Tomb

Call it the non-format radio format. Instead of sticking to one genre of music, producers mix Leadbelly with Latin music, Bob Dylan with Taber cowboy Corb Lund. “It’s kind of odd,” allows David Ward, the Calgary-based host of The Afternoon Edition on CKUA. Odd, perhaps, but it clearly works; most of the station’s revenue comes directly from its listeners.

Now the station that pioneered the non-format format in Alberta (and amassed a world-renowned music library in the process) is facing an unlikely competitor in Canada’s public broadcaster. Earlier this month, the CBC launched “the new Radio 2,” axing hours of classical music programming and replacing them with shows that feature an eclectic mix of mostly Canadian music. It’s the non-format format on a national scale, and CKUA general manager Ken Regan isn’t thrilled by the change.

By revamping Radio 2, he says, the CBC is unfairly using government funding to compete in the radio market against stations like CKUA and campus stations like the University of Calgary’s CJSW. “It’s flattering to be copied,” he says. “But the difference is we don’t get a government subsidy to do this. We have to earn it.” Regan says that if the CBC was listener funded and not taxpayer funded, he’d have no problem with the controversial format flip. “I’m willing to compete on that basis with them…. But don’t come in and steal audience or try to steal audience from me using government-funded competition. It’s not right.”

CKUA has gone through a number of transformations since its inception at the University of Alberta in 1927. In the past, the station enjoyed financial support from the Alberta government, but that support ended in the mid-’90s. Now the station is a non-profit with a limited commercial licence. “We’re out here scratching and clawing to survive with audience support, and CBC rolls in with government-funded competition — and it’s like that guy in Tiananmen Square facing down the tanks,” says Regan.

Regan, a former producer for CBC Television, says it pains him to see his former employer on a “desperate search” to justify its existence by constantly striving for more revenue and better ratings. “I think Canadians would be happy to support a CBC that just fulfilled its mandate instead of trying to be on both sides of the fence,” says Regan.

CBC spokesperson Jeff Keay says that because the CBC isn’t a commercial broadcaster, it isn’t competing with stations like CKUA. “It’s not as if we’re attempting to grab a slice of their advertising revenues or anything,” says Keay. “We don’t carry commercials, so we’re not competing in that space…. Yes, we are looking to expand the number of people who listen to Radio 2. But it would not be accurate to say that we’re looking to do that by stealing them from other radio stations that may or may not play elements of the kind of the music that we intend to play.”

Ward, who’s been with CKUA for more than 20 years, sees the Radio 2 change in part as a compliment. “It’s a validation of what we’ve been doing for 35 years,” he says. “We’ve known this for a long time. There are listeners who are happy to hear Feist and Hank Williams and Jimi Hendrix in the same set, and if you throw some Latin music in there, great. Finally the CBC is catching up.”

However, Ward agrees Radio 2 is now CKUA’s direct competitor. “We’ve been the coffee funky shop here on the street for — certainly in this format — 35 years, 40 years,” he says. “And now, in a sense, Starbucks is open across the street.”

Over at the university, CJSW station manager Chad Saunders isn’t too concerned he’ll lose audience to Radio 2. “I think when people listen to CJSW, they’re probably looking for something somewhat different from the CKUAs and the CBCs,” he says. Saunders believes the CBC will likely keep a “pretty safe mix” on shows like Radio 2 Drive, the weekday afternoon show hosted by Rich Terfry (a.k.a. Buck 65). “If there’s one positive, it’s going to maybe get people back to the radio to look for innovative and great programming,” he says. “I just hope that they don’t think that CBC’s leading the charge, because we’ve been doing it.”

Saunders says the revamped Radio 2 will also lack CJSW’s local emphasis. “If it’s a sunny, beautiful day, people are maybe going to play the music that reflects the soundtrack of what’s kind of happening around town,” says Saunders. “(CBC) won’t be able to tie into that environment as well as we can.”

And although Regan is bothered by what he calls the “inherent unfairness” of the Radio 2 change, he believes CKUA’s relationship with its listeners will keep the station going. “We will focus on what we do best, which is to provide great service to our audience, to be responsive to the audience, to be accountable to the audience — which, unlike the CBC, we have no choice but to do, because if we’re not accountable to them, they simply don’t give us money,” he says.