RadioActive wrote:

I notice a lot of media outlets are playing up the 40th anniversary of the CN Tower, which opened to the public exactly four decades ago this weekend. I’m pretty sure this won’t be a popular sentiment with many here, but I hate that phallic Frankenstein and always have.
 
Here’s why and I admit it’s not that great a reason.
 
When I was a radio-crazed kid, one of my favourite things to do was DXing, listening for distant stations. Anyone who’s done this knows that AM is the prime source for such things, and it’s easy to accumulate a lot of out-of-town destinations in just a few minutes.
 
FM was a different animal and far more challenging. It didn’t happen often, but a few times a year – usually before a thunderstorm in the summer – the skip conditions in Toronto were amazing on that band. You could pull in stations from Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York state and as far away as Florida, Alabama and even Arkansas. I logged them all and in those pre-Internet days, it was amazing how far some of the signals went.
 
And then nearly every radio station in Toronto signed on from the antenna atop that fershlugginer tower. And suddenly, there was CHFI at fifteen spots on the dial, CHUM-FM taking up space at six others and various other local stations were putting out signals so strong, everything else was simply drowned out. Including many Buffalo radio stations, which I’d always enjoyed listening to clearly.
 
I’m aware there is a lot more noise on both bands these days and there are a lot more stations in the GTA, as well, taking up space where these far away intruders once briefly appeared.
 
But ever since the CN Tower became the prime spot for broadcasters in Toronto, all the good out-of-town reception is gone and it’s never come back. I always referred to the maddening monolith as the “Iron Curtain of T.O.,” and at one point, even entertained the conspiracy theory that the CRTC or Industry Canada had a hand in it to ensure we only heard Canadian radio stations and none of those big bad terrible American outlets that just happened to leak across the border.  
 
So celebrate the CN Tower’s 40th if you want.

Me, I just wish I could still change the station.

My recollection is that on the night before the CN Tower antenna was activated, all the Toronto FM stations who were going to be on the Tower went silent during the overnight period as the switchover was being enabled. So there was one last night of great FM DXing for those in southern Ontario. Does anyone remember this?
 

Not broadcast related (apologies) but an old friend of mine who at the time a young constable in the R.C.M.P.  was approached by C.N. brass (I'm sure he wasn't the only one) about forming/joining  a security detail for the newly minted CN tower. He declined that opportunity and I know he regretted that decision. 

I also did a lot of FM dxing in Oakville in the late 70's/early 80's when i had access to an outdoor FM antenna. My stereo had a signal strength meter. 92.5 Rochester was my go to frequency. If it was coming in, I was good for all the other Rochester stations plus Erie and Syracuse. When the E-skip hit ch 2-4, I would check out the "educational" portion of the FM band [88-92] to see where the skip was coming from. It made it a lot easier, to id the TV skip.      It is also, unfortunate that an increasing number of Buffalo FM's are no longer available or have impaired signals here. 92.9 and 106.5 are gone. 96.9 is OK Scarboro east or in Oakville, 104.1 gets grief from "The Dock". 96.1 gets splatter from 96.3 and 93.7 is overrun by Move93.5. The only frequencies I have found to be consistant are 94.5, 99.5 and 102.5.  And yes, I do remember a night when all the Toronto FM's were silent. I picked up a station in Cincinnatti at 94.1. I believe they were WSAI then and now are Country formatted Nash-FM.

I forgot about WEDG. Their signal is pretty consistant. I used to listen to them as WPHD. I loved their morning show with Taylor & Moore. El Grosso from the Land Of Fa and Dr. Mel Practice "Expert Gynacologist at your cervix"