CJSW Funding Drive 2026 and Breaking The Tethers

The annual CJSW Funding Drive (FD) is back! This is the yearly opportunity for the listeners of Calgary's only campus and community radio station to help support the station, to help it grow, develop, and more. Here's the basics about this year's Drive:

*The theme is Brave New Airwaves.

*The Drive will run from Friday, October 23 through Friday, October 30 (the Drive will end at 6 pm MT that day, at the conclusion of the Road Pops program).

*The fundraising goal is $200,000.

*There is all sorts of great CJSW swag available at various donation levels. You can check this out at cjsw.com/donate.

*You can donate by calling 403-220-5000 or by going to cjsw.com/donate.

I'll be involved in two CJSW shows during the FD, Breaking The Tethers and Alternative To What.

The main thing for me will be Breaking The Tethers. The Funding Drive show for BTT will take place on Monday, October 27, from 10 to 11 am MT, at cjsw.com or 90.9 FM. I'll play some tunes from this year's mix (more on this below), chat up the airwaves, hopefully bring in some money, and have loads of fun.

In addition to the station-level swag (again, see cjsw.com/donate), there will be some BTT-only incentives. There will be some nifty jazz CDs and some made-by-me mix CDs. There may also be some other incentive items... check in live on Breaking The Tethers on Monday. Looking at the mix CDs (yes, I'm going old school this year), there will only be four of them available (when they're gone, they're gone...). The CDs will all have the same music, tunes that were featured in the past year on Breaking The Tethers episodes, a selection of stuff that listeners (and me) especially liked. Here's the track list: 

Russ Anixter’s Hippie Big Band - “War pigs”

Rich Brown - “Turiyasangitananda - The transcendental lord's highest song of bliss (meditation for Alice Coltrane)”

Asher Gamedze - “Following up”

Nicole Rampersaud - “…and then”

Hadley Caliman - “Iapetus”

Russ Anixter’s Hippie Big Band - “No quarter - bitches brew”

Hugo Blouin - “Soupe pragmatique”

Anna Webber - “Idiom I”

The FreeJazz WallPaper - “Short abstraction”

Lukas Ligeti - “Uncommon notion”

Rich Brown - “The kingdom of heaven is within”

I'll also be joining Kerry Clarke on her FD program, Alternative To What. Kerry is back after a few weeks away (I guest-hosted Alternative To What in her absence) and should be more than ready to play the tunes and rake in the money! The Funding Drive edition of Alternative To What will be on Thursday, October 29, from 4 to 6 pm MT, at cjsw.com or 90.9 FM. 

Please be sure to tune into both shows (and other CJSW programs!) You'll be more than welcome! 

Thanks.

Andrew

October 22, 2026 - Alternative To What?

Showfill number two for me on Alternative To What this October. I had much fun, as always (despite the fire alarm!), and played the usual mess o' great tunes that I normally do on ATW. This time, there was less newly-released music and more longer tracks (one piece, "Blend", by Sandy Bull, was nearly 22 minutes long). You can give this show a listen here.

Kerry Clarke will make an auspicious return to her show next week, Thursday, October 29, from 4 to 6 pm MT, at cjsw.com or 90.9 FM. It'll be auspicious because she's coming back after missing two programs and because this will be the Funding Drive 2026 episode of Alternative To What! Good times will be had by all! Please tune in!

Thanks.

Andrew

PS You can get a head start on donating for Alternative To What. Go to cjsw.com/donate or call 403-220-5000!

October 15, 2026 - Alternative To What?

This was the first of three Alternative To What programs on which I appear. I'm fully (guest) hosting the October 15 and 22 shows and will be hanging out with Kerry on the October 29 edition (which, BTW, will be the 2026 Funding Drive program for ATW).  This was a fun show, featuring pretty much the usual mixed bag of music that I tend to play on ATW when I'm behind the mic. Not much more to be said. It's all here for your listening pleasure.

Thanks.

Andrew

October 19, 2026

Largely new releases featured this week, the last episode of Breaking The Tethers before the 2026 CJSW Funding Drive (more on this below). While BTT does often lean to the free or avant or experimental sides of jazz (and jazz-adjacent music), sometimes these styles are actually in the minority on the show. This might have been one of these weeks. Everything that was presented was cool, however, and there were still one or two more out-there tracks played (e.g. "Logic" by Micah Thomas from Lucid). You can listen to this show here.

Here's when I'll be back on air at cjsw.com or 90.9 FM:

*I'll be filling in for regular host Kerry Clarke (thanks Kerry!) on Alternative To What once again, this time on Thursday, October 22. Things get going on at 4 pm MT.

*I'll be hosting Breaking The Tethers again on Monday, October 26, starting at 10 am MT. But it won't be the usual BTT show, because next week, from October 23 through October 30, it's the 2026 CJSW Funding Drive! And next week's BTT show will be the BTT Funding Drive program! I'll have more on the Drive and the BTT show soon.

Thanks.

Andrew

October 12, 2026

On the page on the CJSW site for this edition of Breaking The Tethers (you can listen to the show on this page), I said that this show was "a solid six". I meant that six solid tunes were featured in the program. And solid they were, I think. We had some avant jazz with Cecil Taylor, some new boy Canadian jazz from Josh Warren and Ardeshir, a trip to the 70s that wasn't a trip to the 70s from Azar Lawrence, a real trip to the 70s by Marion Brown, and more. Be sure to give it a listen.

As normal, I'll be back with another BTT outing on Monday, October 19. Please come hang with me and dig the music starting at 10 am MT. Go to cjsw.com or 90.9 FM.

I've also been called back for service on Alternative To What. I'll be filling in for Kerry twice, very soon, on Thursday, October 15, and Thursday, October 22. The start time will be 4 pm MT, same station.

Thanks.

Andrew

PS Happy (Canadian) Thanksgiving, one and alll!

PPS CJSW Funding Drive 2026 is coming... October 23 to 30... more info to follow... 

October 5, 2026

Lots of music squeezed into a mere 60 minutes, 11 tracks in all. We had a couple of jazzy Bowie covers for kids, lots of piano, some free jazz, grunge turned jazz, and more. Simply, this was a fun show. To give it a listen, go to shorturl.at/lfNKy. 

We keep on going into October, musically, with the next BTT show on Monday, October 12. Come hang out with me on CJSW, 90.9 FM or cjsw.com, at 10 am MT. 

Thanks.

Andrew

PS CJSW Funding Drive 2026 is coming!

September 28, 2026

I’ve said it before, maybe too many times, but some episodes of Breaking The Tethers (BTT) just work well and this was one of them. Eight tracks played, nothing too long and nothing too short, with nice stylistic variation. It all came together nicely. And you can listen to the whole thing here (which I recommend you do!)

Thanks.

Andrew