🚀 go-pugleaf

On Tue, 25 Mar 1997, Glen Scurr wrote:

:Jon LeBlanc <jcjlebla@acs.ucalgary.ca> wrote:
:
:>As many of you know, Alberta's listener-supported radio 
:>network, CKUA, abruptly signed off the air at the end of 
:>the March 20th business day, due to insufficient funding 
:>to continue operations.

:Well, what they needed was better marketing, I had never heard
:of them before! 

They went under because a group of seemingly anonymous board
appointees decided abruptly that there was insufficient funding
to operate - i.e. advertise and market. Prior to 1993, when their
existence was provided for by the provincial government, they did
not advertise because they did not need to. It would have been
wasteful back then. 

CKUA was well known in the broadcasting and performing arts
communities. Its value was that it gave support and exposure to
budding Albertan talent. It was a cultural resource. Without it,
our cultural support is weakened. Without a strong
Albertan/Canadian culture, we must face the fact that there is a
giant cultural behemoth south of the border that is more than
willing to slop over and smother ours. CKUA was at least one
source for musicians to get exposure of their Albertan work.

You've heard CKUA if you've flipped across the AM radio dial
anywhere in Alberta (Ed Panker would likely agree with me here
that you need to DX or "dial-cross"  regularly to find lots of
great radio stations that you otherwise wouldn't know about) so
if we can get CKUA back, please keep hitting that SCAN button
whenever someone on a commercial radio station starts to yell at
you about buying something.

CKUA was the station without the commercials - that was the charm
of it. They tried to make a go of it with a listener-supported
financial plan (like PBS) and even seemed to be doing okay until
the abrupt, unnannounced closure.

Jon LeBlanc
Programmer/Analyst
University Computing Services
University of Calgary
Alberta, Canada, Earth, Sol, MWGxy