Radio Show Salutes Niagara's 2018 Music Releases
BY DAVID DeROCCO
Creating an audio archive of the best indie music made by Niagara artists in 2018 is the objective behind a radio show being developed by an artist responsible for some of that very music.
Jacob Bergsma, MC for Niagara-based funk-hop collective My Son The Hurricane, is working with colleagues at St. Catharines radio station 610 CKTB on a unique musical retrospective scheduled to air Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.
“Essentially, it’s a showcase of the music release this year by Niagara artists,” explained Bergsma, producer of NIAGARA MUSIC: YEAR IN REVIEW. “This is the fourth year we’ve done this. The first year we put it together it was an hour long. This year it’s going to be three hours.”
Although CKTB broadcasts a news/talk format, Bergsma said the station has given him license to include artists from any and all musical genres. “I don’t know how I managed to pull this off, but they’ve kind of allowed me to play whatever I want. Last year we included a focus on some of the heavier music because there were some bands in town that really stood out in that specific genre.”
A great deal of the credit for allowing the program to air goes to CKTB’s assistant program director and radio host Tom McConnell, who said the show falls within the station’s programming mandate to focus on all things relevant to their audience across Niagara.
“While this is may not be a typical show for 610 CKTB, we are focused on providing more local coverage and we think this fits very well with that goal,” said McConnell. “Also, I'm a huge Jacob Bergsma fan and I think he has done a terrific job in the past couple of years turning this into a fun and funky look at the music scene in Niagara.”
To gather the material, Bergsma has relied on both social media and his contacts in the industry to ensure music across the peninsula was well represented. The three-hour program will feature songs by dozens of the artists who released music and graced stages across the peninsula this year, along with entertaining segments that feature local celebrities and politicians offering up comment on the music. Bergsma says the end result offers more than just an excuse to sit by the radio this holiday season.
“What’s really nice about it is, when you look back through the years at the first one, it’s kind of a time capsule for the year. That’s what I’m shooting for this year too, to reach out to every corner of Niagara. There’s bands that I can’t even be familiar with there’s so many, so the goal is to just try to capture every genre. If there are people doing well, that’s what I want to know about.”
The show will be broadcast twice on CKTB and then be made available via podcast.
