When I call CEO Marc Carnes for an update on CKUA Radio, I catch him in a brief pause as he and his staff prep for one of Alberta’s most-beloved music festivals.
“It’s the calm before the Folk Fest storm,” he says. “But everyone’s still buzzing around like busy little bees.”
While it may be one of the biggest, the Edmonton Folk Festival is just one of over 50 fests featuring hundreds of artists CKUA will highlight across Alberta this year. Carnes says it’s very common for listeners to travel far and wide to fests big and small to see in person artists they first heard on CKUA airwaves, making the station a critical — and unique — part of Alberta’s festival ecosystem.
“There is no other provincial radio station, and our listeners spend millions of dollars in tourism and entertainment money that goes into the pockets of artists and into local venues and communities. We’re giving a spotlight to artists and organizations that wouldn’t get this anywhere else, so there’s actually a real return to our province as well. And I think it’s really important that the government knows that part of the story.”
The story the government knows is that CKUA needs money to remain operational. And listeners have been telling that story ever since 6,778 of them raised $1.8 million over 13 days back in April (as of writing, more donations have brought the current total to $2.2 million cash in hand). Carnes then went on air to thank listeners and ask them to “get out [their] pencils, pens and keyboards” to write letters to the federal government urging it to supply the remaining money CKUA needs to keep broadcasting. “CKUA is not looking for a hand-out — we are looking for fairness,” Carnes said back in May.
Back in 2012, CKUA undertook a capital campaign to rebuild its home, the historic Alberta Hotel. The City and Province contributed $5 million each, which was 10 times more than the Feds’ $500,000. This forced CKUA to take out a $6 million loan and carry its costs ever since, which it’s been able to do — until the pandemic. Since then, costs have inflated and some Alberta Hotel tenants have left, resulting in a “pretty quick bleed over the past 18 months.” Because the province does not service debt — in this case, debt the station took on to make up for the federal shortfall — the station, its listeners and the artists they support must fend for themselves.
“There was a lot of finger pointing between the Province and the Feds,” Carnes says. “It’s the classic Alberta-versus-Ottawa scenario.”
Despite being Canada’s first public and educational broadcaster (since 1927), and despite supporting Albertan artists and communities (and reaching listeners and donors across the country) from a beloved local building, the Federal government doesn’t recognize CKUA as an arts or heritage institution.
The reason, Carnes says, is “because we broadcast, and their financial interest is in funding the CBC as the public broadcaster — even though they’re turning around and bailing out private broadcasters right now, trying to prop up a failing business model in private media. But we don’t need to be propped up — we just need help to get out of this perfect storm.”
So, the station needs your help — with donations, always, but also to hammer home to the federal government how important this cultural institution is to our province and country, and for it to recognize the station as a public good. Fill out CKUA’s letter-writing template and submit a letter to federal Ministers and your local MP. You can submit the ready-made letter or add your own personal CKUA love story (the station also suggests mailing an old-school, physical letter to make a bigger impact).
With over 470,000 people tuning in across the country, CKUA knows you’re listening. Now it needs you to get writing. “Our listeners are very loud and proud, which is what we want. People are taking the time to put their own stories into the letters, which is something that’s really special. It’s not just spam it out as quick as we can — people are actually taking the time and sharing why the CKUA community is so important to them.”
