Inside CKUT, Montreal's 38-year Experiment in Community Radio

90.3 FM has been the mic for the mic-less for nearly four decades, kept alive by 300 volunteers and the belief that a homemade sound can be a beautiful thing.

ByMadeline Lines

November 11, 2025 · 8 min read

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Flip the dial to 90.3 FM anywhere around Montreal at noon on a Friday and you’ll hear the smooth voice of Tony “Butcher T” Scharschmidt (a nickname he earned from ‘slicing up’ music and intercutting tracks on the air). This has been true for over 30 years. The longtime jockey slices up a mix of assorted “Noon Time Cuts”—reggae, RnB, soca, hip hop, and often just what he’s feeling for the day—in between his upbeat interjections and song IDs. It’s always a sunny jolt of pre-weekend optimism.

“It’s my own self-inflicted musical medication that I enjoy playing for myself – I spread it out there for people,” says Scharschmidt. “So I think that's what CKUT has done for me, allow me to spread that.”

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