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Mais oui les sports parlent en français de 850....

raccoonradio

raccoonradio

Tom Taylor's newsletter says plans are afoot to put a French language sports station up
in Montreal on 850 (had a station up there yrs ago, right--Verdun?) It would be 50kW days
and 22kW night and would have to avoid other 850s like WEEI, of course.

"Hello! I am calling to ask what is happening on WEEI in the evenings..."--caller from years back

So maybe if some of that signal heads this way despite precautions, and you live west of town, you may be trying to get
850 at night to hear ESPN and instead ils parlent du hockey en français.

I remember Ben's Deli in Montreal (closed in 06 I think). Years ago I stopped in with a friend and
when we mentioned we were from Boston, the waiter said, "Ah...254-5678!" ...aka the call in
number for WBZ :)

"...it's as if those French have a different word for everything!"--Steve Martin
 
Geez....I think I last went into Ben's Deli (990 Blvd de Maisonneuve) in about 1975, and there was a waiter there who, when hearing I was from Boston, started singing the Arnie Ginsburg theme song from WMEX. I'll bet it's the same guy!

CKVL on 850 was supposed to drop power and directionalize at night, but as often as not, they would be fighting it out with WHDH 850 in the Lowell area. Let's hope the new station remembers to flip the switch at sunset.
 
Yes...
I also recall when 1200 was prog talk in some areas you would get the 1200 sports talker
from Ottawa instead!

(Two other Montreal stories: some US tourists saw my friend and I and started to ask us
in shaky French uh, ou est l'universite or something, thinking we were McGill students or
something. "Hey, we're American...!" but I pointed them the right way. Also at one
time I saw the light turn red but didn't react in time and wound up stuck in the middle of
the intersection. Noting my Mass. license plate, I heard someone on the street say,
"Eh, americain, all right!"
 
As I understood it, the Ottawa problem was because they had trouble with their antenna system, and were given "temporary" authorization to remain on the day pattern. But it seems to be a constant problem that some Canadian stations with northward-aiming directional signals forget to flip the switch at sunset. A lot of Canadian stations are authorized for 50 kW directional on the "regional" channels, so if they forget to flip, they cause a lot of interference.
 
aerie said:
As I understood it, the Ottawa problem was because they had trouble with their antenna system, and were given "temporary" authorization to remain on the day pattern. But it seems to be a constant problem that some Canadian stations with northward-aiming directional signals forget to flip the switch at sunset. A lot of Canadian stations are authorized for 50 kW directional on the "regional" channels, so if they forget to flip, they cause a lot of interference.
Click to expand...

850 in Verdun used to run 50 kW-D (two towers) and 10 kW-N (three towers). There was a CP for 35 kW-N (four towers), but AFAIK, it was never built. The CDBS database contains MANY records for this station. The two-tower day patterns are all slightly modified cardioiods--very broad with a deep null behind. All of the day patterns are centered on the north-northwest. The 10-kW three-tower in-line night patterns are all basically circles tangent to the radiation center and are centered on north-northeast. The 35-kW four-tower in-line night pattern has its maximum centered at the same azimuth as that of the 10-kW night patterns but it is slightly narrower than a circle. I guess you could call it a teardrop. Based on the interference to 850 in Boston, I would say that whichever night patterns were used, they just about never were in proper adjustment. Or maybe the station stayed on day pattern 24/7. Seems unlikely that a new licensee would be any more careful;>(
 
There are currently TWO full time 50,000 watt stations in Montreal that are silent: 940, which used to be the English CBC outlet, CBM, is non-directional and 990 is directional. They're both good signals although 990 points north at night. The previous station at 990, CKGM, an English-language Sports station, switched to 690, which is 50,000 watt non-directional. Since it's lower on the dial and non-directional, it's the best AM signal in Montreal. 690 had been CBF, the French CBC outlet before that station also migrated to the FM dial.

For a brief time, 690 and 940 were All-News stations, 690 French and 940 English. But their owner was unable to make a profit. When 690 was still on the air, I could pick it up in the daytime in New Hampshire. I couldn't get 940 in the daytime due to 930 in Rochester NH. I'm surprised someone wants 850 unless those two other fulltime 50,000 watt Montreal stations are already spoken for.

So why does Montreal have a fulltime English Sports station but no French Sports station currently? Because the French Sports station, 730 CKAC (also 50 kw fulltime) got a provincial government grant to become an All-Traffic station. They took the cash and left Montreal with no Sports station in French. Mon Dieu! Non parle pas Les Canadiens?
 
There's a licence for a new French-language station to take over the 990 slot. I expect we'll see it in a few months.

I'm not 100% certain about 940 but I'm pretty sure there's a French-language station slated to take over that channel as well.

690 had also applied to flip to French sports. It was part of an application to merge two of the largest radio companies in the country -- and was denied for reasons that really have nothing to do with 690 itself. I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up eventually flipping to French anyway but without the ownership switch.
 
EJ204 said:
There are currently TWO full time 50,000 watt stations in Montreal that are silent: 940, which used to be the English CBC outlet, CBM, is non-directional and 990 is directional. They're both good signals although 990 points north at night.
Click to expand...

940 was directional, though not very. Signal toward the US was slightly limited, which US fulltimers on 940 probably appreciated. Officially, 940 was DA-2, but, in fact, it was DA-1. For some reason, each of the arrays (D and N; it was really just one two-tower array) designated a different one of the two towers as the reference tower.
 
Heyyyyyy....what about all the Canadian radio stations supposed to be *leaving* AM? Why would any station, much less a Canadian one, want to climb aboard a sinking ship?

cd
 
cd637299 said:
Heyyyyyy....what about all the Canadian radio stations supposed to be *leaving* AM? Why would any station, much less a Canadian one, want to climb aboard a sinking ship?

cd
Click to expand...

No decent FM frequencies left in the country's second largest city. There have also been recent applications for new AM stations in Toronto -- same reason.
 
^ Yeah that's true, but a sports format----even in French in MTL, isn't that represented already? I know that the CRTC wants to know the intended format before giving any go-ahead.

cd
 
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