Back in 2022, it was a normal day at the CKUA office for CEO Marc Carnes until he opened a newly arrived letter. It warned that the company’s satellite was experiencing fuel loss and would eventually fall out of orbit. CKUA is an Alberta-wide radio station that relies on its satellite network to broadcast music, arts and culture programming across the province.“I honestly just laughed,” says Carnes.
“Of course, it’s falling. We always joke that nothing we do at CKUA is easy, and this is just another example of that.”
It felt like a ‘Chicken Little’ moment…except the problem was real. No one could say when exactly it would fall, so it sent Carnes and the crew into problem-solving mode. They had to find a satellite provider willing to accommodate an entire network of vendors while coming up with a huge chunk of money to cover it.
The former satellite had been in space for a few decades, so, while it was stressful to know it was coming to an end, it was not a complete surprise. With the old network, CKUA would transmit a signal from its offices in Edmonton to Calgary, and then the signal would take a left to Mississauga, Ont., where it would be uploaded to the satellite. But if the weather was bad in Mississauga, it might knock out a signal, even if it was a beautiful day in Alberta.
“So, it was this weird thing where we’d get these satellite outages and it’s like, what’s going on? Well, there’s a storm in Ontario. It’s hard for people to understand it,” says Carnes. Summer storm season in Ontario was brutal, so sometimes the crew wouldn’t know the network was even out in certain parts of the province until they received phone calls or emails from listeners. “We were also dealing with older systems and we had challenges with it, so rather than lament the challenge, we went into it, like: OK, how do we make lemonade out of this?” says Carnes. It was a chance to partner with Network Innovations, a global company with Canadian headquarters in Calgary. One of CKUA’s board members worked there and, when he was told about the situation, he thought Network Innovations might be interested in helping out.
The company normally does private satellites for oil and gas and private contracting, so this was a new experience for it, and an opportunity to do some research and development in the radio space. “It was not just a board member saying: here’s money, go fix it,” says Carnes. “It was an opportunity for both businesses to work together and learn. And so, they were the ones who jumped to the table and helped cover a significant portion of the equipment costs by working with their partners. They were able to absorb a lot of the cost through their technical infrastructure and all that stuff. So, that was the saving grace there.” Meanwhile, CKUA also applied for a Community Grant from Edmonton Community Foundation (ECF). Their application was successful and the funding helped cover the equipment costs to make the satellite network happen. “CKUA is a vital part of our community,” says Melisa Zapisocky, ECF’s Grants Associate.
“CKUA creates a welcoming community where music, arts and culture bring people together; showcasing countless Albertan artists over the years. We’re delighted to have assisted them in securing a new satellite, enabling them to continue sharing our community’s stories.”
Carnes says the timing was perfect. And the funding helped CKUA leverage more private funding as well. “What I appreciate about the ECF funding is that this is a project that benefited 16 communities, as it was technology and infrastructure that went into multiple communities,” says Carnes. “It was an investment in CKUA, but we were able to distribute that not only to service the thousands of listeners in Edmonton but the tens of thousands across the province as well. So, it had a residual benefit on the community side of things.” And to Carnes, that’s really what CKUA is about. “What we do is radio, but why we exist is to build community and make community stronger,” he says.
Now, with the new satellite network, the radio station no longer has the issues it did with going off the air, so it can connect the community even more consistently. The system is much more advanced and can be much more easily upgraded and adaptive to changes in technology. Rather than having to replace components, now techs can just upgrade the software. Meanwhile, Network Innovations is more of a partner that’s up-to-date on what CKUA is doing rather than someone who just sends a bill. “We do this really great programming that more and more people are seeking out and supporting, and that satellite connection is the lifeline. Without it, it’s just a bunch of people sitting together talking to themselves,” says Carnes.
This story comes from the Spring 2024 Edition of Legacy in Action. Read the full issue.
