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June 23, 2019 8:30 am  #1


CKTB Goes Off Air “For Hours” At 8 AM Sunday

It’s happened before – a station being forced to sign off for transmitter work. But it’s usually done in the middle of the night when most listeners won’t even notice.
 
So I was surprised to hear just before 8 AM Sunday morning when CKTB’s weekend host Matt Holmes announced that if people wanted to keep listening to the station, they would have to go online “for the next few hours.” The reason? Work was needed on their transmitter and they needed to sign off to fix whatever was wrong.
 
Sure enough, around 8:15 AM or so, the carrier and the signal disappeared and 610 was off the air.
 
My question – why do it just as people are getting up in the morning and turning on their radio to hear the weather or the news? What could have gone so wrong that they would need to be off the air for several hours and why would they choose to do it when the sun is up? I can’t remember another instance when a station did something like this at that time of the day. 

[Update:] They're back on around 45 minutes after the outage and not the "several hours" that was announced. But I still don't unerstand why that couldn't have been done at 3 AM. 

Last edited by RadioActive (June 23, 2019 9:00 am)

 

June 24, 2019 8:36 am  #2


Re: CKTB Goes Off Air “For Hours” At 8 AM Sunday

pretty challenging to get tower inspections over night.

 

June 28, 2019 2:09 pm  #3


Re: CKTB Goes Off Air “For Hours” At 8 AM Sunday

citats wrote:

pretty challenging to get tower inspections over night.

Actually the wee hours is when most US stations do their transmitter work when shutting down is required. CN Tower has done the same ... overnight.

Local listeners won't like it much. But for DXers, it's a great opportunity to hear distant signals.

Anyhow, perhaps there was a compelling reason to do the work during the morning drive. Like a safety thing, or a flaw just found that could have broadened an otherwise containable problem. Otherwise, indeed, better to do it overnight when your audience is mostly Chuck the Security Guard. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBrBG9eeGFM
 

Last edited by Saul (June 28, 2019 2:10 pm)

 

June 28, 2019 3:18 pm  #4


Re: CKTB Goes Off Air “For Hours” At 8 AM Sunday

If I recall correctly many, many years ago CHML was paid to go off the air for a half hour so people could get Amos 'n' Andy from WBEN in Buffalo

 

June 28, 2019 4:10 pm  #5


Re: CKTB Goes Off Air “For Hours” At 8 AM Sunday

A Bell employee would have been necessary to supervise. No one wants to show up in the middle of the night these days; some would even consider it unfair or punishment.

Also, I read this on Twitter yesterday....

@iliveasnatalie
Just got a quote from an elevator contractor to re-paint & seal some elevator pits. Quotes: Regular time: $257/hr After 6:00pm: $517/hr