With a brand new theme song and team, Midweek returned to the CKCU-FM airwaves this week to kick off its Winter 2026 season.

Reporters arrived bright and early in Midweek’s newsroom located at Richcraft Hall and hit the ground running on their same-day stories. Scripts were printed and packaged with minutes to spare before air time, and excitement was high.

Our hosts Marley Bradfield and Laura Gillis guided listeners through a series of interviews, docs, and more that covered local issues as well as arts and culture events in Ottawa.

This week’s show featured many stories related to Ottawa’s transit service. Samantha Carrillo Brito interviewed local filmmaker Gio Petti about his new documentary “The Train to Nowhere” where they discussed the LRT Line 2’s past and present. Maia Tustonic also contributed two separate interviews: one with Alto’s Peter Paz about Canada’s first high-speed train project, and another with Free Transit Ottawa’s Donald Swartz about OC Transpo’s proposed fare hike.

Hockey was another popular topic this week: Marley Bradfield spoke with Jean-Francois Plante, the Ottawa Charge’s media and community relations manager to talk about the Charge’s final game before the Olympic send-off, while Alea St.Jacques spoke with Stephen Spence of Ottawa Pride Hockey to discuss the significance of the television series “Heated Rivalry” for queer athletes.

In addition to the variety of recorded content produced, we also successfully produced TWO live tape talks! Leia Fourney discussed the importance of third spaces for Korean-Canadians, featuring interviews with a local photographer and hip-hop artist, while Jadie Leung gave an informative explainer about carbon monoxide poisoning in light of the Ontario Fire Code’s new regulations.

We even had a live interview with Carleton Political Science and Political Economy PhD student Josée Lalonde to discuss Premier Doug Ford’s involvement with Canadian defense manufacturer Roshel’s contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Some of our reporters also kept our listeners up to date on various community and arts events taking place across the city, including an erasure poetry event, a music fundraiser for the Ottawa Humane Society, Ottawa’s DJ scene, and the premiere of a new sci-fi musical taking place at the Gladstone Theatre.

While the beginning of the day was filled with a bit of initial panic, our reporters felt relief and more confident knowing that their first show was a success.

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