ERITREAN COMMUNITY RADIO 16 AUGUST 2026 SHOW, ARTICLES ABOUT CANADA JOB OPORTUNITES, HISTORY OF DEBRE BIZEN MONASTERY, INTRODUCING ONTARIO PROVINCE(PART2) INTRODUCING VILLAGES AND CITEIS FROM DEKMHARE TO TXORONA, AUDIENCE MESSAGES , ONTARIO WEATHER FORECAST.
Kitchener, ON — Waterloo Region Council has unanimously passed a motion to study the potential impacts of future data centre development in the Region, following concerns raised by residents about water use, electricity demand and infrastructure.
Regional Councillor Colleen James brought the motion during Tuesday’s Sustainability, Infrastructure and Development Committee meeting. It directs Regional staff to examine the economic, environmental, infrastructure and fiscal implications of data centres, as well as community safeguards and best practices in other jurisdictions.
The council approved the motion with two amendments, including additional consideration of source water protection and impacts on traditional lands. Regional staff will report their findings back to Council by the first quarter of 2027.
The discussion comes as the rapid growth of artificial intelligence drives demand for larger and more energy-intensive data centres across Canada and beyond.
Waterloo Region already hosts data centres, including Ascent’s facility in Cambridge. James says the motion is not intended to approve or reject any specific project, but to help the Region understand how future facilities could affect its infrastructure and environment.
Residents who spoke at the meeting raised particular concerns about water consumption and the Region’s reliance on groundwater.
James says the goal is to gather information now so future councils can make informed decisions about data centre development.
My music is also available at golenkazzian.bandcamp.com and can be heard 24/7 at https://www.youtube.com/@GolenKazzian or https://hello.citrus3.com:2020/public/gokazz (24/7 radio station)
What’s up, y’all? First up, here are the submissions I have added to Libretime since last week:
Lori Phun
Taste 4 U – Single
Pop
CanCon
East of West
Velella
World
CanCon
Mo’Spence
Problems (Remix) – Single
Hip Hop
CanCon
Kye Alfred Hillig
Widowmaker Express
Folk
No
Lapse
October – Single
Rock
Clean and Explicit versions available
No
0Stella
Wild – Single
Rock
CanCon
alberta*
outside jokes
Rock
No
Ivory Layne
Saint – Single
Rock
No
Leah Jane
Sugar Butter Elbow Grease – Single
Pop
CanCon
Leah Jane
Girl, You’re Fine – Single
Pop
CanCon
DJ Puce
Butterfly Tattoo – Single
Pop
CanCon
Polo Lewis
Awesome – Single
Pop
CanCon
Polo Lewis
COZY – Single
Pop
CanCon
prchr.
I’m sorry for being myself
Rock
No
Martyrs
Last Summer – EP
Rock
No
Petite Pete
Digital Distraction
Electronic
CanCon
Private Name Private Number
Gilligan’s Island – Single
Hip Hop
NSFR
CanCon
Trouble With Normal
Are You Being Served – Single
Alternative
No
Em Armstrong
Behind – Single
Rock
CanCon
Ariana Fig
I Hope You Love Me – Single
Folk
CanCon
Brodie Christ
16 & 9 Lives – Single
Country
CanCon
Wine Lips
If You Don’t Know – Single
Rock
CanCon
Bleach Dreamer
Surrender
Pop
CanCon
Awdrisyaw
Don’t You – Single
World
No
Plum
Bodies in Motion
Punk
No
Katherine Perkins
Helpless Love – Single
Folk
No
Faultlines
Might & Maybe – Single
Folk
No
Lunar Reverb
Burning Bridges – Single
Rock
No
Brian Sumner
For Real – Single
Folk
No
better living
fix your heart
Rock
No
Tyler Salsman
Away From You – Single
Country
CanCon
Nate Northfield
IN-NATE
Folk
CanCon
Gail J. Gaudet
Been Down This Road – Single
Blues
CanCon
Gail J. Gaudet
Take Me Back – Single
Blues
CanCon
Gail J. Gaudet
Tell Me Baby – Single
Blues
CanCon
Paul Manchin
Chocolates – Single
Electronic
CanCon
Here is tonight’s Horizon Broadening Hour:
Tracklist:
East of West – A Distinct Lack of Parrotfinch
Paul Manchin – Chocolates
Petite Pete – Stay In (Just Fine)
SteinZ – Zig Zag
PRIVATE NAME PRIVATE NUMBER – Gilligan’s Island
Mo’Spence – Problem (Remix) [feat. Mezziah]
Adrisyaw – DON’T YOU
DJ Puce – Butterfly Tattoo
Polo Lewis – Awesome
Lori Phun – Taste 4 U
Bleach Dreamer – Jennifur
Ziemba – The Pleasure Seekers
Clay Howard – Lovin (Sunshine Mix)
Allegories – They’ll Never Suspect Us
Leah Jane – Sugar, Butter, Elbow Grease
Nate Northfield – For Love (to Maddy and Andrew)
Ariana Fig – I Hope You Love Me
Brian Sumner – For Real
Kye Alfred Hillig – Bones Rosalynne Bones
Alex Dupree – I Could’ve Been Anyone
Brodie Christ – 16 & 9 Lives
Tyler Salsman – Away From You
Gail J. Gaudet – Tell Me Baby
Alberta* – family worship center
Better living – Nighttime Dan Spins Discs For Money
Plum – Club Scum
Lapse – October
0Stella – Wild
Ivory Layne – Saint
Lunar Reverb – Burning Bridges
Trouble With Normal – Are You Being Served?
Eric Schenkman – Recipe
Suralin – Driving Home
Strawberry Alarm Clock – The Sky Isn’t Falling
ERITREAN COMMUNITY RADIO 09 AUGUST 2026 SHOW, ARTICLES ABOUT HUMANITY, ABOUT ONTARIO PROVINCE. AND ALSO AN INTERVIEW WITH YORAM YONAS (7 YEARS OLD STUDENT) , INTRODUCING VILLAGES AND CITEIS FROM BARENTU TO OMHAJER, AUDIENCE MESSAGES , ONTARIO WEATHER FORECAST.
Kitchener, ON — St. John’s Kitchen in Kitchener has permanently expanded its services to operate around the clock, responding to growing demand from people experiencing homelessness in Waterloo Region.
The kitchen, operated by The Working Centre, began its new 24/7 schedule on July 27. It now welcomes drop-ins from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., before providing overnight support from 9 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. The facility closes briefly each morning for cleaning and setup.
The expansion comes as homelessness continues to grow across the region. The Region of Waterloo reported in 2024 that chronic homelessness had increased by an average of 28 per cent each year since 2020. Joe Mancini, director and co-founder of The Working Centre, says the growing number of people experiencing homelessness has put increasing pressure on services.
In this story, we speak with Mancini, St. John’s Kitchen staff and volunteers, and a person experiencing homelessness about the impact of the kitchen The interviews explore what the 24/7 operation means for people using the facility, how staff respond to the growing demand, and the broader housing, employment and drug-related factors contributing to homelessness in Waterloo Region.
Lance Russwurm tells us about his early exposure to music with his parents Lynn and Laura performing country music, learning music in high school, playing in Lynn’s band, how Lynn wrote and submitted music, Lynn’s collaboration with Hank Thompson, and the song “I Cast A Lonesome Shadow.” He tells us about the CKNX Barn Dance, on radio and as revivals through the years. Lance produces the Elmira Sunday Night Concert Series at Gibson Park in Elmira. And Lance tells us about his artwork, and trading art for airplane rides.
The interview starts at 3m45s.
Lance appeared in a three-part episode of Musician’s FAQ with Stuart McKie in January 2021.
Lance tells us about his first exposure to music: Running around in the aisles while his parents played on stage, listening to The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show, meeting Ian Tyson, and listening to Gordie Lightfoot and Joni Anderson. Playing in Jimi Hendrix and Steppenwolf in high school, dropped out, and started to play in his dad’s band, all over Southern Ontario. Lance was shy, and had to be coaxed into singing by his dad. Lance had no formal music education, but that was common for many musicians. Today Lance does recommend getting a formal musical education. Mike Slauenwhite, a violinist with the KW Symphony Orchestra, moonlighted in country music bands playing fiddle because that paid better. He’d play with The Ice Capades because he could sight-read music. Lance’s dad Lynn Russwurm had piano lessons when he was young, and wrote out the sheet music for his songs when he sent them out to publishers. Lance can pick up things by ear, but has to try every possible chord to find the right one.
11m02s
In the 1970s people started submitting music on tapes instead of sheet music. Lance remembers Lynn would be in the basement making demo tapes. Lynn wrote a lot of music that was recorded by other people. One such musician was Hank Thompson who recorded “The Wild Side of Life”, about a guy stuck at home with the kids while his wife was out hitting the honky tonks. Then Kitty Wells recorded the answer to that, “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels”. That’s a genre of country music called “Honky Tonk”, which became popular when Lance was playing. It’s about cheatin’ and drinkin’ and truck drivin’. Hank Thompson bought a song from Lynn Russwurm outright, so that Lynn gave up the copyright and royalties, something that wouldn’t happen today. After that Lynn and Hank co-wrote a number of songs, sharing the credit.
14m35s
Lance particularly remembers one song, “I Cast A Lonesome Shadow”. It was on a number of Hank Thompson albums, but it was never a hit, probably too weird for the country musicians of the time. Merle Travis, the inventor or finger picking or “Travis Picking” plays on the song. There were some royalties, not much, and the song appeared in collections from time to time. But then in 2003 (not 1999) it was covered by Martin Gore of Depeche Mode, and suddenly the song made some wild royalties. Lynn and Hank Thompson had no idea who Depeche Mode was, but got a kick out of it. Later “I Cast A Lonesome Shadow” became popular with rockabilly bands, and then a recording by Sonny Crockett was used on the TV series “American Gods.”
Lance says “The song has legs.” Lynn sold a number of songs to other musicians as well. Lance reminisces about Lynn and Laura performing on “The Barn Dance Show” on CKNX radio. Lance played on some Barn Dance shows in the 1970s. Lynn did a revival in the 1980s, and with Earl Heywood revived the live performances in the 1990s. There are still occasional Barn Dance revivals today.
24m30s
Lance talks about the start of the Elmira Sunday concerts. Lynn started playing in the Elmira Gore Park gazebo, at first to a few dozen people, and eventually to hundreds of people who were spilling out of the park and blocking the road. Lance took over in 2016, but shut down because of Covid in 2020. Then the concerts resumed in 2023 in Gibson Park where there was more room. It’s the only place where you can get real Country music these days.
Talking about songwriting. Lance has written about 25 or 30 songs, but Lynn wrote over 700. Lance talks about his CD, about one third his dad’s songs, one third his songs, and one third classic country songs.
35m45s
Hot Gen!Music was not Lance’s full-time gig, he was a commercial artist. Specializing in old mechanical things, old house, old airplanes, old trains. One print that’s well known in the area of the old Kitchener city hall at Christmas time. Lance has a lot of art in the Hamilton Warplane Museum. It’s not an art gallery, but a museum where they restore old planes. Lance was selling his art out of a gallery in St. Jacobs, where he met some people from the museum which rekindled his interest in old planes. An old school friend who became a pilot now flies the Lancaster bomber out of the museum. Lance hasn’t just painted pictures of planes, he’s painted the planes themselves — nose art and engine art. Lance tell stories of flying in those planes.
42m39s
Lance has also painted murals all over Southern Ontario, starting with the firehall in New Hamburg. He’s trying to be retired, so he’s turned down some jobs for murals. He wants to concentrate on other hobbies, like model trains. Between both art and music, Lance feels he’s spread too thin, not an expert at either. He enjoys blending the art and music, like making the cover for his CD.
Analyzing the musicology of Bob Dylan’s music. The phrasing of his songs is the way people talk. Jimi Hendrix and Mark Knopfler sing with Bob Dylan’s phrasing. Bob Dylan had a huge influence on music. Lance relates his progression through musical genres.
52m25s
Lance gives a recap of the Elmira Sunday Night Concerts. Lance does some Travis Fingerpicking to play out the show while Bob gives the credits.
CKMS Community Connections airs on CKMS-FM 102.7 from 3:00pm to 4:00pm on Mondays.
Poems of Divine Power: Solutions – from July 31st. Annielean and Richard reading from Annielean’s book: POEMS OF DIVINE POWER II, chapter, THE SUSTAINING CORD. Page, 69.
My music is also available at golenkazzian.bandcamp.com and can be heard 24/7 at https://www.youtube.com/@GolenKazzian or https://hello.citrus3.com:2020/public/gokazz (24/7 radio station)
ERITREAN COMMUNITY RADIO 02 AUGUST 2026 SHOW, ARTICLES ABOUT INTERNATIONAL FRIENDSHIP DAY, INTERVIEW WITH YOTAM YONAS (9 YEARS OLD STUDENT) , INTRODUCING VILLAGES AND CITEIS FROM KEREN TO BARENTU , AUDIENCE MESSAGES , ONTARIO WEATHER FORECAST.
Michael Druker of TriTAG joins Bob Jonkman to talk about all things transport, traffic, and transit. Michael tells Bob about the history and the work that TriTAG does, how TriTAG performs its advocacy, some interesting details on the Light Rail Transit project and Phase Two now being built to Cambridge, how Phase Two can avoid the pitfalls of transit projects in other cities, other projects of TriTAG like the Frequent Transit Network, and the resources available on the TriTAG website.
Michael Druker introduces TriTAG, a local organization that’s been around since 2009, that’s all about people being able to more easily walk, bike, and take transit in Waterloo Region. The advocacy takes place through events, info tables at events, but the focus is on the website, the newsletter, news roundups, and the deep dives they do on policy topics and advocacy focus. There will be an election questionnaire for the upcoming municipal election. Sometimes TriTAG presents at municipal councils, and will sometimes reach out to staff or politicians, but mostly they encourage the public to get in touch with their elected officials.
6m50s
Right now the City of Kitchener is working on their Mobility Master Plan, something where more public input can really make a difference in what gets prioritized. It’s possible to be invested in a policy that’s just not possible due to, for example, budget constraints. Providing positive feedback as well as negative is very valuable; positive voices is something staff and politicians will listen to; they like to know their efforts are appreciated. But it’s easy to take things for granted when they are going well. Is it social media that’s responsible for negativity with council projects? Not just transport but housing and finance. TriTAG can offer a balanced view. It’s not useful to despair or not despair based on the social media algorithms. Michael has not seen a trend, either positive or negative, driven by social media. There are things that capture people’s imagination, in a way that other things don’t, even though they’re important. It depends on how much work is put into public engagement.
12m11s
Introduction to Cold Shoulder by Awake & Dreaming.
Does TriTAG reach out to the province on provincial transporation issues? Not really, most of their advocacy is local.
16m48s
Michael gives some of the history of TriTAG, starting in 2009 with the “Waterloo Region Rapid Transit Project.” Even then, the vision of TriTAG was to give people a choice is choosing their mode of transport: Walking, biking, transit. The issues even extend to land use. TriTAG lost some steam after Light Rail Transit was established in Waterloo Region, but it is now getting a fresh start. Even if transport issues appeas completely solved, there will still be a role for TriTAG. Bases on past performance, there will be lots to do in the future. Even now, there is an approved project for Phase Two of the LRT to Cambridge.
21m30s
The LRT was planned in two phases, there was no way that the entire project could have been funded in one phase. But now that Phase One is done, it does what it was designed to do, and people like it. This matters to people, who want to live next to the LRT. Now we need to bring this to Cambridge, but why stop there? One of the themes in the transit world is the cost of transit construction. When the LRT was proposed, it seemed like a really expensive project, but that was because it seemed unproven. Now that it does work, the cost on a comparative scale was pretty low. That’s not the case in other areas (Toronto’s Eglinton Crosstown LRT, Finch West LRT), and there are knowable reasons for why that happened. We want to take better charge of those reasons when we build Phase Two to Cambridge. If we build cost-effectively, then we can build even more transit infrastructure.
25m56s
What’s the resistance to Phase Two of the LRT? The project is approved, there’s an approved route, although there are some land use questions. Today, the actual barrier is funding — the Region of Waterloo is seeking upper level funding. Bob has heard that costs for Phase Two have ballooned; Michael says that cost estimates have ballooned. The cost estimates have gone up, in part from using the same poor cost practices used in the Toronto LRT projects. But we don’t have to follow the lead of those projects, we can follow the lead of Phase One and build it more cost-effectively. TriTAG hopes that funding can be used for programs that are more than just Phase Two. If we keep building, build in stages, build as we build other infrastructgure, then we keep the knowledge of how to build transit. Michael thinks that the main start will probably be delayed until after the municipal election, but there are other small projects that have prepared for LRT construction.
Other projects TriTAG is working on: “Frequent Transit Network”, already in the business plan for Grand River Transit. Frequent transit is a game changer, at 10-15 minute frequency the service changes qualitatively, people don’t have to allocate time for route planning and waiting for transfers. There are already some frequent routes, the challenge is to add frequency on other routes and to make it consistent, on evenings and weekends. TriTAG has just written an article: Why GRT needs a Frequent Transit Network. People already understand frequent transit from other cities and subway systems. Some people in rural areas would be happy with any transit service at all. Frequent service should be cheap and simple, no additional infrastructure is required, no additional ticketing systems, no new bus stops, only some extra buses and operators. Michael says some routes are already doing frequent service at busy times, although additional bus service will require more maintenance and may wear out the buses faster. But the GRT fleet is fairly new, Michael says buses have a service life of about 14 years. Bob has lived in places where the buses were 20 years old.
44m12s
Talking about the things available on the TriTAG website https://www.tritag.ca/: Newsletters, a weekly news roundup with mobility news, walking, biking, transit, and land use, highlighting what people can get involved in, consultations, feedback, events, plus there are analysis posts, and a series on LRT expansion called IONize Waterloo Region. People can subscribe to the newsletter and news roundup, and follow on the TriTAG social media accounts. Bob mentions an article Kitchener to Stratford by Transit. Michael lists a few other good articles, and reminds us of the upcoming muncipal election.
46m10s
Bob thanks Michael and gives the end credits.
CKMS Community Connections airs on CKMS-FM 102.7 from 3:00pm to 4:00pm on Mondays.
This segment with Regime Radio was aired on July 23rd and includes Tristan and Elliot performing at the July 17th, 100th Anniversary of The Royal Canadian Legion Branch 126 in Preston Cambridge. For video clips, go to Radio Waterloo on Instagram. Information about the RCL www.legion.ca
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