CKUA Calgary
Since our founding as Canada’s first public and educational broadcaster in 1927, CKUA has offered musical variety and thoughtful, professional programming. Part broadcaster and part arts and culture institution, the heart and soul of CKUA are the 126 hours of new, diverse, and vibrant music programs we present each week. CKUA’s music, arts, and culture programming creates a sense of place for our audience while highlighting the variety and health of the Albertan cultural ecosystem.
We have two vibrant broadcast studios, one in Calgary’s East Village, near the National Music Centre, and one in the historic Alberta Hotel on Jasper Avenue in Edmonton. Our library holds more than a million sound recordings and is both a storied archive and a contemporary, digitized resource for hosts choosing music.
CKUA’s 33 on-air hosts are considered among the most knowledgeable professionals in the industry, curating and presenting the richness of music outside the mainstream. In addition to a mixed music format, some hosts also specialize in programs exploring blues, roots, country, jazz, folk, soul, bluegrass, Celtic, classical, choral, and world music. Whether it is new Indigenous artists, country songs about life on the ranch, or classical pieces commissioned by Alberta composers, CKUA audiences hear their own melodies and the diversity of their experiences through non-commercial programming.
Each year, hosts will spin more than 1,000 Albertan musicians and a further 3,000 Canadian artists, providing a platform for independent, emerging, and established artists not found elsewhere in Canada. CKUA reaches listeners and donors through sixteen transmitters, online streaming, OnDemand, and a mobile app. As a result of all these channels, CKUA is a significant exporter of Albertan-made music, arts, and culture to a world of savvy consumers.
