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MsMusicRadio
Guest
They play stuff that you don't hear elsewhere. As I don't live in Detroit or Windsor, I wonder if they are at all successful. Was this frequency around back in the days of the Great 8 and if so, what was it?
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nightfly61
Guest
I think it was a MOR station that leaned toward "fogey" music, (so no threat to old CK). I don't mind it at all now except the oddball mix from Adult Standards to Oldies. They'll go from Burton Cummings to Tony Bennett to Elton John to Peggy Lee or Sinatra.
Speaking of Sinatra I hadn't heard "Anytime (I'll Be There)" since the OLD CK days in '75. It's good to hear CKWW spinning it.
Speaking of Sinatra I hadn't heard "Anytime (I'll Be There)" since the OLD CK days in '75. It's good to hear CKWW spinning it.
AM 580 has been around at least as long as CKLW, as least in my lifetime. As a kid growing up right across the river from the CKLW TV tower, CKWW played "Middle of the Road" music (pop songs for the older folks) with local personalities. They said "Wonderful Windsor" a lot. It was always the local Windsor station, not trying to serve Detroit listeners much, until their ownership also got permission to operate CKLW and Windsor became a "one-owner" commercial radio market. That's when they moved the all-talk format CKWW had by then to the big signal on AM 800. Not a smart move, in my opinion, since CKLW barely shows up anymore in any ratings in Detroit, Toledo, or Cleveland, where it still comes in like a local signal and used to have a significant audience, whereas the 500 watts on am580 covers Essex County nicely and much of Detroit.
After they swapped the adult standards format that CKLW had gone to onto CKWW 580, there was a short time (a couple of years, perhaps), where AM580 operated with higher power and put a solid signal south into Toledo. Local press was that the signal on 580 was upgraded to accommodate the disappointed listeners who missed the standards on CKLW. But it went back to the weaker 500watts and is still audible in Ohio now, but weaker, with a lot of hiss and fade outs.
Since there are few oldies or standards stations in most of the other markets where CKLW's daytime signal reaches (I think Sandusky's AM1450 WLEC is the one exception), they could probably make money and some inroads outside of Windsor if they swapped the programming on 580 and 800 back again.
Then again, I still think the CBC should have use of the 50kw of CKLW, as a way to remedy the mistake of shutting down the 50kw CBC stations in Toronto and Montreal some years ago for "FM only," and as a way to provide CBC Radio One programming to at least a few listeners inside the US in Michigan, Ohio, and a bit of Indiana and Pennsylvania.
Much of the programming on 800 now is the same syndicated American talk shows you hear on other US stations. And their popular morning drive show is all about Windsor, so why not put it on a local frequency and put something more specialized on the big 8, where a specialty format can reach a large enough audience to pay for itself? They're not making any real money off of it anymore outside Canada with the current talk format on CKLW. Not sure the owners even care anymore.
The Canadian regulators at the CRTC do assign frequencies based on content and require targeted audiences to be served by specific stations. It seems consistent with their policies to make better use of the AM facility assignments in Windsor to promote Canadian interests and information reaching outside their borders to the non-insignificant population that AM 800 can reach.
After they swapped the adult standards format that CKLW had gone to onto CKWW 580, there was a short time (a couple of years, perhaps), where AM580 operated with higher power and put a solid signal south into Toledo. Local press was that the signal on 580 was upgraded to accommodate the disappointed listeners who missed the standards on CKLW. But it went back to the weaker 500watts and is still audible in Ohio now, but weaker, with a lot of hiss and fade outs.
Since there are few oldies or standards stations in most of the other markets where CKLW's daytime signal reaches (I think Sandusky's AM1450 WLEC is the one exception), they could probably make money and some inroads outside of Windsor if they swapped the programming on 580 and 800 back again.
Then again, I still think the CBC should have use of the 50kw of CKLW, as a way to remedy the mistake of shutting down the 50kw CBC stations in Toronto and Montreal some years ago for "FM only," and as a way to provide CBC Radio One programming to at least a few listeners inside the US in Michigan, Ohio, and a bit of Indiana and Pennsylvania.
Much of the programming on 800 now is the same syndicated American talk shows you hear on other US stations. And their popular morning drive show is all about Windsor, so why not put it on a local frequency and put something more specialized on the big 8, where a specialty format can reach a large enough audience to pay for itself? They're not making any real money off of it anymore outside Canada with the current talk format on CKLW. Not sure the owners even care anymore.
The Canadian regulators at the CRTC do assign frequencies based on content and require targeted audiences to be served by specific stations. It seems consistent with their policies to make better use of the AM facility assignments in Windsor to promote Canadian interests and information reaching outside their borders to the non-insignificant population that AM 800 can reach.
The CBC is not there to program to the United States. CKLW seems to do just fine in ratings and revenue targeting Windsor/Essex County. Does seem like a waste of signal but with the higher interference, dimmer swicthes, computer monitors, etc maybe it does take a super signal to make Windsor. I would have liked to have seen oldies on 800, it possibly would have got a 1 or 2 share in Detroit, but we'd have to see if it made any money from the American side.
Charlie O'Brien programs CKWW, and the studio is the old Big 8 studio.
Charlie O'Brien programs CKWW, and the studio is the old Big 8 studio.
I know the CBC is a domestic service; but public radio, even the CBC, has a role to play that is important and needs to be heard clearly. I sure wish I could have heard CBC's coverage of the day the US started to "shock and awe" Baghdad on AM 800 when I had to haightail it out of Detroit and get back to Dayton to oversee programming on my own station. Instead, CKLW ran ABC news coverage - same as on WJR. Seemed like the Canadian perspective would have been very useful for something besides the false patriotism we got back then.
My point is if commercial radio operators can't make a go at it with 50 thousand watts on AM - then let someone else do it. Public radio, even the CBC, lacks long distance AM coverage, and there are dozens of flavors to noncommercial radio. How about letting a few of them broadcast in the public interest, even if the public is a non-mainstream group, say educated people, or Native Americans, or jazz fans, or whatever. THe larger signals will help make it possible for these speciality types of formats to survive by reaching the minority audiences across broader terrain.
Yeah, the old "Big 8" might even do well if resurrected as an oldies format. But why won't any commercial radio people do it? I heard in Grand Rapids MI the public radio station turned their AM signals into oldies stations recently. Again, who's gonna do it, when the big corporations seem to only know 3 or 4 formats for AM any more?
My point is if commercial radio operators can't make a go at it with 50 thousand watts on AM - then let someone else do it. Public radio, even the CBC, lacks long distance AM coverage, and there are dozens of flavors to noncommercial radio. How about letting a few of them broadcast in the public interest, even if the public is a non-mainstream group, say educated people, or Native Americans, or jazz fans, or whatever. THe larger signals will help make it possible for these speciality types of formats to survive by reaching the minority audiences across broader terrain.
Yeah, the old "Big 8" might even do well if resurrected as an oldies format. But why won't any commercial radio people do it? I heard in Grand Rapids MI the public radio station turned their AM signals into oldies stations recently. Again, who's gonna do it, when the big corporations seem to only know 3 or 4 formats for AM any more?
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nightfly61
Guest
I only listen overnights when Coast To Coast AM is on & sometimes wake up & hear the A,M drive, but it's funny the "Morning Drive" with Mike & Lisa uses bands from the U.S bumper music they probably swipe from 89X down the hall, and they talk about what's on AMERICAN Idol, not Canadian Idol plus other U.S celebrity dirt like every other U.S morning prep service puts out. The thing I REALLY didn't like was hearing Lisa Williams talking down on George Noorey & saying Coast To Coast topics were "silly hogwash" as she immitated the Twilight Zone theme with her voice.
CK should run some sort of "Classic CKLW" show on weekends.
I remember maybe 10 years ago on Canada's Thanksgiving Day they had the Top 200 (I think) Canadian Songs Of All Time- complete with the classic jingles but no announcer talk. There was "newer" Canadian songs thrown in though, like Crash Test Dummies & Bryan Adams being counted down with Jack Scott, Lighthouse, Gordon Lightfoot, Anne Murray etc. That was the last real time I heard full songs played on The Big 8.
CK should run some sort of "Classic CKLW" show on weekends.
I remember maybe 10 years ago on Canada's Thanksgiving Day they had the Top 200 (I think) Canadian Songs Of All Time- complete with the classic jingles but no announcer talk. There was "newer" Canadian songs thrown in though, like Crash Test Dummies & Bryan Adams being counted down with Jack Scott, Lighthouse, Gordon Lightfoot, Anne Murray etc. That was the last real time I heard full songs played on The Big 8.
Maybe 15 years ago CKLW ran a few segments of "The Evolution of Rock" on a holiday weekend. I had heard since they no longer had the jingles in house from the top 40 days, they had to get them from a collector. Before that, they ran "The All Time Canadian Top 10", presumably to satisfy Can Con. There was the Big 8 Reunion, I think in 2002 which was great.
I can see the current morning show talking about American Idol. You can't be in Windsor and ignore U.S. media, and the fact that your listeners are consuming more U.S. media than Canadian.
I can see the current morning show talking about American Idol. You can't be in Windsor and ignore U.S. media, and the fact that your listeners are consuming more U.S. media than Canadian.
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nightfly61
Guest
CKLW fan said:
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