CKCU to Broadcast from the Great Glebe Garage Sale on May 23
CKCU to Broadcast from the Great Glebe Garage Sale on May 23
By Chris White
The volunteers and staff at CKCU-FM are gearing up to broadcast live on radio and video from the Great Glebe Garage Sale on Saturday, May 23.
Bargain hunters passing by Fourth Avenue Baptist Church will have the opportunity to see and hear performances and interviews featured on three much-loved CKCU programs: Canadian Spaces, The Back 40 and The Groove.
Founded by the late Chopper McKinnon in 1980, Canadian Spaces is Canada’s longest-running folk and roots radio program. McKinnon was a Glebe resident who lived in an apartment above the Wild Oat for many years. When he started the radio show and announced that it would feature Canadian music almost exclusively, many people told him with great authority that he would run out of music within three months.
It turns out they were wrong.
More than 45 years later, the show is going strong and is in no danger of running out of amazing music created by musicians locally, regionally and nationally. Countless musicians have been featured on the show over the years, and many have cited the program as a key factor in their career development, including Stan Rogers, Jane Siberry, Laura Smith, Stephen Fearing, Lynn Miles and Lynne Hanson.
Year after year, the show’s loyal listeners, known as the “Space Cadets,” have made Canadian Spaces the top money earner in CKCU’s annual funding drive. In 1993, the strength of that support motivated CKCU station manager Max Wallace and me to create the Ottawa Folk Festival, a beautiful community-oriented event remembered fondly by those who attended. McKinnon was very supportive of the festival from the outset and served as one of the main-stage hosts for many years.
McKinnon received citations from the Prime Minister, the Governor General and the Province of Ontario for his work on the show, and in 1999 he received the Helen Verger Award in recognition of his “significant, sustained contributions to folk and roots music in Canada.”
In 2000 and again in 2012, the City of Ottawa officially proclaimed Chopper McKinnon Day in his honour.
When McKinnon passed away in 2013, I began producing and hosting the show. A few years later, I invited several other CKCU volunteers to share hosting duties, and the Canadian Spaces Hosting Collective was born. In 2021, the Folk Alliance International organization inducted McKinnon into the Folk Radio Hall of Fame posthumously.
The live broadcast from the Great Glebe Garage Sale and sidewalk sale is being supported by the Glebe BIA and a number of CKCU volunteers, both on stage and behind the scenes.
Drop by the performance tent at Bank Street and Fourth Avenue on May 23 between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. to hear excellent live music, pick up some CKCU goodies and say hello to some of your favourite CKCU personalities.
If you can’t be there in person, you can listen to the broadcast on CKCU FM 93.1 and at www.ckcufm.com, or watch the livestream live or later on CKCU’s YouTube channel.
Glebe resident Chris White is a producer, host and co-op student supervisor at CKCU.
Author Chris White (left) and Chopper McKinnon at Irene’s Pub in 2011.
CKCU broadcast from the Glebe Garage Sale in 2025. From left: Mark Sutcliffe, Anne-Marie Brugger, Jason Matte, Carolyn Sutherland and Natalie Cross. Photo: Chris White.