2 less AM's in Canada

[mimo]

CKOT 1510, Tillsonberg, Ontario, which was Canada's only daytime only AM signed off for go0d on Sunday night. Apparently it's tower is already down.

CKUA 580 will be going dark this spring. Apparently they can't afford to relocate or repair the transmitter which covers the entire province of Alberta (save for a few spots in the rockies). CKUA's website has a mention of this.

 

[Tincap]

I'm here in south western Ontario (outskirts of Sarnia), for the week and trying to snag CKOT before she goes down, but as of now (5:30 PM EST) I've got Nashville's WLAC stomping all over that 1510 spot on the dial.

Losing CKUA's AM signal, will indeed be sad news, especially for the out of province listeners of this unique station.

~BG

 

[fybush]

Tincap, word is that CKOT went dark last Sunday (the 17th) and the towers came down the next day...so I don't think you, or anyone, will be hearing it now.

 

[kenglish]

Tincap, word is that CKOT went dark last Sunday (the 17th) and the towers came down the next day...so I don't think you, or anyone, will be hearing it now.

Sounds like they had a real-estate dealer waiting in the wings. ;D

 

[blackgold]

This is what's happening to radio stations in North America. The AM Radio band is passing away before you can say "Sherlock Holmes." Within 10 years, all the stations will migrate to FM, go out of business or get pushed into HD Radio.

 

[Yeziknoradio]

This is what's happening to radio stations in North America.  The AM Radio band is passing away before you can say "Sherlock Holmes."  Within 10 years, all the stations will migrate to FM, go out of business or get pushed into HD Radio.

CRTC regs would have to change first. ALL news radio and News/talk or sports radio are still illegal on FM in Canada.
(with very minor exceptions)
There is still plenty use for AM radio. PLUS the Multicultural stations are also still finding some use for AM radio.

 

[mjlarochelle]

This is what's happening to radio stations in North America. The AM Radio band is passing away before you can say "Sherlock Holmes." Within 10 years, all the stations will migrate to FM, go out of business or get pushed into HD Radio.

CRTC regs would have to change first. ALL news radio and News/talk or sports radio are still illegal on FM in Canada.
(with very minor exceptions)
There is still plenty use for AM radio. PLUS the Multicultural stations are also still finding some use for AM radio.

Plus AM radio still seems to be keeping strong in the United States. Certain AM news/talk stations in major cities are at the top or near the top of the ratings.

I thought news/talk/sports was acceptable on FM in Canada. There's a few stations in the Maritimes doing that, and there's a French one in Montreal (though it has some music on weekends). And CBC Radio One is more or less news/talk, and a large part of that network is on FM now.

 

[mimo]

CBC is a wee bit different as it does have news, but only one "news talk" show, which is cross country check up. Every thing else is for entertainment, education, or culture. Plus the music shows that round out the schedule are designed to make CBC something for every one at least some of the time. In Quebec, there are "news talk" stations on FM...but they're only in the format 5 days of the week. On weekends they are music stations. The ones in the maritimes are all news in drive time and talk the rest of the time. They had to apply for a specialty license to allow the programming on the FM band.

AM isn't going any where in Canada. If it was being phased out, the CRTC would not allow for applications for AM stations. As mentioned elsewhere on the board, Montreal has 3 new ones coming this year, there's an application for another for the city, Mississauga has a new one coming so0n and so does Calgary. Ottawa/Gatineu just got it's 5th AM last fall at 1350. There are many AMs doing quite well in Canada, some are number one in their market. The ethnic AMs are killing the FM ethnics in terms of reach and audience.

 

[Goldilocks94941]

Can you tell us why, praytell, the CRTC prohibits all-news stations on FM in Canada? That seems like a policy that will have to change soon, if such stations are going to be heard on mp3 players, smartphones, etc.

And another downside of the AM band is a recent case of US-based signal interference all-news CKWX 1130 in Vancouver has to suffer in much of the suburban area East of the city, from a time-brokered ethnic programming station directionalized north from Oregon that came on the air a year or two ago. (Nothing appears to be done about that, judging by the lack of a critical-hours power drop from my monitoring in North Seattle, and from what I heard around Abbotsford in the late afternoon. So just give up and let another all-news station lose audience due to non-program content matters?)

It sure seems to me that the day to make room for all news or all talk on FM in Canada is now. An all-classical station in Vancouver seems overdue, too, if CRTC gets to use content-based factors in its allocations. CBC Radio Two and Espace-Musique only play classical music part time, probably less than 50% of their schedules now.

 

[Yeziknoradio]

Can you tell us why, praytell, the CRTC prohibits all-news stations on FM in Canada?  That seems like a policy that will have to change soon, if such stations are going to be heard on mp3 players, smartphones, etc. 

The reason for all this is because the CRTC decided a long time ago to protect AM radio, and to keep protecting it.
They're still trying to protect it today, justifying that if a format can fit AM, there's no need for it on FM. (something like that)

If you think they're late to the party today, think back to the mid to late 90's when top 40 on FM was almost impossible, if not impossible to do in Canada because of a 49% non hit rule for FM.

To be fair, there was an exception. If the artist was Canadian and the song was less than one year old, it didn't have to count as a hit. However, that just wasn't enough to justify doing all hit radio on FM.
Therefore, stations like 680 CFTR and AM 640 (The beat of Toronto) continued to do top 40 for as long as they felt they could.

Unfortunately for both AM stations, FM regulations were not enough to keep them going.
In June of 1993 CFTR went all news, a format that doesn't really need FM stereo sound to deliver the message
And AM 640 went all talk in 1995, also going with a format that did not need FM quality to function.

Eventually, the 49% non hit rule was finally abandoned and Toronto's Kiss 92 FM Top 40 format was born.

Getting back to your original point, if the CRTC does not make changes to allow news and talk on FM, it might not matter today.
All you need is a smartphone app or the internet and you have 680 news, AM 640 or CFRB 1010.

The only missing information is how much it costs to listen to the radio on your smartphone. Some companies have unlimited Data while others do not. (plus also, take into consideration what the price of "unlimited" is and/or will be or should be...)

 

[mjlarochelle]

The only missing information is how much it costs to listen to the radio on your smartphone. Some companies have unlimited Data while others do not.(plus also, take into consideration what the price of "unlimited" is and/or will be or should be...)

I would never stream radio on a smartphone, at least in Canada where the rates are so high. If I'm going to use something other than a radio to listen to radio, I'd use either WiFi or a wired Internet connection. That's what I do in my office.

Also, for those of us who want to listen to U.S. stations, in many cases, using a radio is the only way to access the signal nowadays without resorting to software of questionable legality.