Vancouver Island Mental Health Society’s weekly radio program is an educational partnership with Nanaimo’s CHLY 101.7 FM community and campus radio station [image: iconoco design]
On November 22, 2007, Kevin Midbo and Jan Coleman sat in the CHLY studio in downtown Nanaimo and presented the first People First Radio episode. They were new to broadcasting, but not new to the key topics the radio program was designed to convey.
Homelessness and social housing, mental illness and mental health, and addiction and recovery — along with stories that touched, in one way or another, on any or all of those core topics — have been the mainstay of the program.
People First Radio interviews were uploaded to the Internet, beginning in January 2009, and the podcasts have traveled far and wide since that time. The segments receive approximately 20,000 listens every year.
In July 2014, @peoplefirstrad became the Twitter presence for the program, and last month PFR finally landed on Facebook. Oh, and along the way with much help from Nicholas Holt, we produced a few videos too.
In the studio for the 8th anniversary retrospective broadcast on Thursday November 19, 2015.
This week People First Radio presenters Kevin Midbo, Nicholas Holt, Ashta Cormier and Nancy McInnes share highlights from 2007 and 2008, along with a snippet of each most-listened-to PFR podcast online from 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014.
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Left-click to listen; right-click to save.
Image top: Four of the five People First Radio presenters from 2007 to 2015, Kevin Midbo, Nancy McInnes, Ashta Cormier, and Nicholas Holt. Missing: Jan Coleman.
audio | #peoplefirstradio @VIMentalHealth @CHLYRadio marks 8 years on-air #Nanaimo https://t.co/OBgCQtuVaA pic.twitter.com/VEjMJ72Yrt
— People First Radio (@peoplefirstrad) November 20, 2015
