1550

[PHIL Z]

CBE Radio 1550 Windsor ON Canada, Has Applied to go FM Shuting Off the 1550 Transmitter. CBE is the Reason AM stations on 1550 in this part of the United States Can't be on, or must use a very low power [4 watts for wlfp] at Night.
If this Application is Approved, Does it Mean Stations on 1550 can get a Decent Night Signal?

 

[FreddyE1977]

I am guessing that we would see a repeat of what happened with 740 in Toronto when the CBC pulled the plug there.
The frequency was auctioned off to a commercial operator (the nostalgia powerhouse with whom we are all familiar).
I am guessing that since a Windsor signal would also cover the very sizeable Detroit market, a repeat of that scenario
is likely. (based on national pride/sovereignty issues, I doubt that the Canadians would give up their priority use of
the 1550 freq anyway).

 

[w9wi]

CBE Radio 1550 Windsor ON Canada, Has Applied to go FM Shuting Off the 1550 Transmitter. CBE is the Reason AM stations on 1550 in this part of the United States Can't be on, or must use a very low power [4 watts for wlfp] at Night.
If this Application is Approved, Does it Mean Stations on 1550 can get a Decent Night Signal?

I'm going to be pushing my knowledge of the treaties a bit here but think I'm on fairly solid ground:

CBE is a Class A station. That means that Canada has priority on 1550KHz by international treaty - that no station can be licensed by the U.S. that would interfere with any 1550 operation in Canada whether any such operation exists or not. The NARBA treaty would have to be renegotiated to remove that priority before any U.S. station that would cause interference in Canada could be licensed. I think that is unlikely to happen.

Because of the unusual nature of the Windsor market (the overwhelming majority of signals received there come from the U.S.) the CRTC has allowed all four Windsor commercial stations to be co-owned. I suppose there is some chance the commercial operator might be interested in moving CKWW-580 to 1550. I'm not familiar enough with coverage in the area to know which station does better. 1550 is a lot more powerful -- but the much higher dial position could well hurt 1550's coverage more than the higher power helps.

I think it is very unlikely 1550 will be used to create a completely new station. The only other AM station in the market is CKLW-800 and they would be crazy to move to 1550! The other two commercial stations in Windsor are both high-powered FMs and would also be crazy to move to 1550.

The 740 frequency in Toronto was not auctioned -- they're not doing the auction thing in Canada. The commercial operator was chosen by a comparative process from among a number of applicants.

 

[FreddyE1977]

Thanks for the clarification! I did not know whether "bidding" was the correct word to describe what the
Canadians did or not. My experience living in the Detroit area was that 580 carried much better than 1550,
at least on the Michigan side of the border.

 

[kenhawk1160]

I don't see 1550 in any form coming back on the air in Canada.

Here's why. If you think the state of radio industry here in the States stinks, go to Canada. You ain't seen nothin' yet.

There are fewer AMs on the air today in Canada than there were in their formative years. Those that are have a substantial reach and a high power output. Quite a few FMs that went on the air within the last 20 years silenced their AM stations as soon as they got their FMs up and running.

And the FMs there are struggling. Even those with high-power signals.

If you see petitions for power increases on 1550, you likely won't see them for anything beyond slightly improved nighttime power, at best.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

No matter - 1550/Windsor will continue to be "notified" as far as the allocation, even after the transmitter shuts off.

Canada does not let go of its frequencies.

 

[w9wi]

Quite a few FMs that went on the air within the last 20 years silenced their AM stations as soon as they got their FMs up and running.

In most of these cases, the FM licence carried a condition that the AM station be silenced after some period (usually either 30 or 60 days) after the FM came on. In other words the stations had no choice but to silence their AM stations.

I don't, however, wish to dispute the rest of your post...

 

[Chad-Stevens]

In most of these cases, the FM licence carried a condition that the AM station be silenced after some period (usually either 30 or 60 days) after the FM came on. In other words the stations had no choice but to silence their AM stations.

I don't, however, wish to dispute the rest of your post...

The CRTC never allowed the FM band to fill up with transmitters, drones, and satellators like the FCC did in the States, plus the smaller population density made an AM to FM switch possible for a lot of stations. In some cases, like Montreal, new stations filled the void but in most cases the AM band went back to nature.

With the sorry state of the American FM band as it is now, without an expansion to 76 MHz, how many AM stations could actually apply to move to FM? Has anyone done so? Would anyone be willing to give up the AM license for an FM or is the revenue that a small AM station generates - however small - not worth parting with? If AM radio was as dead as its claimed, I suspect we'd see a whole lot more of them going off the air rather than exist in a sort of half life of paid programming, preachers, and ethnic.

 

[w9wi]

With the sorry state of the American FM band as it is now, without an expansion to 76 MHz, how many AM stations could actually to move to FM? Has anyone done so? Would anyone be willing to give up the AM license for an FM or is the revenue that a small AM station generates - however small - not worth parting with?

Well, that gets down to the bottom line of the difference between what's going on here and what's going on in Canada.

Down here, you can't move an AM station to FM. You never have to make that decision - whether to surrender the AM license - because the FCC doesn't require it.

 

[PHIL Z]

CBEW The FM of CBE 1550, Began Testing December 1, 2010. They should be on the Air In Early Spring 2011. In Looking at WITK 1550 Pittson Pa. They Got permission to add Night service with 500 watts in 1998. When CBE 1550 is off the air , Could WLFP 1550 Braddock Add an Incressed Night service instead of its 4 watts?

 

[cingram]

CBEW The FM of CBE 1550, Began Testing December 1, 2010. They should be on the Air In Early Spring 2011. In Looking at WITK 1550 Pittson Pa. They Got permission to add Night service with 500 watts in 1998. When CBE 1550 is off the air , Could WLFP 1550 Braddock Add an Incressed Night service instead of its 4 watts?

As others already have noted in this thread, CBE must be protected on 1550 even after leaving the air, because
Canada has priority on that frequency, and another station may well appear on 1550 just as one did on 740 after
CBL moved to FM.

WLFP had a CP to change COL to Reserve Township and diplex on the WAMO-AM (now WAOB) towers, with 2000
watts daytime and 32 watts at night. Apparently that was the best they could do. The CP was never built, and
has since expired.

C.

 

[DanStrassberg]

No matter - 1550/Windsor will continue to be "notified" as far as the allocation, even after the transmitter shuts off. Canada does not let go of its frequencies.

Exactly! And remember that the replacements for dark Canadian AMs need not even be licensed to the same community (or even be in the same province) as the station being replaced. For example, CKDO Oshawa ON is the replacement for CBJ Chicoutami QC on 1580. CKDO runs 10 kW; CBJ ran 50 kW. And there certainly is a potential occupant for 1550 in southern Ontario: CHIN Toronto--currently on 1540. I believe that CHIN runs 50 kW-D and more than 10 kW-N, though. However, if directional patterns that allowed CHIN to move to 1550 and use the same day and night powers it uses now, it might be a good deal for the station because there is no KXEL to contend with on 1550, meaning that CHIN could probably increase its night coverage.

 

[DanStrassberg]

CBEW The FM of CBE 1550, Began Testing December 1, 2010. They should be on the Air In Early Spring 2011. In Looking at WITK 1550 Pittson Pa. They Got permission to add Night service with 500 watts in 1998. When CBE 1550 is off the air , Could WLFP 1550 Braddock Add an Incressed Night service instead of its 4 watts?

The chances are that WLFP could get night power greater than 4W even if CBE were not going dark. US stations can operate at night right now on Canadian Class A frequencies such as 1550. And as WITK and WDZK demonstrate, the US stations don't have to be low-powered class Ds; they can be Class Bs as long as they suitably protect the Canadian Class A's service within Canadian borders. All it takes is the money, the real estate to built a complicated nighttime DA, approval from the local zoning board to build the DA, and a CP from the FCC. Nothing that a couple of million dollars and a couple of decades to get through the legal and regulatory hassles can't overcome. Or maybe not! You don't get to find out if your proposal is going to fly until you've spent a pretty good chunk of that couple of $ million, however.