Of course, because the FCC knows other governments would jam US stations if they could too.
This makes no sense.
These things aren't done on a whim, as you seem to be implying.
There are treaties between the US and Canada (and between the US and Mexico) that lay out in excruciatingly specific terms how interference issues are handled in border zones.
Until about 25 years ago, the rules provided for at least some interference protection on foreign soil. I don't recall the exact provisions, but there was a certain level of signal within which Canadian FM stations enjoyed protection from interference from US-licensed signals on US soil, and vice versa. Those rules were changed at the behest of broadcast owners on both sides of the border who wanted to be able to fill their own dials fuller without having to protect foreign signals.
After the rules changed, the floodgates opened. Even though CFNY, for instance, puts more than 60 dBu on US soil at the lakeshore in Orleans County, the US was able to license a new class A on 102.1 in Albion. I have video that I shot of that tower site just before the Albion FM signed on - CFNY was loud and clear in stereo on my car radio. Didn't matter -as long as the US station didn't interfere with CFNY anywhere on Canadian soil, the treaty allowed it. Same thing in Canada, where new signals popped up on 94.7 in Hamilton and 99.5 in Kitchener and 92.9 in Haldimand County and so on. They wreaked havoc on WNED and WDCX and WBUF, but only on Canadian soil.
I guess you could call it "jamming," but it's not the government doing it - it's commercial broadcasters, and they're doing exactly what international treaties allow. (You'll see another example next week when 92.1 signs on in Amherst, where CKPC-FM from Brantford is now perfectly listenable most of the time.)
And the fact is that CBC Radio is supported by Canadian taxpayers, and it's seen its funding cut drastically over the last few years.
Which has what to do with what, exactly? There's nothing whatsoever in the treaties (or the FCC rules derived from the treaties) that draws any distinction between publicly-funded stations and privately-owned stations. It's all mileages and contours. CBL-FM gets precisely the same protection as CHFI or CHUM-FM.
But that does remind me that Crawford will be under some scrutiny for another aspect of its 94.1 application - it can interfere as much as it wants with Toronto on US soil, but it can't interfere
at all on Canadian soil. CBL-FM's status as a CBC station matters in that context, because it's the lone CBC Music (ex-Radio 2) outlet serving the entire Golden Horseshoe, all the way to Fort Erie. That, I think, is one reason why Crawford applied to put the translator up at the WDCX-FM site on Zimmerman Road and not in downtown Buffalo with 102.9 and 93.3 and a few others.
And in looking closely at the application, it looks like the 94.1 translator isn't going to be much of a signal over much US population anyway. In order to protect CBL-FM on Canadian soil, the Crawford engineers had to limit it to 150 watts and use a rather directional antenna up at the WDCX-FM site, aiming it not northwest at downtown Buffalo but rather northeast toward Chestnut Ridge Park. Its 60 dBu contour won't even get to Orchard Park or East Aurora. (Cue David to tell us that you need 65 dBu or more to get listeners anyway.)
I have lots of respect for the Crawford engineering team, but this just won't be much of a useful signal to much of anyone - in fact, from the looks of it, anywhere from downtown Buffalo north it's not really going to be a signal at all. Unless you're down in southern Erie County, the WDCX translator will cause interference more than it will provide an actual usable signal. (Which is something I've tried really hard to avoid doing with the translators I've filed for in these last few windows, but I digress...)
