Introducing News Director Zoran Kljajic

CJAM 99.1 FM is one of the first recipients of Radiometres:

Station hires Yugoslav news veteran Zoran Kljajic

Windsor (Nov. 23, 2012) – Bolstered by assistance from the Community Radio Fund of Canada, CJAM 99.1 FM is pleased to announce the appointment Zoran Kljajic as News Director through the Radiometres program.

Kljajic – a native of the former Yugoslavia who witnessed the country’s split as a wartime correspondent with BBC credentials – brings a wealth of international experience to CJAM’s newsroom creation project.

Breaking into radio journalism in 1986 with the national Yugoslavian broadcaster Radio Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzgovina, Kljajic then worked for a number of the country’s top alternative and independent broadcasters, covering the breakaway of Slovenia in 1991. He also produced the BBC World Service program, Yugoslav Newsroom. Klajic covered the fall of Yugoslavia before immigrating to Windsor in 1998, where he became active at CJAM through the ethnocultural program Serbian Word and the award-winning Eastern European rock program, The Balkan Republic.

“With thanks to the CRFC, I am quite humbled by what Kljajic brings to our journalism table,” says Station Manager Vernon Smith. “He has been to the frontlines of the worst conflict of its time and brought it back. He has also produced a music that wowed musicologists right here in Windsor-Detroit. And his production is at the very top of the sector. Kljajic is already bringing all of that international experience to our news room, and this would not have been possible without the CFRC’s Radiometres program.”

CJAM, a community-based campus radio station in Windsor, Ontario, proudly became one of the first recipients of Radiometres: Measuring the development, participation and sustainability of campus and community radio stations, a new program offered by the CRFC.

One million dollars was being offered for this first round of funding and CJAM received $20,000 to implement its project “News Department Creation Project.”

This amount will be invested in building and growing a proper CJAM news department to better access various voices in our community that remain under-represented. The news department will respond to the need for news in the city not covered by mainstream media. It will better access Francophone communities, campus communities, the newcomer population, and other marginalized communities. Kljajic will be CJAM’s main coordinator, recruiting new volunteers and programmers to host news shows. Starting in January, he will also unveil a one-hour news show airing Friday’s at noon, while CJAM continues to carry Democracy Now Monday through Thursday.

“I’m very excited to be able to work with such a young radio crew,” Kljajic says. “The dedication, creativity and volunteerism are exemplary. It is a professional challenge to follow this path that was established in the early 80s as one of the truly independent and alternative radio stations in Windsor-Detroit.”

“With Radiometres comes the idea of measurement. Beyond simply funding activities, the CRFC encourages stations to evaluate their current needs, determine specific long-term goals, and more importantly, put in place tools to measure their progress”, says CRFC President John Harris Stevenson. “This approach is beneficial for each station and the campus and community radio sector as a whole in order to improve what we do best – creating local content for the community by the communities themselves.”

The CRFC supports the 175 licensed campus and community radio stations across Canada. With Radiometres, the CRFC wishes to support high-quality music and spoken word programming and volunteer and diverse community participation in station’s activities.

For more information about CJAM and “News Department Creation Project”, please visit www.cjam.ca.

For more information about the CRFC and all of its recipients, please visit www.communityradiofund.org.

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For further information, please contact:

Vernon Smith
Station Manager
Tel: 519-253-3000 (x. 2526)
statcjam@gmail.com

Melissa Kaestner
Executive Director
Community Radio Fund of Canada
Tel: 613-321-3513
m.kaestner@communityradiofund.org