7 years strong: Penticton’s community radio station hits another milestone

Published 5:00 pm Saturday, February 7, 2026

It was a day that changed Okanagan community radio forever, and one Claire Thompson will never forget.

A group of excited volunteers raced inside the Penticton studios of CFUZ 92.9 on Feb. 1, 2019, eagerly awaiting the independent radio station to make its debut on the FM dial.

Seven years later, the station is as strong as ever — and not going away anytime soon.

“What I love about community radio is that the people you’re listening to are your friends and neighbours,” said Thompson, the president of the Peach City Radio Society, as she and several other volunteers celebrated the station’s seventh “ONAIRversary” on Feb. 7.

“Everyone here is super passionate about what they’re doing because you have to be. It takes a lot of time and energy to put on a show.”

Shows are something CFUZ 92.9 FM has no shortage of.

Locally-driven spoken word and music programming are regularly slotted in the station’s daily rundown. All of which, including one of the station’s longest-running shows, Left Off the Dial, is produced by local volunteers.

The station’s always-growing list of programming is already a hit with Penticton listeners. It wouldn’t be odd to see a vehicle on Main Street sporting a CFUZ bumper sticker.

But its content is also getting attention outside local circles.

Left Off the Dial, for instance, is now syndicated in Smithers, B.C., and Saint John, N.B.

Another program, Autistic Small Talk, is also syndicated and heard in Fredericton, N.B.

It all comes as the station, located at 1475 Fairview Rd., renovates its space and adds a second studio.

“We’ve had quite a few new shows in the last little while,” Thompson said. “We’ve put so much time into this station expansion project, we’re going to have more time to get more training happening, and I think we’re going to see that growth accelerate.”

This weekend’s “ONAIRversary,” which falls at the end of Community Radio Week in Penticton, also serves as the station’s largest fundraiser of the year.

Thompson said around $18,000 was raised in support of CFUZ at the event in 2025. This year, she and her fellow volunteers are shooting for the $20,000 mark.

“All the money that comes into the station stays in the station to pay our rent, pay our licensing, pay our heat,” Thompson said, adding that money raised will also go toward updating and buying equipment.

For more than six years, Peach City Radio was the Okanagan’s lone independent, community radio station on the FM dial.

That changed in October 2025 when the Vernon Community Radio Society began to operate CFAV-FM (97.9 Valley FM).

When asked what the future holds for CFUZ 92.9 FM in Penticton, Thompson was optimistic, noting she hopes the station can grow its regional base.

“Longer term, we definitely want to have a bigger transmitter,” she said. “Right now, we’re at 50 watts, so it’s limited geographically how far people can tune in on FM.”

Going “to that next level,” Thompson added, will cost around $20,000.

“That would be ideal if we could find a mountain location, too, and get that signal out further,” she said. “As soon as people tune in from their cars, that’s when we get more interest.”

CFUZ Peach City Radio can also be heard online at cfuz.ca, anytime, anywhere.

It was first broadcast online in the early 2010s before it was added to FM.

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