AM Radio Canada vs USA

[PHIL Z]

In Canada AM Radio Stations Are Moving to FM and Signing Off Their AM Signal. Here in the US Some AM Stations are Adding FM Translators or Down grading Their AM Signal and Jumping on to FM Translators. ie: WVJS 1420 Owensboro Ky. as Reported By Scott Fybush "Going from 5kw day 1 kw Night DA2,to 980 watts day 20 watts Night Non Directional. and Using a 250 watt FM Translator". as I Read in the NRC, Fybush Media and on the FCC Website More AM Stations Are filing Sta's To Remain slient Due to Money,Equipment Problems, Ect. Is The answer here in America Moving your AM Station To FM? The FM Band here is Already Crowded with The Normal Stations , Adding Translators and LPFM is Making it Worse. The FM Band is Going to Become The AM Band Each Station Interfearing Other.

 

[promixcuous]

The FM band in Canada has been less saturated than in the US, which has allowed for more AM stations to move to FM. I think that's harder to do in the US unless you're out in the sticks.

 

[KeyTimes950]

An interesting aspect of the Canadian situation is the fact that the AM channels remain available, unlike here in the States where a frequency often disappears when a station goes permanently silent. It allowed AM 740 to go from the CBC to a Toronto operator who provides a classy station reminiscent of WJAS here, but it will mean the likely demise of some heritage frequencies in the Pittsburgh area. AM 1590 is no longer available, nor will many others return across Southwestern Pennsylvania. AM 1550 might be a better catch if it could be boosted in Braddock, but it remains registered as a Windsor, Ontario, clear channel even with CBC vacating it there.

 

[Boss Radio]

LOL at "heritage frequencies."

 

[FreddyE1977]

Move the music to FM and allow the AM to stay on the air in search of programming, and
before you know it some upstart right-wing ex-jock will be filling the vacuum on there with a
rabble-rousing Conservative talk show, getting the masses all agitated and complicating
the lives of us bureaucrats n'at. Eh?

 

[KeyTimes950]

Move the music to FM and allow the AM to stay on the air in search of programming, and
before you know it some upstart right-wing ex-jock will be filling the vacuum on there with a
rabble-rousing Conservative talk show, getting the masses all agitated and complicating
the lives of us bureaucrats n'at. Eh?

Actually, some Canadian FM hosts have found ways around that country's limitations on talk radio, usually in the form of what we might call "punking" individuals, making calls that catch a newsmaker off guard because he or she thinks they're getting one form of interview when something completely different is going on. As for your clearly tongue-in-cheek suggestion, I'd wonder if a Canadian Jim Quinn is possible. But what do I know?

 

[FreddyE1977]

Actually, some Canadian FM hosts have found ways around that country's limitations on talk radio, usually in the form of what we might call "punking" individuals, making calls that catch a newsmaker off guard because he or she thinks they're getting one form of interview when something completely different is going on.

You mean like those two guys who punked George W. Bush in 2000 by calling and telling him that he had been
endorsed by Prime Minister Jean Poutine?

That was quite funny if you were in on the punchline. Poutine is a Canadian fast-food favorite that would make
most Americans wretch. French fries, gravy, and some sort of half-curdled cheese.

 

[KeyTimes950]

You mean like those two guys who punked George W. Bush in 2000 by calling and telling him that he had been
endorsed by Prime Minister Jean Poutine?

That was quite funny if you were in on the punchline. Poutine is a Canadian fast-food favorite that would make
most Americans wretch. French fries, gravy, and some sort of half-curdled cheese.

I forgot about that one. Thanks for the reminder. Can't be that bad if someone can finish their lunch while reading that, but I admit to being an Andrew Zimmern fan.

 

[promixcuous]

Move the music to FM and allow the AM to stay on the air in search of programming, and
before you know it some upstart right-wing ex-jock will be filling the vacuum on there with a
rabble-rousing Conservative talk show, getting the masses all agitated and complicating
the lives of us bureaucrats n'at. Eh?

Few Canadians would listen. There have been successful conservative Canadian talk radio hosts like Charles Adler, and there is the Sun TV network, but by and large is isn't a mass audience up there for right wing vitriol.

 

[kenhawk1160]

Let's not forget the fact that the CBC owns the majority of radio stations in Canada. Very few are privately owned. The CBC has the deep pockets needed to upgrade/move facilities, and in time, even more AMs will go dark. The treaty needs to be renegotiated between Canada and the U.S. to allow nighttime power increases to those facilities here that have been protecting Canadian clears up to now.

It would give daytimers a fighting chance that don't have access to FM translator channels. If you own a daytimer without PSRA/PSSA authorization, you're pretty much dead in the water...unless you broker your programming in blocks.

 

[promixcuous]

Let's not forget the fact that the CBC owns the majority of radio stations in Canada. Very few are privately owned.

Very few are privately owned? That's nonsense. Three or four out of maybe two dozen stations in Toronto are owned by the CBC, for instance. Same with other major Canadian cities. The CBC may have a lot of repeaters in the sticks; that may be what you're thinking of.

Most stations in Canada are owned by a handful of private company (Astral, Corus, Bell, etc.), just like the US.