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Telile database

Serving over 12,000 households:

-You can reach us on:

-Channel 4 (EastLink)
-Channel 5 (Seaside)
-Channel 10 (Antenna)

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History...

In 1993, a group of forward thinking residents that were working to deal with the closure of the fisheries saw the need for a means of communicating with the public. And in 1994, Telile was born out of the resourcefulness of its residents, and their need to respond to the collapse of the fishery. It is unique in the Maritimes, perhaps in Canada. 

The fisheries crisis made it clear that the Isle Madame community would have to change, and that for the community to pull together, it had to have some kind of internal communications infrastructure. Telile was created to show an example of community development, to build the island's consciousness of itself as a community; and to disseminate the information which the island's people would need in the process of renewal. 

Telile began with a 40-week full time program of training in television production attended by a dozen people. Once trained employees were available, Telile became an operating non-profit company. Unlike most community channels in large towns and cities, Telile is not run by the local cable operator; it is a freestanding, community-owned organization that broadcasts its signal on the cable network. And the dollars raised do not go to an existing community group to maintain a hall or an arena. Instead the money pays for community programming, free ads for community groups and original programming on a variety of topics; and every week in the broadcast season at least one and often two new programs are produced, an amazing accomplishment for a staff of only three. 

Telile was established to support community economic development by informing its audience of local achievements, developments, difficulties and opportunities. It was also designed to be an economic development initiative in itself -- a new non-profit business, creating new jobs in a community that lost 500 jobs in the fishery. It has provided about 45 person-years of employment since its inception. 
Today it is a solvent and viable business with substantial assets and a good business record, which employs three staff full-time, as well as casual labour and summer students. It has produced a range of videos which have focused considerable attention on this little known corner of Cape Breton. Its success makes it an important example of job creation and development. And now, Telile can reach more of the County’s people than ever before. Since the CRTC issued a broadcast license and they went on the air in June of 2002, viewers can watch on Channel 10 using just an antenna. It remains on cable Channel 4 on the RUSH Communications system in western Richmond and on cable channel 5 on the Seaside System in eastern Richmond County and the Glace Bay area. 

Overall, Telile has proven itself to be a remarkable venture in community economic development. It provides a variety of information and entertainment to its audiences, covering music, sports, politics, community events and public affairs. It also serves the cause of development by providing an attractive and effective advertising medium for individuals and businesses in the area. Most importantly, it has proven to be what its founders intended – a facility that enables its audience to exercise their full citizenship.

"You can't participate if you don't know what's going on," says Silver Donald Cameron, Telile's founding chairman. "You can't have real community, and you can't have real democracy, if you don't have communications. Telile's role is to make sure that people here do know what's going on, and do know how they can participate. That's what Telile is all about

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