WTOR in Youngstown NY (Buffalo/Niagara Falls) is an ethnic station targeting Toronto. It's directional signal is virtually un-receivable in the Buffalo area.
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CKWW 580 oldies to South Asian?
- Thread starter tblanks
- Start date
Even before CKLW became a music station, it largely targeted the US audience as a Mutual affiliate. The Canadian government didn't know what it had. CKLW likely provided millions of dollars of publicity for The Canadian and Ontario governments. Windsor was not ignored.
Of course I meant "dedication". Vision issues. It was 20 years not 50 years for Mike and Lisa.
RKO General tried to take over CKLW radio/TV in a rather subversive way and basically poked the bear. Plus RKO was already five years into their license dispute over KHJ-TV.
WJR has fallen to #16 in the ratings, while CKLW does not even show (don't know if they don't subscribe or their Canadian format has no USA appeal). How the mighty have fallen.
CKLW and Bell media do not subscribe to U.S. Nielsens since they do not pursue advertising in the Detroit market.
I was listening to a 1970 CKLW aircheck and when they gave traffic reports it was all about Detroit...the Lodge Freeway, the Edsel Ford Expressway and all that. Now, the CKLW traffic reports are limited to Windsor and area which has a couple freeways and much less traffic, although from time to time they will mention wait times on the Ambassador Bridge or Windsor tunnel if there are backups and there aren't many these days. When the new Gordie Howe bridge and international customs center opens that may change.
Unless you are a real Canadianophile, CKLW would not be of interest to an American listener. And perhaps that's the way it should be...a local station serving its local audience. As for WJR, they started dropping after the J.P. McCarthy era and losing the big sports teams.
VintageMac
Banned
A few weeks ago, CKWW switched to its new format from oldies. It's more of a 70's/80's format. You can check it out here:
Or use this in iTunes/Music etc:
I liked the old format better.
Or use this in iTunes/Music etc:
I liked the old format better.
I just tuned in and heard a re-recording of Let Your Love Flow, presumably from the Bellamy Brothers. The original version is easily accessible so why not play the original?
VintageMac
Banned
When I heard Cyndi Lauper's Time After Time, they lost me right there. Too many repetitive songs heard too many times.
A lot of classic hits stations play re-recorded versions of songs
More like regurgitated.
I listened online. Heard a song I've never heard before, so I am assuming it's a Canadian Content tune. Wish they had a song list on their website. And now the god-awful album cut of I Want You To Want Me, not the "live" version. 
I've heard of more than one occasion of that.
To get stereo versions of classic hits, the LP tracks are frequently used, which can sound very different from the mono 45 singles of the day that were often remixed and equalized to sound best on AM stations over small transistor or car radios or on small phonographs. So to ears that can remember, they don't sound "right". And some songs are taken from oldies compilations that couldn't get the rights to the original hit and used alternate takes or even rerecordings from the original group. Additionally many stations, like CKLW, would record and tweak the music to sound unique over their particular audio chain, or run everything through a reverb, like WABC or WIXY. That also can make the songs not sound the same as they did in the day.
Speaking of reverb, When WKYC hired Jack Armstrong from WIXY in 1967, NBC engineers only allowed reverb on the mike channel, leaving music and commercials "straight". Most stations used spring type reverb units, but WABC's sound was made in a real echo chamber that was built for special effects in the days of radio plays, a large, long box that stood on isolation mounts in its own room, with a speaker on one side and a mike on the other. Bruce Morrow tells the tale that to prank a DJ, they would rap on the side of the box which would create a horrendous noise in the jock's headset!
Speaking of reverb, When WKYC hired Jack Armstrong from WIXY in 1967, NBC engineers only allowed reverb on the mike channel, leaving music and commercials "straight". Most stations used spring type reverb units, but WABC's sound was made in a real echo chamber that was built for special effects in the days of radio plays, a large, long box that stood on isolation mounts in its own room, with a speaker on one side and a mike on the other. Bruce Morrow tells the tale that to prank a DJ, they would rap on the side of the box which would create a horrendous noise in the jock's headset!
Not sure who is listening to this canned music on a 500 watt AM signal when Charlie O'Brien still runs the much better sounding, better curated big8radio.com.
Bell let CKWW sit in a corner probably running the same music logs Charlie did before he retired or "was" retired.
The new owners are trying to do some local talk and involvement. I see a lot on this board bemoaning the lack of local programming. CKWW tries and it's all "but they're playing the wrong versions of music!"
A long time ago, when one could go into a Camelot Music and peruse their aisles of CDs, I had purchased some "budget" oldies compilation CDs. They were made/manufactured in Canada under the Madacy label. Most of the tracks on the CD were "resung" by at least one member of the original band, although that was not implied on the outer cover of the CDs "Original Songs By The Original Artists" claim.
Given that the CRTC's Canadian Content laws limit the amount of American (or elsewhere) made songs heard on the Canadian stations, some artists would record in Canada to earn enough of the CanCon MAPL requirements to give it a better chance to be played more often in Canada.
Perhaps some of these re-sings qualified as CanCon. Not sure if being recorded for Madacy, etal, counts toward earning that status, though, but it's plausible.
Given that the CRTC's Canadian Content laws limit the amount of American (or elsewhere) made songs heard on the Canadian stations, some artists would record in Canada to earn enough of the CanCon MAPL requirements to give it a better chance to be played more often in Canada.
Perhaps some of these re-sings qualified as CanCon. Not sure if being recorded for Madacy, etal, counts toward earning that status, though, but it's plausible.
Canadian Content, or CanCon, rules are that generally 35% of radio airplay must be songs that are "at least partly written, produced, presented or otherwise contributed to by persons from Canada". That well could be the reason CKWW plays "alternate" versions of old hits as described above.
CanCon is essentially what killed CKLW 800 as a significant hit making powerhouse in the U.S., along with other rules that torpedoed it broadcasting to a non-Canadian audience. It's also what has made those little upstate New York/Vermont small town border stations so valuable now that our lax laws allow them to beam into cross border cities like Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal with CanCon free music and rule-free programming.
CanCon is essentially what killed CKLW 800 as a significant hit making powerhouse in the U.S., along with other rules that torpedoed it broadcasting to a non-Canadian audience. It's also what has made those little upstate New York/Vermont small town border stations so valuable now that our lax laws allow them to beam into cross border cities like Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal with CanCon free music and rule-free programming.
But Canadian advertisers can't "expense" time buys on American stations for their business. So very few even try.
Toronto is not on the US border, nor is, even remotely, Ottawa. Montreal is a bit closer but it's still far from Plattsburg and US stations in the border zone.
The closest US signals to big Canadian cities are Detroit to Windsor and the area around Blaine, WA to Vancouver. The rest are like Sarnia and Port Huron or the two Sault St. Maries.
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