CKUA is a donor-supported broadcaster that inspires and connects through the power of music, arts, culture, and story.
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 the historic Alberta Hotel on Jasper Avenue in Edmonton, and one in Calgary’s East Village, near the National Music Centre. 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.
CKUA further benefits hundreds of artists, businesses, festivals, and venues, which leverage our reach to promote their work, sell tickets, and create jobs and volunteer opportunities in communities across Alberta each year. Our support for local, emerging, and touring musicians is legendary, and many artists have told us that the first time they heard their music played on the radio was on CKUA.
CKUA’s vision is to create a better world connected by music, arts, and culture, and we are committed to providing this for anyone who wants to listen, regardless of their age, location, or circumstance. We’re dedicated to exploring the best in music, arts, and culture while shining a light on some of our brightest trailblazers and newest creators.
In the spirit of our journey to promote reconciliation, we honour the truth of the shared history and acknowledge that we operate on Treaty 6 and Treaty 7 territories.
Treaty 6 territory is the traditional gathering place for diverse Indigenous peoples including the Cree, Blackfoot, Métis, Nakoda, Sioux, Iroquois, Dene, Ojibway, Saulteaux/Anishinaabe and many others whose histories, languages and cultures continue to influence our vibrant community of Amiskwaciwaskahigan also known as Edmonton.
Treaty 7 is the traditional lands of the Blackfoot Confederacy which includes the Siksika, Kainai and Pikani, the Tsuut’ina and the Stoney Nakoda nations including the Chiniki, Bearspaw and Wesley nations. We also recognize the Métis people and the Inuit who make their home here in Mohkins’tsis, also known as Calgary.
