The Southern Ontario/WNY Radio-TV Forum » Rogers' 1310 News Flips To FM In Ottawa. Is National Rebranding Next?

RadioActive · December 3, 2020 4:16 pm

It's big radio news in the nation's capital - and listeners there will be able to hear about it on FM. For years, Rogers' all news format could be found on 1310 News. But now it's taken over the dial position of its sister station, Country 101.1.

The most interesting part of this to me is that they've rebranded the station as "CityNews." Could Rogers' other all-news stations around the country, including 680 here in Toronto, be far behind?

But Country isn't leaving the city. The music will migrate over to 92.3, sending the "Jack" format into oblivion.

No word on what, if anything, will take the 1310 spot, although it appears they'll be simulcasting for the forseeable future.

1310 News, Country 101.1 taking up new frequencies on radio dial — Jack FM cancelled

Station Webpage: 1310 NEWS becomes CityNews, serving Ottawa and the Valley

ED1 · December 3, 2020 4:46 pm

This definitely must be in the pipeline for some of the other Rogers all-news stations. CityNews and All-News-Radio in Calgary and Vancouver have been sharing news websites for some time now (660citynews.com for Calgary, citynews1130.com for Vancouver).

Last edited by ED1 (December 3, 2020 4:49 pm)

kevjo · December 3, 2020 5:12 pm

=12px"The most interesting part of this to me is that they've rebranded the station as "CityNews." Could Rogers' other all-news stations around the country, including 680 here in Toronto, be far behind?"

=12pxt will depend on the market. It's a step up frequency-wise in Ottawa because 101.1 has a bigger coverage area than 1310.
=12pxIn Toronto it's tough to top 680's footprint. 92.5 would be a step down since it's spotty in some areas of the GTA and, of course, CHFI is too big a cash cow to mess with.

RadioActive · December 3, 2020 5:22 pm

Actually, I wasn't referring to any of the stations shifting to FM. I was just wondering if 680 News will soon be known as "CityNews," to cross promote the TV product and vice versa. I'm somewhat surprised they haven't done this before now.

RadioAaron · December 3, 2020 5:48 pm

RadioActive wrote:
But Country isn't leaving the city. The music will migrate over to 92.3, sending the "Jack" format into oblivion.

It's almost completely left the city. The 92.3 Smiths Falls signal is much smaller than the 101.1 Smiths Falls signal and isn't reliable beyond the far western suburbs. They've never tried to enter the Ottawa ratings. They did keep the announcers though, including the midday host who's syndicated on all Rogers country stations.

RadioAaron · December 3, 2020 5:49 pm

RadioActive wrote:
Actually, I wasn't referring to any of the stations shifting to FM. I was just wondering if 680 News will soon be known as "CityNews," to cross promote the TV product and vice versa. I'm somewhat surprised they haven't done this before now.

Sportsnet is the comparable, I guess. Toronto and Calgary kept The FAN as part of the longer name, but when they launched a new one in Vancouver, it was just Sportsnet.

Radiowiz · December 3, 2020 7:27 pm

lol @ Jack FM trying to encourage Smith Falls listeners to listen to a London Ontario station:
https://www.jack923.com/

"Thanks for listening to JACK 92.3. This JACK has hit the road but don’t worry, you can listen to our brother station JACK 102.3. Listen from their site at JACK1023.com, with the JACK 102.3 app, or on your smart speaker with the command ‘Play JACK One oh Two Three."

RadioAaron · December 3, 2020 8:16 pm

Really interested to find out how Rogers got around the CRTC on this one.

All-talk on FM requires a specialty license which CBKY doesn't (didn't?) have. Either they're going for 'beg for forgiveness' over 'ask for permission', or they worked it out behind the scenes.

Radiowiz · December 3, 2020 9:15 pm

RadioAaron wrote:
Really interested to find out how Rogers got around the CRTC on this one.

All-talk on FM requires a specialty license which CBKY doesn't (didn't?) have. Either they're going for 'beg for forgiveness' over 'ask for permission', or they worked it out behind the scenes.

At this point, the argument may be that it's not a "Specialty" station. It's a repeater...moot point if they're not even supposed to be a repeater.

darcyh · December 3, 2020 9:37 pm

That 1310 is a pretty big signal. I believe its 50 kilowatts. In Southern Ontario it overrides a Spanish language station from Detroit after sunset.

RadioAaron · December 3, 2020 9:39 pm

Radiowiz wrote:
RadioAaron wrote:
Really interested to find out how Rogers got around the CRTC on this one.

All-talk on FM requires a specialty license which CBKY doesn't (didn't?) have. Either they're going for 'beg for forgiveness' over 'ask for permission', or they worked it out behind the scenes.

At this point, the argument may be that it's not a "Specialty" station. It's a repeater...moot point if they're not even supposed to be a repeater.

And that's where it gets interesting. An FM repeater of an AM station also isn't allowed without permission -- in the same market -- and 1310 and 101.1 are technically in different markets. So if 101.1 isn't a repeater, it would still need a specialty license. So many grey areas with this one.

RadioAaron · December 3, 2020 9:40 pm

darcyh wrote:
That 1310 is a pretty big signal. I believe its 50 kilowatts. In Southern Ontario it overrides a Spanish language station from Detroit after sunset.

A big AM signal is still an AM signal.

Ale Ont · December 3, 2020 11:04 pm

I live in Ottawa and 1310's signal is terrible. It will be interesting to see the result when all of this shakes down.
Would Rogers close down 1310? And if they did, would it mean 101.1 (Smiths Falls) would house the news operation.
I will miss Jack.

Radiowiz · December 4, 2020 1:32 am

Ale Ont wrote:
I live in Ottawa and 1310's signal is terrible. It will be interesting to see the result when all of this shakes down.
Would Rogers close down 1310? And if they did, would it mean 101.1 (Smiths Falls) would house the news operation.
I will miss Jack.

As mentioned already, it's two different markets.
The other big question is, how are they getting away with 101.1 being News/talk for Ottawa?
If their licence allows it, It's still supposed to be an all news/talk source for Smith Falls, NOT Ottawa.

1310 is supposed to be licenced to serve Ottawa, not Smith Falls, isn't it?
If this is true, one of the two stations is operating illegally for not serving the market it's licenced to...

Scorpio42 · December 4, 2020 2:14 am

Ale Ont wrote:
I live in Ottawa and 1310's signal is terrible. It will be interesting to see the result when all of this shakes down.
Would Rogers close down 1310? And if they did, would it mean 101.1 (Smiths Falls) would house the news operation.
I will miss Jack.

I agree! 1310 AM signal in Ottawa is terrible and not the greatest here in Westport about an hour north of Kingston, Ontario especially at night. I don't know what the future plans are for 1310 but I wouldn't be surprised if they do shutdown AM 1310. What they should of done a long time ago was move CIWW AM 1310 down the AM dial to either AM 540 (formerly used by CJSB now on 106.9 as CKQB-FM) or AM 920 (formerly used by CBC Radio english network now on 91.5 as CBO-FM) or any other available AM frequencies in Ottawa and boost their power to a fulltime 50,000 watts.

I was listening to Country 92.3 and noticed their FM signal is weaker than 101.1 FM. They could of kept country on 101.1 and changed 92.3 to all-news and drop KISS 105.3 (CISS-FM) and put Jack FM on there. There's enough Hot AC/CHR's in the Ottawa and area!

Last edited by Scorpio42 (December 4, 2020 2:16 am)

Scorpio42 · December 4, 2020 2:30 am

I think this was the first time there has been an all-news radio station on FM in the Ottawa area since the old national news network CKO shutdown their stations in 1989. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/CKO

Now that CIWW AM 1310 is simulcasting on 101.1 FM, I wonder how long this will last!

Radiowiz · December 4, 2020 3:50 am

Scorpio42 wrote:
Now that CIWW AM 1310 is simulcasting on 101.1 FM, I wonder how long this will last!

Depends on what the CRTC has to say. Rogers already got in trouble once for not serving the Smith Falls area with 101.1 back when it was "XFM Ottawa".

RadioAaron · December 4, 2020 10:06 pm

Radiowiz wrote:
Scorpio42 wrote:
Now that CIWW AM 1310 is simulcasting on 101.1 FM, I wonder how long this will last!
Depends on what the CRTC has to say. Rogers already got in trouble once for not serving the Smith Falls area with 101.1 back when it was "XFM Ottawa".

The CRTC won't weigh in on the local content aspect at all. 101.1 hasn't had a single person in Smiths Falls for almost 20 years. They won't act unless a competitor complains. The format change doesn't change that.

RadioAaron · December 4, 2020 10:09 pm

Scorpio42 wrote:
I was listening to Country 92.3 and noticed their FM signal is weaker than 101.1 FM. They could of kept country on 101.1 and changed 92.3 to all-news and drop KISS 105.3 (CISS-FM) and put Jack FM on there. There's enough Hot AC/CHR's in the Ottawa and area!

Putting news on 92.3 wouldn't have accomplished the real goal here, which is to move the format to FM in the Ottawa market.

JACK on 105.3 wouldn't work at all with the non-hit regulations and Boom doing reasonably well with their non-hit version of the format.

Scorpio42 · December 5, 2020 2:30 am

RadioAaron wrote:
Putting news on 92.3 wouldn't have accomplished the real goal here, which is to move the format to FM in the Ottawa market.

JACK on 105.3 wouldn't work at all with the non-hit regulations and Boom doing reasonably well with their non-hit version of the format.

Agreed and 92.3 FM's signal isn't as strong as 101.1 FM's.

One more option I forgot to mention here is that they should of left both Jack 92.3 and Country 101.1 in Smiths Falls "as is" and drop Ottawa's CHR station KISS FM 105.3 to simulcast CIWW 1310 on 105.3 rather than Smiths Falls 101.1 which is kinda outside of the Ottawa market. 105.3 in Ottawa also puts out a decent signal as well. I remember 15 or so years ago before Country 101.1 came to Smiths Falls, Rogers was forced to move the 101.1 studios back to Smiths Falls as they were operating as an Ottawa station. Now in 2020, an Ottawa AM radio station has taken over 101.1 for an all-news format in Smiths Falls, to serve Ottawa and the Valley. I'm guessing maybe Jack FM's ratings or the station itself was going downhill so they had no choice but to shutdown their classic hits station and AM 1310 wanted to expand their coverage on a high powered FM signal possibly due to low ratings and signal issues especially at nighttime. I wonder if Toronto, Kitchener, Calgary, Vancouver, etc. will also simulcast their news stations on FM as "CityNews" like they're now doing in Ottawa? Time will tell so we'll have keep our eyes and ears open!

RadioAaron · December 5, 2020 10:05 pm

Scorpio42 wrote:
I'm guessing maybe Jack FM's ratings or the station itself was going downhill so they had no choice but to shutdown their classic hits station...

Jack had no ratings....there's no Smiths Falls book they don't have a signal worth entering into Ottawa's book. In the end, it works for whatever Rogers wants their 5th signal to be. In this case, if they have to give up country on 101.1 - it's the perfect format for Valley signal. It's enough to convince some listeners are clients that they didn't give up on the format; they just moved it.

Radiowiz · December 5, 2020 10:31 pm

RadioAaron wrote:
Scorpio42 wrote:
I'm guessing maybe Jack FM's ratings or the station itself was going downhill so they had no choice but to shutdown their classic hits station...
Jack had no ratings....there's no Smiths Falls book they don't have a signal worth entering into Ottawa's book. In the end, it works for whatever Rogers wants their 5th signal to be. In this case, if they have to give up country on 101.1 - it's the perfect format for Valley signal. It's enough to convince some listeners are clients that they didn't give up on the format; they just moved it.

If it's such a great idea putting 1310 on 101.1 FM why didn't they do that YEARS ago??

RadioAaron · December 5, 2020 10:44 pm

Radiowiz wrote:
If it's such a great idea putting 1310 on 101.1 FM why didn't they do that YEARS ago??

A few reasons:

-CKBY was initially holding its own against Bell's upstart CKKL, but recently it's been clear who's winning that one
-The current COVID/economic situation would have given Rogers cover to convince the CRTC in bending the rules in order to save 1310 and the format.
-Rogers has faithfully been trying to make 1310 work since its launch. For whatever reason, they believe in it. The above two points give them the perfect scenario to go all-in with it.

Last edited by RadioAaron (December 5, 2020 10:50 pm)

Scorpio42 · December 12, 2020 6:24 pm

Found this out on the Canadian Radio News - Facebook group - December 12, 2020.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=3682764501762872&id=191081700931187

Callsign swap for Rogers stations in Smiths Falls, Ontario:

CKBY-FM 101.1 moved to 92.3 (now country)
CJET-FM 92.3 moved to 101.1 (now news/talk)

The CIWW calls on AM 1310 which simulcasts on 101.1 FM (now CJET-FM) remains the same.

Radiowiz · December 12, 2020 6:53 pm

RadioActive wrote:
The most interesting part of this to me is that they've rebranded the station as "CityNews." Could Rogers' other all-news stations around the country, including 680 here in Toronto, be far behind?

https://www.citynews1130.com/

Radiowiz · December 14, 2020 1:51 pm

Radiowiz wrote:
RadioActive wrote:
The most interesting part of this to me is that they've rebranded the station as "CityNews." Could Rogers' other all-news stations around the country, including 680 here in Toronto, be far behind?
https://www.citynews1130.com/

I could have sworn there were more. Guess not.

RadioAaron · December 14, 2020 3:29 pm

Radiowiz wrote:
Radiowiz wrote:
RadioActive wrote:
The most interesting part of this to me is that they've rebranded the station as "CityNews." Could Rogers' other all-news stations around the country, including 680 here in Toronto, be far behind?
https://www.citynews1130.com/
I could have sworn there were more. Guess not.

660 Calgary.

Ale Ont · December 16, 2020 12:11 pm

Does anyone think that simulcasting 1310 News on 101.FM was Rogers way to combat the Bell AM stations in Ottawa that were converted to HD radio a few years ago?
I purchased an HD radio and CFRA and TSN 1200 come in very clear.
Now, 1310 News comes in the same way on 101.1 FM..

Radiowiz · December 16, 2020 3:12 pm

Ale Ont wrote:
Does anyone think that simulcasting 1310 News on 101.FM was Rogers way to combat the Bell AM stations in Ottawa that were converted to HD radio a few years ago?
I purchased an HD radio and CFRA and TSN 1200 come in very clear.
Now, 1310 News comes in the same way on 101.1 FM..

It's a way to do things cheaper. Wipe out all the staff @ Jack.
I still suggest that 101.1 might have to slip in a short blurb of Smith Falls news somewhere while 1310 fills the same time with anything going on in Ottawa...it would cost nothing because it would be a body borrowed from 1310 anyway.

A "community calendar" of some sort, one for Smith Falls, while one for Ottawa airs on 1310 might be one way to boost chances of satisfying the CRTC...(?)

RadioAaron · December 16, 2020 3:25 pm

Radiowiz wrote:
It's a way to do things cheaper. Wipe out all the staff @ Jack.

That was one person. This was in no way the cheaper option.

They did it because they needed to give their news format a big advantage over CFRA, and a real FM signal does that. HD works great, but doesn't have the reach or awareness to make enough of a difference. If it did, they would have simply fired it up on 105.3 or 106.1.