RadioActive wrote:

 Let's just hope Whiteoaks doesn't decide to do the same thing with CKTB.

While FM might not have enough space, 610 has the beautiful advantage of declaring that it can go FM as a Niagara station, not a Hamilton station, and therefore not counting toward the number of FM's in Hamilton. 

As an FM talker though, the signal might not be very strong either. It's hard to say what will actually happen.

DOPEfm wrote:

I wonder if 'digital' means FM HD?

No mention:

https://cjmrradio.com/cjmr-goes-digital-your-community-crystal-clear/


Edit- This longer article says, yes - soon.

https://joyradio.ca/the-best-ways-to-listen-to-joy-wherever-you-are/
 

Last edited by RadioAaron (January 13, 2026 8:46 am)

It's sad to see more AM stations going away, but it is obviously the trend

1250 had a terrible signal before sunrise, even though it says on info sites that it was same power 24 hrs
Do they actually lower the power?

I never listened to 1320 but its signal was not great........
CKTB has a good signal, and enjoy their programs, especially Karl Dockstader.   His Sunday morning show is a fun time, and his Saturday program deals with very serious issues...He is great


When doe s the shut down happen...I did not see any dates on their website

RadioActive wrote:

So which signal will they piggyback an HD off of? There's the St. Catharines cluster, but they don't serve Oakville, the home market. And there's the Hamilton outlet at 102.9. The latter is my guess for the enhanced FM, since it's closest to their licenced area. 

Will they also add CKTB to an HD signal off HTZ FM or CHRE? That would be great. 

How’s the 102.9 signal in Niagara? Ideally you’d put all 3 on one FM to save the cost of converting more signals.

Skywave wrote:

As of now, both stations are off the air. Any contemplation of omnidirectional operation from another site will result effectively in a daytime only operation, as the nighttime protections would require reducing power to a paltry 35 or 40 watts, or good enough for about three city blocks.

Well, that was fast. How long had they been airing those warnings?

The sale was overtly stated in the Whiteoaks/Golden Horseshoe application to purchase the Bell stations in St. Catharines and Hamilton.  They also stated that the proceeds were more than enough to cover the 22.5 million cost of the acquisitions.  My guess is that for a 30 acre site the sale price was north of $30 million.  A title search would reveal that.

There has been a few published stories that the Town of Oakville wants the am site gone from where it is, as do parents of a near by school who have bought into quack science on RF signals.  The cost to move that site would outway the benefits and likely inability to not being able to cover the same area.   Moving to HD would likely be the best case, most cost effective approach.   They did mention of adding HD to their FM signals during the ownership flip, so I wouldn't rule out seeing 1029 Hamilton and one of the St Catharines FMs adding HD. CKTB I bet will be added, because technically they can run 1 analog along side 4 HD signals on a single frequency. Not sure they would be ready to pull the plug on CKTB, but speciality formats like multi cultural and religion tend to have a better acceptance.  Don't forget both multicultural and religion also tend to run on brokered time...  The return on investment could be there.

6:00 pm Tuesday Jan 13
Clear ID for WJAS 1320 Pittsburgh and into Fox News
1250 has conservative talk ?WPGP “The Answer”

I wonder how the whole thing went down. Did they broker their on-air programming or were there paid on-air personnel, or both? Why did they pull the plug seemingly so suddenly and abruptly? Why did they not leave the looped message running for a longer period of time than possibly as little as a matter of hours? .....

RadioActive wrote:

An article in Broadcast Dialogue seems to indicate that CKTB is a priority for Whiteoaks, and it's not going anywhere on AM, possibly being joined by an HD FM signal soon. 

Whiteoaks stations in Oakville, Mississauga leave AM for digital-first listener experience

doubt that..... one bad ice storm and that station is dead, hate to say it but it's true

i had been hearing rumors that the brokered producers have been leaving CJMR in droves, i checked the location of their TX site, looks like in recent years development has encroached right on top of them, i think its safe to say, they would not pass safety code 6. 

Scarboroughbluffsradiof99 wrote:

Cheese2RF wrote:

i had been hearing rumors that the brokered producers have been leaving CJMR in droves, i checked the location of their TX site, looks like in recent years development has encroached right on top of them, i think its safe to say, they would not pass safety code 6. 

This is only a guess.
Ithink the newer immigrants do not want talkshows as much as the previus ones did.
Look at the format of RED fm.
Its mostly music.
Big am is also entirely music with not a single talkshow.

The younger ones will integrate faster. I'm anticipating somehow that ethnically diverse beats will blend with CHR more and more. Or maybe the kind of content that's on 820 will eventually get more sophisticated in presentation and wind up on FM. But, really, FM is only transitory, though it will linger well beyond AM.

Last edited by Saul (January 14, 2026 2:38 pm)

Anybody know if it is feasible/cost-effective to re-use some of the 1250 and 1320 towers for CKTB?

Secondly, does anyone know of a station on the air today that uses a transmitter that is 50-70 years old?

Credit where due - although I was right there in the Jeep with him, these pictures were taken by my engineering friend Mike Fitzpatrick.