RadioAaron wrote:

No radio in that pic.

I'm not sure a digital backlash fad is enough to slow or reverse an overall trend. The radio advantage of "offline" isn't really meaningful when records, CDs, mp3 players, and podcasts can be or are offline.

My generation and onward (younger) definitely is having a hand in bringing back offline storage mediums, notably vinyl records. In fact, I've invested massively in building a large collection of mostly CD albums from my favorite artists and bands over the past 14 years. Radio is obviously distinguished from the bunch in the sense that it's a communications medium, and one that can function independently of any internet connection or digital device. Watch the whole video. It makes so many great points.

mace wrote:

I am sure the CBC Television could have been up and running in 1948 or 49. But in typical Canadian fashion the Federal Government hummed, hawed and dithered before making a decision in 1952 that television was a good idea. Meanwhile viewers that could afford a set got addicted to what WBEN was offering. Judging by the explosion of antennas pointed to Buffalo in the 50's, 60's and 70's GTA residents preferred what ch 2,4 and 7 were broadcasting over what 6, 9 and 11 had available. The only exception might be HNIC and local news.

Apparently, some areas in Ontario still used 25 Hz AC power in some areas as late as the 1950s (fed from the Niagara Falls hydroelectric plant) as opposed to the 60 Hz which is ubiquitous in North America in modern times (50 Hz in most of Europe and many other parts of the world).

Simply put, given the way analog television works, this would have been a major technical barrier in terms of the production equipment, transmitters, other associated infrastructure and the TV sets themselves. Given the CBC's status as a public-service broadcaster, it makes sense that they would have waited a few years for the power grid to be universally and natively compatible with all the equipment and infrastructure on their end to an extent necessary for television to become a truly mass medium beyond just the domain of early adopters who were also lucky enough to already be on 60 Hz power. Some, if not many of the first Rogers "batteryless" AC-powered radios were made for 25 Hz AC.

Sadly, it was a very common occurrence around the world at the time for TV programs to not be officially permanently archived. In many cases, the commercial video tapes used for the broadcasts were re-used by the networks over & over again until the end of their lifespans. In other cases, such as this, the tapes were kept for some time before being disposed of due to priorities and storage constraints. Even before video tape was a thing, in the pre-World War II era, the BBC is believed to have disposed of practically all of the film reels used for telecine (film to electronic video conversion) in their early TV broadcasts from 1936 onwards.

The good news here, ironically, is that what they've been left with is a 35mm film reel, which means that it the broadcast can be re-mastered in true ultra HD format with dirt/impurity removal and restored and re-graded color (the latter if it's color film), budget permitting, as some of their music videos already have been.

Here's a couple tastes of what we might be able to expect from the re-discovered film, quality wise:




 

This is a tricky one. On one hand, it's respectful to the player, their family, friends and fans to not replay footage of serious injuries in cases where they sustain them, and the networks therefore avoid potentially immoral capitalization on their physical trauma, a moral quality that sets them apart from many social media networks and some of creators, commentators or "re-posters" that they host.

On the other hand, replaying the footage and having it effectively in the public record could potentially help people understand the inherent perils associated with the games and to, in the future, understand the gravity of whatever physical challenges they've endured during their careers.

I saw a clip of it on X, it was borderline impossible for me to watch, and it was taken down within minutes on IP (intellectual property) grounds.

RadioActive wrote:

Now here's a tie-in I wasn't expecting - combining radio with dementia. A group in England has started an online station, divided into decades, for those suffering from the disease. It's designed to evoke memories of a certain time in their lives, with few interruptions, and the hope is the music it provides will stir something in them.

"Listeners can tune into m4d Radio’s mix station or one of four further stations playing music by decade from the 1930s to the 1970s. The group of five radio stations includes programming schedules designed to follow th e rhythm of the day including sessions on Music to move to, Music from the Musicals, Soothing tracks for sundowning and nighttime, and Featured Artists."

It's free and you don't have to be in England to listen. You can sample it and pick your decade here. 

Music for Dementia launches m4d Radio

This reminds me of a niche technology video from Techmoan from a few years back. The product is a specially designed UK market DAB & FM radio and digital audio player for persons suffering from serious cognitive impairment. It's controlled mainly by a set of four adjustable tuner presets, three of which are dedicated to the radio tuner with the third being the access button for the USB audio player. The radio presets are controlled by a settings controller situated at the back of the radio behind the battery cover. It also features a USB slot capable of playing certain audio files from a USB flash drive, although it failed to properly decode the audio files he used on the first flash drive he tried to use, the other one, a Sandisk drive worked fine. This, of course, would also be useful in North America and other parts of the world that use the 88-108 MHz band fo

From what I understand a construction permit in broadcasting essentially just means a secured legal opportunity to build a new station with an over-the-air transmitter facility. This will come at the massive further expense of whoever purchases the CPs. I'd imagine those figures would reach into the five or even six figures depending on location (topography and/or geology of the transmitter site), transmitter power and antenna height. Equipment and construction isn't cheap, especially these days. Hopefully these prove to be viable and ultimately successful business opportunities for those able and willing to make the moves.

As a fan of the station myself, all I can say at this point is that I just don't quite know this would work, and that's probably be the idea. They obviously don't want to turn any competitors or entities in other markets on to whatever it is they're cooking up.

I'm not a naysayer and I'm determined not to be a SPERM (Self Proclaimed Expert in Radio and Music or expert in PrograMming), so I don't deny that there's some chance of them building WABC into an iconic broader-than-local brand in some capacity and on some scale, though I do feel that comparisons to the BBC's broadcast radio operations are kind of a stretch at this point, especially since we here in North America lack a technical means of ultra-comprehensive, long distance non-internet radio broadcasting other than SiriusXM satellite radio. However, realistically an increased emphasis on streaming could be part of the plan. That's only logical.

I agree 100%. A lot of us "put our coats away" in the closet when we come in from the cold outdoors if we don't have hooks near the front and/or garage doors, so when you really think about it, it's never really "away", just "in storage". The term just makes no sense given that.

This is a sad sign of the times and a symptom of serious illness in the industry, especially when you consider that "radio" is a broad term that can also refer to more "modern" delivery mediums such as streaming audio and social media. Simply put, if their company was "healthy" financially, they probably wouldn't just be axing the entire radio news division with no elements of it left in place.

The exceptionally dramatic format change on WCBS 880 from a standalone (but co-owned) all-news format to ESPN Radio might have been "market forces" in action, but this is serious financial trouble on plain display, regardless of how "right" or "wrong" it might be.

KTLA is by far one of my favorite channels on traditional linear TV. It didn't see it when it happened, but believe me, that's far from the only crazy thing that they've wound up broadcasting live. The police pursuits are the modern equivalent of must-see reality TV that's actually real.

This would really be best used as a redundant or contingent system alongside the cellular signal triangulation which is the standard for smartphones nowadays. Ideally, modern vehicle infotainment systems could apply satellite, cellular and this new terrestrial TV signal tracking standard in one package.

Retaining satellite tracking for the devices that support it, such as an "old-fashioned" 2000s-2010s-style satellite GPS tracking unit is a matter of public safety and national security IMHO. If the "manure" really hits the fan, I think satellite technology, although not immune to jamming or sabotage will be one of the most likely things to remain functional.

Another consideration: My understanding is that terrestrial VHF/UHF TV signals can be very prone to sometimes dramatic fluctuations in signal strength depending on a number of factors, especially location and weather conditions. I think this would negatively affect the accuracy of the tracking, as the reciever would "think" that it's closer or further from the transmitter being used as the reference point. I also don't quite know how the implied use of only a single transmitter as a reference point for tracking would work. Cell signal tracking relies on the use of more than one cell repeater station to triangulate the location of the phone, and even satellite tracking relies on contact with multiple satellites being maintained from what I understand.

The wording in the article at least strongly suggests that the system requires the transmission of an ATSC 3.0 (Nextgen TV) signal. If that's the case, that's a big barrier to adoption in and of itself, especially here in Canada where our broadcasters seem disinterested in any further innovations to broadcast TV beyond the now-mostly completed transition to digital.

The problem with ATSC 3.0 really isn't the standard itself, but the tendency for participating broadcasters to "protect" some or all of the signals with Digital Rights Man

Easily Amused wrote:

tdotwriter wrote:

My idea was to point out how many people agree with my concerns about overly exclusive reliance on internet and cell connections in times of disaster. You don't have to be a douchebag about me posting links to other venues.

No quarrel at all with your observations; I was referring to RadioActive's cut and paste performance.

He seems to quite often argue both sides of an issue.

I understand. However, I don't have any issue with any of RadioActive's posts though.

Most people have (sadly) never heard of it, but for decades there has existed a dedicated radio service devoted to "all weather, all the time" 24/7. Mostly broadcasting through a network of transmitters at 162 MHz (at narrow bandwidth intervals) with a few re-transmitters on the regular FM band, notably the town of Parry Sound and Algonquin Park, the service for decades has provided a dedicated, non-internet and non-cell network based source of forecasts, special weather statements, watches and warnings for all the weather that graces and afflicts our land.

The service is most notable for its ability to automatically activate radios equipped with SAME (Specific Area Message Encoding) capability when watches or warnings are issued, effectively allow them to function as alarms for dangerous weather as well as other man-made disasters. The capability extends to Amber Alerts as well. I should also note that most of the radios also allow you to voluntarily "silence" activations for the "events" of your choosing, such as Amber Alerts or tests.

The service has mostly been available through what is simply known as "weather radios"; a type of radio widely available in the U.S capable of tuning the 162 MHz VHF channels that the stations have transmitted on, and the technical standards are practically identical between the American and Canadian networks. American weather radios have been available online in Canada and have fully supported the Canadian network thanks to the mutual choice of common technical standards.

Using the usual status-quo and cliche arguments to the effect of "it's old-fashioned radio technology" and "we have the internet and smartphones now", Environment Canada has seemingly chosen to discontinue the service effective March 16th. The network has traditionally reached areas with poor or practically no cell coverage, including further-out areas of the Great Lakes which are notoriously prone to very dangerous and unpredictable

What is currently WLKK must be literally one of the most historically "flip-happy" stations in the history of the industry, at least in North America. What is now WBUF 92.9 is another station worthy of this notable title.

In the early 2010s, WLKK had an alt-rock format and later an FM simulcast of WBEN 930. Unfortunately, neither were successful and the signal was barely receivable for me in Mississauga on the Grundig S350DL that I had at the time (the best performing radio I had ever used at the time) due low signal strength stemming in large part from its notoriously less-than-optimal transmitter location and splatter from CJXY 107.9.

Poor coverage in the Golden Horseshoe probably isn't a concern for management, but it's been noted in other topics here and in others on RadioDiscussions over the years that the WLKK signal is also questionable in parts of the Buffalo area itself, particularly (and most unfortunately) the most heavily populated ones.

I have to wonder if the management actually have "high hopes" for this move or if they just figure that "it's worth a try" given the popularity of the WGR AM station itself after years and years of unsuccessful uses for the 107.7 signal.

mace wrote:

If an NHL player makes an obscene jesture to fans, the fine is $2500. I don't know if that would apply in this situation.If it does. I am sure Mr. Nylander will have little difficulty in paying it.

Exactly. The only likely real "punishment" for him is being publicly called out and bad-repped for it, and that's if he really cares. Apparently, he was frustrated about not being able to play due to injuries, which is honestly something I can actually understand. The team is suffering through a going-on 60-year Stanley Cup drought, and pressure to improve, perform and deliver must be intense for everyone involved.
https://torontosun.com/sports/hockey/nhl/toronto-maple-leafs/william-nylander-reason-viral-middle-finger