CKUA receives ‘life-changing’ $11M in federal funding

One of Canada's first radio stations is getting a financial boost from the federal government.

Edmonton’s CKUA Radio Foundation is getting $10.9 million from the federal government to continue and expand the local music, arts and culture programming it has been producing for nearly 100 years.

“It’s a historic day for CKUA,” Alberta Morning host Grant Stovel told CTV News Edmonton.

“This makes the long-term prospects of CKUA and the ways that we can continue to grow and expand and evolve to meet the changing world and our expanding audience… much more exciting and much more feasible.”

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The funding from PrairiesCan will be used in part for renovations in CKUA’s home, the Alberta Hotel, including turning the lobby into a more functional event space and converting the rooftop patio into a three-season event and performance space.

Broadcast system infrastructure upgrades are also on the list, said chief operating officer and acting CEO Adam Mitchell.

Altogether, the plans are expected to create 20 new jobs and help maintain 30 more.

“Some of it is catch up and some of it is new initiative,” Mitchell said of the work. “We will take this opportunity to develop new voices. We will invest in our archives downstairs in the basement, and in some new marketing and communications initiatives, all of which will take new people.”

CKUA will turn 100 in 2027. Since 1997, the broadcaster has been entirely supported by donors.

“That’s part of what makes CKUA really resonate for people, I think,” Stovel commented. “There’s something about CKUA, by its very community-powered nature, that the listener feels drawn to…. CKUA is not a product that’s being marketed at people. It is directly a service that attempts to serve people.”

About 475,000 Albertans tune into CKUA a month.

Those listeners and donors are what kept the radio station on the air long enough to receive the federal funding on Wednesday. CKUA fundraised millions of dollars throughout 2024 to stay on the air waves.

Although the federal funding is “life changing,” Mitchell noted, “We cannot survive without the support of individuals who donate year in and year out.”

Edmonton Centre MP and minister responsible for Prairies Can Eleanor Olszewski presented the money to CKUA on Wednesday.

“(At) this point in our history, especially when we’re being Americanized in terms of our culture, it’s all the more important for Albertan voices and Canadian voices to be heard,” she told CTV News Edmonton.

“(CKUA) is the voice of Edmontonians. It is the voice of Albertans.”

The funding is also expected to attract $10 million in private investment, by CKUA and the federal government’s estimate.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Marek Tkach