Offering people a deep dive into the Pontiac’s rich history, writer, Linda Sparks, a writer and Jacob Lavigne of CHIP-FM have started recording a Podcast Project on the Outaouais’ first pioneers. the project was created in partnership with CHIP-FM and the Regional Association of West Quebecers (RAWQ).

To drum up some fanfare, RAWQ invited Sparks to their Zoom event, Coffee Chats, on Jan. 13, to introduce . . .

the project. Coffee Chats are hosted every other Thursday, bringing community members together to discuss a range of topics. They are hosted and moderated by Hayley Campbell, the Community Engagement Officer.

This project came about because Sparks was interested in the history of the Outaouais and the lives of the pioneers in this region. She wanted to better understand who these pioneers were and why they migrated here. “Somebody might already read about the history in this area but I wanted to get more personal, what were they like, and what did they feel,” said Sparks during the Zoom event.

Currently living in Aylmer, Sparks started her career in journalism writing articles for the Aylmer Bulletin and the West Quebec Post, including her own weekly column entitled The Faces of West Quebec. Sparks also has experience writing for films and plays, so when it came to writing a proposal for the podcast, Sparks felt comfortable doing it.

It was only when it came to the technology aspect that she felt nervous but that’s where the partnership with her host Lavigne came in handy. “I thought ‘okay, well, how do we put this all together? I can’t do the technical part of it’, and so I found Jacob through Linkedin and I thought ‘yes, that’s the person I need,’” said Sparks.

Sparks didn’t initially set out to do a podcast. She hadn’t even known about the existance of podcasting until she came across it one day, because her husband was listening to what sounded like the radio but wasn’t.

Lavigne, the host of the podcast, graduated from ESSC in Fort-Coulonge in 2015 and got his college diploma from Algonquin College in Television Broadcasting in 2019. Born and raised in Otter Lake, Lavigne has worked for CHIP 101.9, the community radio station in the Pontiac, since 2019.

Once the connection was made, Spark’s role was doing the research, finding interviewees and writing up a podcast script. There are a total of eight episodes recorded, four in English and four in French. Executive Director, Jeanne Nivischiuk explained that this was done intentionally. “What we wanted to do was make sure that the information would be available in the language that people were most comfortable with.”

In order to provide content in French and English Sparks had to find historians who were comfortable speaking in both languages to deliver the same story to listeners.

Working on this project taught Sparks that history is a vital tool to teach us how to improve our future by understanding our past. “We have a history that, if we forget about it, we’re going to forget where we came from, and we’re going to forget where we’re going,” said Sparks.

Putting the podcast together, was challenging, one aspect Sparks highlighted was scheduling everyone since it was all done remotely, but said “we always managed to get it together.” Being a person who is not used to working remotely, it was an adjustment at first, but that didn’t stop her because she had support from her team. She said, “I had Jean and Haley, they were always there covering my back, and I had Jacob who was very sweet too.”

One of the thrilling parts about working on the podcast Sparks pointed out was seeing something she put on paper pushed past the finish line. “To me, that’s the exciting part just to get the project off the ground.”

“I’m hoping it just helps a lot of people realize the gem of this area, and all the hard work that was put into it by all the people and how we’re still trying to keep together and we’re still trying to build our communities,” Sparks told The Equity.

The podcast is currently in the works and will roll out by the end of spring for all community members to listen to through CHIP-FM.

Jacob Lavigne and Linda Sparks of CHIP-FM have started recording a Podcast Project on the Outaouais’ first pioneers which is set to air on CHIP-FM in the spring.

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