded this theme before. But heck, there are only so many fields you can hit the ball to.

I’m drawn to the subject of ‘community’ once again after seeing the wonderful Community Theatre Group’s production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore at the Regent Theatre.

I have seen the play several times, and in the wrong hands it can be a fusty piece of work. But in the right hands—as undoubtedly was the case this time around—it can be a lively display of razor-sharp wit. It wasn’t just because it was timely in the ‘99 per cent-versus- one per cent era; it was deftly presented. The irony of a man being condemned by his class ranking but hypothetically being able to choose his nationality was nicely brought home by the heavy syllablism of the old chorus “in spite of all temptations—to belong to other nations—he is an English man—he is an E-E-E-E-E-E-E-Englishman.”

Director John Burns made a canny move at the end of the show. He brought all responsible for the production—musicians; make up, props, sound and lighting people; dressers, managers and publicists—on to the stage at the end to join the cast. He brought the point home that just as it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a veritable army to stage a performance of this magnitude. And when that army marches in step, it is also functioning as a community. As well, there is a shared sense of community with and within an audience who collectively exerience the performance. And that is a good thing.

And that was only one instance of community. I also experienced the same sort of community last weekend in the preparations for the Bloomfield Santa Claus parade, the Hospital Auxiliary’s Festival of Trees, the fundraising dinner for the Loyalist Humane Society, and the Trinity concert at Wellington on the Lake for the benefit of the Storehouse Foodbank. And that’s just me and my experiences, over one weekend.

Community is a wonderful thing—it’s as complex as a massive theatre production, or as simple as a neighbour bringing over a plate of cookies. It is as plainly expressed as being about human contact and developing a sense of responsibility for one another. We are fortunate to enjoy it in spades. Many urban wildernesses have precious little of it.

All of which brings me to remind you of a meeting being held TONIGHT (if you’re reading your paper on November 30, the day it comes out) at 7 p.m. at the Bloomfield Town Hall. The working group struck to develop a proposal for a community radio station in the County will be reporting back, and seeking the authority to do the groundwork for a CRTC licence application and to develop a business plan and a programming plan; to do a technical study, and to incorporate. It wants to do all this before next March. It wants to find people with ideas for programming, and people who are willing to put a shoulder to the wheel to help get all these tasks completed on a prompt and thorough basis. If you can’t get to the meeting, go to the website at www.county-community-radio.ca, and make your views known.

The radio station that the working group envisages is one that will be ‘owned’ by its members—residents of the County. They want to have a broad membership base, to have diverse original programming that reflects the needs of residents and visitors, to broadcast county-wide, and to be largely run by volunteers on a shoestring.

I have heard some really interesting ideas for programming already. How about a daily show that helps guide tourists around? Or Spanish or Thai language programming for our farm workers? Or a live broadcast of a house concert? Apparently, at other community stations, the most popular show is the ‘lost dog and cat post’, featuring heart-rending tales of beloved pets gone missing. We could do that.

As for me, I’ll be happy if they just have a bluegrass music show. At the same time, I’m not that big an opera fan, so I’ll be happy if they never have an opera show.

What, never?

Well, hardly ever.

David Simmonds’s writing is also available at www.grubstreet.ca.