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October 27, 2019 8:53 pm  #1


What Happens When A Station Is On Autopilot On A Sunday Night

Back in the days when radio stations were always staffed, even into the lesser hours, this kind of thing could never happen. But I accidentally passed by CHIN FM at 91.9 just after 8 PM Sunday night and heard this. What I've saved is a very short 20 sec. sample, but as near as I can tell, it went on and on and on like that for at least an hour or maybe more. Even more weird is that the tone actually went up a note at one point, although you won't hear it on the "aircheck."

Automation is a wonderful thing, but when it screws up, it screws up very, very horribly, Although I will say, after a while, it does start to get kind of catchy.

If only someone was there to fix it. But not any more. 

I wonder if anyone here knows what might cause such a strange audio glitch?

CHIN-FM Goes Wild

 

October 27, 2019 9:02 pm  #2


Re: What Happens When A Station Is On Autopilot On A Sunday Night

Only a fanatic radio person would sit here and listen to that for more than a few seconds, but I had to tune back in at 9 PM to hear if the change to the next program would fix the thing.

It didn't.

Onto at least hour #2!

(Oh, and in case you're interested, the same tone was on both their Internet feed and the one on air. I love consistency in a station, but this is ridiculous!)

     Thread Starter
 

October 27, 2019 9:21 pm  #3


Re: What Happens When A Station Is On Autopilot On A Sunday Night

Well this reminds me of a couple weeks before WBEN-FM (Rock 102) in Buffalo threw out the TM Stereo Rock automation system.  I was tuned in and I could hear "High on Emotion" by Chris DeBurgh, and Corey's "Sunglasses At Night" playing simultaneously.  The effect reminded of the horrible crosstalk you used to get on a misaligned 8-track player, remember that?

My guess is, is that Corey Hart was on a homemade back-up reel that the station added themselves, because at this time, "Sunglasses ..." was in it's hit run, and I distinctly DO NOT remember ever hearing John Borders backsell the song, like he would have on the reels from TM Century.  It was always aired prior to a stop set.  Well there must've been a cue tone gone very wrong.... and now this mess!

The dual songs playing at the same time went on for at least an hour, but the family was going out to Swiss Chalet on Rymal Road in Hamilton (I was 14 when this happened), so I couldn't keep listening.  Suffice it to say, around comes September and that's when the Classic Cuts show, local DJs and what not replaced the Stereo Rock system.
 

Last edited by Jody Thornton (October 27, 2019 9:23 pm)


Cheers,
Jody Thornton
 
 

October 27, 2019 9:34 pm  #4


Re: What Happens When A Station Is On Autopilot On A Sunday Night

It’s still going at 9:33 PM Eastern. I don’t know why but I find a slightly entertaining that this is been going on for so long.

 

October 27, 2019 10:52 pm  #5


Re: What Happens When A Station Is On Autopilot On A Sunday Night

Now into its third hour - that we know about. I have no idea when it started. 

It's #1 on the CHIN Chart, with a bullet. My favourite part, though, is that if you listen to it over the radio on headphones, the tone is actually in stereo!

     Thread Starter
 

October 27, 2019 11:04 pm  #6


Re: What Happens When A Station Is On Autopilot On A Sunday Night

CKGL-FM  in Kitchener had an automated system "Charlie" back in the mid 70's likely similar to Rock 102. Charlie had a separate, air conditioned room with glass walls, and looked like a very expensive set up of reel to reel machines, a computer and about  eight carousels holding commercials, jingles, songs, promos etc.

I was an operator of then CHYM AM, of a show called the Saturday Night Special, no announcer just music and a few syndicated shows. 

I wasn't really trained how to run, or more importantly, correct problems with Charlie. On Saturday night after 8pm, I was by myself, essentially running two stations, until 12 midnight. We did have a live all night show on AM, and the all night announcer was responsible to babysit Charlie until about 5:30am.

The stories I could tell you about the automation system would last an hour. Charlie playing one jingle after another, Charlie with dead air, Charlie's voicetrack announcing Dolly Parton  over the intro of an Johnny Cash song, Charlie just playing commercials or promos etc. etc.

It seemed like every time I left the AM studio to check on FM, Charlie's alarm was beeping and it was hard to tell sometimes exactly what didn't fire or what the problem was.  Charlie was a nightmare. The newsman who was on duty until 8pm knew about as much about the automation as I did, and he avoided Charlie like the plague. 

Daytime on CKGL was live morning and afternoon drive, but everyday Charlie took over mid day and  6pm to 6am.  Also shows that back in the mid 70's AM still ruled, made the money, and the FM was treated very much as the secondary outlet for the company. 

And as Jody mentioned above, I remember hearing some of the same problems on Rock 102, especially a lot of dead air and audio levels all over the map.

Last edited by paterson1 (October 27, 2019 11:12 pm)

 

October 27, 2019 11:40 pm  #7


Re: What Happens When A Station Is On Autopilot On A Sunday Night

Digital feedback. 

Brutal. But because there is ‘a’ signal no alarms would sound and the backup wouldn’t kick in.


Madness takes its toll.  Please have exact change.
 
 

October 28, 2019 6:08 am  #8


Re: What Happens When A Station Is On Autopilot On A Sunday Night

They were back on just after midnight, but the tone lasted at least four hours, one of the longest radio outages I can ever remember.

     Thread Starter
 

October 28, 2019 9:07 am  #9


Re: What Happens When A Station Is On Autopilot On A Sunday Night

For a station whose programs are more often than not brokered time, that could get expensive.

CKGL, WBEN-FM and CKLA in Guelph, used the same automation hardware.  I was one of the guys minding the latter.  Sometimes in live assist mode  It all hinged on 25hz tones to mark the start of the next cut on the reel.  Sometimes, it wasn't recorded properly, or it just didn't pick up the tone.  But it was actually, a surprisingly elegant system, for all its clunkiness.  If all hell broke loose and everything went nuts, hopefully, the deadroll cart that played music in a 3 minute countdown to the top of each hour, would put things back in sync.


 

 

November 1, 2019 5:46 pm  #10


Re: What Happens When A Station Is On Autopilot On A Sunday Night

Speaking of the dangers of automation, here's a story from the days when these things were more Rube Goldberg contraptions than computer run. And a guy who almost lost his job because of it. 

Adventures in 1970s AM: Curses! Locked Out!

     Thread Starter
 

November 1, 2019 6:00 pm  #11


Re: What Happens When A Station Is On Autopilot On A Sunday Night

RadioActive wrote:

Speaking of the dangers of automation, here's a story from the days when these things were more Rube Goldberg contraptions than computer run. And a guy who almost lost his job because of it. 

Adventures in 1970s AM: Curses! Locked Out!

Looking at those ratings for WSPD, WOW!! 50+ share. Those are CFRB numbers from the 60's/70's. Station probably had a full service MOR format then as well.

 

November 2, 2019 6:58 pm  #12


Re: What Happens When A Station Is On Autopilot On A Sunday Night

Yes and worth noting that CKLW - which is way out of market - is the third highest rated station. Pretty amazing. 

     Thread Starter
 

November 2, 2019 11:16 pm  #13


Re: What Happens When A Station Is On Autopilot On A Sunday Night

WJR 760 from Detroit also had respectable numbers.

 

November 3, 2019 7:24 pm  #14


Re: What Happens When A Station Is On Autopilot On A Sunday Night

mace wrote:

RadioActive wrote:

Speaking of the dangers of automation, here's a story from the days when these things were more Rube Goldberg contraptions than computer run. And a guy who almost lost his job because of it. 

Adventures in 1970s AM: Curses! Locked Out!

Looking at those ratings for WSPD, WOW!! 50+ share. Those are CFRB numbers from the 60's/70's. Station probably had a full service MOR format then as well.

I thought Hooper Radio Ratings were long gone in 1973.  The company was purchased by AC Nielson in the early 1950's.
 
Did CFRB really command an audience share of around 50% in the late 60's, early 70's?  Every ratings from BBM from that era that I have ever seen had 1050 CHUM within spitting distance to RB in terms of total cume. Naturally CFRB would have larger hours tuned and therefore higher share, but I never heard of anything close to 50%.

Does anyone know if CHUM actually skipped by CFRB in cume audience around 1961/62? I have heard rumours for years that they did beat RB in a few books in the early 60's but never anything beyond some talk.

 

 

November 4, 2019 9:42 am  #15


Re: What Happens When A Station Is On Autopilot On A Sunday Night

paterson1 wrote:

mace wrote:

RadioActive wrote:

Speaking of the dangers of automation, here's a story from the days when these things were more Rube Goldberg contraptions than computer run. And a guy who almost lost his job because of it. 

Adventures in 1970s AM: Curses! Locked Out!

Looking at those ratings for WSPD, WOW!! 50+ share. Those are CFRB numbers from the 60's/70's. Station probably had a full service MOR format then as well.

I thought Hooper Radio Ratings were long gone in 1973.  The company was purchased by AC Nielson in the early 1950's.
 
Did CFRB really command an audience share of around 50% in the late 60's, early 70's?  Every ratings from BBM from that era that I have ever seen had 1050 CHUM within spitting distance to RB in terms of total cume. Naturally CFRB would have larger hours tuned and therefore higher share, but I never heard of anything close to 50%.

Does anyone know if CHUM actually skipped by CFRB in cume audience around 1961/62? I have heard rumours for years that they did beat RB in a few books in the early 60's but never anything beyond some talk.

 

I think this happened during the on air tribute after Bill Stephenson's passing. Charles Doering was commenting on why Bill's sportscast came on at 7:55AM  just before Jack Dennett's 8AM newscast in stead of after. Apparently, listeners who disliked sports would suffer through the sportscast to hear Jack Dennett. He also mentioned that the 8AM newscast had a close to 50% share of the audience and that more people tuned to CFRB's 8AM newscast than all other Toronto stations combined. Don't know how true that is but CHUM was the only other Toronto station that consistently had a 1M+ cume.

 

November 4, 2019 11:24 am  #16


Re: What Happens When A Station Is On Autopilot On A Sunday Night

Jack Dennett's 8am news I could believe a 50% share or close to it. He was legendary and nobody anywhere sounded like Jack. He would have been on HNIC during part of this era as well. Wally Crouter also would have been strong in the mornings.

I knew that later in the day and certainly evenings CHUM  would beat RB and you are right, every ratings I ever looked at from that period always had CFRB and CHUM as the only stations consistent with over and often well over 1 million listeners.  To their credit, RPM magazine used to print the BBM's for many major market stations in their weekly magazine up until around 1977.  Thanks for the information Mace.
 

 

November 4, 2019 2:44 pm  #17


Re: What Happens When A Station Is On Autopilot On A Sunday Night

In case you've never heard this legendary broadcaster (or want to again) here are a few Jack Dennett excerpts from his CFRB 8 AM news days.

They don't make 'em like this anymore. 

Jack Dennett On The 1972 Summer Olympics Munich Massacre

Jack Dennett on the end of the Vietnam War 

Jack Dennett on The Brampton Centennial School Massacre, 1975

     Thread Starter
 

November 4, 2019 3:06 pm  #18


Re: What Happens When A Station Is On Autopilot On A Sunday Night

As a kid growing up with the kitchen radio "locked" on 1010,  at the time I never fully appreciated the high level of newsroom professionalism and well researched commentary that was a daily staple.

Dennett, McVean, and so may more...

Last edited by Media Observer (November 4, 2019 3:07 pm)

 

November 4, 2019 3:25 pm  #19


Re: What Happens When A Station Is On Autopilot On A Sunday Night

I believe that was the same high school where Primer Bill Davis' children attended and I recall how visibly upset he was on TV news that day,

 

November 5, 2019 3:28 am  #20


Re: What Happens When A Station Is On Autopilot On A Sunday Night

Show business with Sinclair at 11:45 and "news and commentary" at 11:50 with Gordon Sinclair on CFRB. My dad always listened to this while we ate lunch. Circa 1968.

 

November 5, 2019 3:29 pm  #21


Re: What Happens When A Station Is On Autopilot On A Sunday Night

What was the last radio station newscast that you always tried to tune into?  Who was the newscaster and what time of day was it?

 

November 5, 2019 4:24 pm  #22


Re: What Happens When A Station Is On Autopilot On A Sunday Night

Broodcaster wrote:

What was the last radio station newscast that you always tried to tune into?  Who was the newscaster and what time of day was it?

Dave McKee's 6 pm newscast on NT1010.  I really like the half-hour (well, ok, 20 something minute) format.

 

November 5, 2019 6:17 pm  #23


Re: What Happens When A Station Is On Autopilot On A Sunday Night

Many, many years ago I used to tune into News Hour on CHML at 6 pm with the late great Tom Cherrington.