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A potential path forward is emerging for Canada’s first-ever licensed instructional campus radio station as Fanshawe College and a local non-profit announce a tentative agreement to look at transferring ownership of the station.
London-based non-profit WeRise has signed a memorandum of understanding with Fanshawe to explore the future of the broadcast licence that allows 106.9 The X to run, offering a glimmer of hope for the future of the decades-old station.
“We saw [the radio station] as being a 50-year legacy asset, as part of this city. It has a deep history that is quite long and quite integrated within different communities across London, and we saw the opportunity,” said Malvin Wright, executive director of WeRise.
“We think that we can do something different, something unique,”
The news comes at a tumultuous time for the college, which has been struggling financially since the federal government cut the number of international students allowed to study in Canada, resulting in the closure of dozens of programs, including its radio broadcasting program.
The station, which was first licensed by the CRTC as CIXX-FM in the spring of 1978, began broadcasting that October in conjunction with Fanshawe’s former Radio Arts course. More recently it was run by students in the radio broadcasting program featuring live and recorded news segments from students in the multimedia journalism program.
Opportunity for something different
In late October 2025, Fanshawe College announced it could no longer afford to run the station, and launched a search for interested parties to take over operations at the station.
“We saw this opportunity and said we think that we can do something different, something unique,” said Wright, whose vision for the future of the station so far includes a tight focus on community building.
“We want to create space and really carve out opportunities for community-based organizations and institutions [and] we want to keep it hyper-local at the same time.”
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London Morning8:02There could still be hope for 106.9 FM The X
The Fanshawe College radio station has been on the ropes with talks of closing down but now there could be hope to keep the station alive. The college is in talks with the WeRise Foundation to assume operating the station. Fanshawe College Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Language Mary Harrison and WeRise Executive Director Malvin Wright told London Morning a few of the plans to keep the station going.
According to Mary Harrison, the dean of Fanshawe’s Faculty of Arts and Language, the expression of interest from WeRise was accepted in part because the non-profit’s goals also align with the interests of the college and its students.
“We know how important the access has been to our students [and] alumni,” Harrison said. “WeRise has a vision for continuing to provide opportunities for Fanshawe students to get that important experiential learning through the radio station if we’re able to proceed in this direction.”
The next steps include a feasibility study that will explore the process of WeRise taking over the station’s operations, Harrison explained.
Following the study, if WeRise and Fanshawe reach an agreement, the final say will lie with the CRTC, which must approve the transfer of the station’s licence.
The station’s CRTC license, issued to Radio Fanshawe Inc., was last renewed in March 2023 and expires in August 2030.