Only a fanatic radio person would sit here and listen to that for more than a few seconds, but I had to tune back in at 9 PM to hear if the change to the next program would fix the thing.

It didn't.

Onto at least hour #2!

(Oh, and in case you're interested, the same tone was on both their Internet feed and the one on air. I love consistency in a station, but this is ridiculous!)

It’s still going at 9:33 PM Eastern. I don’t know why but I find a slightly entertaining that this is been going on for so long.

CKGL-FM  in Kitchener had an automated system "Charlie" back in the mid 70's likely similar to Rock 102. Charlie had a separate, air conditioned room with glass walls, and looked like a very expensive set up of reel to reel machines, a computer and about  eight carousels holding commercials, jingles, songs, promos etc.

I was an operator of then CHYM AM, of a show called the Saturday Night Special, no announcer just music and a few syndicated shows. 

I wasn't really trained how to run, or more importantly, correct problems with Charlie. On Saturday night after 8pm, I was by myself, essentially running two stations, until 12 midnight. We did have a live all night show on AM, and the all night announcer was responsible to babysit Charlie until about 5:30am.

The stories I could tell you about the automation system would last an hour. Charlie playing one jingle after another, Charlie with dead air, Charlie's voicetrack announcing Dolly Parton  over the intro of an Johnny Cash song, Charlie just playing commercials or promos etc. etc.

It seemed like every time I left the AM studio to check on FM, Charlie's alarm was beeping and it was hard to tell sometimes exactly what didn't fire or what the problem was.  Charlie was a nightmare. The newsman who was on duty until 8pm knew about as much about the automation as I did, and he avoided Charlie like the plague. 

Daytime on CKGL was live morning and afternoon drive, but everyday Charlie took over mid day and  6pm to 6am.  Also shows that back in the mid 70's AM still ruled, made the money, and the FM was treated very much as the secondary outlet for the company. 

And as Jody mentioned above, I remember hearing some of the same problems on Rock 102, especially a lot of dead air and audio levels all over the map.

Last edited by paterson1 (October 27, 2019 11:12 pm)

They were back on just after midnight, but the tone lasted at least four hours, one of the longest radio outages I can ever remember.

Speaking of the dangers of automation, here's a story from the days when these things were more Rube Goldberg contraptions than computer run. And a guy who almost lost his job because of it. 

Adventures in 1970s AM: Curses! Locked Out!

Yes and worth noting that CKLW - which is way out of market - is the third highest rated station. Pretty amazing. 

mace wrote:

RadioActive wrote:

Speaking of the dangers of automation, here's a story from the days when these things were more Rube Goldberg contraptions than computer run. And a guy who almost lost his job because of it. 

Adventures in 1970s AM: Curses! Locked Out!

Looking at those ratings for WSPD, WOW!! 50+ share. Those are CFRB numbers from the 60's/70's. Station probably had a full service MOR format then as well.

I thought Hooper Radio Ratings were long gone in 1973.  The company was purchased by AC Nielson in the early 1950's.
 
Did CFRB really command an audience share of around 50% in the late 60's, early 70's?  Every ratings from BBM from that era that I have ever seen had 1050 CHUM within spitting distance to RB in terms of total cume. Naturally CFRB would have larger hours tuned and therefore higher share, but I never heard of anything close to 50%.

Does anyone know if CHUM actually skipped by CFRB in cume audience around 1961/62? I have heard rumours for years that they did beat RB in a few books in the early 60's but never anything beyond some talk.

 

Jack Dennett's 8am news I could believe a 50% share or close to it. He was legendary and nobody anywhere sounded like Jack. He would have been on HNIC during part of this era as well. Wally Crouter also would have been strong in the mornings.

I knew that later in the day and certainly evenings CHUM  would beat RB and you are right, every ratings I ever looked at from that period always had CFRB and CHUM as the only stations consistent with over and often well over 1 million listeners.  To their credit, RPM magazine used to print the BBM's for many major market stations in their weekly magazine up until around 1977.  Thanks for the information Mace.
 

As a kid growing up with the kitchen radio "locked" on 1010,  at the time I never fully appreciated the high level of newsroom professionalism and well researched commentary that was a daily staple.

Dennett, McVean, and so may more...

Last edited by Media Observer (November 4, 2019 3:07 pm)

Show business with Sinclair at 11:45 and "news and commentary" at 11:50 with Gordon Sinclair on CFRB. My dad always listened to this while we ate lunch. Circa 1968.

Broodcaster wrote:

What was the last radio station newscast that you always tried to tune into?  Who was the newscaster and what time of day was it?

Dave McKee's 6 pm newscast on NT1010.  I really like the half-hour (well, ok, 20 something minute) format.