Classical coverage of Canada.

[Tincap]

With CBC having gutted much of their classical music programing, a couple of years ago now, finding classical music on the Canadian FM band can be a challenge at times.

Toronto, Montreal and Quebec City have commercial classical broadcasters, but for the rest of us, we have to depend on the Americans to catch classical music, beyond CBC's 5 hour block.

Fortunately, I receive coverage from WJNY (Classical FM WCNY.org) 90.9, broadcasting from Watertown NY. Along the 401 corridor, this signal covers from Cardinal ON to Napanee (where one can pick up Cobourg's Classical 96 signal on 103.1). NCPR (WSLU 85.9, etc.), carries classical music from 9pm through the overnight hours and has a reach into the southern fringes of Ottawa

Over the (Canadian) Thanksgiving weekend, I discovered Detroit's WRCJ 90.9 (classical from 6am to 7pm, with jazz during other times), which carried a good signal to the western fringe of London ON.

Seattle's KING must have a bit of a reach into BC, Buffalo must have a presence in the Niagara Peninsula.

Are there any others out there? Does the excellent Classical MPR make it over the border, being heard in southern Manitoba or north west Ontario? How about the southern regions of the other Prairie Provinces or the Maritimes? Are they under serviced and out of luck?

What are we hearing out there?

~BG

 

[Dan Sys]

KING blasts into the Vancouver area. At least until the CBC or someone else decides to put a repeater on 98.1 as has been the case with a lot of other Seattle frequencies.

 

[mjlarochelle]

There's also WNED-FM from Buffalo that carries NPR, although it would cover most of the same area as CFMZ Toronto.

 

[fybush]

There's also WNED-FM from Buffalo that carries NPR, although it would cover most of the same area as CFMZ Toronto.

WNED-FM carries very little NPR programming; it's mostly locally-generated classical music (with, IIRC, "Classical 24" from American Public Media" overnights) - and its signal into Toronto is significantly hampered these days by adjacent-channel CIWV 94.7 out of Hamilton, is it not?

 

[Tincap]

There's also WNED-FM from Buffalo that carries NPR, although it would cover most of the same area as CFMZ Toronto.

WNED-FM carries very little NPR programming; it's mostly locally-generated classical music (with, IIRC, "Classical 24" from American Public Media" overnights) - and its signal into Toronto is significantly hampered these days by adjacent-channel CIWV 94.7 out of Hamilton, is it not?

Hey Scott, speaking of Rochester...actually, I'm rather surprised WXXI hasn't jumped out at me along the 401, especially in the Belleville area. I think I've looked for it in the past, but somehow missed it. I'm going to have to give that one a try, next time I'm scooting along the northern edge of Lake Ontario.

~BG

 

[fybush]

Hey Scott, speaking of Rochester...actually, I'm rather surprised WXXI hasn't jumped out at me along the 401, especially in the Belleville area. I think I've looked for it in the past, but somehow missed it. I'm going to have to give that one a try, next time I'm scooting along the northern edge of Lake Ontario.

~BG

When CJLX at Loyalist College moved from 92.3 to 91.3, I think it wiped out much of WXXI's FM coverage on the north shore. I'd expect a good radio could still get 91.5 in some areas near the lakeshore, though. I know we still have TV viewers up there!

 

[B Lewis]

Greeting from South of The Border:

I saw a couple mentions of listening to Classical on-line. If you in an area not served by a Classical station, let me make a suggestion. WCPE-FM 89.7 in Raleigh, North Carolina is 100% Classical Music on a non-commercial channel. They have started syndicating their format to other stations (commercial and non-com.) over the past few years. Their webcast has great audio quality. You can find it at theclassicalstation.org . Enjoy!

 

[Yeziknoradio]

WNED-FM carries very little NPR programming; it's mostly locally-generated classical music (with, IIRC, "Classical 24" from American Public Media" overnights) - and its signal into Toronto is significantly hampered these days by adjacent-channel CIWV 94.7 out of Hamilton, is it not?

Yes, Smooth Jazz 94.7 does cut in in various neighborhoods.
However, in an effort to make up for that, WNED FM is available on the Rogers Toronto digital cable box channel 938.

The only problem with that is, you can't exactly take that with you everywhere you go!

 

[spunker88]

WJNY is one of my locals, the only HD radio station in the Watertown, NY market. They have 2 additional channels on HD that both play music.

Its too bad CBC Radio 1 doesn't play much classic music, they've got that massive 100kw signal on 107.5 in Kingston that covers a good chunk of upstate NY and I imagine a long part of the 401.

 

[Tincap]

WJNY is one of my locals, the only HD radio station in the Watertown, NY market. They have 2 additional channels on HD that both play music.

Its too bad CBC Radio 1 doesn't play much classic music, they've got that massive 100kw signal on 107.5 in Kingston that covers a good chunk of upstate NY and I imagine a long part of the 401.

CBC Radio 1 used to have a late evening classical music program, during the weekdays, along with a Sunday afternoon rebroadcast of Sound Advice, with Rick Phillips. But these programs have been dropped in favour of pursuing a younger crowd.

Kingston's CBC R2 signal, on 92.9, is not the monster which Radio 1 is, but you should have no problem catching that one in Watertown. The problem (actually, one of a number of problems) I have with Radio 2 is all those annoying non-commercials, telling me how Radio 2 is commercial free mix you wont here anywhere else...

I believe also that, Radio 1's Ottawa signal (91.5) gets down there pretty well too. I recall picking it up south of Syracuse, although it got squeezed out as I got closer to town.

~BG

 

[spunker88]

CBC Radio 1 used to have a late evening classical music program, during the weekdays, along with a Sunday afternoon rebroadcast of Sound Advice, with Rick Phillips. But these programs have been dropped in favour of pursuing a younger crowd.

Kingston's CBC R2 signal, on 92.9, is not the monster which Radio 1 is, but you should have no problem catching that one in Watertown. The problem (actually, one of a number of problems) I have with Radio 2 is all those annoying non-commercials, telling me how Radio 2 is commercial free mix you wont here anywhere else...

I believe also that, Radio 1's Ottawa signal (91.5) gets down there pretty well too. I recall picking it up south of Syracuse, although it got squeezed out as I got closer to town.

~BG

Im actually southwest of Watertown, but I can pull in a weak CBC R2 on my Sony XDR-F1HD only, compared to 107.5 which comes in so strong, pretty much any decent radio can pick it up no problem.

The 91.5 Ottawa signal as well as many other superpower signals from that market come in decent with tropo, but without tropo you'd need a pretty decent outdoor antenna to pull them in. Theres also a 91.5 in Rochester that would probably be the dominant signal in Syracuse, although its far enough away that tropo could wipe it out.

 

[ELL383]

In Kingston with outdoor antenna and a sony XDR-F1HD I get WXXI 91.5 and WNCY 91.3 and WJNY 90.9 and I get sometimes i'm getting classical music at 103.3 weak and sometimes if i turn my antenna west I can get Classics on 103.1 with interference from WTOJ 103.1

 

[spunker88]

The 103.3 signal could be CBOQ CBC R2 out of Ottawa. You would be getting the exact same thing on 92.9 and 103.9 from Peterborough.

 

[mjlarochelle]

Big problem with using CBC Radio One for classical music is that Radio One stations all broadcast in mono, while Radio 2 broadcasts in stereo. Music just sounds better in stereo.

 

[Tincap]

Big problem with using CBC Radio One for classical music is that Radio One stations all broadcast in mono, while Radio 2 broadcasts in stereo. Music just sounds better in stereo.

Big problem for Radio 2, stereo or other-wise, is that they've gutted a lot of their classical music programming all together.

A little recent history regarding the CBC networks is, that before the push to move many CBC stations to FM, what is now known as Radio 2 was known as CBC Stereo. They could've kept that tag line, as all of the Radio 1 FMs are indeed broadcast in mono.

~BG

 

[mjlarochelle]

A little recent history regarding the CBC networks is, that before the push to move many CBC stations to FM, what is now known as Radio 2 was known as CBC Stereo. They could've kept that tag line, as all of the Radio 1 FMs are indeed broadcast in mono.

~BG

I can understand why the change was probably made though - radio and stereo could be interchangable terms, making the two radio networks harder to distinguish. I was unaware there even was a second English network until the rebranding in 1997.

 

[mimo]

Not to0 long ago what is now radio 2 wasn't in a whole lot of places. Basically, if it wasn't a major city, it wasn't there. Back in the 80's there was only one radio 2 station in BC. Now I believe Victoria has it's own and I think there's one in Kamlo0ps. Alberta had 3, Edmonton, Calgary and Lethbridge, and there was only 1 in all of Manitoba, in Winnipeg. I also heard that there was only one in Atlantic Canada, and that was in Halifax. Now there are more.

 

[Tincap]

Not to0 long ago what is now radio 2 wasn't in a whole lot of places. Basically, if it wasn't a major city, it wasn't there. Back in the 80's there was only one radio 2 station in BC. Now I believe Victoria has it's own and I think there's one in Kamlo0ps. Alberta had 3, Edmonton, Calgary and Lethbridge, and there was only 1 in all of Manitoba, in Winnipeg. I also heard that there was only one in Atlantic Canada, and that was in Halifax. Now there are more.

True, even Iqaluit now has a Radio 2 outlet. Which is one of the reasons why the changes to the programming upset me. It took years for smaller markets to have access to classical/cultural programming and then Radio 2 gets gutted.

There had been discussion of launching Radio 3 (currently internet only), however budget constraints supposedly put a lid on those plans. But, if Radio 3 is already up and running in the virtual domain, why could they not have slowly introduced it (as the budget allows) to area FM markets, like they did over the years with CBC Stereo/Radio 2? Unfortunately, I can't see that happening now and CBC certainly wouldn't backtrack with Radio 2, even if their market share has dropped (and commercial classical stations in Toronto & Montreal have seen large gains).

I am fortunate enough to be within range of an American listener supported station...which I support. And I hope, that unlike the CBC, listener supported stations actually listen to those who contribute to their pay cheques.

~BG

 

[w9wi]

I am fortunate enough to be within range of an American listener supported station...which I support. And I hope, that unlike the CBC, listener supported stations actually listen to those who contribute to their pay cheques.

Unfortunately (from the standpoint of the classical music fan), what the contributors are generally saying is that they want more spoken-word programming.

And they're getting it. There's a trend here towards reducing music programming on U.S. public stations & replacing it with spoken-word material.

If you're in the GTA or Niagara Peninsula (where presumably the U.S. station you're listening to is in Buffalo) you're probably not at as much risk - as there are multiple U.S. public stations there.

 

[mjlarochelle]

There had been discussion of launching Radio 3 (currently internet only), however budget constraints supposedly put a lid on those plans. But, if Radio 3 is already up and running in the virtual domain, why could they not have slowly introduced it (as the budget allows) to area FM markets, like they did over the years with CBC Stereo/Radio 2? Unfortunately, I can't see that happening now and CBC certainly wouldn't backtrack with Radio 2, even if their market share has dropped (and commercial classical stations in Toronto & Montreal have seen large gains).

The only way CBC could launch Radio 3 on conventional radio would be for them to move all their Radio One stations back to AM, or for CRTC regulations to change. Current CRTC regulations only allow an entity to own two FM stations per official language per market; in Toronto for example both Radio One and Radio 2 are on FM (99.1 and 94.1, respectively), so if CBC wanted Radio 3 Toronto they could conceivably put CBL back on 740 and use 99.1 for Radio 3. This would work anywhere Radio One is on FM, as there is no shortage of available AM frequencies across Canada these days. If this were to happen I'd say Radio 2 should focus on classical, jazz and opera, while Radio 3 picks up all the other music programming.

None of this will ever happen though - I think Radio 3 will remain Internet-only. With two official languages to cover nationwide, I can't see the CBC having the funds to have yet another terrestrial radio network in addition to the four they already have.