CKMS plays a variety of genres both in English and other languages, so as to provide the campus and community with music that may not otherwise be accessible on air from mainstream venues. The station's programmers are all volunteers from the Kitchener-Waterloo community and students at the University of Waterloo. The station also contains UW Alumni who were programmers during their time at UW and stayed on after graduation, in addition to those who were interested in radio but never found the time to host a show while they were studying for their degree.