About CKLB

On location at the 1990 Dene National Assembly at Dettah. Note CKLB’s original call sign, CKNM. (NWT Archives)

NCS and CKLB play a critical part in promoting and sustaining our Aboriginal languages across the NWT. Our languages are a foundational part of our heritage and the cultural mosaic of the North, and we must support every avenue we can to keep them alive for generations to come.”   

    – former Monfwi MLA Jackson Lafferty

CKLB Radio is a division of the Native Communications Society of the NWT (NCS).

The idea for the Native Communications Society of the Western Northwest Territories (NCS) was conceived in February 1974.

In preparation for its radio department, the NCS began a three-year training program for its radio broadcasters in 1982.

By December 1985, construction began on the radio studio and in January 1986 the radio station — under original call letters CKNM-FM — broadcasted to 12 communities from Yellowknife at 101.9 FM.

Through a network of re-transmitters, our broadcast signal reaches from Northern Alberta to the Arctic Ocean, the NWT diamond mines, and to the world streaming online cklbradio.com

CKLB also provides our audience with extensive coverage of the NWT Legislative Assembly. That includes a nightly re-broadcast of the day’s proceedings, and a daily re-cap from question period with an Indigenous focus.

Our music programming is an eclectic mix of classic country, unexpected interpretations of rock hits, local and national Indigenous artists — and some excellent drumming.