Once again, our Midweek team set the bar high for this week’s broadcast with an impressive variety of stories.Reporters and production team members organized an exciting line-up of stories centred around local news, current affairs, arts & culture, and animals. After having done some advanced planning for same-day stories, the team was ahead of schedule and scripts were printed and assembled nearly 20 minutes before show time – a new record for our class this semester!Sophie Blake and Hannah Wanamaker sat behind the hosting mics this week to present this week’s news, which continues to improve after every show.Our opening news story featured Hannah Wanamaker’s interview with Dr. Katie Muldoon, an epidemiologist and the president of Planned Parenthood Ottawa’s board of directors. The pair discussed the ongoing Padmore vs Hemmings case and the arguments that arose about informed consent and medical negligence.Next, Alexa MacKie reported on the potential closing of Ottawa’s Circles of Support and Accountability (COSA) site, which offers support and guidance for people convicted of sexual offences to re-enter society after prison time. She spoke with COSA Ottawa’s program director, Michaela De Curtis, to learn more.Following a triumphant win at this past weekend’s Super Bowl, Seattle Seahawks fans are celebrating a historic milestone for the team. Simone Brown spoke with a long-time Seahawks fan, Tainu Cousins, to take a walk down memory lane and recap the game.The Milano-Cortina Olympic Winter Games kicked off last week, and excitement is sky high as fans continue to cheer on Team Canada. Sophie Blake spoke with Mallory Terry, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Science at McMaster University, to talk about perceptual cognitive skills amongst athletes, and how it sets them apart.Later in the show, listeners were treated to some stories all about animals! Kaitlin Gruehl looked into the drop of salmon population monitoring and why it’s concerning researchers, while Kaitlyn Ostapyk attended the Ottawa Humane Society’s “Tails of Love” family event held ahead of Valentine’s Day.Our reporters continued to transport listeners to some of Ottawa’s latest arts and culture events: Simone Brown took us to this year’s Ottawa Black Creative Hub showcase, Samantha Carrillo Brito checked out a Stew Showdown fundraiser held for the Westboro Region Food Bank, Hannah Wanamaker attended the Arts Ottawa Awards ceremony at the National Arts Centre, and Maia Tustonic recapped the thrilling snowmobile freestyle shows held at the ByWard Market.While we were missing a few team members this week due to internships, our team learned to be resilient and confidently produced another successful show.Next week, our reporters will be off the air to take a well-deserved rest during the reading week. But, you can tune in same time as usual to hear our “Reading Week Special” compilation show featuring some of our best work so far.There will also be a slight change in class leadership for our next broadcast as Professor Nana aba will be away… stay tuned to find out who our surprise and temporary senior producer will be!You can catch our next Midweek of the season at noon on Feb. 25. You can listen to past episodes on CKCU-FM or via our podcast.
Our Midweek team truly brought their A-game this week for their second broadcast this semester. After a successful first run, their confidence and ambition shone through all the content they produced for a rather informative and entertaining show.The team assembled and had concrete plans to tackle their same-day stories. Before we went on-air, our production team realized that we had an abundance of new content in addition to some older docs and Q&A’s that were produced at the beginning of the term. While we had to sadly cut some of the older segments due to time for the live broadcast, you can listen to them in full via our on-demand podcast.This week’s broadcast included the similar tied and true local news stories that our Midweek listeners can expect, introduced by hosts Alexa MacKie and Alea St.Jacques, and there were a few stories that you might consider out of this world.Stories about space exploration and sustainability were at the top of the hour. Laura Gillis interviewed Tim Cole, former president of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada Ottawa chapter, to talk about the significance of NASA’s Artemis missions following their decision to delay their latest launch. After, Alea St.Jacques brought listeners to this year’s Canadian Space Conference, hosted by Students for the Exploration and Development of Space Canada.Following the latest recommendation from Algonquin College’s Board of Governors to suspend 30 programs, Marley Bradfield reported on its impact on current and incoming students. Later, Jadie Leung spoke with Danni Sinclair, head coach of Carleton’s Women’s Basketball Team about this year’s Capital Hoops game.Alea St. Jacques then introduced listeners to Ottawa’s Queer Lifting Club taking place at a local church for transgender and queer residents, to help relieve the stress of justifying their identity.A new podcast focused around Ottawa’s creative scene has also launched! Simone Brown interviewed Pearly Pouponneau, one of the co-creative directors and hosts of the “OOH WEE” podcast to learn more about the series.Samantha Carrillo Brito interviewed Theresa Qadri from the Stittsville Food Bank to learn more about their operations and volunteer efforts heading into the colder months.Following two successful tape talks last week, three of our reporters decided to hop on the bandwagon: Kaitlin Gruehl spoke about what Canadians should know about Canada and China solidifying their trade deal, Sophie Blake let us in on Health Canada’s approval of the sale of gene-edited pork, and Alexa MacKie took us behind the curtain of a new local theatre production company in Ottawa.Considering this was only our second show, our team has demonstrated an impressive strong start and continues to power through.
