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KINGSTON-NEW FM'S APPROVED

J

jiminCT

Guest
CKLC will move from 1380 to 98.9
CFFX will move from 960 to 104.3

The owners of K-Rock (105.7) were granted a permit to broadcast a new country station at 93.5.

Seems like a cramped dial. WCIZ in Watertown is at 93.3..
 
And Toronto has a 93.5 as well (CFXJ "Flow"), although it doesn't have a large coverage area.

Kingston will be the fourth major Ontario city to have no local AM stations. Add it to Sault Ste. Marie (1992), Barrie (1994), and most recently, Thunder Bay (2007). In the long run in Ontario, AM will probably only exist in Windsor, London, Toronto, and Ottawa.
 
If I'm not mistaken, the new CFFX-FM will be the first English oldies station on FM in all of Canada? If that is the case, then the CRTC has opened the floodgates for AM-to-FM conversions for many oldies stations across Canada, especially in smaller markets. And even though the licensing of three new FM signals is partially because Kingston is a border town, it appears the allowance of CFFX to maintain oldies is not because of American competition. They only refer to American competition in the case of K-Rock's new country station.

I wouldn't be surprised to see stations like CJOY Guelph, CKKW Kitchener, CFOS Owen Sound, CKRU Peterborough, and CJCS Stratford (two of which are co-owned with CFFX) to apply for conversions to FM soon, if those stations feel that the oldies format is viable for their markets.
 
M.J. said:
If I'm not mistaken, the new CFFX-FM will be the first English oldies station on FM in all of Canada?

I wouldn't be surprised to see stations like CJOY Guelph, CKKW Kitchener, CFOS Owen Sound, CKRU Peterborough, and CJCS Stratford (two of which are co-owned with CFFX) to apply for conversions to FM soon, if those stations feel that the oldies format is viable for their markets.
Click to expand...

We'll just have to listen and see, but I think Corus (at least) intends to keep smaller market AM stations alive, even if it means sounding more like 1220 AM radio in Cornwall, where the format is "Today's news, yesterday's classics" and they run alot of coast to coast talk programming. (when they're not running the automated music.)

Also...I've failed to recall who owns what here, but don't forget that in order for an AM to go fm, there must not already be two FM's owned by the same company.
 
Yeziknoradio said:
Also...I've failed to recall who owns what here, but don't forget that in order for an AM to go fm, there must not already be two FM's owned by the same company.
Click to expand...

Well that would eliminate CFOS, since its owner Bayshore also owns two FMs in that market (a country station and if I recall, a hot AC). CJCS, CKKW, CKRU, and CJOY all would be fine, since each of them are co-owned with one FM in each market.
 
Any idea what kind of radius these new stations will have (milage/kilometers)?
 
jiminCT said:
Any idea what kind of radius these new stations will have (milage/kilometers)?
Click to expand...

Nowhere near what they currently have at their current AM frequencies. I'm guessing maybe less than an hour's drive from Kingston
 
jiminCT said:
what kind of radius is 8KW or 4KW?
Click to expand...

Depends on the frequency and whether the pattern is directional or non-directional. That being said, CHST-FM (BOB 102.3) in London has a peak power of 12.1kW and is directional to the north and east. It barely reaches Woodstock and doesn't even reach Stratford, according to RECnet.com (I have heard it just west of Stratford at night though). Therefore, these Kingston stations would be hard pressed to reach Gananoque and Napanee. CFFX right now, on the other hand, reaches Belleville and further west.
 
I realize this thread is getting a bit old, but I still wanted to post anyway.
When I read about the application for the 93.5 frequency in Kingston, the first thing I thought of was WCIZ on a first adjacent channel.
I am guessing that the new 93.5 will be directional to protect WCIZ. However, I can't believe that there won't be significant interference between the two stations, especially in the thousand islands.
I wonder how much time will pass before the new station asks the CRTC for a change of frequency due to "severe technical interference" from 'CIZ.
This has happened many times before, when an FM frequency is granted in Canada on or near a powerful US station.
Of course, US broadcasters are just as guilty of doing the same thing. One can no longer hear some of the Toronto FM dial in Buffalo and other parts of western New York these days.
 
JakeLongwell said:
I wonder how much time will pass before the new station asks the CRTC for a change of frequency due to "severe technical interference" from 'CIZ.
This has happened many times before, when an FM frequency is granted in Canada on or near a powerful US station.
Click to expand...

It isn't just Canada vs US signal interference.
In Toronto, there's a new Caribbian station trying to sign on at 98.7, but the CBC claims it's not an option due to the presence of a CBC FM (radio 1) at 99.1.

Source: http://www.thestar.com/article/255497
 
It turns out that CFFX has moved away from oldies. NERW this week says that Oldies 960 has been re-named Lite 104.3, and it's AC instead of oldies.

I'm not highly familiar with Kingston radio but I thought the market already had an AC station, in the form of CFLY? Then again, if I recall ratings I've seen, CFFX has nowhere to go but up, and AC could at least help. Perhaps Corus figured there was no point in CFFX having oldies now that their sister station CFMK is classic rock, and CKLC is planning to keep some adult standards when it moves to FM.

If CKRU gets approval to move to FM, I really wonder if they'll attempt to keep oldies there too.
 
M.J. said:
It turns out that CFFX has moved away from oldies. NERW this week says that Oldies 960 has been re-named Lite 104.3, and it's AC instead of oldies.

I'm not highly familiar with Kingston radio but I thought the market already had an AC station, in the form of CFLY? Then again, if I recall ratings I've seen, CFFX has nowhere to go but up, and AC could at least help. Perhaps Corus figured there was no point in CFFX having oldies now that their sister station CFMK is classic rock, and CKLC is planning to keep some adult standards when it moves to FM.

If CKRU gets approval to move to FM, I really wonder if they'll attempt to keep oldies there too.
Click to expand...

I already predicted that 104.3 would not be an oldies station, and I was right because I already knew that current CRTC regs make an oldies station on FM almost impossible to run in Canada.

I'm wondering if CTV will even keep the standards format when they go FM.
If they do, it will most likely sound alot like Evanov's Jewel stations.

I think they just might change to a format that better competes with one of Corus's properties, since Corus has done just that with the new Lite FM.

(CTV owns FLY fm, and Corus owns the new Lite FM)

Fair's fair! The whole "You bite my but, I'll bite yours" game just might be alive and well.

In a market like Kingston though, does market research really justify that copying the other guy's format and trying to do it "better" is the way to go...or could there be an actual hole in the market that *should* be attended to instead?

Also, Corus had a Country format on FM 96 not too long ago. It'll be great if the new country station could sure show Corus they made a mistake tossing it away.
 
Since I can get the 960 signal moderately well in Ottawa, I decided to check out what they were doing, it was boring, predictable, and just....bland. What an absolute waste. I also knew they weren't going to stick with oldies when they flipped the FM switch. Oldies 960 was much better than what's now being offered. R.I.P 960 AM.
 
Although 104.3 *might* get better ratings than they had with the oldies format, I doubt the main Fly FM crowd will make the switch.

Lite FM will have a short life.
 
I think the Kingston market has access to 95.3 (WGIX) out of Northern NY...which is an oldies format. If CKLC goes to "standards"..maybe they will throw in oldies under that umbrella?

Lite FM also has competition from 103.1 (WTOJ) out of Watertown and 104.9 (CFJR) out of Brockville..which are both easily available over in Kingston. I cant stand the lite format (Docs office music...ether.), but things in Kingston are often done without much regard to logic...so despite the two other stations, somehow they feel a need for Kingston's "own" lite station. Blech.
 
From Milkman Unlimited, regarding CKLC.

"The station is flipping over to 98.9 FM, where we will be unveiling our new "Classic Alternative" format in the very near future. CKLC-FM will continue to serve Kingston with the same pride and passion, and commitment to community service that CKLC-AM did over the years. Stay tuned!" Now who had "format flip" as their pick in the po0l?
 
Re: Kingston-New FM's approved

Not only that, who had "No more AM radio in Kingston" in the pool?
 
Retiring the morning person was more of a surprise to me.

It may be a hint that they do not plan to sound anything like the Evanov Jewel FM stations.

If the plan were to do just that, why not keep someone around that lived those times?

Oldies/standards in Kingston R.I.P...I guess.
 
I've just been listening to the CKLC-FM test signal, which is streaming on their new website, www.989.fm. Seems to be a combination of alternative rock and classic rock. Also they are airing songs uncensored at one in the afternoon. One song included a number of expletives, several times. Even edgy FM96 in London never dares do that, even in the evenings. Sure a big change from 1380 CKLC!

One of several ID announcements says "Kingston's newest radio station will be unveiled........soon!" while another says it will be "in the weeks to come". NERW suggests it was going to be today, but unless they're planning it for late afternoon, I doubt it'll be today.
 
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