Small Business Spotlight: The Borderline Radio Soo
Local Sault Ste Marie resident, Adrian Vilaca, was always aware of the artistic talents that the community harboured. Proud of the immense aptitude that the city nurtured and homed, Vilaca wanted to find a way to espouse such talents through the means of broadcasting. Establishing a radio station called The Borderline within the community, Vilaca now promotes Sault Ste. Marie's myriad of artists through its own channel of broadcast.
Article by Meig Campbell
Adrian Vilaca.
"It was many, many years in the making. I started to really do something along these lines a year prior to going on air," Vilaca says of the radio station's early beginnings. The Borderline made its first broadcast in February of last year. Vilaca has been an event promoter around the city and had grown accustomed to seeing the local artists perform and was eager for them to receive more exposure. The Borderline has since become a radio station that provides a source of entertainment and artistry for the city by featuring local artists from Sault Ste. Marie and other surrounding areas.
To have The Borderline in Sault Ste. Marie was particularly important, Vilaca has stated, and it wouldn't be in any other place. To facilitate the talents of the city to an accessible broadcasting station was not just vital for the artists, but for the city, the residents, and those from Sault Ste. Marie that have moved elsewhere.
Hearing an audible piece of home is what The Borderline gives to those who are homesick for Sault Ste. Marie, in addition to showcasing the talents within the city that deserve to be heard. To Vilaca, Sault Ste. Marie is the pinnacle of artistic talent that even many locals may not be aware of. The unheard talents of its residents are being utilized and displayed by The Borderline, for residential, national, and international consumption.
"Let us tell our story, and not let others tell our story for us," Vilaca exclaims regarding allocating space for the people of Sault Ste Marie to tell their stories.
Vilaca is very ardent about how special and significant the artistic community is in the city and how unique and distinctive the city and its history are. With the immense amount of actors, painters, singers, poets, and writers that live in the community, Vilaca maintains that Sault Ste. Marie is a city that homes one of the largest populations of artistry in Canada-a substantial amount of artistic visions that helps The Borderline thrive.
"Not every city has thousands of musicians and songwriters at its midst. It's a very unique dynamic," Vilaca says about the diverse and vast community of artists in Sault Ste. Marie, and when hearing The Borderline broadcast, the talents amongst the city are boundless and remarkable. While the talent in the community that drives The Borderline to air is unmistakable, those working behind the scenes, like Vilaca, have worked hard to ensure their broadcast is consistent and entertaining for their listeners. From an initial soft launch that garnered listeners from the area in February of 2020, The Borderline has since accumulated thousands of avid listeners from over 40 countries. The Borderline has used word of mouth and their website to promote their programming that is steadily gaining traction with each passing month. With such fantastic progressions already underway, Vilaca's hopes for The Borderline's future are promising and assured.
"My goal is to introduce Sault Ste. Marie to the world and have the world recognize the beauty of it," Vilaca says cheerfully, cementing the adoration he clearly has for Sault Ste. Marie.
