1 of 1- RadioActive
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Listener Wants To Know Why Hamilton Doesn't Have Its Own CBC Station
This seems like a bit of an overreach to me, but a guest columnist in the Hamilton Spectator tries hard to make the case that Steel Town is being ignored by the CBC and that the city deserves its own Corporation outlet. The author admits there's no actual room for such an animal on the dial, but argues instead that it could easily be put on an HD signal.
With a digital signal on the net, you could receive CBC Hamilton at home on your computer, laptop, tablet and even on coaxial cable or satellite. In your car? Satellite or smartphone. Another option for vehicles is HD radio (hybrid digital). Most vehicles built from 2015 onwards now have HD radio capabilities."
I might take issue with how many HD radios are really out there, but he doesn't let that get in the way. He also quotes a 2005 report that apparently found "a dearth of commercial radio and television stations in Hamilton."
Really? There's CKOC (aka TSN 1150,) CHML, CHAM, CKLH, CING (Burlington, but close enough) CHKX (and its Jazz HD counterpart) and if you really want to stretch things, CFMU the campus station. Not to mention CHCH-TV. The fact that some of them don't exclusively concentrate on their city of licence, like Funny 820, is more on the ownership than an issue of them not being there.
What other town the size of Hamilton has that many local radio stations? I'm hard pressed to think of one. And given some of the programming on the CBC, maybe not having them there is actually a badge of honour!
Anyway, you can decide for yourself by reading the article here.
- Saul
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Re: Listener Wants To Know Why Hamilton Doesn't Have Its Own CBC Station
Cottage country has CBC 2 in Peterborough, Orillia and in Huntsville.
- Saul
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Re: Listener Wants To Know Why Hamilton Doesn't Have Its Own CBC Station
Irvine wrote:
Cottage country has CBC 2 in Peterborough, Orillia and in Huntsville.
I mean Radio 1. And does it have a local morning show? Radio 1 pretty much has repeaters everywhere even in the remote corners of the Yukon and stuff.
94.3 Huntsville, 91.5 Barrie-Orillia, 98.7 Peterborough, 97.5 Wiarton, and others stretching into other areas where people, ahem, cottage. Coverage isn't a huge issue unless you drive a good distance and have to find a new repeater.
But these are just sticks for the most part. I agree with you, should be some local originating programming even if it's regular freelance correspondents (at least that'd be a start).
- radiokid
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Re: Listener Wants To Know Why Hamilton Doesn't Have Its Own CBC Station
CBC doesn't want AM stations.. which are the only frequencies available in Hamilton. HD would only work if they put it on CBC Toronto's 99.1, but even then, it wouldn't work well being so far away. I just don't feel we are there yet to justify online only CBC R1. Talk isn't cheap to produce and doesn't seem like a good use of tax dollars for online only. Kitchener had a signal available, as does London etc. Those made launching studios easy. Hamilton unless they go with an am signal, will not happen anytime soon
Last edited by radiokid (June 18, 2018 9:29 am)
- Saul
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Re: Listener Wants To Know Why Hamilton Doesn't Have Its Own CBC Station
Despite Newmarket 88.5 there's been some degree of looking at 88.5 towards Grimsby-Niagara. Dial's pretty choked, IBOC chokes it further. Maybe there's an answer in using sidebands and digital radios, but we're not quite in prime time...
- fyshtalk
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Re: Listener Wants To Know Why Hamilton Doesn't Have Its Own CBC Station
Or maybe the CRTC could impose its will and force the stations that are already there to live up to their mandates to provide local news coverage. This used to be a thriving competetive market . We know that CBC Hamilton would just be a Toronto repeater with an office.. and one report a day. Not worth the expense!!
Last edited by fyshtalk (June 19, 2018 9:00 pm)
- Jody Thornton
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Re: Listener Wants To Know Why Hamilton Doesn't Have Its Own CBC Station
I though KW-Cambridge was bigger now than Hamilton, no? Now I'm not counting Flamborough and Glanbrook, because that's outside the city. That would be like calling St Jacobs or Elora part of Kay-Dubya.
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Jody Thornton
- mike marshall
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Re: Listener Wants To Know Why Hamilton Doesn't Have Its Own CBC Station
I though KW-Cambridge was bigger now than Hamilton, no? Now I'm not counting Flamborough and Glanbrook, because that's outside the city. That would be like calling St Jacobs or Elora part of Kay-Dubya.
You should count 'em, Jody, because they're part of Hamilton, along with Stoney Creek, Ancaster and Dundas.
Hamilton is 9th biggest, K-W is 10.
- Jody Thornton
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Re: Listener Wants To Know Why Hamilton Doesn't Have Its Own CBC Station
I though KW-Cambridge was bigger now than Hamilton, no? Now I'm not counting Flamborough and Glanbrook, because that's outside the city. That would be like calling St Jacobs or Elora part of Kay-Dubya.
You should count 'em, Jody, because they're part of Hamilton, along with Stoney Creek, Ancaster and Dundas.
Hamilton is 9th biggest, K-W is 10.
I know that, but I'm talking about the urbanized areas in addition to Hamilton proper (allow me to reside in a pre-amalgamation mindset for a moment, because Hamiltonians definitely do think as I describe). I would even count Burlington (in Halton region) as a suburb. To me, getting Burlington would be more important to target than say Binbrook.
Last edited by Jody Thornton (June 19, 2018 5:05 pm)
Cheers,
Jody Thornton
- mike marshall
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Re: Listener Wants To Know Why Hamilton Doesn't Have Its Own CBC Station
Is there really no frequency at the bottom of the dial that could be used in Hamilton? I know 88.1 and 88.3 would be out of question (Indie and CJIQ). What about a little higher up the dial? Or is there Buffalo radio that uses it.
There's a guy who found two signals. One became The WAVE, the other has been around almost as long, in Caledonia. I'd bet if he knew of another one, he would have told someone by now.
I personally think Hamilton is the "next big thing" in terms of up & coming cities in Canada.
Where ya been, man? They've been writing about it in Toronto Life, real estate and biz sections and elsewhere for a number of years. Maybe only us old white guys have taken notice.
Next time you're looking for something to do, hop into a car, make sure you've got a full tank, start on the far side of Grimsby and don't stop 'till you hit the Burlington/Oakville border. Also, don't skimp on the Mountain (Hamilton, Ancaster). That's a whole 'nother world up there.
- splunge
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Re: Listener Wants To Know Why Hamilton Doesn't Have Its Own CBC Station
consider this..
- mike marshall
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Re: Listener Wants To Know Why Hamilton Doesn't Have Its Own CBC Station
consider this..
Two takeaways from the link posted above. The reason Byrnes wanted to start a station in Burlington was the same reason it started a stations in Woodstock and My FM started one in St. Thomas. Existing stations that had been licensed in those communities morphed into regional stations and abandoned the local markets. However, its one thing to have success in cities like St. Thomas and Woodstock, but it would be significantly more difficult to have success in small Golden Horseshoe markets such as Burlington or Grimsby which are flooded with signals from stations in Hamilton, Toronto and Buffalo.
Chuck99's last sentence, IMHO, was key. Mind you, Bynes Media is right here in Burlington, so they may know something we don't.
One has to wonder, though. The Burlington Post is recently down to a single edition. More important, out-of-market tuning in the Greater Hamilton market has always been huge. CHML and CKOC, with strong local news, programming, personalities and promotions in the late '50s and early '60s, as one example, against less competition, had to deal with it then.
This may not add anything to the thread, but I always felt that CHML, placed in Toronto, would have been a major force.
- RadioActive
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Re: Listener Wants To Know Why Hamilton Doesn't Have Its Own CBC Station
And yet CHML's signal is nulled here and is the only Hamilton AM station that's difficult to receive clearly in Toronto. It goes just about everywhere else (I remember hearing it once pretty clearly at night in New York City) but a couple dozen kilometres down the road and it's practically non-existent. A shame, because I like the station.
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Thread Starter- cGrant
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Re: Listener Wants To Know Why Hamilton Doesn't Have Its Own CBC Station
And yet CHML's signal is nulled here and is the only Hamilton AM station that's difficult to receive clearly in Toronto. It goes just about everywhere else (but a couple dozen kilometres down the road and it's practically non-existent.
Could this not be Tx directionally deliberate? A portion of 900's programming is simulcast on 640, so why spend the hydro on duplication? Plus, isn't the Hammer traditionally left as opposed to 640's generally right format?
- RadioActive
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Re: Listener Wants To Know Why Hamilton Doesn't Have Its Own CBC Station
When this was decided, a long time ago, there was no Corus and there was no station in Toronto at 640. So I don't think that was a factor in sending the signal the other way. Could be they're protecting someone on the same or an adjacent frequency, but either way, it goes back many decades.
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