On the night of July 17, CKCU—Carleton’s campus radio station and the oldest campus radio station in Canada—returned to Ottawa radios after the longest disruption to its broadcast since 1975.
Chair of CKCU’s board of directors, Chris Ikonomopoulos, said that an accident on the roof of the University Centre during unrelated construction work on July 3 caused the station’s antenna to collapse. When the radio tower holding the antenna broke, the antenna was damaged.
Ikonomopoulos said that for 15 days when listeners turned on CKCU, they heard nothing but static.
A company from Toronto drove to Ottawa with the equipment to assemble the radio tower, but specific hardware was necessary to secure the tower, which Ikonomopoulos estimated was between 20 to 40 feet tall.
“To mount that onto the roof properly and securely, you need some pretty specific hardware and ways to do that,” Ikonomopoulos added.
Sourcing such hardware “very quickly and very suddenly” was difficult to do, Ikonomopoulos said, and delayed the return to air for the radio station. Ikonomopoulos added that insurance would be covering the costs of the replacement, and said Carleton University was quite helpful.
He added that the accident further complicated studio shutdowns since the COVID-19 pandemic in March. Volunteer hosts have been producing shows from home since then.
“That’s been a huge challenge on how to maintain a radio station that operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, non-stop all year round,” Ikonomopoulos said.
Hosts and volunteers continued to make content during this period, but due to the accident, it was only available to stream online at the station’s website.
Bob LeDrew, the host of regular Thursday broadcast “Can I Have a Word?” has been able to produce the show outside the studio during the pandemic. LeDrew said while his production wasn’t affected by the accident, it was a surprise to his listeners.
“All of a sudden, there is static at 93.1,” said LeDrew, who added that the service disruption forced listeners to go online and thus added an “extra hassle to actually get CKCU in your ears.”
LeDrew said he was regularly updating the show’s Facebook page with information about the accident for listeners.
“People were quite shocked, you don’t expect for those sorts of things to happen, but 2020 is just one of those years when things that you never expect to happen apparently decide to happen,” he said.
The necessary equipment came in during the week leading up to July 17, so that the replacement tower and parts could be mounted with a crane. After the signal was directed, the station was back up.
Dylan Hunter, the production manager at CKCU who oversees technical operations, said that they were able to replace the antenna tower, but specific hardware needed to be manufactured to repair the damage.
Hunter, who has been at CKCU since 1995, said that this time off-air has been the longest disruption since 1975. When an ice storm knocked the station out in 1998, Hunter recalled that they were back up and broadcasting within hours.
Looking forward, Hunter said the station’s receiving antenna, which was also damaged, needs replacing, but a specialist licensed to climb towers will be needed to put that up. Hunter said this part is not essential while the studios are closed.
Ikonomopoulos added the new hardware will be supporting the tower for decades to come. He credited Hunter and CKCU’s chief engineer, Jeff Ruck, for taking on an “incredible amount of work.”
“[The signal is] back to full power,” Ikonomopoulos said. “It might even sound better and cleaner.”
Featured image by Justin Samanski.
