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June 4, 2021 9:14 pm  #1


90.5 CFCH North Bay on-air testing, oldies/classics

Heard it tonight...new licensee... Hard to imagine opening a local media business during COVID but there ya have it!

 

June 5, 2021 10:53 pm  #2


Re: 90.5 CFCH North Bay on-air testing, oldies/classics


RadioWiz & RadioQuiz are NOT the same person. 
RadioWiz & THE Wiz are NOT the same person.

 
 

June 7, 2021 7:17 pm  #3


Re: 90.5 CFCH North Bay on-air testing, oldies/classics

Saul wrote:

Heard it tonight...new licensee... Hard to imagine opening a local media business during COVID but there ya have it!

No kidding! Have to think this will be Country.

 

June 15, 2021 12:09 am  #4


Re: 90.5 CFCH North Bay on-air testing, oldies/classics

RadioAaron wrote:

No kidding! Have to think this will be Country.

"Tune in Tuesday as the station goes live at 7:30 am:"
  

 


RadioWiz & RadioQuiz are NOT the same person. 
RadioWiz & THE Wiz are NOT the same person.

 
 

June 15, 2021 9:52 am  #5


Re: 90.5 CFCH North Bay on-air testing, oldies/classics

 

June 15, 2021 10:17 am  #6


Re: 90.5 CFCH North Bay on-air testing, oldies/classics

So...does this mean https://www.country600.com/ is going Citynews 600 or what???


RadioWiz & RadioQuiz are NOT the same person. 
RadioWiz & THE Wiz are NOT the same person.

 
 

June 15, 2021 10:48 am  #7


Re: 90.5 CFCH North Bay on-air testing, oldies/classics

AM600 currently has 0.5 local announcers (1 who also does a shift on 101.9) and they most definitely won't hire anyone, so CityNews would be tricky. Anything they do will have to be fully automated.

I see two options:
1. They already carry the Leafs and Jays, so Sportsnet.
2. Leave it as Country to somewhat limit the growth of 90.5 to protect Rogers' two FMs' rankings.

 

June 15, 2021 1:17 pm  #8


Re: 90.5 CFCH North Bay on-air testing, oldies/classics

 

June 15, 2021 11:48 pm  #9


Re: 90.5 CFCH North Bay on-air testing, oldies/classics

 

June 15, 2021 11:59 pm  #10


Re: 90.5 CFCH North Bay on-air testing, oldies/classics

I've decided to move my post here as I didn't see this one! From June 15, 2021:

North Bay's CFCH-FM 90.5 has officially launched as Country 90.5 - "North Bay's Best Country" on June 15, 2021 by Vista Radio. This brings back the heritage CFCH call sign to North Bay and is also the first time North Bay had a country music radio station on FM since the 1990's. Interestingly, Rogers Media already owns a radio station AM 600 CKAT which has the similar branding "Country 600". https://www.country600.com/ I wonder what the future will be for AM 600 which is one of northern Ontario's last high-powered AM radio stations? 🤔 I wish the new Country 90.5 all the best of luck and success on their new radio station for many, many years to come! 🤠👍

CFCH-FM Country 90.5 official website:
https://www.mynorthbaynow.com/on-air/cfch/

News on Country 90.5's launch:
https://www.mynorthbaynow.com/82979/country-90-5-fm-cfch-north-bays-best-country/

https://www.nugget.ca/entertainment/the-return-of-cfch/
 

Last edited by Scorpio42 (June 16, 2021 12:01 am)

 

June 16, 2021 8:57 am  #11


Re: 90.5 CFCH North Bay on-air testing, oldies/classics

I'm not normally one to advocate the use of call-letters in branding, but this one's pretty clever.

Though CFCH itself was (I think) never Country, the new station owned by a BC company on a new frequency now has instant-heritage amongst the community and local clients -- specifically those who've been putting their money on AM600 for years. If they have even one veteran sales rep from CFCH/CKAT, they're golden.

 

June 16, 2021 9:40 am  #12


Re: 90.5 CFCH North Bay on-air testing, oldies/classics

RadioAaron wrote:

AM600 currently has 0.5 local announcers (1 who also does a shift on 101.9) and they most definitely won't hire anyone, so CityNews would be tricky. Anything they do will have to be fully automated.

I see two options:
1. They already carry the Leafs and Jays, so Sportsnet.
2. Leave it as Country to somewhat limit the growth of 90.5 to protect Rogers' two FMs' rankings.

 
I'm guessing listeners in that neck of the woods won't even care if it's a 590 repeater, just as long as they can catch the games in the best possible AM quality. 

 

Last edited by Radiowiz (June 16, 2021 9:42 am)


RadioWiz & RadioQuiz are NOT the same person. 
RadioWiz & THE Wiz are NOT the same person.

 
 

June 16, 2021 2:41 pm  #13


Re: 90.5 CFCH North Bay on-air testing, oldies/classics

Radiowiz wrote:

RadioAaron wrote:

AM600 currently has 0.5 local announcers (1 who also does a shift on 101.9) and they most definitely won't hire anyone, so CityNews would be tricky. Anything they do will have to be fully automated.

I see two options:
1. They already carry the Leafs and Jays, so Sportsnet.
2. Leave it as Country to somewhat limit the growth of 90.5 to protect Rogers' two FMs' rankings.

 
I'm guessing listeners in that neck of the woods won't even care if it's a 590 repeater, just as long as they can catch the games in the best possible AM quality. 

 

Not too sure if CJCL 590 would want a repeater in North Bay or even simulcast the CityNews stations out of Toronto or Ottawa. One of the options I thought of for CKAT is drop the country music format on 600 CKAT and switch it to an all-oldies format from the 1950's, 60's and 70's, a similar format to Owen Sound's 560 CFOS or the former "Jewel" format that would continue with the hockey and baseball games, etc. If Rogers decides to sell 600 CKAT to a different company say Stingray, move CKAT to FM and flip it to a CHR "Hot" station. Not too sure if all the above options would work out but who knows!

I don't know of any other radio market in Canada that has two different radio stations on AM and FM owned by different companies that has a similar branding like the "Country with frequency" that North Bay has now.
 

 

June 16, 2021 2:54 pm  #14


Re: 90.5 CFCH North Bay on-air testing, oldies/classics

I remember in 2000, Joel Virtanen, on behalf of a company to be incorporated and to be known as JR Radio applied for new low-power FM radio licenses in New Liskeard (103.5 MHz) and North Bay (98.3 MHz) for a new country music format. Both of these applications were denied by the CRTC.

Decision CRTC 2000-261
https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2000/DB2000-261.htm

This was the closest North Bay got of getting a new FM country music format in that market. The then-owned Telemedia filed an intervention opposing the proposed station at North Bay on the grounds that it would negatively affect the existing stations in that market, particularly AM 600 CKAT that already offers a country music format.

You can tell that CKAT has been airing news and sports programs over the years and many listeners wanted to have an FM country music station in North Bay which finally happened in 2021! 🤠👍

 

June 16, 2021 8:08 pm  #15


Re: 90.5 CFCH North Bay on-air testing, oldies/classics

Scorpio42 wrote:

Not too sure if CJCL 590 would want a repeater in North Bay or even simulcast the CityNews stations out of Toronto or Ottawa. 
 

It's not about whether or not either station 'wants' a repeater in North Bay, but whether that's a good-enough solution that keeps the signal on-air, and maybe adds some value to ad contracts.

Selling it would be a terrible idea, as, as you noted, the new owner could move it to FM. The last thing Rogers needs in North Bay is yet another new FM competitor.

 

June 16, 2021 8:17 pm  #16


Re: 90.5 CFCH North Bay on-air testing, oldies/classics

Reading their press release, the current owner of Visa Radio's grandfather started the original CFCH! What an amazing story, and no wonder this station got that branding! 

Last edited by RadioAaron (June 16, 2021 8:18 pm)

 

June 17, 2021 12:23 am  #17


Re: 90.5 CFCH North Bay on-air testing, oldies/classics

RadioAaron wrote:

Reading their press release, the current owner of Visa Radio's grandfather started the original CFCH! What an amazing story, and no wonder this station got that branding! 

I guess you could say CFCH is...Grandfathered!   
 


RadioWiz & RadioQuiz are NOT the same person. 
RadioWiz & THE Wiz are NOT the same person.

 
 

June 17, 2021 6:06 am  #18


Re: 90.5 CFCH North Bay on-air testing, oldies/classics

One of my best thrift shop finds was a set of tapes that included small, medium and major market Canadian radio content as well as some interesting music TV recordings .  I wrote about the tapes on the board about two years ago. Won the tapes in an auction for a very reasonable price.

The tapes include some CFCH and you can hear content from the station from 1970 and 1967 on the third and fourth clips at the link below. I have not uploaded all the content from these tapes yet and there is more of the station and others. I will probably upload anything else I find post 1966 as things were getting interesting by that time.

The 1970 portion is in excellent quality and the station was a full service rock station playing everything from Pepper Tree to Quicksilver Messenger Service. The 1967 content is not as good quality-wise but I enjoy the fuzz and love bead vibe of some of the music.

CFCH 1967 & 1970

Last edited by Fitz (June 17, 2021 6:17 am)


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