CKUA reaches Albertans through its network of 16 FM transmitter sites, and last year, our signal was up nearly 99% of the time. Who are the people who keep that percentage so high?
Meet Gerome Maloloy-on, an engineering technician who works hard to keep the CKUA signal strong, all around the province.
Originally from the Philippines, Maloloy-on trained in electronics engineering and worked at radio stations in that country. Now his CKUA work has brought him to transmitter sites throughout Alberta. In his first week on the job, in 2024, he traveled to Hinton and Edson to see first-hand what is needed to maintain those transmitter sites. Even though he’s working far away from where he originally trained, he says that his work for CKUA includes the same three things any technician would need to know: monitoring, maintenance, and repairs.
“Almost all the equipment in broadcasting is expensive,” he says. “So we try to make the equipment last. We want to prevent failures before they happen.”
Although CKUA’s downtime is minimal, one factor, more than any other, can contribute to CKUA being unavailable through the local FM signal. That factor is the weather! When cold temperatures in winter and heat in summer affect the transmitters, CKUA works with a special group of volunteers, all around the province. Transmitter monitors check in on the transmitter sites in their local communities.
For example, during a recent cold snap, when the temperatures reached –40 Celsius, the engineering team checked in often. Maloloy-on knows that the volunteers provide essential updates to the CKUA team back in Edmonton “I talk to them a lot. They really help us. They go and check on the sites. They even remove snow from the dish when the snow is heavy. So instead of traveling from Edmonton to other sites, we can call them.”
High temperatures in summer can be just as challenging. “Our equipment doesn’t like extremes,” says Maloloy-on. “We always want to stay in that normal range. Before summer, we have to make sure that the air conditioning units are in good condition. That’s part of our spring maintenance.”
In all kinds of conditions, the team at CKUA will keep working to keep that on-air percentage high. 99% is about as close to perfect as a radio station can hope for.
Maloloy-on’s journey has taken time and included challenges. His wife, Maria, sponsored him to come to Canada, and they were apart for five years before they could be together. He had worked as a broadcast technician in the Philippines for eleven years before he came to Canada. He had a different job when he first arrived in Edmonton in July 2023, but his goal was always to return to electronics engineering. “I’m grateful that CKUA gave this opportunity to me.”
Park Power
