The Southern Ontario/WNY Radio-TV Forum » Ciao To CIAO?: Did GTA Radio Station Change Its Call Letters?

RadioActive · January 14, 2019 9:27 pm

According to Canadian Radio News, the Evanovs' ethnic radio station in Brampton at 530 on the AM dial has changed its call letters for no apparent reason.

What had been CIAO, which makes perfect sense given its double meaning, is now CHLO, the old calls of the infamous AM outlet that made a name for itself in St. Thomas. I haven't been able to confirm this report, but if it's true, the reason they made this change is completely baffling, since the old letters fit the format perfectly.

RadioActive · January 14, 2019 10:08 pm

Just checked their website and it appears to still be CIAO there.

Jody Thornton · January 14, 2019 10:41 pm

Boy am I stupid. Initially, I didn't catch RadioActive's play on words. When he wrote "Ciao to CIAO", I thought to myself, "seems like the same call letters to me"

Dan Sys · January 14, 2019 10:55 pm

The ISEDC database shows the call letters as CHLO, as does the FCC data on the REC site:
https://fccdata.org/?lang=en&facid=106051

The CIAO calls are now listed as being available for use on the ISEDC website:
https://sms-sgs.ic.gc.ca/sippGeneral/callSignList?execution=e1s1&lang=en_CA

Why the station is still using the CIAO calls is beyond me.

Radiowiz · January 15, 2019 1:35 am

The switch from CIAO to CHLO makes good sense to me!
When was the last time AM 530 was Italian driven?
I think the idea is to better encourage that they are not an Italian radio station
and that their Languages are Open to no particular background.
They are currently looking for more languages, if anyone would like to host a show:
https://www.am530.ca/
(open to ANY language that is not English)

Canadian (station) Host Language Open (to anything but English) sounds about right...

Paul Jeffries · January 15, 2019 12:09 pm

Jody Thornton wrote:
Boy am I stupid. Initially, I didn't catch RadioActive's play on words. When he wrote "Ciao to CIAO", I thought to myself, "seems like the same call letters to me"

Don't feel bad, Jody. For the longest time, I didn't even know that "ciao" was pronounced "chow".

RadioActive · January 15, 2019 12:56 pm

Just off the phone with an Evanov rep, and I asked her point blank for the current call letters of AM 530.

She told me without hesitation that's it's still CIAO and they have no intention of changing it anytime soon.

So I guess that puts that to bed.

RadioAaron · January 15, 2019 1:02 pm

Maybe. Occasionally someone high up on the corporate side will change these without informing all the staff right away. And the ISEDC database doesn't just changed on a whim.

markow202 · January 15, 2019 1:41 pm

Ive seen it on Canadian Radio News facebook page few days ago that they have changed it to CHLO. CIAO is also an italian saying for hello goodbye and there isnt any italian content on this station.

Also they have a new tower in Halton. How come the reception is so static?

Dan Sys · January 15, 2019 9:41 pm

Seems odd to me that the CIAO calls are currently on the ISEDC's "List of Available Call Signs for Broadcast Stations in Canada" and that CHLO is no longer listed. Based on that observation It appears as if the calls at 530 AM have been legally changed, but perhaps someone forgot to tell the staff. The other possibility is that maybe ISEDC has their wires crossed with this whole situation.

Saul · January 16, 2019 7:04 am

Aren't stations required to give call letters and/or some form of legal ID on the hourtop? And presumably correct ones?

RadioActive · January 16, 2019 9:31 pm

RadioActive wrote:
Just off the phone with an Evanov rep, and I asked her point blank for the current call letters of AM 530.

She told me without hesitation that's it's still CIAO and they have no intention of changing it anytime soon.

So I guess that puts that to bed.

Scott Fybush heard their ID at midnight the other night. They're apparently still identifying themselves as CIAO on air. The mystery deepens.

RadioActive · January 17, 2019 12:58 am

Don't know. He didn't say how he heard it. Could be over the web. I'm just passing along what he posted on Canadian Radio News.

It's also possible he did get it via DX. After all, there's nothing else on 530 AM anywhere, so it could have travelled that far if the night was good. There's nothing to block it.

RadioActive · January 17, 2019 1:03 am

And I just heard it myself. They twice referred to it as CIAO, first in a midnight top of the hour ID, then immediately afterwards in a disclaimer that said, "The following show does not reflect the opinions of CIAO AM 530."

That's probably the longest I've ever listened to the station!

RadioActive · January 17, 2019 10:25 am

grilled.cheese wrote:
I'm on the edge of my seat with excitement for any news breaking information.

We have our best people working on it 24/7, along with the latest from CKNT.

fybush · January 17, 2019 12:37 pm

Chuck99 wrote:
I am assuming he was at his home in Rochester when he heard the ID. That is quite a distance from Brampton. It is amazing how far 1000 watts carries at night when the station is located at the bottom of the AM dial.

Doesn't even have to be at night. When you're that low on the dial and you're the only full-power station on the channel anywhere in the hemisphere, your signal gets out. I can hear 530, whether it's CIAO or CHLO, all day long just fine here in Rochester. It's the third-best Toronto signal here after 740 and 860.

And I'm just as mystified as anyone else about the call change that isn't a call change.

Radiowiz · January 17, 2019 1:02 pm

Interesting how 1570 is still listed here: https://radio-locator.com/info/CHLO-AM

markow202 · January 17, 2019 1:34 pm

fybush wrote:
Chuck99 wrote:
I am assuming he was at his home in Rochester when he heard the ID. That is quite a distance from Brampton. It is amazing how far 1000 watts carries at night when the station is located at the bottom of the AM dial.
Doesn't even have to be at night. When you're that low on the dial and you're the only full-power station on the channel anywhere in the hemisphere, your signal gets out. I can hear 530, whether it's CIAO or CHLO, all day long just fine here in Rochester. It's the third-best Toronto signal here after 740 and 860.

And I'm just as mystified as anyone else about the call change that isn't a call change.

The signal is garbage here in Toronto area. Their tower I can see facing west from my balcony in Etobicoke. Big bright red lights in the distance

Jody Thornton · January 17, 2019 2:38 pm

Chuck99 wrote:
Moving up the dial is generally a losing proposition on the AM band.

Also sound quality declines the higher up in the AM band you go, because bass response decreases. One starts with somewhat bassy response in the lower frequencies. From 800 MHz to 1100 MHz, one gets a more uniform response, whereas beyond that, you can expect a thinner sounding signal. This is simply because the amplitude of bass frequencies (roughly 40 to 200 Hz) decreases as you progress up the AM band.

Obviously, you can get around this with processing, but still something to consider.

fybush · January 19, 2019 10:11 am

The mystery deepens!

Just checked again, because what else do you do in Rochester on a Saturday morning with half a meter of snow about to get dumped on you... and the ID at 9 AM was "This is AM 530, CHLO, serving Brampton, the GTA and the world."

RadioActive, I'd be curious what your Evanov rep tells you on Monday!

RadioActive · January 19, 2019 9:47 pm

fybush wrote:
The mystery deepens!

Just checked again, because what else do you do in Rochester on a Saturday morning with half a meter of snow about to get dumped on you... and the ID at 9 AM was "This is AM 530, CHLO, serving Brampton, the GTA and the world."

RadioActive, I'd be curious what your Evanov rep tells you on Monday!

I will let you know! Although I heard the CIAO ID as recently as last week. Very strange.

Dan Sys · January 20, 2019 2:13 am

Not the first time something like this has happened. Back in 2010 when CKOV 103.1 in Kelowna, B.C. changed calls to CKQQ it appeared on the Industry Canada (now ISEDC) database about a month before the station actually started using the new calls.

andysradio · January 20, 2019 1:48 pm

Why though, would they give up such great call letters?!?!

Radiowiz · January 20, 2019 2:16 pm

andysradio wrote:
Why though, would they give up such great call letters?!?!

Because they are NOT an Italian radio station. That would be my first guess.
Now the calls can be freed up for CHIN radio to use them somewhere...

RadioActive · January 20, 2019 6:03 pm

Well I just heard the new I.D. - and as Mr. Fybush said, it was, indeed, CHLO. Totally different than last week.

This won't be the biggest story of the year radio-wise, but it's definitely one of the most unusual. We'll see what the people at Evanov have to say about it - if anything - this coming week.

RadioActive · January 21, 2019 10:52 am

Radiowiz wrote:
andysradio wrote:
Why though, would they give up such great call letters?!?!
Because they are NOT an Italian radio station. That would be my first guess.

And as it turns out, Radiowiz was pretty close. According to an Evanov rep who kindly gave me a lot more time on the phone than I probably deserved, when the station first signed on, it was heavily Italian. But now there's more East Indian programming in its schedule and it's pretty much transitioned into that.

So why CHLO? According to the rep, it's close to a word pronounced "Cello" in several East Indian languages and it literally means "Hello." Which, ironically, is also what CIAO meant. So they made the change to reflect that.

As for why I was told last week that there were no plans to alter the previous calls, the woman informed me they were still finalizing everything and that it hadn't officially been made public yet. And she admitted that even she didn't know it was coming.

So there's the explanation behind what is likely to be the most unimportant but semi-intriguing local radio story you'll read in 2019.

Radiowiz · January 21, 2019 11:16 am

...but they were never Italian @ 530 on the dial, as far as I can recall.
The station used to be located at AM 790. (long after CHIC)
The last breath of life at that spot on the dial was heavily Chinese (or Asian) before moving to AM 530.
At least...that is what I seem to recall...

RadioActive · January 21, 2019 11:29 am

I can only tell you what the rep said. When they signed on at 530, she said the programming was heavily Italian.That has shifted over the years, and now the new language dominates. Not speaking either tongue and thus not being a listener, I can't tell you when the change happened, just that over time, she insists it did.

fybush · January 22, 2019 3:43 pm

Chuck99 wrote:
It is amazing how well the 530 signal carries. I can receive it quite easily in Niagara Falls on a clock radio using an external AM antenna. I really have to manipulate the same antenna to get a listenable daytime signal from Sauga 960, even though the transmitters are in the same geographical area and CKNT broadcasts at twice the daytime power of CHLO.

It's all about the interference. There's nothing else on 530 anywhere, except for some low-power Travelers Information Stations using inefficient antennas. So CIAO - I mean, CHLO - goes pretty much forever.

Sauga 960, meanwhile, has to overcome not only adjacent-channel interference from WDCZ on 970, it has to overcome on-channel interference from WDCZ's lower HD Radio carriers, which splat all over the 960 spot on the dial.

When I wanted to hear if CKNT was on the air testing last summer, I found the best spot on this side of the border was along the lakeshore at Lakeside Beach State Park in Orleans County - just far enough east that I was mostly outside WDCZ's narrow directional lobe pointed north from Hamburg, and just far enough west that I didn't have splatter from my local WROC 950 here in Rochester.

(And thanks, RadioActive, for the authoritative update from Evanov!)

tvguy · January 22, 2019 5:02 pm

The only significant station on 530 is CMBR in Cuba. So CHLO is probably the "clearest" of clear channel operations in N. America. Low powered tourist radio stations occupy the frequency in the USA. But there's another factor, the "ground wave" conductivity at the low end of the AM band is phenomenal. Add to that the location (Caledon highlands) of Evanov's (newish) tower, and the height of the AM tower, all contribute to the great signal propagation. So comparing watts to watts, isn't really the key. Some AM DXers might remember when CBC operated its French service in Windsor on 540 and Standard operated CJSB on 540 in Ottawa. Both stations had great night-time coverage and excellent daytime ground wave reception.