The Southern Ontario/WNY Radio-TV Forum » CKTB's Transmitter Woes Continue

RadioActive · February 8, 2026 10:42 am

I noticed late Saturday I could barely get CKTB's signal in Toronto. It was weak, fading and completely overpowered by WTVN in Columbus, Ohio.

It wasn't much better just before sunrise, when the station was still so weak, their live Sunday morning show was barely audible.

Once they went back to full power after the sun came up and the pattern changed, things were fine.

As has been noted here before, the St. Catharines station has been having frequent issues with an aging transmitter, for which parts seem to be in short supply. I'm hoping White Oaks shutting down 1250 and 1320 would allow them to afford an upgrade to 610's facilities. But this is an ongoing issue that comes and goes. But more often these days, it seems to be coming than going.

torontostan · February 8, 2026 11:52 am

Saturday into Sunday would be a good time for maintenance, so you may be reading into things

RadioActive · February 8, 2026 12:11 pm

True, but it was also the same on Thursday into Friday.

torontostan · February 8, 2026 12:24 pm

RadioActive wrote:
True, but it was also the same on Thursday into Friday.

Oh goodness..... I didn't realize that. Even if this was maintenance, that isn't a great sign as that array is very old. I bet they'll soon go down to 1 tower at a lower power using one of the former 10kW options they have now with the shuttering of CJYE and CJMR....

RadioActive · February 8, 2026 11:22 pm

CKTB is all but non-existent again Sunday night. Whatever is going on seems to be happening a lot.

Saul · February 8, 2026 11:45 pm

Mostly Columbus WTVN right-wing talk, Fox Sports Radio very weak on west-sw antenna is Kansas City MO (VA FSR station apparently is silent). Might have a third station in there. One of my antenna amps is down so I have to pick directions and ghat's dome outside so no switching around overnight in this cold. Philly Black Info Network is common to south, anyhow...
Postscript: Black Info Netwk jingle on wsw antenna, so Philly; and Coast to Coast is likely DuluthMN because Columbus has Bill Cunningham show...
None of these are new. No trace of black gospel (AL and NC stations) or other ones I haven't logged previously.

Last edited by Saul (February 9, 2026 12:19 am)

RadioActive · February 15, 2026 7:22 am

It's been a week since the original post, but nothing much has changed. When I turned on CKTB before sunrise to hear their "Secret Hour," the only live Sunday morning radio show in the GTA, the station was non-existent. You can tell it's there, but on such low power that unless you tune it in online, it's unlistenable.

Whatever is going on now seems almost chronic and I wonder if there's another reason they're transmitting at such low power that we can no longer hear them in the dark. The daytime signal seems to be OK, although I've noticed it, too, is not as strong as it once was.

Aytononline · February 15, 2026 9:02 am

I always found the sale of this AM station a little odd to a small company. I understand why people still buy FM stations, but an AM station with what I would guess is equipment near the end of its life strange.

I hope the long term goal is to move CKTB to FM, but the longer they wait the less options they will have.
The sale was a win for Bell, and maybe ( I am guessing ) that a condition of buying the FM stations was they also had to buy the AM station too.

I do hope they find the parts to keep this station going.

Evuguy · February 15, 2026 11:10 pm

I tuned by CKTB this morning around 7:30 and noticed a lot of skywave interference. Also noticed WBT was still loud and clear at that time and WBAL 1090 was very strong, indicating they had already switched to their daytime pattern.

radiokid · February 16, 2026 2:09 am

Just throwing this out there. As many are jumping to conclusions... Has anyone thought just maybe they could be working on getting the old 1250 and 1320 transmitters moved, re-tuned and installed at the 610 site? This is not something they can do overnight, in a day. There is also a good possibility they are running on a back up at lower wattage while they work on the site and/or all they can do based on the current state of things. How about give them time to sort this out. Toronto isn't their target area and as long as they cover St Catharines and Niagara they will keep the bills paid. As for an FM frequency, it's doubtful they will find one of usable coverage as that area is fairly maxed out. Anything left would be hyper local unless they plan to buy or flip one they already own, which is highly doubtful. Higher chance they will add CKTB to HD on one of their FM's. I'm just happy this happened under this owner vs Bell as they may have just pulled the plug and walked away.

Last edited by radiokid (February 16, 2026 2:15 am)

Radiowiz · February 16, 2026 6:30 am

radiokid wrote:
Just throwing this out there. As many are jumping to conclusions... Has anyone thought just maybe they could be working on getting the old 1250 and 1320 transmitters moved, re-tuned and installed at the 610 site? This is not something they can do overnight, in a day. There is also a good possibility they are running on a back up at lower wattage while they work on the site and/or all they can do based on the current state of things. How about give them time to sort this out. Toronto isn't their target area and as long as they cover St Catharines and Niagara they will keep the bills paid. As for an FM frequency, it's doubtful they will find one of usable coverage as that area is fairly maxed out. Anything left would be hyper local unless they plan to buy or flip one they already own, which is highly doubtful. Higher chance they will add CKTB to HD on one of their FM's. I'm just happy this happened under this owner vs Bell as they may have just pulled the plug and walked away.

It's a lot of missing information, like, the condition of the towers that are no longer in use for the two AMs...are they more useful than the current 610 tower? Or are they just too old and rusted out (or whatever)
OR can at least one of those towers act as a back up tower when something goes wrong with the current 610 tower?

Best question is, what is garbage and what can still be useful in any way possible?

torontostan · February 16, 2026 3:34 pm

Radiowiz wrote:
It's a lot of missing information, like, the condition of the towers that are no longer in use for the two AMs...are they more useful than the current 610 tower? Or are they just too old and rusted out (or whatever)
OR can at least one of those towers act as a back up tower when something goes wrong with the current 610 tower?

Best question is, what is garbage and what can still be useful in any way possible?

The towers mentioned are old, can't be moved, are the wrong height, and in the wrong place

Binson Echorec · February 16, 2026 3:45 pm

torontostan wrote:
The towers mentioned are old, can't be moved, are the wrong height, and in the wrong place

I have no doubt that your take on the towers is accurate.

Did Bell "get lucky" by selling at the right time?

A misplaced, bad height tower seems like it should've been a problem all along, unless urban sprawl has exacerbated things.

RadioActive · February 16, 2026 3:57 pm

I admit ignorance about all things tower-related, but I do remember the crazy situation some years ago when CKTB was virtually off the air for a full week, getting by only on stand-by power. I quoted a friend who got through to them in June 2021 after the station all but disappeared, who was told that a fierce storm damaged the transmitter and the part replacement they needed was so old, it was almost impossible to get.

It took forever to source one from the U.S. In the meantime, they were at an emergency low power and you could hardly hear them in Toronto.

When the missing link finally got there (have they never heard of Federal Express?) the station had been static-y and mostly absent for at least a week. And an announcer said after the signal was restored that he hoped that part never went again.

Perhaps it did. But whatever the reason, when you can't get parts for a transmitter, it's definitely time for a replacement.

RadioAaron · February 16, 2026 4:31 pm

Whiteoaks has said that they're re-purposing their two now-unused AM transmitters for CKTB.

torontostan · February 16, 2026 5:31 pm

RadioAaron wrote:
Whiteoaks has said that they're re-purposing their two now-unused AM transmitters for CKTB.

Transmitters sure, but the towers can't be... they're the more expensive piece of the puzzle

Evuguy · February 16, 2026 9:46 pm

I'm picturing something looking like this