There's been a lack of excitement on the radio dial ever since they went off the air.  Of course one can still listen on TV if you have SkyChoice but nothing beats listening in the car, especially with spring now upon us and the summer months coming soon.

They should look into licence exempt temporary event broadcasting in order to enhance their presence in the community.  Essentially, you are allowed to broadcast licence free up to 28 days per event at up to 50 watts on FM or 100 watts on AM.  This is a great way to build support from the community should they wish to apply for a community radio CRTC broadcasting license in the future.

The only main requirement is obtaining a broadcasting certificate from ISED so the frequency they use would have to be approved by them.

Skywave wrote:

I suspect that a Radio 2 Listener complained about interference, and that got them tracked down.

Most likely them posting an online stream also had something to do with it as CBC and government executives could then easily tune in to check on their signal even if outside of reception range.  Best thing for them to do is change frequencies, most likely 95.7 as that frequency should not be interfering with anyone within their coverage area.
 

Fitz wrote:

the amazing thing is that they are very public about it, even being carried by a satellite company and carrying the CBC news which I heard a bit of yesterday.

SkyChoice is not a satellite company but rather a ground based provider.  In addition to wireless towers, they also provide Internet over cable, DSL or fibre.  As long as you can get Rogers, Bell or Cogeco at your home, you should have no problem getting service from them.

mace wrote:

Still no jocks, ads or call letters.

There's been some significant changes recently as they now have automated news and weather on top of the hour.  Forecasts are done using a female AI voice and believe it or not, news reports are from the CBC.

They also have several syndicated radio shows and promos at various times throughout the day such as Full Throttle, Hard Drive, and Nina Blackwood's Absolutely 80's.

Scarboroughbluffsradiof99 wrote:

I wish I had sky choice.
Looking at their lineup, they have a lot of radio stations.
Is it available in Scarborough?
Sadly my building makes us have rogers.

My uncle from Ajax also has SkyChoice so I'm pretty sure they cover Scarborough as well. 
You can check your address on their website at www.skychoice.ca/qualify to see if they service your location as well.

Scarboroughbluffsradiof99 wrote:

I tried and tried also.
Nothing.
Can some one record a clip of this station?
Some people are not luckey inuf to listen.

Surprisingly, I have noticed that my TV provider SkyChoice just added this station as one of the many radio stations they offer.  As they are based out of Oakville, I'm sure it is being received over the air using a tuner and the audio quality is pretty good.  Somebody over there must be a radio fan as they also added 102.7 Kingston back in March 2023 when it had the Pole format.

Their channel lineup can be viewed at https://www.skychoice.ca/chanlineup

Scarboroughbluffsradiof99 wrote:

PwrSurge wrote:

mace wrote:

I was out in Oakville today. Signal had a bit of picket fencing in West Oakville [Lakeshore/ Bronte Rd] but was still very listenable. Signal was excellent in Central and Downtown parts of the town. Heading back to Toronto on the QEW, the signal began to deteriorate around Erin Mills Parkway and was completely gone by Hurontario. Still no jocks, ads or call letters. Just Spirit 103.

As referenced in my initial post of this thread, the station's name is MusicZone.  Signal mainly covers Oakville along with east Burlington and west Mississauga but can be received as far away as Etobicoke in certain spots.

The station liners are fairly well produced, and most of them do have a "spirit of radio" sound bite. 
It appears the station operator did record "MusicZone, 93.9" using his own voice, which is on all the station ID's.  Voice is male with a Caribbean accent.

Well, who ever it is is doing a great job.
He should get an LP FM licence from the CRTC.
I think the market could support an LP FM radio station.

There would be a significant challenge to get an LP FM licence in Oakville due to the proximity of Toronto and Hamilton.  I'm almost certain there's no FM frequencies available that could serve Oakville, not even low power.

mace wrote:

I was out in Oakville today. Signal had a bit of picket fencing in West Oakville [Lakeshore/ Bronte Rd] but was still very listenable. Signal was excellent in Central and Downtown parts of the town. Heading back to Toronto on the QEW, the signal began to deteriorate around Erin Mills Parkway and was completely gone by Hurontario. Still no jocks, ads or call letters. Just Spirit 103.

As referenced in my initial post of this thread, the station's name is MusicZone.  Signal mainly covers Oakville along with east Burlington and west Mississauga but can be received as far away as Etobicoke in certain spots.

The station liners are fairly well produced, and most of them do have a "spirit of radio" sound bite. 
It appears the station operator did record "MusicZone, 93.9" using his own voice, which is on all the station ID's.  Voice is male with a Caribbean accent.

DOPEfm wrote:

Has anyone caught and listened to this signal?

I am in Hamilton with a large antenna outside that may catch this, although no luck so far.

Is it indeed Oakville where this signal originates from?

Aye landlubber, the Hammer is too far up land to get these waves,
Radio signals travel far better up at sea, you see...

Girlington may get some action but ships weighing their anchor in Sauga have a much better chance to catch this fish.

SkyChoice is another provider that still remains independent.  They are currently offering three months free not just for Comwave customers but from any other previously independent provider who recently got acquired by one of the big guys.

More info including eligible providers are listed at: https://www.skychoice.ca/section/58
 

RadioAaron wrote:

PwrSurge wrote:

RadioAaron wrote:

He'll have more to work with when they bump it up to 95.3

If you are suggesting that 95.3 is being flipped to simulcast 640 then this would be a BIG mistake causing a severe impact on 900 CHML which ranks at the #3 position in Hamilton's 2022 ratings with a 4.3 share.  Most importantly, Corus would certainly get in trouble with the CRTC as doing this would be a backdoor entry by abandoning their market of license from Toronto to Hamilton.  This was not the case with their Q107 flip in Calgary as both CFGQ-FM and CHQR are in the same market.

CHML has a one-share in 25-54. Shut it down and integrate some Hamilton content into a merged 95.3. 

As for not being the city of license, Rogers is getting away with that just fine in Ottawa. Also, the CRTC is completely irrelevant for at least two years.

Not sure about 2023 but in 2022, CHML had a 2.7 share for W25-54, 1.2 for M25.54 and 4.3 for A12+
On the other hand, CING had a 4.4 share for W25-54, 1.9 for M25-54 and 1.8 for A12+

Big difference with Ottawa is that unlike Hamilton, Smith Falls is not considered as a distinct radio market by Numeris while both Toronto and Hamilton are separate distinct markets.  CJET (CityNews 101.1) is simply listed as a spill station in the Ottawa-Gatineau market and even then, their ratings in Ottawa are almost non-existent at only 0.4 share while CIWW (CityNews 1310) has more than triple that amount at 1.3 share.  We can clearly see that there's no tangible benefit simulcasting CityNews on 101.1FM.

This was recently posted on their Facebook page and signed J.P., so obviously Jon Pole:

radiokid wrote:

I'm not sure how the online stream is being picked up and encoded, but it sounds like it's a tuner picking the OTA feed, vs a direct connection to the audio chain.   For sure not as clean/clear as it could be... (static/slight interference at times).    I would assume this is one of the improvements to come?

Yes I can confirm this, there is occasional FM fading on the online stream, most likely available Internet connectivity options at the transmitter site are insufficient or too costly to directly steam from there.  The tuner must be located where their website is being hosted and is only using an indoor antenna so any movement inside or nearby the building can cause the signal to fade.

The easiest way to resolve this issue is by installing a better quality outdoor FM antenna.

RadioActive wrote:

Wouldn't it be hilarious if they discovered "The Pole" was actually a big hit and people were tuning it in in droves? I read a few online posts from ordinary listeners who say they love the music mix and wish it would continue.

Think of the irony if they accidentally discovered a hot new format while trying to find another one! 

You actually might be right, lots of positive response so far, a 5-star review rating on their Facebook page and lots of people from places across North America such as Las Vegas listening online on their website.

Radio with personality and a sense of humor is LONG overdue, and 102.7 The Pole is a winner!  Keeping a non-cookie cutter format like this one will certainly bring back many listeners who actually abandoned terrestrial radio for online or mobile music sources such as Spotify.

This would be the PERFECT station for Ed The Sock, who is in fact currently looking for morning show radio work (i.e. https://www.milkmanunlimited.com/edthesock ).  They should definitively bring him on and complete the threesome as "Ed the Sock, Desstiny and Chestiny in the morning".  Ratings would be HUGE, guaranteed!

RadioActive wrote:

....and even then, the audio is at least 5-10 seconds behind its AM counterpart. It's not a big deal, but is that the way it's supposed to work? Why is there such a long delay between one band and another?

The delay is not band related but rather the processing time involved in encoding and decoding the digital audio.  Same thing happened with digital OTA or cable TV, but now that analog TV is pretty much nonexistent, people don't really notice anymore.

In fact, as the HD1 main signal is overlayed on top of its analog counterpart, it is also artificially delayed by the exact same 8 secs to ensure a seamless transition when driving outside the HD signal's range and the radio automatically falls back to analog in a near seamless way.  Even when non-HD radios tunes in a station that has an HD radio transmitter, the analog audio will still be 8 seconds behind.  In most cases, this is not an issue, except for a station that broadcasts live sports where people get notified of a goal a few seconds before they hear it on the live broadcast.  This is why AM or FM analog radio is a better fit for sports, as it does not suffer from this additional broadcast delay.

FYI, HD radio is not exclusively on FM, there are a few HD radio stations on AM such as 530 CHLO.  Granted the audio quality is not the same as HD radio on FM but it does provide a significant improvement.