Carleton’s radio station is off the airwaves after a fire damaged the station’s antenna late Dec. 6.
Around 11:45 p.m., CKCU unexpectedly went off air and then came back.
Just after midnight, the broadcast cut out again and didn’t return.
Matthew Crosier, CKCU’s station manager, said when their engineer went up to check what was wrong, there appeared to be smoke damage.
“We truly don’t know what caused the fire,” Crosier said.
Technicians were planning to examine the damage the night of Dec. 7, he said.
The fire happened at the broadcast antenna at Camp Fortune, a ski hill 15 minutes north of Ottawa.
The tower is owned by CBC and hosts many different radio stations but only CKCU and the New Hot 89.9 were affected by the fire, Crosier said.
According to a CTV News article, Radio-Canada was also affected.
“It’s up to CKCU to find and fix the problem and determine if their insurance will cover the damage,” Crosier said.
The station and its listeners will have to wait until the damage is assessed to find out when broadcasting will resume.
“We could be on by the weekend, or it might be just before Christmas,” Crosier said.
Until then, fans of the independent radio station will have to listen online.
UPDATE: CKCU is back on the radio at reduced power, and are working on getting their signal back to full strength, according to Crosier.