1 of 1- Hansa
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Early stereo experiment in Toronto
Does anyone know anything about this?
A little Toronto history lesson.
The first true stereo radio broadcast happened in 1961 in Schenectady, NY by WGFM. The first stereo broadcast in Toronto happened shortly after, not sure of the year.
Two Toronto AM stations, (likely CHUM and CKEY), split their differences and collaborated on an experimental stereo broadcast. If you had two radios, you could hear the left channel from one radio and the right channel from the other.
Yes, this was vintage and very cool and hightech stuff in the early 60's.
At the time, I used my Sony transistor radio to listen to music, mono or stereo, it didn't matter. The music was awesome.
- mojo55
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Re: Early stereo experiment in Toronto
I distinctly remember this experiment. It was conducted by CBC Radio in Toronto. Listeners were told to use two
radios spaced about 6 feet apart and to tune one of the receivers to CBL 740 and the other receiver to CJBC 860.
The 30 minute program of music was simultaneously broadcast to both stations with one station receiving the higher
notes and the other receiving the lower notes. We were told to adjust the volume of each receiver until we could
detect channel separation and the stereo effect. It was very rudimentary and was never tried again.
- RadioActive
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Re: Early stereo experiment in Toronto
Wow, this is fascinating to me. I wish I'd known about it back then, although I was just a little kid. It certainly sounds like an interesting experiment and I definitely would have tried it with two radios. Talk about your early AM Stereo! It would have had to be done before 1964, when 860 went all French all the time.
Speaking of French, how many know that at one time there were plans for CFTO, now the Bell owned CTV powerhouse, to originally sign on as an all French station? According to the blurb below, that was briefly the plan when the Bassett family won the licence, left open when the CBC moved from Channel 9 to 6.
From 1960:
I'm not entirely sure what happened to that idea, but you can only imagine how the history of Toronto TV would have changed if that happened. (What would "The Trouble With Tracy" have been like en francais?) As it turns out, the station officially signed on Jan. 1, 1961 with - what else? - a telethon.
