• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

CKLW-FM, Oldies experiment 1 and 2

P

pqgeorge

I recall in 1986, CKLW-FM was running an oldies format that was very true to life to the original "Big 8", CKLW. I was driving from Cleveland, Ohio to the Pennsylvania border. It really was a great sounding station. But, no sooner than you could say "CRTC", the license for CKLW-FM was being contested due to 93.9's alleged Canadian Content quota was not being reached. So, the "The Big 8" experiment on FM was dumped for "More 94" (CKMR) in the fall of 1986. Once again in 1991, they tried with CKLW-FM "The Legend 93.9" with the original Drake jingles. It wasn't bad. But, once again the Canadian Content (CanCon) rules made it impossible to truly emulate the original "Big 8". So, it died rather quickly. It 's a shame really.

BTW: CKLW/800 is basically a shadow of the original "Big 8", not so much for the format they run now. But, since CKLW-AM messed around with their killer antenna pattern and audio processing, the signal from Windsor is rather weaker now, compared to the blowtorch signal they used to have, as they augmented their 50,000 watt pattern away from the States and concentrated the signal to serve southern Ontario.

Even here in the Boston area, CKLW was a KILLER signal at night. Today, it barely exists due to the daytimers who got some nighttime service.
 
This topic is already being discussed in an earlier thread. There was no reason for you to start a new and separate thread for your post.
 
Peter Q. George (K1XRB) said:
I recall in 1986, CKLW-FM was running an oldies format that was very true to life to the original "Big 8", CKLW. I was driving from Cleveland, Ohio to the Pennsylvania border. It really was a great sounding station. But, no sooner than you could say "CRTC", the license for CKLW-FM was being contested due to 93.9's alleged Canadian Content quota was not being reached. So, the "The Big 8" experiment on FM was dumped for "More 94" (CKMR) in the fall of 1986. Once again in 1991, they tried with CKLW-FM "The Legend 93.9" with the original Drake jingles. It wasn't bad. But, once again the Canadian Content (CanCon) rules made it impossible to truly emulate the original "Big 8". So, it died rather quickly. It 's a shame really.

BTW: CKLW/800 is basically a shadow of the original "Big 8", not so much for the format they run now. But, since CKLW-AM messed around with their killer antenna pattern and audio processing, the signal from Windsor is rather weaker now, compared to the blowtorch signal they used to have, as they augmented their 50,000 watt pattern away from the States and concentrated the signal to serve southern Ontario.

Even here in the Boston area, CKLW was a KILLER signal at night. Today, it barely exists due to the daytimers who got some nighttime service.
Click to expand...

Back in mid to late 70's, we got CK in clear as a bell in the Pittsburgh suburbs. I remember being able to hear it on my parents' car radio. What a station.
 
...can you say "XM" or "Sirius" ? Corporate terrestrial radio is a big joke anymore.
CRTC ballyhooes Bill Drake and RKO while our FCC gives in to Clear Cookiecutter's pressures...Sad!

Bring the Big 8 back online as a podcast as did http://www.keener13.com or as a netcaster as http://www.rockitradio.net and the cult following will return!
 
kirkiefan said:
CRTC ballyhooes Bill Drake and RKO while our FCC gives in to Clear Cookiecutter's pressures...Sad!
Click to expand...

What? The CRTC killed the Big 8 with their Canadian content rules.
 
Re: CKLW-AM signal to the south

I live in Florida and have some very good radios. have never heard CK here in the 30 years I've been here. I hear WJR all the time. I believe CKLW made an agreement to lower their signal to the south to protect the 800 station on the island of Bonaire in the Netheraland Antilles. Next to Aruba. The Bonaire signal has the capacity to run over 100000 watts. Canadian AM's still sound better than US AM's because they dont have to comply with NRSC or a major company's policy of 5 or 6 khz bandwidth on AM stations.
 
CKLW was protecting XEROK (the Mexican Clear), not the 500,000 watt blowtorch on Bonaire, which just popped up with no regard to international treaties. When the Big 8 reunion happened a few years ago, the only thing I could make out in Dayton, OH was the song "Scorpio" Back in the day, there would have been a strong PJB running James Vernon McGee with an audible CKLW underneath it. Driving up to Sandusky one night I could get the Michigan game on CKLW enough to be identifiable but not listenable about Bucyrus (though CKLW did blast in in Cedar Point's parking lot).

I don't know all the details of CKLW-FM's airing of "retro" Big 8 oldies, but I know part of the day was automated (we're talking reel to reels). If can-con killed the format the first time, I can't imagine how much CanCon music would have been available for the "More 94" sould oldies format. How much did R. Dean Taylor sing or write?
 
CanCon didn't kill CKLW

It was CHR and rock radio on FM from across the river.

1050 CHUM and CKOC-1150 had to put up with CanCon too, yet their top-40 formats lasted into the mid-80's.
 
Can Con had lots of loopholes: Canadian singers, musicians, song writers, recorded in Canada, published in Canada .... Any Canadian connection at all counted. Record labels could be creative in getting songs on the Big 8. FM killed music on AM, not the CRTC.
 
What the CRTC killed was the chance to move the CKLW Top 40-style format to the FM.

When The Fox 93.9 was proposed in 1984, it was all set to go, the staff and PD Pat Holiday were ready, and it was mere hours from its debut when the CRTC came in and said that FM couldn't be used for rock n' roll music.

That was 1984. Think about that--1984, you couldn't play "rock" on the clean FM signal, only "good music".

That killed the Big 8--the inability to move the format over to FM.
 
The CRTC's decision in 1984 required Windsor's FM radio stations to play a major role in the provision of a varied and comprehensive broadcasting service of high standard. To this end, FM broadcasters were expected to provide a variety of music and spoken word programming different in both form and content from that available on AM. The CRTC took into account that there were FM top 40 and oldies staions in Detroit and that merited a special case ruling for the Windsor FM frequencies. Right or wrong, Canadians were trying to get local Canadian programming on their FM frequencies.
 
artradioguy said:
The CRTC's decision in 1984 required Windsor's FM radio stations to play a major role in the provision of a varied and comprehensive broadcasting service of high standard. To this end, FM broadcasters were expected to provide a variety of music and spoken word programming different in both form and content from that available on AM. The CRTC took into account that there were FM top 40 and oldies staions in Detroit and that merited a special case ruling for the Windsor FM frequencies. Right or wrong, Canadians were trying to get local Canadian programming on their FM frequencies.
Click to expand...

I vote for wrong.

Apparently the CRTC believes a handful of Ottawa bureaucrats know better what to put on FM than the marketplace of listeners and the advertisers who want to reach them.

Canadian content is for the benefit of the Canadian recording industry and Canadians who work in it - not listeners.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom