That was a really fun night at Empire! It was an incredible amount of engineering talent all packed into one room for the evening. Alas, the Alford antenna came down during renovations at the building a few years ago. (But I managed to get one antenna bay, which now lives in my backyard.) 

I think the Alford at Empire got attention because it was first. By the time CN went up, big combiner installs had become relatively commonplace. And yes, the original combiner (with some later additions for 107.1, 102.1 and 97.3) is still in use up there, so far as I know. 

Notice the boasting of then CFTO owner John Bassett towards the end of the article, saying he planned to place ads in Buffalo alerting viewers to his newly extended signal to "give them a taste of their own medicine." And then there's the warning about "pre-release," which in those pre-DVR/VCR days, meant you could see a U.S. show on a Canadian TV station before it aired across the border. Remember, this was 1976, when everything was analog, cable penetration wasn't what it is today and there was no simsub. 

What a very different viewing world that was. 

From TV Guide, July 3, 1976:

Wow, nice tour of the old 630 AM facilities. I should have known you'd been out there before. Kind of sad to see the structures go, but that land is too valuable to leave empty. 

fybush wrote:

RadioActive wrote:

This one's for you Mr. Fybush. I'm not certain if anyone else will be interested in it, but the Washington Post has the story of the end of an era involving legendary D.C. radio station WMAL. 

"For Bethesda resident David Sproul, who was WMAL’s chief engineer when he retired in 2014 after 40 years at the station, losing the towers feels personal. 

“I think I’ve seen that site my whole adult life,” Sproul said. “When it’s gone, it’s going to be a real blow. It will definitely be the end of a long, long chapter that’s bigger than any one of us.”

"When Sproul started at the station as a relief engineer in 1973, the station’s studios were near the towers in a small brick building. While the Beltway now emanates a distant, dull roar, the area was once so quiet that announcers would broadcast with the windows open."

WMAL Radio Towers Coming Down After 77 Years 

Dave gave me a very nice tour out there a few years ago, just before they moved the transmitter and demolished the building. 

https://www.fybush.com/site-of-the-week-62416-a-last-look-at-wmal-washington/

Under other circumstances that wouldn't involve a two-week quarantine (and missing election night coverage at WXXI!), I'd have made the drive down to DC to watch them come down. 
 

And they're down! It took all of 30 secs. and you can watch the whole thing here.

WMAL’s radio towers in Bethesda demolished

torontostan wrote:

markow202 wrote:

Yes as far as known all the main Toronto ones still using Master FM.  Although I heard rumour on this board dont know which post, that CHUM and Virgin are not on the combiner anymore and on their new analog/HD antenna or I could be wrong....unless it does a split between analog on combiner and HD atop.

Originally CHUM & CKFM were doing a split I believe.. but that caused reception issues. Then they both went back to master for a period. Now it seems only CKFM is broadcasting in HD, so I bet they're the only CN FM that isn't on Master FM at all. 

I dont know what transmitters CHUM and Virgin are running but they have the best sound quality on FM ive heard in analog mode.  No multipath whatsover and CD like quality.  The rest of the CN stations arent as clear.