All our projects aimed at exposing contemporary global music as a relevent and reflective format for electronic and conventional media sprung from an hour of weekend radio called Crossing Cultures which Cal Koat produced and hosted, starting in the early ’90s on AM 1470, CJVB in Vancouver. Cal had been working there for ten years, in a traditional multicultural radio environment (the kind where you have no reason to listen unless you happen to speak the same language as the announcer). It was hokey, boring and already woefully dated and he thought cross-cultural programming through contemporary global music was just a better way to celebrate and promote different cultures and he still does.
In 1997, the station was awarded an FM license and, as program director, Cal Koat launched The WorldBeat WakeUp, the very first morning drive world music show on commercial FM in North America. That program spun off a contemporary Celtic music show called Celt In A Twist, hosted by Patricia Fraser. In 2003, Cal took the concept to television, launching an all-new program with the help and guidance of channel m in Vancouver. world.beats was a TV show that told the ongoing story of today’s contemporary global music through rare videos, features, reviews and interviews. In the spring of 2008 world.beats was cancelled after a five year run when the station changed format to religious programming.
worldbeatcanada radio is our third foray into the new reality of internet-based broadcasting, following Celt in A Twist and a short-lived podcast of world.beats television program. Our podcasts, worldbeatcanada radio and Celt in A Twist promise all the credibility of public radio with all the excitement of commercial radio (without the commercials of course). Mostly, they will take you places terrestrial radio has seldom been able to.
Our mom and pop production company, Calcopyrite Communications Inc. remains committed to the ideal that fostered all these projects in the first place. We now draw on 30 years of combined experience specifically in the programming and presentation of this music. Our carefully curated library of radio-friendly, contemporary world.beat has grown (at the expense of our office space) to over 5000 CD titles and thousands of high quality downloads. Many more have already been retired. World Beat Canada Radio and Celt In A Twist bring all these resources to bear in two super-condensed, energized 60 minute presentations of tomorrow’s sounds, today.
Connect with us
Calcopyrite Communications
3222 East 8th Ave.
Vancouver, BC Canada V5X 1M8
All Photography Garry Kettleson
Used with Permission