Funny money: Legion laughs fund Fort Erie’s only daily news desk

Fort Erie’s only daily local newsroom passed the hat at the Royal Canadian Legion Friday night to help support its eight-person operation without a dollar of government funding.

Fort Erie Radio held a pay-what-you-can comedy fundraiser at Legion Branch 71 on Garrison Road, drawing on Niagara-area standup comics to pitch community support for a newsroom that has published nearly 1,800 original local news stories in just over two years.

The station serves a town of roughly 36,000 residents and reports thousands of monthly readers and listeners, operating entirely on sponsorships, advertising and direct community support.

Brent Jones, Fort Erie Radio’s program director, said the comedians approached the station in January after their performance at the Big Giggle Gala fundraiser in Ridgeway and asked how they could help the newsroom.

“To continue telling this town’s stories at this sort of scale, and to continue to grow, it’s going to take a village to get behind our mission,” said Jones.

The evening featured seven performers, including Jesse Crisp, Dickie Lakeshore, Trevor Cumming and Hamilton comic Becca Bins, all connected to the Talkin’ Funny podcast and the broader Niagara standup circuit.

Lakeshore, whose real name is Richard Gibbs, told the crowd comedy and generosity tend to go together.

“When people are laughing and having a beverage, they’re generous and they’re happy,” said Lakeshore.

A raffle was also held during the show with a Blackstone griddle donated by Fort Erie RONA as the prize.

Jones told the crowd the station’s continued success depends entirely on community support.

“We’re entirely local and independent, so we’ve got all of this without a single dollar of government funding, no grants, nothing like that,” said Jones. “We exist through support from sponsors, advertisers, donors like you guys coming out and helping us out.”

The station runs live 24 hours a day from its studio on Queen Street and reaches listeners through its website, app, Roku, Alexa and Google Home devices.

“We focus exclusively on our small town of less than 40,000 people,” said Jones.

Those interested in supporting the local broadcast and journalism work Fort Erie Radio is doing are invited to make a donation here.

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