Everyday, CIDI strives to keep our communities well informed about local issues which concern them directly, support local talent, nurture a sense of community, and create entertainment for all types of audience members. Radio Communautaire Missisquoi is an incorporated non-profit community radio in Knowlton, one of seven towns in the Brome Lake region of Quebec. It is popularly known as CIDI. 

In comparison with other community radio stations in the Province, CIDI is quite young. It is an English-language community radio station which, while broadcasting primarily in English, also provides up to 10% of its programming time weekly to French-language shows. CIDI is one of only three licensed English radio station in the Eastern Townships. The radio is also a member of the CRTC and the NCRA, two national associations regulating the quality and content of Canadian radio. In fact, CIDI will be celebrating their 25th anniversary in 2023! 

Originally incorporated on December 16th, 1998, CIDI was only licensed in 2003 and aired its first official broadcast just 13 years ago. One can only imagine what that entailed in 2008. Maybe one of the 500+ episodes of “The Burning Bush: Hall of Flame” with host, Ralf Bushenbaum - a show that has been playing ever since! Along side classic rock, CIDI is traditionally known best for playing a wide variety of country music, a daily update of events and other news in town, classical tunes, jazz sonatas, talk shows, local artists, and much more. CIDI continues to grow and enhance its program grid to best represent “the ears” that matter the most. Those ears belonging to the dedicated listeners of local community radio. The radio is also a member of the CRTC and the NCRA, two national associations regulating the quality and content of Canadian radio. In fact CIDI will be celebrating their 25th anniversary in 2023! 

CIDI was first created by Maurice Singfield of Waterloo, Quebec. Singfield, along with his brother and a few friends formed the band, “Oliver Klaus”. It toured throughout the area, but wanted a concrete way to promote the Eastern Townships. They had a band, they had music, so why not produce a radio station! CIDI was launched. In the history of CIDI, the radio station has always been, but maybe not forever, at the same location. Down a steep flight of stairs and into the basement of one of the oldest buildings in downtown Knowlton lies a fully operational recording and media studio. At first, the new community radio station relied solely on advertising from local businesses. Interestingly enough, CIDI used to own the store front where Les Belle Choses – a local boutique - is now located. The whole room was set up to record interviews, and every wall - top to bottom - was plastered with different local advertisements. Their support kept the station running. 

After settling into broadcasting for a few years, CIDI received its first grant — a provincial cultural grant. Then, following a few initial challenging years, the community radio station restructured to its current management format. The station now regularly receives both provincial and federal government grants to support a handful of permanent employees, and “to keep the lights on.” It is also well on its way to replacing much needed new, up-to-date broadcasting and in-studio recording equipment. 

CIDI continues to grow its scope of programming, its relationships with its many listeners in communities throughout the Brome-Missisquoi region of the Eastern Townships, and work towards improving its listening capabilities for them. In fact – when you think about it, it was just 13 years ago that CIDI was a 50-watt station broadcasting local sound through an antenna attached to the roof of its building. The antenna served its purpose, but was later successfully upgraded to a freestanding tower and transmitter located in the hills of Knowlton. This increased the station’s broadcasting capacity from 50 to 1450 watts. Unfortunately, during a fairly recent thunderstorm, the new transmitter was struck by lightning and completely fried. A setback certainly, however, some “hum’s and huh’s” later, the station was back on the air and broadcasting better than ever. 

Another concern facing CIDI’s close-knit team was the issue of call letters – and the fact that CIDI does not really represent any “quirky” meaning. Like most other radio stations, they were just simply assigned. However, when read in the correct manner, they do have a rhythm for radio. CIDI can always be heard humming along at frequency 99.1 FM. 

A quick glance at the most recent version of the programming schedule reveals a variety of different shows to suit the many tastes and needs for information and entertainment in our communities. As for the future, CIDI is actively working towards infusing the music mix with local talent to highlight more Townshippers and their impressive range of talents; it is also developing a range of new feature programming to reflect social and other issues of interest to its changing and growing audiences. Importantly, CIDI is also in the books to upgrade the broadcasting tower technology once again to reach an even greater range of listeners with good sound quality for CIDI’s programs. CIDI is a community radio station. As such – it continues to rely heavily on its volunteers in its various communities, and their generous support in terms of commitment, funding and creative initiatives. So, when you hear: “The Voice of Brome-Missisquoi”, “Being Who We are”, and “Our Townships Community Radio” you know you are listening to CIDI 99.1 FM.