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Did anyone notice that Ryerson's latest radio offering officially launched on Thursday? More importantly, with a power of only 99 watts on 1280, can anybody actually hear it? The linked article is full of pronouncements about how having a real honest-to-goodness on air frequency matters. But if a radio is on in a forest and there's no one there to hear it - well you know the rest about making a sound...
CJRU: Does campus radio still matter?
CJRU website
Last edited by RadioActive (March 31, 2016 10:15 pm)
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As far as the actual signal goes, why bother?
You can barely pick it up through most of downtown. It's a weak signal to begin with and unless you're in just the right spot and you don't move at all. The whole thing is pretty much unlistenable.
Then, during the test period over the last few weeks, there was the drone of the young lady who did the station ID every 15 minutes advising what few people could actually hear the signal that this was a test. She had this lovely millennial "I don't know why I'm bothering with this" tone about her.
I have to wonder why exactly are they broadcasting on the AM band? Are they hoping they will land an FM frequency eventually?
Ryerson had their chance. They blew it. Time to move on.
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Chalk it up to being a vanity play and clever financial planning. Student radio is funded, with large grants from student fees. These are surcharges that every student pays on top of tuition regardless whether or not they want a particular service or activity. Absent a radio licence and transmitter, the Ryerson radio folks wouldn't be able to continue to collect the fees. How do I know? It's in the university's financial report. Those fees have recently been reinstated for 2015-16 at a cost of $10.35 before a 2.5% CPI Adjustment. They are buried in the Ryerson University budget under "Compulsory Non Tuition Related Fees". It's all there online in the 2015-16 Budget Priorities and Expenditures for Ryerson University. BTW, when they lost 88.1 licence the fee was suspended. So, an AM station that literally no one can receive clearly should be able to capture as much as $300,000 per year in (compulsory) student fees. Student enrolment for 2014 was 34,831. If you do the math, it's a pretty sweet deal for the AM radio station....all of that money - eh? Call me cynical, but as long as there's an AM licence, there's a pot of gold. Whether anyone listens...does it matter...the money will continue to flow until there is a referendum and a majority of students vote to end the "tax". But voting "out" a compulsory fee is very difficult. Young people are complacent at the best of times about voting. Not going to happen anytime soon. Call me cynical.
For the record there are no "FM" frequenices that can be made to work in downtown Toronto. But people think that some P. Eng has sorcery powers of Harry Potter and can divine some new FM channel that will pass muster with incumbent broadcasters and Industry Canada (or whatever it is called now).
Last edited by tvguy (April 1, 2016 8:40 am)
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Most students will listen to the station online so the low wattage doesn't matter. Today's younger generation doesn't listen to AM anyway regardless of signal strength - they hardly know it exists.
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I just tried to get them this morning here in northern North York. Nothing there but static. I think tvguy may have it right - follow the money.
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RadioActive wrote:
I just tried to get them this morning here in northern North York. Nothing there but static. I think tvguy may have it right - follow the money.
I received the station quite clearly here in Ajax today. There was a station underneath it that I assume was WHTK Rochester but the Ryerson station buried it.
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Thanks, tvguy, that explains it pretty well.
But don't be so sure about the student body not being to pull the plug on funding. It happened in Waterloo when the student federation held a referendum and pulled the $5.50/term fees to support CKMS by a 2:1 majority. Students were paying this fee for years without having a clue what it was for.
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At current exchange rates $10.35 Toronto equates to $5.50 Waterloo
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Fusion radio Scarborough (U of T Scarborough radio) has NO FM or AM Licence, but yet it manages to collect a $12.25 student levy (recently increased from $8) each semester.
( )
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Ryerson has broadcasting and journalism schools so a station gives students a chance to get practical experience in a regulatory environment and though the signal is low power it can be picked up in some downtown neighbourhoods which gives the opportunity for "hyperlocal" broadcasting and interacting with an audience, albeit small, that wouldn't be available to a student podcasting. If it works maybe they can get a signal boost eventually or an FM signal if room becomes available for a low power signal (or if Canadian radio ever goes digital).
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I can pick it up surprisingly well in central, west Etobicoke. Much stronger signal than CHTO on 1690.
Perhaps Ryerson should have given the CBC/SRC a call and asked what they think about them using 89.9. I'm sure CIUT wouldn't mind having them as a neighbour.
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I can't think of a time CBC in Toronto hasn't opposed an application or request for an adjacent signal.
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tvguy wrote:
...there's a pot of gold...
Now that's rich.
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CKFG 98.7 appears to be second adjacent to CBC Toronto 99.1.....
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CKFG 98.7 appears to be second adjacent to CBC Toronto 99.1.....
Yes, and as I recall G98 was given the frequency over CBC's objections.