Alberta’s Voice for Music, Arts & Culture

The CKUA Radio Network was founded in 1927 on the University of Alberta campus in Edmonton. CKUA is Canada’s first educational broadcaster and Canada’s first public broadcaster.

Since its inception, CKUA has grown from a one-room, low-wattage radio station staffed by exceptionally dedicated amateur radio enthusiasts, into a full-fledged radio and Internet broadcast network staffed by world-class broadcast and business professionals.

CKUA has evolved from a government of Alberta operation to a public not-for-profit foundation with a limited commercial license. CKUA currently enjoys over 500,000 monthly listeners and is financially supported by listener donations, program sponsorships, subscriptions, and corporate partnerships.

Through 16 local transmitters, CKUA reaches almost every corner of the province. CKUA also broadcasts in western Canada on select satellite providers and around the world through ckua.com and the CKUA App on Google Play or App Store.

CKUA is a community powered by you!

Music

Our talented roster of hosts and producers are gifted guides to the creative world, drawing from deep knowledge, research, and personal passion for giving our audience the richest possible experience. Each host curates their playlists, unencumbered by genre, decade or “hit lists.” They draw from CKUA’s  legendary library (which holds more than 1 million music recordings collected throughout 140 years) and from their own carefully curated personal collections. From jazz and blues to celtic and bluegrass, CKUA specialty shows dive deep into specific genres. Our eclectic programs give you nothing but the best of… nearly everything.

Arts & Culture

Over the past year, we also made investments in the music, arts, and culture community and the future, including:

• Introducing you to hundreds of new and emerging Albertan and Canadian artists.
• Sharing our airwaves with more than 260 musicians, artists and festivals from established, emerging and diverse communities through our interviews, newsletters and digital content. When COVID took away their ability to tell their stories, CKUA was there to keep them connected to a community of passionate music, arts and culture fans. No other province in Canada has a CKUA equivalent—this was only happening in Alberta.
• Bringing you the untold stories behind the music through the monthly Hidden Track Podcast and showcasing the fascinating work being done by Alberta’s cultural creators from emerging and established voices in music, visual & performing arts, film, television, poetry, literature, animation, comedy, and beyond.

CKUA connects Albertans through 16 FM frequencies across the province.

Who makes CKUA possible? You do, for a start. But you don’t have to do it alone. You’re joined by a team of 31+ hosts, 40+ support staff + volunteers. And, of course, our 12,000 donors, who provide 60 percent of CKUA’s funding. If you haven’t yet joined our dedicated team of donors, we encourage you to join the crew and become a donor or, even better, start a monthly donation!

Where does your donation go?

Donations support general operating costs unless otherwise directed. Combined, our programming ($1.3M) and our transmitter, streaming, and studio costs ($1.5M) account for $2.8M, or ~54% of our operational budget. Find out about the other 56% in our 2019-2020 Annual Report.

Thank you for amplifying Alberta’s voice for music, arts and culture.