AM ??

[shepaug]

Honestly now...

Is AM totally dead in Canada ?


It seems that all AM is being removed to FM.


In the USA we can't hear you anymore without AM. (wireless)


Sort of a pity. A 50kw signal had wide night coverage. Say...1070 in New Brunswick... I'd bet it was listenable NB.NS,PEI,NFLD at night. No need to be in range of a FM'er.


So NO AM spectrum.

All Canada can listen to the USA ?

 

[Davros2006]

Some of the most established radio stations here in Canada are on the AM band. Let me list some of them...

CJCL 590 Toronto (Fan 590)
CFMJ 640 Toronto (AM 640 - Home of the Leafs)
CFTR 680 Toronto (680 News)
CFRB 1010 Toronto (NewsTalk 1010)
CHUM 1050 Toronto (formerly a music station, now carries all news)

CKAC 730 Montreal (French language sports and carries Montreal Canadiens games)
CJAD 800 Montreal (longtime English language news/talk station and carries Montreal Canadiens games)
CKGM 990 Montreal (English language sports station)

CFCB 570 Corner Brook, NL (on the air 50 years)
CBY 990 Corner Brook, NL (longtime CBC O&O)

VOCM 590 St. John's, NL (on the air since 1936)
CBN 640 St. John's, NL (on the air since 1932)

CJOB 680 Winnipeg, MB

CHED 630 Edmonton, AB

CFAC 960 Calgary, AB

CBU 690 Vancouver, BC

AM Radio in Canada is not dead, and will never be dead. Some of the above stations are long-established 50,000-watt blowtorches.

 

[w9wi]

Some of the most established radio stations here in Canada are on the AM band. Let me list some of them...
CJOB 680 Winnipeg, MB

Tried to get permission for a 100kw FM simulcast earlier this year. (CRTC didn't buy it)

CBU 690 Vancouver, BC

Tried to get permission to move to FM earlier this year. (or was it last year?) CRTC said no. They did allow a "nested relay" -- CBU now has permission for an FM simulcast in Vancouver proper on 88.1.
_________________________________________________
Other major Canadian AMs that are defunct include two Class A stations in Montreal (690 & 940); a Class A at Moncton (1070). Smaller AM stations that are gone include ALL of the AM stations on PEI; and all the AMs in Thunder Bay, Kingston, Sudbury, and Sault Ste. Marie. 10kw and 50kw stations in Winnipeg are gone (580, 630); 10kw in Regina on 1300 is gone; 10kw in Edmonton (1480) is gone.

It looks to me as if any Canadian AM *that can find a suitable FM frequency* is going to FM. The crowded dial in the Windsor<=>Montreal corridor means the remaining AMs in those cities will probably never move. (unless they can take over an existing FM...) I might venture a guess the NL stations stick with AM because due to distance from the mainland (and the USA) they can operate nondirectionally with enough power to reasonably cover their communities.

AM is not completely dead, and will not be completely dead in the near future, but I wouldn't be betting my salary on AM license futures.


It certainly appears to me that Canadian AMs are moving to FM wherever suitable FM frequencies are available. There really aren't any in the GTA and Montreal area.

 

[Dan Sys]

The latest PPM's released for Vancouver last week show 4 AM stations in the Top 10:

#1 - CKNW 980 12.2 News-Talk
#6 - CISL 650 5.8 Standards
#7 - CBU 690 5.8 CBC Radio One
#8 - CKWX 1130 5.7 All News

I would say the AM band is far from dead in this market.

 

[azumanga]

It looks to me as if any Canadian AM *that can find a suitable FM frequency* is going to FM. The crowded dial in the Windsor<=>Montreal corridor means the remaining AMs in those cities will probably never move. (unless they can take over an existing FM...)

Don't say they never tried -- CBE AM 1550 in Windsor has been approved to move to 97.5 FM in the near future; however, they will have to operate on a highly-directional antenna, in order to protect other stations on 97.5 FM and adjacent frequencies, such as WJIM-FM 97.5 in Lansing. They were authorised in June 2009 to make the switch and there were chatter that they were doing so as early as Fall 2009; however, they have yet to do so.

 

[Dan Sys]

Shutting down CBE 1550 and moving it to 97.5 will be an unmitigated disaster.

 

[w9wi]

Don't say they never tried -- CBE AM 1550 in Windsor has been approved to move to 97.5 FM in the near future; however, they will have to operate on a highly-directional antenna, in order to protect other stations on 97.5 FM and adjacent frequencies, such as WJIM-FM 97.5 in Lansing. They were authorised in June 2009 to make the switch and there were chatter that they were doing so as early as Fall 2009; however, they have yet to do so.

Good point.

Though I thought their approval was delayed until this summer? Thought they were having problems with the frequency for their Leamington relayer. (since resolved)

 

[mimo]

According to the radio in montreal Yahoo group, someone is interested in reactivating 690 and 940 in Montreal. He's polled the members as to what they would like to see on those frequencies. Ottawa is also completely full on FM. Any new stations we get will have to be AM. The CRTC has never said it's killing AM off, and I actually doubt the band will go completely dead up here.

Ottawa is supposed to be getting a new AM at 1350 sometime. It will be a relay of a catholic station in Montreal. Last year we also had a new AM go on air at 1670. There still is some interest in the AM band, and every city (even Montreal) has a couple of AMs that are doing very very well.

 

[Yeziknoradio]

CHUM 1050 Toronto (formerly a music station, now carries all news)

AM Radio in Canada is not dead, and will never be dead. Some of the above stations are long-established 50,000-watt blowtorches.

CHUM 1050 does not carry all news. They are a repeater of CP24 television. On week-ends they DO throw in some of their own talk shows...I haven't had a listen, so I can only guess the content is infomercial.

Also, don't leave out AM 740 Toronto. They were CBC, but when CBC chose to go FM, there were at least 3 companies wanting to do something with that particular station.

The winner moved 1250 CHWO into AM 740 and changed 1250 into a religious station, so there are still many uses (including multicultural) for AM radio.

 

[mjlarochelle]

Don't say they never tried -- CBE AM 1550 in Windsor has been approved to move to 97.5 FM in the near future; however, they will have to operate on a highly-directional antenna, in order to protect other stations on 97.5 FM and adjacent frequencies, such as WJIM-FM 97.5 in Lansing. They were authorised in June 2009 to make the switch and there were chatter that they were doing so as early as Fall 2009; however, they have yet to do so.

And not only that, but Mr. Fybush reported in a recent NERW that CBI Sydney (1110) likely won't be going away after all, with CBC looking to make CBIT-FM a nested repeater instead of a replacement for CBI. I had read on one of the radio boards last year that CBC had been unable to replicate CBI's coverage on CBIT-FM.

As it has stood up to this point, most of the times CBC has converted an AM station to FM they have had to add one or more FM repeaters, which just adds to the cost. When CBA flipped to FM a couple of years ago, CBC had to add a new FM repeater at Sackville, and another one on PEI. Likewise when CBL flipped to FM, repeaters had to be added at Crystal Beach, Paris, Wingham, Shelburne, and Penetanguishene.

This is likely why CBC would never get rid of stations like CBK Watrous - they cover a massive area that would otherwise require over half a dozen FM transmitters.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

It also seems unwise to abandon CBEF 540 and CBE 1550 in Windsor for FMs that don't cover the whole area well.

The AM allotments stay in the international database for an indeterminate amount of time. US stations are required to protect these phantom stations with nulls that complicate patterns and limit nighttime power levels in some cases. A good example is WTCM 580, which protects 580 allotments in Kapuskasing and Thunder Bay which are no longer used.WTCM is 50 kW day but just 1.1 kW night, from complicated pattern and power considerations. On the other hand, when KDWB 630 (now WREY Hudson, WI) in Minneapolis went to daytime only for a short time, CFCO was able to take advantage of it and upgrade to 6 kW night with a maximum close to the direction of Minneapolis.