Hitting the airwaves for the first time in 1927, CKUA is Canada’s first public, educational broadcaster. The secret to CKUA’s sound – and success – is the diverse mix of music programming, featuring amazing artists from multiple genres you won’t find on commercial radio. After 97 years, you could say CKUA is Alberta’s original mixtape.
“We were established at the University of Alberta, which is why our call letters are CKUA, Marc Carnes, CEO, explains. We are actually older than the CBC. The idea was that the University of Alberta wanted to find a new way to deliver education programming. They got a $600 grant for this newfangled thing called radio, set up a station and off they went! Today, we remain an independent organization that is donor supported. This allows us to work in the best interests of our listeners and our customer base.”
In 2012, CKUA moved its headquarters from Jasper Ave and 105 Street to its current location across from the Edmonton Convention Centre, and the iconic red brick facade of the building is also a tie to the province’s history.
The Alberta Hotel started its life as a saloon in 1883. It was torn down in 1984 and the bricks from its 1903 façade were retained. Local architect Gene Dub later rebuilt the “hotel” downtown and CKUA purchased the project and moved in. In addition to housing leaseable office space and full scale broadcasting studios, the lower level houses CKUA’s archive and music library, which holds more than 1.5 million songs and 130,000 artifacts, including first or early recordings from the likes of Sarah McLachlan and Gordon Lightfoot. The archive also contains unique treasures, such as broadcasting equipment that spans the 1800s to present day; a copy of decades of broadcasts, which preserves the history of Alberta itself; original vinyl records that were used to relay news and entertainment from Hollywood to boost the morale of U.S. troops building the highway to Alaska; Beatles albums and other records with songs scratched out as they were too “risqué” for the times; Vogue vinyl with original hand-painted artwork and so much more.
A standout feature of the Alberta Hotel is the sizeable public performing space flanked by floor-to-ceiling windows, designed to host events of all kinds, with a focus on local talent and non-profit organization’s presentations.
In 2016, CKUA expanded its footprint in Calgary and once again, took up residence in a historic building.
CKUA’s Calgary Foundation Studio is housed in Studio Bell, which is also the home of the National Music Centre. That building began its life as the King Edward Hotel, one of Calgary’s first hotels, in rowdy “Whiskey Row.” After functioning as a blues bar in the ’70s and ’80s, the doors closed, and the building went silent. It was restored in 2016 and rejoins Calgary as part of the vibrant live music and entertainment scene. From this location, CKUA broadcasts a third of the station’s shows.
“With 16 transmitters across Alberta, we have a really strong connection to the local community in both cities and a really good footprint in the province,” says Carnes.
This year marks CKUA’s 97th anniversary, and as the countdown to the centennial begins, Carnes is just as excited for the future as he is about the station’s past.
“CKUA’s centennial will be a national first for public broadcasting. We have already started planning for the event.”
An ongoing part of CKUA’s daily life, and the upcoming celebration, is the focus on the station’s supporters.
Carnes explains, “In 1997, the Government of Alberta’s Access Network flicked the switch one night and just like that, we were off the air. The local community immediately rallied and launched a province-wide fundraising campaign to get us back as an independent entity.”
While the station itself advocated for reinstatement, a great deal of the rallying cry came directly from the community. Albertans did not want to be without CKUA.
Bud Steen, Lindsay Hood (who would later become CKUA’s current board chair) and the late former Senator Tommy Banks were just three of the many who led the charge. Listeners from all walks of life rallied with gusto.
The significance of this is not lost on Carnes.
“In 1997 internet wasn’t yet a media source. In 1996, we were the first Canadian radio station to start streaming. For people to discover independent, non-commercial music and cultural programming, they had to make a choice. They had to put on the radio and choose us among other stations that played top 40 hits. They had to choose us among talk radio stations, and sports programming. Yet, choose us they did. We still hear from listeners about how they felt about waking up to static on that day in 1997. They rose up to bring us back.”
“CKUA is more than a radio station. We are more like a 97-year old startup with 91 cultural sector workers that predates the internet, podcasts, CDs and even 8-tracks. We adapt, we are entrepreneurial and we have become part of the identity of Alberta and our listeners.”
The heart of CKUA has always been able to flex with changes around it, and this, says Carnes, is what keeps the station going.
“Many commercial radio stations and media organizations struggle through digital disruption due to an advertising-based format or being merged with larger media groups that are not connected to the local community. The wonderful thing about us is that we run very little advertising, just four minutes an hour. We are not beholden to advertisers or shareholders. We are beholden to our listeners.”
“So,” he continues, “we are relentlessly obsessed with our listeners. Customer focus is a very big deal when you give away an annual $10-million product for free and then ask the customers to help you keep the lights on; and we do it with 1 per cent of our budget from government funding, creating incredible return on public investment. The key to everything we do focuses on our listeners and artists. We are not here to sell as many ads as possible. We are here to connect the community. Our hosts include musicians, artists, record label owners and teachers. They live and breathe their art and are incredibly genuine. It is easy to connect with them over the air. We also don’t do news. We are a source of positivity that the world needs so much right now. Our community focus is what keeps our listener numbers growing year over year.”
From the educational station based at the university to the dual city broadcaster with listeners in 100 countries it is today, CKUA consistently punches above its weight. The station features more than 3,000 Canadian independent artists each year, and a thousand from Alberta, many who go on to achieve international fame. The hosts provide 127.5 hours of weekly programing, including Stony Plain Records Founder Holger Petersen, whose show, Natch’l Blues has run on CKUA for 55 years; and Terry David Mulligan, who is known for, among other things, his time during the heyday of MuchMusic. In the last five years, CKUA has introduced 15 new hosts that are proving to become just as popular as the long-running favourites.
“We cannot say thank you enough to our donors,” says Carnes. “They are there for us day in and day out. We provide a free service. We are a free-market enterprise competing with billion-dollar media and streaming services. Without government funding or private equity behind us, we let the market decide what we are worth. Last year, 14,000 donors contributed $6-million. That level of voluntary contribution really speaks to the strength of our brand, focus on community and importance as an independent arts-focused Albertan hub.”
With nearly 100 years of history, where can CKUA go from here? The answer is – anywhere and everywhere.
Carnes concludes, “We are a platform empowering hundreds of artists, businesses, festivals and venues annually. We are a driver of many millions in cultural and tourism spending in Western Canada. We are an archive with the physical history of Aberta on literal record. We are a community resource that the public would not let go of when taken off the air in 1997. Where do we go from here? The same direction we have always travelled. Up.”
April is CKUA’s spring fundraising month. An investment in CKUA provides an outstanding personal and community ROI. Learn more about “Alberta’s mixtape” and how you can be a part of it as a supporter, presenter or musician by visiting CKUA.com.
Calgary Foundation Studio at the
National Music Centre – 851 4 Street SE
Calgary, Alberta T2G 1P2
