1 of 1- RadioActive
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If You Ever Needed Proof Of What Bell Has Done To CFRB...
Check out these ads touting the station as being THE reliable place to get your news and sports.
Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
Funny, I have no memory of Larry Solway being at 1010, as listed at #48 in the first piece. Also, notice the reference to AM Stereo in several of the ads, which are from the late 1980s to the early 90s.
- Peter the K
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Re: If You Ever Needed Proof Of What Bell Has Done To CFRB...
That always reminds me of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters convention back in 1985 when one of the booths (I forgot whose booth it was) had a luxy car (a Cadilac perhaps?) on the floor on battery power running an an AM stereo radio tuned to CFRB.
The idea was that you could get inside, close the doors, and get the feel for just how good AM stereo really was. And actually, it wasn't bad at all.
A few years later, the crappy little Plymouth Horizon I bought had an AM stereo radio. Still sounded pretty good.
Last edited by Peter the K (April 15, 2022 5:22 pm)
- RadioActive
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Re: If You Ever Needed Proof Of What Bell Has Done To CFRB...
One of my biggest radio regrets is that I never got to hear AM stereo before it disappeared. I've been told (and now retold by Peter The K) that it was pretty good.
I wonder, though, on distant stations: was the static coming out of both speakers?
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Thread Starter- Jody Thornton
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Re: If You Ever Needed Proof Of What Bell Has Done To CFRB...
RadioActive wrote:
One of my biggest radio regrets is that I never got to hear AM stereo before it disappeared. I've been told (and now retold by Peter The K) that it was pretty good.
I wonder, though, on distant stations: was the static coming out of both speakers?
Yes the fuzzy static did appear in double, if you will. Also if you were listening in wideband, the static was "clearer" shall we say, only because you now had 10 KHz response, as opposed to 3 KHz. But that also meant you heard other things you rarely hear on AM radio these days, .... things like cymbals, consonant blends, etc... the turning of the treble knob was actually audible on such an AM tuner.
My frame of reference is that if you've ever worked at an AM radio station and listened to the air feed through the board, you were hearing wideband AM over the modulation monitor. Now imagine that in stereo.
Cheers,
Jody Thornton
- RadioActive
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Re: If You Ever Needed Proof Of What Bell Has Done To CFRB...
A board feed over the air? That must have been great to hear on a car radio. Too bad it didn't last.
Looking at that list in the first ad, I have to admit I’d forgotten how strong a line-up CFRB had back in the day. Those are some mighty impressive names, some of whom I haven’t thought of in years.
It’s amazing the memories they bring back - and I wasn’t really much of an 'RB listener back then (1992.) It’s also amazing how many I don’t recall being there at all. I mentioned Larry Solway in my original post. But I didn’t know Jason Roberts of CKOC fame (#32 on the list) had ever worked there.
I thought Bruce Rogers (#29) was a CBC lifer. Apparently not.
Avery Haines (#36) was there early on in her career and she’s certainly done well after being caught making fun of a disabled person in a segment that was never supposed to air. She's now the senior correspondent for CTV's W5.
Didn’t realize Ted Woloshyn (#41) was there doing weekends that early.
Terry McElligott (#42) was on staid old CFRB? That I would have liked to hear.
And I guess Harvey Kirck (#43), - whose name is misspelled in the ad, leaving out the "c" and who was on CHUM and CTV - ended up at 1010 as well.
Ann Winstanley (#5) used to drive me crazy, because she always pronounced her name like it was “Annwyn Stanley." I was never sure exactly how it was spelled.
But of all the names on that list in the first ad, only one still appears on the station all these years later - #26, Glenn Crouter. Now that’s some staying power.
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Thread Starter- ig
- Iain Grant
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Re: If You Ever Needed Proof Of What Bell Has Done To CFRB...
It's almost criminal hearing Hot Choclate without a DJ on top heading for the post 
CFRB originally used Motorola but switched to Magnavox which sounded outstanding.
Somewhere I have a copy of a video or audio of the 'switch' during Wally's show. I believe it was just after the 8am news, they had already switched to the new control room and since most of the on-air folks wouldn't have known or cared what an off-air monitor button was for, they'd been listening in stereo for weeks, but still ooo'ed and aaa'ed after the 'button' was pressed.
Long after the station stopped broadcasting in stereo, the pilot tone was left active to stop people calling asking why it wasn't in stereo any more. As long as they saw the led, nobody called.
Before Digital delay on the STL got stupid, I'd always switch over to the off-air monitors and get out of delay. It always felt like 'real' broadcasting and I loved it so much.
ig.
One of my biggest radio regrets is that I never got to hear AM stereo before it disappeared. I've been told (and now retold by Peter The K) that it was pretty good.
I wonder, though, on distant stations: was the static coming out of both speakers?
Last edited by ig (April 15, 2022 6:44 pm)
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- Jody Thornton
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Re: If You Ever Needed Proof Of What Bell Has Done To CFRB...
Just one thing about that tuner though - the bandwidth switches to narrow whenever AM goes to mono. The key reason that's important is that wideband response (which gives AM more of a hi-fi quality), and stereo separation are two separate things.
In this more modern-day example of CHML playing on an 80s era AM Stereo Sansui tuner, you'll hear CHML with reception noise to boot, in wideband. Sure CHML no longer airs in stereo, but what you'll hear sounds more like mono FM. This benefit can STILL be enjoyed.
Cheers,
Jody Thornton
- ig
- Iain Grant
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Re: If You Ever Needed Proof Of What Bell Has Done To CFRB...
Fair point. I always figured with all the bs about LP's and the 'analog sound' blah blah, especially after cassettes starting making a comeback, I figured it wouldn't be long before someone took the plunge and fired up a classic hits AM station. Not yet, but I'm still not saying never .
Just one thing about that tuner though - the bandwidth switches to narrow whenever AM goes to mono. The key reason that's important is that wideband response (which gives AM more of a hi-fi quality), and stereo separation are two separate things.
In this more modern-day example of CHML playing on an 80s era AM Stereo Sansui tuner, you'll hear CHML with reception noise to boot, in wideband. Sure CHML no longer airs in stereo, but what you'll hear sounds more like mono FM. This benefit can STILL be enjoyed.
Madness takes its toll. Please have exact change.
- paterson1
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Re: If You Ever Needed Proof Of What Bell Has Done To CFRB...
I was never that impressed with AM stereo. And Jody is right, any snap crackle and pop was more pronounced. Local radio sounded ok but not as good as FM and distant stations still had all of the downside of an AM signal. Another example of too little too late, AM was already dead when this poor man's stereo system was introduced.
In the US, FM radio finally surpassed AM in overall ratings in 1978, Canada would have been a few years later. It is interesting to me that FM didn't really get any traction with listeners for many years. It was widely introduced in the mid 1940's and floundered for decades. Same with colour TV which had been available for years, but because of cost and general lack of interest, colour televisions really didn't start to sell until the very late 60's and early 70's.
Yes Bell doesn't do much of a job running their AM stations other than the TSN radio sports outlets. They often seem to pay more attention with more effort in programming to TSN 1050 than Newstalk 1010. The five TSN TV sports channels are very profitable and having the radio sports network supporting television was a smart move.
The ads above showing the number of people working on the morning show with Wally is proof how profitable CFRB radio was back in the 60's into the 80's. The fact they regularly ran newspaper and magazine ads along with billboards and television indicates RB had a healthy promotion budget. Today not so much, just the odd freebie on CTV Toronto and CP24. TSN 1050 gets some good promo with Overdrive weekdays at 4pm and overall has more live programming than Newstalk 1010.
- ig
- Iain Grant
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Re: If You Ever Needed Proof Of What Bell Has Done To CFRB...
The Stereo switch was on July 30th 1984.
I was wrong, it was at 10:10am they switched, not 8:00am.
(I guess Wally put in for overtime..)
Also answering the trivia question... What was the last song played on CFRB in Mono.. Chiquitita The first.. "That's Entertainment" by Boston Pops. Lots of time went into picking those I'll bet. (ahem.)
For months before the station had been broadcasting in stereo during the night pattern to test and allign the transmitter and new studios and air-chain..
Last edited by ig (April 15, 2022 7:20 pm)
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- Doug Thompson
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Re: If You Ever Needed Proof Of What Bell Has Done To CFRB...
Harvey Kirck went by Kirk at CHUM as well. 
Last edited by Doug Thompson (April 16, 2022 12:59 am)
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