The Origins of CKON

CKON was begun in the spring of 1982 when a group of Akwesasronon decided the time had come for the Mohawk people to exercise their right to control our airwaves by operating our own radio station licensed not by any external agency but by the Mohawk Nation Council.

The organizing group which formed the Akwesasne Communications Society decided that radio was the ideal medium for the transmitting of news and entertainment from a distinctly aboriginal perspective. It would give our non-Native neighbours an opportunity to enhance their knowledge as to who we were as a people while serving Akwesasne as a source of information about events taking place on our territory. It would also aggressively promote Native musicians, of which there were very few actually recording then, and accentuate the Mohawk language by using it whenever we spoke on air.

Akwesasne had begun to emerge from a particularly difficult time. We had barely avoided a civil war between the supporters of the St. Regis Tribal Council and those who identified with the longhouse and the Mohawk Nation. Faced with an ugly reality many of our people were determined to take Akwesasne in a new direction, one which emphasized our Mohawk heritage and the enormous creativity, which is inherent among our people. That this was possible was reflected in the creation of the Akwesasne Freedom School in 1979, the promoting of a “unity” movement led by the late Julius Cook in 1982 and the founding of Indian Time by Alex Jacobs, Dan Thompson and Lloyd Benedict.

The Akwesasne Communications Society formed at a meeting in the offices of Akwesasne Notes consisted of Mark Narsisian, Salli Benedict, Lloyd Benedict, Francis Boots, Diane Lazore, Frank David and myself with Brian Cole joining shortly thereafter. We had learned from the previous work of Ray Cook who operated a small broadcasting unit out of a garage in Racquette Point. We made a number of visits to Kahnawake where we met with the late Conway Jocks, the founder of CKRK Radio. He gave his advice freely but was very clear as to the challenges before us and the tremendous amount of work involved in getting a station on the air, particularly one which would defy the American Federal Communications Commission and Canada’s Radio and Television Commission.

We were firmly committed to the concept that all Native nations must take aggressive, positive steps to assert their status as distinct peoples and this meant we had an unqualified right to use the airspace over Mohawk territory. We also knew that Mohawks were natural communicators and radio was something which would fit our talents quite nicely. So we began to make our dreams come true. That first meeting became one of dozens of others in which we drafted rules for the Society, secured formal recognition from the Mohawk Nation and put the formidable fundraising talents of Salli Benedict to work.

It took over two years of effort but we went live on October 1, 1984 from a small studio on Kawehnoke donated by Lloyd Benedict. Our tower was forged together by the Seymours on the Island and Frank David spliced together our electrical lines. We stapled egg cartons to insulate the broadcast booth and found a used transmitter in Montreal courtesy of Dennis Nicholas, our first manager. Almost all of the music came in the form of LP’s donated by the community. The DJ’s volunteered for the first few weeks as we hustled for advertising revenues which many businesses were reluctant to give since we did not qualify for the radio industry’s Arbitron ratings given our lack of an American or Canadian license. Who knew how many listeners we had? What we did know for certain was that CKON was the most innovative, revolutionary radio station in the region and while we made many mistakes we were unique.

Unique enough, it seemed to some, to be seen as a threat. Our first tower was sabotaged when its guide wires were cut and the unit collapsed. Then there was the break-in and the theft of much of our equipment. Yet we carried on because CKON had become an essential part of Akwesasne almost from the day it went on air. Four years after CKON began broadcasting Salli Benedict did another one of her amazing feats when she secured a grant to build the Akwesasne Communications Center in Kanatakon. With the help of the leaders on the St. Regis Tribal Council (Brenda Lafrance, Rosemary Bonaparte and Harold Tarbell) and the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne (led by Mike Mitchell) we received a land grant astride the so-called international border in Kanatakon. Our main studio was in “Canada” while the transmitter and tower were in the “US” but to us it was all on Mohawk Nation land at the highest point of Akwesasne near the Kaniatarowanenneh (which enhanced the power and range of our signals).

We had big plans for CKON. We wanted 100,000 watts so everyone in the northeast could hear us. We wanted our DJ’s to speak almost entirely in Mohawk. We wanted to promote Native talent. We wanted CKON to become the anchor for Native radio stations throughout Haudenosaunee territory. We wanted to become the most immediate and reliable source for Native news. We wanted to generate millions of dollars in advertising revenues.

Much has come to pass over the past quarter century. CKON has in fact wedded itself firmly to the Akwesasne region as the most creative station in this area. It has a distinctive voice. It has programming in Mohawk. It is the most reliable on air source for national and local news. It has become an invaluable means of sharing community events. It is now the leader in broadcasting sports events in Akwesasne and elsewhere. It is has provided good jobs for dozens of Mohawks and a host of non-Natives.

We did not realize all of our goals but, in retrospect, we did a truly great job in making CKON so much a part of our history that life at Akwesasne would be difficult to imagine without SEKON radio.

Twenty-five years later and there are challenges before CKON. The Akwesasne Communications Society needs to reflect on its guiding rules and affirm its founding principles. The Mohawk Nation Council has the duty of overseeing the Society itself and once it is satisfied the ACS is adhering to its standards for broadcasting while serving the people then, and only then, should it renew CKON’s license. CKON was meant to add to the culture of our people, to make us stronger and more confident as to our common heritage. We believed the Nation Council was the best custodian of our identity and so acknowledged this most stable of governments as having the authority of appointing the ACS board.

As a co-founder of the Akwesasne Communications Society I add my thanks to the staff of CKON for its dedication and professionalism. Another generation is being served by CKON, one which grew up listening to SEKON Radio as a matter of fact.

And that is reason enough to celebrate.