By Angus Frame
More than $8,800 worth of radio equipment has been stolen from CKLN in the past two months, but executives at the student funded radio station don’t want to talk about it.
Two separate robberies were reported to Ryerson Securty by CKLN staff. The first robbery occurred sometime between Dec. 29 and January 3. The incident was first reported to Metro Police and on Jan. 9, Ryerson security were notified.
A CD player, a tape player and a microphone holder was stolen from a room at the station. The value of the equipment stolen was approximately $1,948 according to a theft report provided by Ryerson security.
The second robbery occurred on Feb. 23. “Thieves broke into the production booth, they used a chisel to get into the room and took the equipment,” said Archie Achtman, a programmer at CKLN and a president of the Board of Directors.
Equipment valued at $6,932 was stolen from the room.
“The station replaced the wooden door that was broken into with a steel one,” Achtman said. The station has filed an insurance claim and expects the missing equipment to be replaced.
“Thefts are always a setback, but the station is proceeding well and when we get the new equipment we’ll be proceeding even better,” Achtman said.
On Tuesday Mar. 14, CKLN held a six-hour meeting to discuss the problem of theft and vandalism at the station.
“The meeting was closed to the media,” said Victor Bains-Marshall, a member of CKLN’s interim management team and the station’s assistant music director.
Bains-Marshall didn’t want to discuss the thefts, but admitted that the station was going through tough times.
“Well, right now we’re trying to keep the station going but it’s hard because we don’t have much money,” he said.
Bains-Marshall added that it’s difficult to keep track of all the people at CKLN because there is such a high turn-over of volunteers.
“(The station) runs on a trust system so there’s not much we can do,” he said.
RSU president Mike D’Angelo didn’t know about the robberies. He said that the relationship between CKLN, Ryerson Security and the RSU was very shaky.
“They bring guests in to appear on their shows on Tuesday and Thursday nights and on weekends,” D’Angelo said. “and for the past couple of years there have been problems with vandalism and drug smoking in the basement of Jorgenson Hall. They probably don’t want people to know about the thefts because they’re worried people will say ‘I told you so.'”
The security problems at the station are making some CKLN staffers nervous.
CKLN announcer Marsha Rosati feels that there should be some kind of monitoring system to protect the people working alone at the station late at night.
“There’s no real security down here and people can just come in,” Rosati said.
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