RadioActive wrote:

On January 1, 1973, WGR-FM (the one at 96.9) made a big deal of adding a "Q" to its call letters - back in the day when call letters still mattered. 

The New Q was introduced exactly at the stroke of midnight New Year's Eve, and it's since become WGRF. 

But this rare aircheck of that moment, from Dale Patterson's Rock Radio Scrapbook, contains the final "WGR-FM" jingle ever aired. It also shows the elaborate lengths they went to to introduce their new format. 

WGRQ, by the way, was a terrific Top 40 station in its time and in those days, it mostly came in like a local. Now you're lucky if you can get it in Toronto most days. 

WGR-FM Becomes WGRQ

Because I could only pick up their signal in my car, I drove around from 11:30 PM until 12:30 AM, in my '73 Gremlin X, waiting and listening for the "change". 

YES - I was girl-friendless for this and other reasons 

RadioActive wrote:

Cases in point  And it's not just what's on air.

"A broadcaster’s Flexiva transmitter control was accessed over the internet by a malicious actor.

That actor was able to switch the transmitter’s RDS setting from an external encoder to the Flexiva’s built-in encoder, and it was used to project a racial slur over its scrolling program service data."
 

I'm thinking the original writer really meant that the system was switched from an internal to an external source - the opposite of what they actually wrote. Semantics aside, there's no limit to the ingenuity of malicious actors. 

In the absence of any response at all from you (scrand), I returned the projector to the store. I guess you're not all that interested.

Radiowiz wrote:

RadioActive wrote:

Are you sure it's not working? I used Archive.ph for the link (it was already there) and just tried it on a private browser, so it would not be signed in to anything. It worked just fine. I can only say try it again and scroll down the page a bit to see if it's there. 

It seems to be working for me. When in doubt, try Google chrome incognito mode...

I never would have thought to try incognito mode - but it in fact worked!

Thanks all.

Shorty Wave wrote:

RadioAaron wrote:

It was a major ransomware attack that also affected backups. They're having to basically rebuild the radio and TV stations from scratch. Only a hard-drive of music was left unaffected.

 
Wow, that explains a lot. I feel for them having had that happened and ask myself why? It’s not like they’re rolling in money, shameful. With only a hard drive of music to work with, that explains why I’ve heard serious repetition of songs and they were really light with the Christmas music this year. I wish them all the best and will stop mentioning it on SOWNY. Thank you for the update RadioAaron, appreciated.

YES - thank you Radio Aaron from me as well.
 

And here's notice I just received....

Shorty Wave wrote:

Just checked and they are still are all offline but still OTA fortunately!

Thanks "Shorty". I must have missed the announcement of their not yet fixing their streaming capability.
Oh - wait a minute .
 

tvguy wrote:

 We are very sorry for the interruption in service for Zoomer Radio. We are dealing with a severe network and server issue, but rest assured that we are working as hard as possible to get everything back up and running as quickly as possible.This issue is impacting our online stream as well as our app. We are still available on traditional airwaves, so we invite you to tune in that way if you are within our range.AM740 across southern Ontario and 96.7FM in downtown Toronto.Thank you for your patience.

If I may ask, how did you come-by that info/statement? I looked at their website and (at the time) could not find any info related to the problem.

Copied from Google's AI Gemini:How solar flares affect satellite radio

• Radio blackouts: A powerful solar flare releases a burst of X-rays and extreme ultraviolet radiation that reaches Earth within minutes. This energy ionizes the Earth's upper atmosphere, or ionosphere, and can degrade or completely absorb the high-frequency radio waves used for satellite communication.
• Disrupted signal path: Satellite radio receivers, including SiriusXM, rely on signals from satellites in geostationary orbit. The increased ionization in the atmosphere caused by a solar flare can disrupt the signal path, leading to temporary signal loss.
• Effect on satellites: The charged particles from solar activity can directly affect the satellites themselves, causing operational anomalies or damaging sensitive electronics.
• Geomagnetic storms: Stronger solar flares are often followed by coronal mass ejections (CMEs)—massive eruptions of solar material. When a CME reaches Earth, it can cause a geomagnetic storm that further disrupts radio signals and creates additional atmospheric interference.

• Multiple satellites: The service uses multiple satellites in different geostationary orbits.
• Ground repeaters: In urban areas where satellite signals are often blocked by buildings, SiriusXM uses ground-based repeaters to ensure uninterrupted service. This network can provide backup signals when solar activity disrupts the direct satellite connection.
[*][color=#800000]Backup system: If the primary satellite connection is lost, the network is designed to switch to alternate
…

RadioActive wrote:

DeepTracks wrote:

Radioactive - I tried to quote your post but for some reason was unable to.

Anyways...

Close - but Videoland was on the north side of Wilson west of Dufferin. I know 'cause' I "worked" there for a while.

I bought my Quasar VCR for (what I recall) close to $1200.00. It was a tank but I used to loan it to friends on occasion as long as it was they who carried it. And when I say "I worked there" I had became quite friendly with the owner who worked at that location and I used to get, or at least I wanted to believe I was getting, deals on buying blank cassettes, ten at a time (when they were priced at +$20.00 a piece individually elsewhere). When his employee at his store on Yonge Street, a few storefronts north of Wellesley on the west side, quit without notice, I spent a week there selling blank cassettes, etcetera. I was between real jobs at the time and after that experience/exposure to retail sales and the people such a job "attracts" I knew it was nothing I ever wanted to do full time.

Small world! I wonder if we met. I recall it being at Bathurst and Wilson but it was a long time ago. I think the owner was a guy named George, who was quite a character. I remember looking at something and I didn't know what it was. I asked him, "what is that?"

His immediate response: "It's something you should buy!"

That sounds like him for sure and nothing is outside the realm of possibility! "He" was a character without any doubt and the thing is I too can't recall his name. And I worked for him and called him a friend. Wow - what's that say about me?

Between Videoland and Majestic Electronics, on Dufferin north of Lawrence on the east side (in a hole-in-the-wall store before their expansion) almost all of my money went into their cash registers.
 

A major dislike of mine is that no one, and I do mean no one, these days uses the words "fewer" or "many".It's always now "much" and "less" that are used regardless of the noun being described.
 

I've been looking for this picture taken in 1970 by my dad with a Polaroid 100 camera. I remembered it to show the CKFH sticker as being legible - but I was wrong.

See info at link.

Long vowel sound before a single consonant and a short vowel sound before a double consonant is the way I was taught , so "bagel" is BAY-gull it is 

An alternative - maybe it should be bay-JELL .

DeepTracks wrote:

And for those not in attendance and didn't watch the show LIVE on TV...



 

Edit: I watched this LIVE off-air on a Sony 27" Trinitron TV, "huge" for the time, and listened via my Sony STR6065 stereo receiver with JBL Nova speakers - cranked to eleven. At times I even sat far back from the screen and used my binoculars to simulate "being there", and it worked to do just that!

Call me a fan. Call me crazy. But don't call me during the broadcast!