1 of 1- RadioActive
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Did The CN Tower Help Lead To Simsub?
I was going through some old TV Guides I'd saved over the years (no, I'm not a hoarder, but I do like to squirrel selected stuff away) when I came upon a real gem. It's from the July 3, 1976 edition, ironically enough, the week the U.S. would celebrate its 200th birthday, with all the hoopla that followed.
So who would have guessed that hidden in the articles at the end of a magazine that barely ever even mentioned Canada there would be a feature piece on Toronto's new CN Tower - and the effect it would have on TV reception.
You can read it below.
But there's one section that stands out for me:
"One probable repercussion: the cancellation of prerelease arrangements now enjoyed by Canadian stations showing U.S. imports. As things stand, viewers can see an episode of, for instance, The Mary Tyler Moore Show on CBC-TV 25 hours before it's carried by the local CBS affiliate."
Yep, in those pre-cable, pre-VCR/DVR days, you could maximize your viewing by watching an American show on a Canadian station, leaving you free to catch another program that might be on opposite it when it was shown in the U.S. In other words, if you believe this article, we may have The CN Tower to at least partly blame for simsub, which has lead stations on both sides of the border to schedule everything at the exact same time.
- RadioActive
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Re: Did The CN Tower Help Lead To Simsub?
Speaking of simsub, here's another article, this time from July 1971, that talks about the policy that would eventually become the hated program substitution. I never realized people here actually feared that the CRTC would issue a ruling that would block out American programming completely in order to protect Canadian broadcasters from the big bad Yankee signals.
Not that what they ended up doing is all that much better.
And oh yeah, get a load of that $5 a month charge for cable. Those were the days. 
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Thread Starter- markow202
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Re: Did The CN Tower Help Lead To Simsub?
Very cool article and the tower is still in high-use today.
- ig
- Iain Grant
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Re: Did The CN Tower Help Lead To Simsub?
Anyone know if the new condo at Yonge and Bloor will be high enough to give the CN tower a run for the money when it comes to TV/FM ? The CN tower transmission facilities are still chugging along, but it's dated and limited and in desperate need of a rebuild.
(And closed today because of the weather... and the fact it's firing ice shards down at people below 
)
Madness takes its toll. Please have exact change.
- markow202
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Re: Did The CN Tower Help Lead To Simsub?
ig wrote:
Anyone know if the new condo at Yonge and Bloor will be high enough to give the CN tower a run for the money when it comes to TV/FM ? The CN tower transmission facilities are still chugging along, but it's dated and limited and in desperate need of a rebuild.
(And closed today because of the weather... and the fact it's firing ice shards down at people below
As for TV most was upgraded for it to work with HD has it not? FM is analog but then again most FM is so what needs to be upgraded (despite running out of room)?
The yonge and bloor building would offer great reception!
Last edited by markow202 (April 16, 2018 1:31 pm)
- ig
- Iain Grant
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Re: Did The CN Tower Help Lead To Simsub?
As I said, I honestly am not sure, I've just heard 'grumbling' from folks I would trust suggesting that FM can't be upgraded for whatever reason to support Digital, and the infrastructure itself is dated. My thought was that if there's a viable alternative who might take some $$ away from the tower, things might change fast.
Anyone know if the new condo at Yonge and Bloor will be high enough to give the CN tower a run for the money when it comes to TV/FM ? The CN tower transmission facilities are still chugging along, but it's dated and limited and in desperate need of a rebuild.
(And closed today because of the weather... and the fact it's firing ice shards down at people below
As for TV most was upgraded for it to work with HD has it not? FM is analog but then again most FM is so what needs to be upgraded (despite running out of room)?
The yonge and bloor building would offer great reception!
Madness takes its toll. Please have exact change.
- markow202
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Re: Did The CN Tower Help Lead To Simsub?
As I said, I honestly am not sure, I've just heard 'grumbling' from folks I would trust suggesting that FM can't be upgraded for whatever reason to support Digital, and the infrastructure itself is dated. My thought was that if there's a viable alternative who might take some $$ away from the tower, things might change fast.
Anyone know if the new condo at Yonge and Bloor will be high enough to give the CN tower a run for the money when it comes to TV/FM ? The CN tower transmission facilities are still chugging along, but it's dated and limited and in desperate need of a rebuild.
(And closed today because of the weather... and the fact it's firing ice shards down at people below
As for TV most was upgraded for it to work with HD has it not? FM is analog but then again most FM is so what needs to be upgraded (despite running out of room)?
The yonge and bloor building would offer great reception!
While the design is brilliant, the chore of upgrading it all now and space constraints make it very costly and labourous. HD can somehow be done but new antenna would have to be squeezed in and the last attempt it almost caught fire.
- markow202
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Re: Did The CN Tower Help Lead To Simsub?
Anyone know if the new condo at Yonge and Bloor will be high enough to give the CN tower a run for the money when it comes to TV/FM ? The CN tower transmission facilities are still chugging along, but it's dated and limited and in desperate need of a rebuild.
(And closed today because of the weather... and the fact it's firing ice shards down at people below
As for TV most was upgraded for it to work with HD has it not? FM is analog but then again most FM is so what needs to be upgraded (despite running out of room)?
Every OTA television service on the CN Tower is digital. With the impending Repack and ATSC 3.0, there's a big opportunity to consolidate and free up all kinds of space on the tower.
As for digitization of FM on the CN Tower, my understanding is the combiner would need to be rebuilt or replaced. There are a couple of people here on the board much better qualified than I am to speak to what's required in bringing HD Radio to the CN Tower. Is someone willing chime in? If you're more comfortable sending me a private message, I'd certainly appreciate hearing what's going on from a technical perspective. I'm really interested.
Thanks in advance.
Id be really interested aswell
- Radiowiz
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Re: Did The CN Tower Help Lead To Simsub?
Very cool article and the tower is still in high-use today.
'High use"? Is that a pun? 
RadioWiz & RadioQuiz are NOT the same person.
RadioWiz & THE Wiz are NOT the same person.