About Castanet

Castanet

Castanet is the Okanagan Valley's leading online news outlet, based in Kelowna, British Columbia. Founded by veteran Kelowna broadcaster Nick Frost as "Kelowna's Homepage" (castanet.net), it has grown into the region's dominant digital news source — with newsrooms in Kelowna, Penticton, and Vernon, a staff of about 50, and an expansion into radio broadcasting. Acquired by Glacier Media in April 2019 for $22 million, Castanet demonstrates what Glacier called proof that "a long-term digital business model exists in community media" — and remains the Okanagan's essential news source.

Overview

Castanet publishes Okanagan news with the speed and comprehensiveness of a wire service and the local knowledge of a community paper: breaking news, city politics, crime and courts, business, sports, weather, and the everyday stories of the valley's communities. The site's promise is total local coverage — if it happens in the Okanagan, Castanet covers it, usually first. The newsrooms in Kelowna, Penticton, and Vernon give the outlet a physical presence across the region's three main centres, while the website serves the valley as a whole.

History

Castanet was founded by Nick Frost, a Kelowna broadcasting veteran whose career in the market stretches back decades — in December 1984, the Kelowna radio station CILK-FM was licensed to Frost, signing on 18 months later with a soft adult contemporary format. Frost was not a digital native but a broadcaster who saw where the audience was going: the Okanagan's residents were moving online, and the market's traditional outlets — the Daily Courier newspaper, the radio stations — were not serving the web-first audience. Frost understood the Kelowna media market from the inside: the audiences, the advertisers, the stories that mattered, and the gaps the incumbents left. Castanet was his digital bet — that the Okanagan needed an online-first news source, built for the web rather than adapted from print or broadcast, and that a broadcaster's instincts for audience and timing would translate to the new medium.

The bet paid off. Castanet.net became "Kelowna's Homepage" — the site Okanagan residents set as their browser default, the first place they checked for news. The outlet grew newsroom by newsroom: Kelowna first, then Penticton and Vernon, building a regional network that covered the valley's length. By 2019, the operation employed about 50 staff — a substantial newsroom by community-media standards, and evidence that digital local news could sustain real journalism jobs.

The expansion into broadcast marked Castanet's evolution into a multi-platform operation. In June 2017, Castanet struck a deal with Vista Radio to buy Kelowna's Juice FM 103.9, with CRTC approval expected that fall. Frost framed the acquisition in convergence terms: "When this opportunity came up, we thought it was the right thing to do for two key reasons: to broaden our reach when viewers aren't online, and to bring an entirely different local radio service to the city." General Manager Chris Kearney announced the FM station would broadcast from the heart of the newsroom in the new Lawrence Avenue studios: "We have exciting plans to combine online, radio, & TV on Kelowna's Homepage. Castanet has lots of great content that will now be heard on the airwaves too." The rebranded Castanet FM gave the digital outlet a broadcast voice — the website's journalism, heard on the radio.

On April 5, 2019, Glacier Media announced the acquisition of Castanet Media for $22 million — one of the largest digital community-news transactions in Canadian history. The deal also included Avenue Radio's Kelowna station, purchased for $2 million (subject to CRTC approval). Glacier's statement framed the acquisition as validation of the digital community model: "Castanet's growth and market position, as well as the growth of Glacier Digital Media's operations, demonstrate that a long-term digital business model exists in community media that offers attractive growth in audience development, revenue and profitability." The acquisition expanded Glacier's Interior presence beyond its existing Kamloops newsroom (KamloopsMatters.com), giving the company what the announcement called a leading source of local media in the Okanagan.

Content

Castanet's content is organized around comprehensive Okanagan coverage: breaking news (the accidents, fires, wildfires, and emergencies that drive traffic — and that, in a valley defined by its forests and its summers, are a matter of public safety), municipal politics (Kelowna, Penticton, Vernon, and the smaller communities), crime and courts, business and development (the valley's explosive growth is a standing story), sports, weather, and community features. The site's speed is its signature: Castanet's reporters are often first on the scene, and the website's breaking-news alerts have made it essential infrastructure for valley residents.

Coverage and Audience

Castanet covers the Okanagan Valley — the wine country, lake country, and orchard country of British Columbia's Interior, a region defined by its lakes (Okanagan, Skaha, Kalamalka), its vineyards and orchards, its tourism economy, and its rapid growth. Kelowna (population ~150,000) is the regional centre — one of Canada's fastest-growing cities — with Penticton to the south and Vernon to the north anchoring the valley's ends. The audience is Okanagan residents: the people who live, work, and play in the valley, who need to know what's happening on their streets, in their councils, on their highways, and at their lakes. The "Kelowna's Homepage" branding captures the relationship: for many valley residents, Castanet is not just a news source but the starting point of their online day — the site that tells them what happened overnight and what's happening now.

Business Model

Castanet's business model — the one Glacier paid $22 million to acquire — combines digital advertising (display, video, sponsored content) with the digital marketing services of Glacier Digital Media. The model reflects the economics of successful community digital media: a large, loyal local audience, monetized through advertising sold to the local businesses that need to reach it, supplemented by the marketing services that help those businesses succeed online. The Okanagan's economy — tourism, wine, real estate, construction, agriculture — provides a deep pool of advertisers with a direct interest in reaching valley residents. Glacier's statement on the acquisition made the thesis explicit: local community websites, digital marketing services, and specialty products together create a business with "attractive growth in audience development, revenue and profitability" — the three-legged stool of sustainable community media.

Ownership

Castanet was founded by Nick Frost. In April 2019, Castanet Media was acquired by Glacier Media (now Lodestar Media) for $22 million, with the company's Avenue Radio Kelowna station acquired for an additional $2 million. The acquisition placed Castanet within Canada's largest digital local news network, the Local News Collective, alongside properties including Vancouver Is Awesome, the Victoria Times Colonist, Business in Vancouver, and the North Shore News.

Digital Presence

Castanet publishes at castanet.net — "Kelowna's Homepage," one of the most-visited local news sites in British Columbia, and the digital front page of the Okanagan Valley. The website's breaking-news operation, mobile optimization, and deep local archives — built over more than two decades of continuous publication — make it the valley's indispensable online destination. The Castanet FM radio station extends the brand onto the airwaves — the website's journalism, heard on the radio — while social media channels distribute the journalism to the valley's residents wherever they are online. For the Okanagan, Castanet is not just a website but an institution: the digital-age successor to the community newspaper, and proof that local news — done with speed, comprehensiveness, and deep local knowledge — can thrive online.