IJL – Réseau.Press – Acadie Nouvelle
After spending almost two years living with the specter of a closure, CFAI employees are now breathing a little easier. With the recent sale of the building it had occupied for several years, the radio station can stop surviving and begin to grow.
According to CFAI general director Carl Monette, this pivotal moment helped save the station.
“We can never guarantee the future, but I believe we managed to save CFAI. I no longer have the fear of closing.”
“(The sale of the building) is what we expected from the beginning. It brought a great feeling of relief, but I didn’t have much time to think about it.”
To mark this new beginning, CFAI will soon move to new premises which will be located at 296 Victoria Street in Edmundston.
“With the sale of our building, we repaid almost all our debts, so we don’t have money set aside to do renovations. We needed a new premises in which almost everything was done.”
When he arrived as the new general manager of the radio station, in October 2023, Mr. Monette faced a debt of approximately $450,000. Although it was not completely repaid with the sale of the building, it decreased considerably.
“It’s simple, with the sale of the building, we will be able to pay our two mortgages, we will be able to repay the Canada Revenue Agency and we will be able to reimburse all those who remained to repay for the Franco tickets festival.”
With the reimbursement of ticket holders, the saga of the CFAI Franco festival is well and truly over. The event, announced in February 2023, was canceled when the community radio station’s financial problems came to light. Since that time, several people were stuck with tickets they couldn’t use.
“Everyone is relieved, me first and foremost. When I arrived here, one of the first promises I made was that we would reimburse festival ticket holders. I’m glad I was able to keep my promise.”
Mr. Monette wanted to emphasize people’s patience and the support of various partners in CFAI’s recovery efforts.
“By being so patient, the population gave us a chance to save the station (…) I also thank the businesses, municipalities and community organizations who continued to support us.”
Carl Monette is obviously happy to be able to turn the page on these problematic events and repay debts, in order to be able to concentrate on the development of the product offered by Radio CFAI.
The CEO of CFAI believes that recent events will also allow the station to work harder to regain public trust after a few more difficult years.
“We have put elements in place to ensure that past mistakes do not return. We continue to work with the firm Convergence (which has the mandate to review its structure), we are in the process of reviewing our statutes and regulations, as well as our mission.
“We need to redo the image and music of CFAI. There are many changes that have been made in recent months, but our priority, in the first year of my mandate, was to save CFAI. Now, it’s time to give him more love (…) It’s time to start doing radio.”
