CKOC was also off the air as of 730 am today...........

Wonder what's happening?

gch wrote:

CKOC was also off the air as of 730 am today...........

Wonder what's happening?

At least CKOC, when I tuned in a minute ago, has carrier current. Just no programming. Their transmitter is on. 

CKTB's 610 is nothing but static and no signal at all. 

What a way to start 2026!

RadioActive wrote:

gch wrote:

CKOC was also off the air as of 730 am today...........

Wonder what's happening?

At least CKOC, when I tuned in a minute ago, has carrier current. Just no programming. Their transmitter is on. 

CKTB's 610 is nothing but static and no signal at all. 

What a way to start 2026!

Checking my recording....At 6 a.m. CKTB listeners would have been treated to WIP-Philadelphia and WTVN-Columbus.    And WHBY-Kimberly WI could be heard under the CKOC carrier.
 

"How do we say we're not on the air if we're not on the air" 
Those days are hopefully over, thanks to the internet. 
The 610 CKTB website seems to be working fine...business as usual. 
Hopefully that will not ever go down.  

Prediction: One of these unplanned outages will be the end. The cost to fix it will just be too much. Not planned and announced - just off randomly, permanently. 

You may be right. Back in May 2021, there was a post here about yet another CKTB outage. That one lasted for five long days, which is an eternity for a radio station. 

What's disturbing about that instance was the station later explained its transmitter was old and needed a very specific part from the U.S. to replace it - and it was taking forever to get there. (Ever heard of UPS?) 

My guess is nothing has changed and that the old parts are either no longer available or very hard to find. I think CKTB still does OK in its market, but would owner Whiteoaks be willing to foot the bill for a long overdue replacement TX? 

This is one of several threads about CKTB disappearing from the airwaves over the years. Not a good sign and there's nothing to say it won't happen again. And again. And again. 

I remember in one instance of this happening that the on air guy (well, he wasn't exactly on air then but online only) said they had an engineer who lived very close to the station and the TX site and they were waiting for him to get there. Apparently, he's nearly always on call simply because of his proximity.

But if it's a new or rare part that's needed from far away, he could be sleeping downstairs on Yates St. and it wouldn't make any difference. 

RadioAaron wrote:

RadioActive wrote:

I remember in one instance of this happening that the on air guy (well, he wasn't exactly on air then but online only) said they had an engineer who lived very close to the station and the TX site and they were waiting for him to get there. Apparently, he's nearly always on call simply because of his proximity.

But if it's a new or rare part that's needed from far away, he could be sleeping downstairs on Yates St. and it wouldn't make any difference. 

You mean *her* proximity. She graduated in 1986, so is close, if not *at* retirement age.

I recall the announcer saying "he" but it was a while ago, so it could be a trick of my memory. Either way, the person could be standing there but if it's a hard-to-get part that's the problem, it won't make much difference. 

Someone should drive by to see if all of their towers are still standing after the wind storm the region experienced.... it's likely they're on a reduced wattage from one tower.....

RadioActive wrote:

Looks like CKTB isn't the only one having issues. The Town of Marathon near Thunder Bay has no CBC Radio service after something happened to one of its transmitters. It affects listeners for at least 20 kilometres out.   

But unlike CKTB, it's not that easy to reach the site where the outage occurred. 

According to a statement on the CBC website:

"The nature of the problem requires a team to go to the area where the transmission tower is located.

A team of engineers is scheduled to visit the site on Thursday, Jan. 8 to carry out troubleshooting and repairs."

So the thing will be off the air for at least the next three days? Where the hell is this tower that it takes that long to get to it?

Temporary outage to CBC Radio service in Town of Marathon

These sites are serviced by a team in Toronto, if I'm not mistaken

RadioActive wrote:

I would have thought there was some kind of engineer in a place like Thunder Bay. I guess the CBC doesn't care if a remote site like Marathon is without them (beyond online) for up to four or five days. 

Doesn't matter if they care or not, if you can't find an AM engineer to work there, then support has to come from elsewhere else

RadioActive wrote:

Looks like CKTB isn't the only one having issues. The Town of Marathon near Thunder Bay has no CBC Radio service after something happened to one of its transmitters. It affects listeners for at least 20 kilometres out.   

But unlike CKTB, it's not that easy to reach the site where the outage occurred. 

According to a statement on the CBC website:

"The nature of the problem requires a team to go to the area where the transmission tower is located.

A team of engineers is scheduled to visit the site on Thursday, Jan. 8 to carry out troubleshooting and repairs."

So the thing will be off the air for at least the next three days? Where the hell is this tower that it takes that long to get to it?

Temporary outage to CBC Radio service in Town of Marathon

48.752952, -86.581473

Skywave wrote:

The CKTB site was built in 1959/60, so what you have is perhaps one of the most ancient set of towers, transmission lines and phasing equipment extant. This will be an ongoing agony of technical "whack-a-mole".

In that case, a best case scenario for CKTB is lowering power and going omni-directional from one tower. Of course that would mean a loss of listeners outside of the niagara region

torontostan wrote:

Easily Amused wrote:

48.752952, -86.581473

To service a town of 3000.... classic government overspending 

A town on an isolated but commercially vital highway. An area that despite the presence of Cosimo Filane doesn't have a serious commercial alternative.

No it's fine.