The Time is Now – Make Your Voice Heard 2024

The Time is Now

If you’re at a festival or a live performance this summer, it might be because you heard your favourite artist for the first time on CKUA. We play a vital role in promoting live events, supporting musicians’ careers, and building a healthy arts and culture scene, all around the province.

If you haven’t done so yet, please write your Member of Parliament to express how important CKUA is to you, and to Canadians. Find all the info you need below.

Thank you to the over 1000 people that have participated in our letter writing campaign. We know that the CKUA community includes many listeners and donors who may wish to support this campaign. We invite you to tell elected representatives why CKUA deserves their attention at this time in history. We are not seeking funding that would interfere with CKUA’s independence or alter our artistic vision. Instead, we are asking for support that would help to reset our course for a sustainable future.

It was April 2024 when our CEO, Marc Carnes, addressed the community to discuss the financial challenges we’re facing. To meet those challenges, our Fund Development team launched a new campaign to raise $3 million by September. How are we doing so far? On June 28, Marc shared an update with CKUA’s Grant Stovel.

The theme for the Spring Fundraiser was “The Time is Now,” and we continue to carry that theme and that urgency with us as we think about what is next.

To listen to Marc’s full address to the community on May 16th, click here.
For more information about why this ask is important, check out the FAQ.

The time is now to reach out to federal Ministers and your local MP and tell them what CKUA means to you! For an issue to get their attention they must receive at least 100 letters per week. To make this easy for you, we have set up the form below where you can access phone numbers, mailing and email addresses, and draft messages of support. You can use this tool to join your fellow listeners and Canadians in adding your voice. The time is now to take action!

STEP ONE: Add your address in the form below. (Be sure to enter your full address in the same format it is listed on the Canada post website.)

STEP TWO: Select the MPs and representatives you would like to contact.
STEP THREE: Add your custom message. (It can be the same message for all recipients, or different ones if you wish.)

STEP FOUR: After adding your full name and email address, click the Preview button to review your message before sending. (Both your name and the MPs name will be automatically added to the letter once you fill out the address form)
STEP FIVE: Hit Send and/or Print and Mail. (Mailing MPs is free, and a physical letter can be a powerful message, individual mailing addresses will be automatically added once you select Print.)
STEP SIX: Consider further action – Call, send a tweet, or facebook message.

WHY THESE INDIVIDUALS:
The Honourable Randy Boissonnault, Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Official Languages (representing the riding of Edmonton Centre, where CKUA is headquartered)
The Honourable Pascale St-Onge, Minister of Canadian Heritage
The Honourable Chrystia Freeland, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance (originally from Peace River, AB and familiar with CKUA)
Your local MP – so they can advocate on your behalf

Questions about this form? Email feedback@ckua.com.

On April 17, 2024, CEO Marc Carnes addressed the CKUA community with an update about CKUA’s future. We need you, our listening community, to support the station you know and love. The Time Is Now! For more information check out the FAQ, or read the transcript here.

Let’s bust some common myths:

A common misperception is that we are based out of the U of A. Our call letters are “UA,” but we don’t receive student fees or university funding. We started at the U of A in 1927 and became part of the Government of Alberta in the 1940s. Since the mid-1990s we have been independent and donor-supported. Donate today!

Today, if you live outside Alberta, not a penny of your tax dollars supports CKUA. Each Albertan contributes $0.013  (yes, 1.3 cents) of their provincial tax to CKUA through an operating grant. Donate today!

CKUA is legally capped at 6 minutes of advertising per hour due to our charitable business model and public mandate. At 6 minutes in an hour, if we sell every minute we are legally allowed to sell, that’s a maximum of approximately $1.4M, while our operating budget is more than $8M. Donate today!

CKUA owns the Alberta Hotel in Edmonton as our broadcast and administrative home. While we do rent space out to office tenants, the building is intended to offset our operating costs. Today, the post-COVID real estate market has effectively collapsed in downtown Edmonton. This has put pressure on our operational finances while we weather this storm and seek new tenants. Donate today!

The need we fulfill:

470,000 people. That’s the growing number of unique listeners CKUA reaches each month, providing an authentic experience not found anywhere else. Most of CKUA’s funding comes from people like you, and every donation is important. Donate today!

Did you know that last year, CKUA played music by more than three thousand Canadian artists? And did you know that a third of those artists are from Alberta? This unique platform is not funded by the government, and advertising revenue is limited. Donor support is the key to CKUA’s future. Donate today!

Every year, CKUA airs hundreds of interviews with artists, festival planners, and creative people all around Alberta. This work grows careers, reaches new audiences, and supports a vibrant cultural sector in the province. The government doesn’t fund this work. Your donation makes it possible. Donate today!

126 hours. That’s the number of hours of original programming CKUA shares each week. Some hours are full of jazz. Other hours share classical symphonies and sonatas. And some have a little bit of everything: folk, pop, blues, funk, and soul. What these hours all have in common is that they are curated with care by real people. Hosts who love music just as much as you do. Your donation makes this authentic musical experience possible. Donate today!

The Time Is Now…. To Take Action!

CKUA’s business model works. Listenership is growing, and programming is deliberately diverse, attracting more young listeners than ever before. But like every other organization or business, we face increased technology, utility and debt servicing costs. For more information about CKUA and our financial picture, please view our 2023 Community Report.

You are the difference between CKUA being on the air and not being on the air.  It’s easy to assume someone else will take care of supporting CKUA because we’ve always been here. But now, more than ever, we are counting on more listeners like you to take action.

Use the form at the top of this page to take action now.

Have questions? Email feedback@ckua.com.

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Let’s bust some common myths:

The need we fulfill:

The Time Is Now…. To Take Action!

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