Spartan Youth Radio started off as a small podcast and has quickly morphed into something much, much bigger! Here are some of the highlights:

SEASON 6 (2011-2012)
Here are some highlights from the season so far:

• We won a $1000 grant from the Ontario Ministry of Education's SpeakUp! Grant to run our annual Muse event.
• We hosted auditions and arranged for a busload of our fans to be background extras in the film production The Lesser Blessed.  We also hung out with three of the actors (Kiowa Gordon, Chloe Rose and Joel Evans)
• Canada's beloved storyteller Stuart McLean was in Sudbury and we spent some time with him.
• Municipalities Sagamok Anishnabek, the Township of Sables-Spanish Rivers and the Town of Espanola come on board as sponsors.
• The Stanley Cup was in our midst and we got an interview with the Keeper of the Cup, Howie Burrow.
• Country music musician Larry Berrio was interviewed at the 104th Annual Massey Fair
• Spartan Youth Radio receives it's first business sponsor: Flymart who became Copper Club Sponsors.

SEASON 5 (2010-2011)
Spartan Youth Radio has been producing incredible content for FIVE years now and we're not letting up! Here are some highlights from the season so far:

• Spartan Youth Radio alumni Kaitlyn Dougon and Madeline Lemire each won the 2011 Spartan Youth Radio Bursary recognizing their long-term contributions to SYR.
• Comedian/actor/activist Rick Mercer visited the studio and sat down with our very own Madeline Lemire.
• We visited the set of A Little Bit Zombie and spoke with director Casey Walker and actors Shawn Roberts and Kristen Hagar.
• We celebrated our fifth birthday by holding the Muse Coffeehouse, a night of entertainment and food.
• MP Carol Hughes presented SYR with a letter of congratulations signed by Leader of the Opposition Jack Layton for our fifth anniversary.
• The Ontario Council for International Cooperation sponsored a two-day extensive film making workshop for our staff.
• Spartan Youth Radio won $3,500.00 from the World Wildlife Fund's Green CommUnity Fund to purchase new video equipment and develop five environmental documentary projects.
• Spartan Youth Radio applied for and received a $1,000.00 grant from the Ministry of Education's SpeakUp!Program to fund a mini-conferences featured TED-style Talks at Espanola High School
• Spartan Youth Radio Staff Manager Madeline Lemire was featured on iChannel's hit show @Issue, seen across Canada in November 2010.
• The National Post discovered our Margaret Atwood story and ran two articles (1, 2) about her assertion that the moon landing never happened.

SEASON 4 (2009-2010)
From our first big interview of the season, with NDP leader Jack Layton, was recorded a week BEFORE we even opened the studio for the fall, to the end of June, Season 4 was a HUGE year of incredible guests, big money and lots of exposure. We followed that up with interviews with:

• with world famous survivor expert LES STROUD aka SURVIVORMAN
• Toronto-based rockers OLIVER PRIDEcreepy actor ADAM WILSON
• Country music sensation CRYSTAL SHAWANDA (twice!)
• Alt rock band MOTHER MOTHER
• steampunker VERNIAN PROCESS
• prairie rockers THE WEAKERTHANS
• wheelchair-bound jungle explorer LAWRENCE POOLE
• Toronto-based singer/songwriter NADJIWAN
• rapper KIDD RUSSELL
• The highlight of the season were our in-person interviews with world-famous, multiple-award winning author and activist MARGARET ATWOOD, our backstage visit with multiple-Juno winners BILLY TALENT and our behind the scenes tour of the sci-fi horror thriller PHASE ONE where we met some of the stars including JOHN BREGAR and TRAVIS VAN WINKLE.
• You would think that all of these interviews would be the high point of the year when, in fact, a $20,000 donation from Best Buy Canada! We used a $20 camera to film a 2 minute zombie movie which we used as part of our application for a Best in Class grant. We were one of fifteen schools chosen and used the money to build two media mini-labs and purchase video cameras, software, still cameras and other gadgets.