Still some life in Stylus Magazine

North End

Stylus Magazine, a local music magazine, has been around since 1989. Published by the University of Winnipeg’s campus radio station, CKUW, it functions as both program guide and as a chronicler of this city’s vibrant music scene. The coolest thing is that it’s free.

Stylus is a bi-monthly magazine and, like The Uniter, the U of W’s student newspaper, Stylus offers free orientation classes to volunteers, teaching them how write articles and hone journalism skills. I’ve had the pleasure of contributing to both publications as a journalist and photographer over the years.

Since 2023, I’ve been distributing Stylus to various music stores, bookstores, live clubs, coffee shops and other cool places in Winnipeg (36 drops – 1,000 magazines) with editor Keeley Braunstein-Black doing the Winnipeg Public Library drops (350). I got the job by answering an ad in the magazine calling for a one-page essay with my answers to five questions. Question 3 asked: Why do you want this job? In a nutshell, I stated my passion for the wonderful and enthusiastic music scene this city has to offer and the fact I loved the magazine and its stories highlighting local music and musicians.

Sadly, owing to a funding dispute between CKUW and the University of Winnipeg Students’ Association, funding is being cut for Stylus, and its future is very much in doubt. The long-awaited and delayed September/October/November/December issue didn’t hit the street until Jan. 14. It was supposed to be the last issue but, fortunately two more issues will be rolling out with the next one coming right before CKUW 95.9FM’s FunDrive in February.

CKUW has been operating since 1963, when it began as a closed-circuit, campus-only operation. It won a broadcast license in 1998, and, like Stylus and The Uniter, it has a skeleton crew of paid staff, with most of the DJs being volunteers (it also provides free training for volunteer DJs). Like public television stations in the U.S., most of CKUW’s funding is provided by donations from listeners and community members though its annual FunDrive campaign every February. Every donor gets a ‘friend card’ which gives you discounts at many local businesses. Other incentives include cool T-shirts and hoodies. One year, I got a really cool, battery-powered mason jar radio tuned solely to CKUW.

I’d like to encourage readers to check out CKUW. Its programming includes not only all genres of music but also talk shows and current events programs. You can find the CKUW show guide in Stylus Magazine. Keeley tells me that the magazine will still be published online but remains hopeful that we could see it in print in the future. Indeed, when I did my last drops, many people at the various venues expressed what a loss it would be for Winnipeg if we lost Stylus.