Are there any other French-language AM stations on 1550?

[newfoundlandtime]

If there are no others, I might as well make the one from Windsor official.

Clear Channel Class “A” Stations Received in Port aux Basques Since 2007

CBT AM 540 Grand Falls-Windsor, NL (10,000 watts)
CBN AM 640 St. John’s, NL (10,000 watts)
WFAN AM 660 New York City, NY (50,000 watts)
CKGM AM 690 Montreal, QC (50,000 watts)
WLW AM 700 Cincinnati, OH (50,000 watts) (new as of 12/3/2012)
WOR AM 710 New York City, NY (50,000 watts)
WGN AM 720 Chicago, IL (50,000 watts)
CKAC AM 730 Montreal, QC (50,000 watts)
CFZM AM 740 Toronto, ON (50,000 watts) (new as of 10/30/2012)
WJR AM 760 Detroit, MI (50,000 watts) (new as of 11/28/2012) (2nd of 3 today)
WABC AM 770 New York City, NY (50,000 watts)
WBBM AM 780 Chicago, IL (50,000 watts)
WGY AM 810 Schenectady, NY (50,000 watts) (new as of 11/29/2012)
CJBC AM 860 Toronto, ON (50,000 watts)
WWL AM 870 New Orleans, LA (50,000 watts) (new as of early 11/30/2012)
WCBS AM 880 New York City, NY (50,000 watts)
CBY AM 990 Corner Brook, NL (10,000 watts)
CFRB AM 1010 Toronto, ON (50,000 watts)
KDKA AM 1020 Pittsburgh, PA (50,000 watts) (new as of 11/28/2012) (1st of 3 today)
WBZ AM 1030 Boston, MA (50,000 watts)
WTIC AM 1080 Hartford, CT (50,000 watts)
WBAL AM 1090 Baltimore, MD (50,000 watts)
WTAM AM 1100 Cleveland, OH (50,000 watts) (new as of 11/28/2012) (3rd of 3 today)
WBT AM 1110 Charlotte, NC (50,000 watts)
KMOX AM 1120 St. Louis, MO (50,000 watts)
WBBR AM 1130 New York City, NY (50,000 watts)
WHAM AM 1180 Rochester, NY (50,000 watts)
WPHT AM 1210 Philadelphia, PA (50,000 watts)
WFED AM 1500 Washington, DC (50,000 watts)
WWKB AM 1520 Buffalo, NY (50,000 watts)
CBEF AM 1550 Windsor, ON (10,000 watts) (new as of 12/12/2012)
WQEW AM 1560 New York City, NY (50,000 watts)
CKDO AM 1580 Oshawa, ON (10,000 watts) (new as of 11/7/2012)

Blue: Unofficial until verified by others.

Total: 33

 

[newfoundlandtime]

Another thing I should ask: Have I been constantly getting CBEF on 540 24/7 for all these years even though it's not a clear channel designation like Grand Falls and Regina (both English) are or are there any other French-language stations on it that come in pretty well at all times?

 

[spunker88]

The only other 1550 I see in Canada is CBSI-8 which is 40 watts and licensed to La Romaine, QC. It carries Première Chaîne just like CBEF, but I'm not even sure if this signal is on the air and how far it would reach considering its only 40 watts.

 

[newfoundlandtime]

Personally I wished I had tuned into 1550 months ago (or at least last year), just at a point where I'd have heard it in English (when CBC Radio 1 was there) to really make it so. I guess I need to check the car radio at the top of a given hour in the evening soon.

 

[w9wi]

Another thing I should ask: Have I been constantly getting CBEF on 540 24/7 for all these years even though it's not a clear channel designation like Grand Falls and Regina (both English) are or are there any other French-language stations on it that come in pretty well at all times?

There at least once was a French station on 540 in Grande-Anse in northern New Brunswick. (I want to say the transmitter was across the river in Quebec) It was approved to move to FM in August 2011 -- I would think it would have done so (and silenced the AM) by now but I don't know that for certain.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

Based on Class B minimum efficiency, CBEF 540 maximum inverse field is the equivalent of about 37000 watts at night. It occurs at 35 degrees. It has a great groundwave and skywave into Canada. And if you listen, the audio sounds a lot better than it does on 1550. CBE 1550 is a Class A protected skywave station, but many times, CBEF will have a better skywave into Canada.

Based on Class B efficiency, CBE has a maximun inverse field that is equivalent to about 39000 watts at night. It occurs at 40 degrees, but its two tower array has a much wider major lobe. Fading is worse due to the shorter wavelength, and the groundwave is much less beyond the immediate Windsor area.

I think its a shame if the 540 is not used in some way, on one or the other side of the border.

 

[audioguy]

540 is used by CBK in Regina, which puts a respectable signal into the midwest most nights of the year. I won't miss CBEF.

On the other hand, CBE always had a poor signal into SW Michigan and N. Illinois off the back of their pattern and 1550 is also a very cluttered frequency at night. Instead, I used to listen to AM 740 until CBL signed off. Then I switched to CBW, which still comes in very well. Unfortunately, these days, there's much less unique and valuable programming on the CBC compared to 10 or 20 years ago and as far as I'm concerned it's not worth bothering with, except possibly to listen to the weather at the TOH and gloat over how much colder they have it up there!

I used to love listening to classical programs on Radio One like That Time of the Night and later on, Northern Lights. The SRC does play some classical music, but precious little.

 

[newfoundlandtime]

I should take some time to run through the car radio tomorrow at the earliest to size up what I am exactly getting. I'll pick my times carefully.

 

[newfoundlandtime]

Unrelated, I did pick up, almost by accident, CHIN AM 1540 Toronto. 50,000 watts Class “B”, and having looked around for any other stations on 1530 or 1540 - the result of hearing over-the-air Kylie Minogue's Confide in Me, I figured that would be the station so I ran the audio stream and nailed it. I even did off a couple of brief audio tape recordings. I do wish the portable cassette recorder had one of those AUX inputs as opposed to having just headphone and microphone jacks. I know I have seen one of those but they're quite rare now (might have been a RadioShack brand of cassette recorder at one point).

 

[cd637299]

Unrelated, I did pick up, almost by accident, CHIN AM 1540 Toronto. 50,000 watts Class “B”, and having looked around for any other stations on 1530 or 1540 - the result of hearing over-the-air Kylie Minogue's Confide in Me, I figured that would be the station so I ran the audio stream and nailed it. I even did off a couple of brief audio tape recordings. I do wish the portable cassette recorder had one of those AUX inputs as opposed to having just headphone and microphone jacks. I know I have seen one of those but they're quite rare now (might have been a RadioShack brand of cassette recorder at one point).

Good on CHIN....unless they raised power, their night power is 30,000 watts. They were only a daytimer, until the 1990s maybe.

eBay should have quite a few portable cassette recorders with the AUX. Yes Radio Shack had the Optimus line, and I think some had the AUX and some did not. If you go to eBay, be sure to type in the search something similar to portable cassette recorder aux

cd

 

[newfoundlandtime]

Update on what has been on AM 540 all this time: It's CBGA-1 in Grande-Anse, NB (Class B at 10,000 watts), which is a rebroadcaster of CBGA-FM of Matane, QC. I spent a few moments earlier today in the car while out on my daily runs to make sure. Heard mentions of "Matane", "Gaspé", and the "Iles de la Madeleine". That pretty much seals the deal of a lengthy mystery for me.

I'll have to check online as soon as I can about what I think I can recall there used to be a French station on AM 610.

 

[newfoundlandtime]

Here's what I know... based on some quick searching...

There was a French language radio station on AM 610 that is no longer there (it moved to FM as early as 2008 but did not leave the AM band until 2010). That has to be CHNC in New Carlisle, QC, which is close to Campbellton, New Brunswick. At least on two occasions, as late as probably last year, I had picked up French on AM 1150 (in that situation, it was near the hospital and the mall). That was probably CHGM in Gaspé. Both are now on FM, and I may have picked up CHNC's 107.1 signal on at least a few occasions.

 

[newfoundlandtime]

Still trying to make CBEF 1550 Windsor official. I was checking it out in the car and I heard some description of upcoming events (including some plays, such as maybe “A Christmas Carol”, I think). I don't know if there's a Michael something Theater in the area.

 

[cyberdad]

I used to love listening to classical programs on Radio One like That Time of the Night and later on, Northern Lights. The SRC does play some classical music, but precious little.

I assume the reason for the departure of classical music on CBC-1 was moving it over to FM on CBC-2. But even on CBC-2, my admittedly very casual observation is that classical music is slowly getting trimmed there, too.

 

[audioguy]

Actually, they have taken off a lot of the classical programming from CBC-2 as well in an attempt to appeal to younger listeners. But it is not only that; they killed a lot of uniquely Canadian content that I used to love to listen to.

For instance, there was a program of live story reading called "Between the Covers" that came on every night just before Northern Lights. It featured Canadian authors and the stories would be continued each night. I hated when the signal would fade out during an exciting part. But the stories were available from a Canadian publisher on cassette, and later on CD, and I bought a few of them. I bought the theme music "Little Serenade for Strings" they used for Northern Lights too, and I still enjoy listening to that.

I can still hear CBW clearly just about every night, but the programs don't interest me. So I built my own AM translator for WNIU, which has fantastic classical music. Classical radio is rare and wonderful, and I currently support three stations for that reason.

 

[cyberdad]

Actually, they have taken off a lot of the classical programming from CBC-2 as well in an attempt to appeal to younger listeners. But it is not only that; they killed a lot of uniquely Canadian content that I used to love to listen to.

For instance, there was a program of live story reading called "Between the Covers" that came on every night just before Northern Lights. It featured Canadian authors and the stories would be continued each night. I hated when the signal would fade out during an exciting part. But the stories were available from a Canadian publisher on cassette, and later on CD, and I bought a few of them. I bought the theme music "Little Serenade for Strings" they used for Northern Lights too, and I still enjoy listening to that.

I can still hear CBW clearly just about every night, but the programs don't interest me. So I built my own AM translator for WNIU, which has fantastic classical music. Classical radio is rare and wonderful, and I currently support three stations for that reason.

Yes, I've had the experience on my trips to Canada looking for classical music on CBC-2, only to find other stuff. There is an excellent classical music station in Toronto on 96.3. Their approach is similar to what used to be on CBC-2 with some "lighter" stuff thrown in (similar to CBC-2's Disc Drive program). The station is under the same ownership as CFZM, IIRC. I think the model for this programming may be the UK's "Classic FM"....which is a fun listen, albeit with a few too many interruptions IMHO.

You might want to try streaming these stations, if you've not already done so.

 

[phil]

year's ago, I would use a suction cup style telephone pickup plugged into the mic input of a cassette recorder, with the pickup centered over the speaker of a radio, to make recordings with no room noise. It worked quite well.

There are now several reasonably priced digital voice recorders with aux inputs. Sometimes you have to go to a menu and set the input between mic and aux. I would invest in one of them, rather than a tape recorder. Most save as either an MP3 or WAV file, which can easily be transferred to your computer to burn a CD. Be sure and get one with a USB output.

 

[Tincap]

Actually, they have taken off a lot of the classical programming from CBC-2 as well in an attempt to appeal to younger listeners. But it is not only that; they killed a lot of uniquely Canadian content that I used to love to listen to.

For instance, there was a program of live story reading called "Between the Covers" that came on every night just before Northern Lights. It featured Canadian authors and the stories would be continued each night. I hated when the signal would fade out during an exciting part. But the stories were available from a Canadian publisher on cassette, and later on CD, and I bought a few of them. I bought the theme music "Little Serenade for Strings" they used for Northern Lights too, and I still enjoy listening to that.

I can still hear CBW clearly just about every night, but the programs don't interest me. So I built my own AM translator for WNIU, which has fantastic classical music. Classical radio is rare and wonderful, and I currently support three stations for that reason.

Yes, I've had the experience on my trips to Canada looking for classical music on CBC-2, only to find other stuff. There is an excellent classical music station in Toronto on 96.3. Their approach is similar to what used to be on CBC-2 with some "lighter" stuff thrown in (similar to CBC-2's Disc Drive program). The station is under the same ownership as CFZM, IIRC. I think the model for this programming may be the UK's "Classic FM"....which is a fun listen, albeit with a few too many interruptions IMHO.

You might want to try streaming these stations, if you've not already done so.

On a good day, I can get "The New Classical 96", on 103.1, via their Cobourg Ontario transmitter (It would be much easier, if the much more local WTOJ Watertown NY wasn't on the same frequency...). I find the content OK, but yes...those commercials . BTW, on Christmas Day they do play great Christmas music commercial free )

As for CBC Radio 2, what can I say, that hasn't been said? I wonder how their CRTC application, to run commercials, is coming along? Someone's got to pay for the mess they've made out of it.

~BG

 

[cd637299]

Seriously---

How long has it been that the CBC *wasn't* in some sorta financial crisis?

cd

 

[Tincap]

Seriously---

How long has it been that the CBC *wasn't* in some sorta financial crisis?

cd

In all fairness, that could probably be said for all public broadcasters. Radio 1 is doing excellent in the ratings game, but they are not the 'problem' child in CBC's portfolio.

~BG