In November of 1996 and '97 I visited Toronto and brought my SONY SRF42 with me.

I got to hear 1010 CFRB and 1050 CHUM in AM Stereo.  The SRF42, unlike earlier SONY AM Stereo walkmens, only had Motorola C-QUAM compatibility.  Both stations sounded decent.  1050 CHUM striving, I guess, for authenticity played Steppenwolf's 45 rpm version of "Magic Carpet Ride" which was a mono recording.  I was used to hearing the stereo version locally in Calgary on Rawlco's 66-CFR and admit I was annoyed hearing a mono version on Russ McCloud's afternoon drive show.

My introduction to AM Stereo came from my parents' 1985 Chrysler New Yorker with a Motorola C-QUAM compatible car stereo.  It wasn't the best for distant stations but the sound was decent so long as the Motorola "platform effect" wasn't too pronounced.

The local Calgary cable TV and FM providers had most of the city's AM stations on the FM band and in stereo if the feed was available.

My maternal grandfather had a 1989 Chrysler Dynasty that also had a C-QUAM compatible car stereo. Its advantage included a rear headphone jack and volume knob near the rear window.

Jody Thornton's description, of the Chrysler radio sound, is very good.  The best AM Stereo radio I ever heard was through a Carver home stereo receiver.

My recollection of the Kahn system was the lack of stereo separation above 5 kHz.  I remember talking to a DJ at CKXL and him saying his experience was that you needed to have a song with good stereo separation, like a '60s Beatles song, to even really notice.  If you had two radios close by with one tuned slightly above the station's frequency, and the other slightly tuned below the station's frequency, you could "hear" Kahn AM Stereo.

CHED Edmonton along with CFR and CKXL Calgary all used the Kahn system until switching to the Motorola system.  CHED was experimenting with AM Stereo at the same time as CKLW Windsor.  Both had permission to undertake testing.  I think it was early as 1982.

Most of the stations in Alberta and BC started with the Motorola system.  CHED was first in western Canada. CHQR was the first in Calgary.  CHEC was first in Lethbridge.  CKOV Kelowna, BC may have even launched in AM Stereo before CKNW Vancouver.  CHED Edmonton wanted a better pattern and paid for 630 CKOV's AM Stereo upgrades and new transmitter facilities which helped CHED meet its objectives.

The last Calgary music station to use AM Stereo was 1060 CKMX during its "Classic Country" days.  That ended after a transmitter upgrade and the owners not wanting to update the AM Stereo gear.  1060 was the last of the Calgary private AM stations to go AM Stereo and it didn't happen until Standard bought the station in the early '90s from Maclean-Hunter.  880 CHQT Edmonton was that city's last when it dropped its music format for news in 2008.

If you search SoundCloud using #AM Stereo as the hash tag, you'll find some of the RadioWest airchecks that came from various AM Stereo radio recordings.

Here's more information about the SRF42, which I still have although the headphone jack is rather loose -

https://worldradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Short-Wave/Monitoring-Times-IDX/90s/Monitoring-Times-1996-01-OCR-Page-0106.pdf


 

Thank you, Fitz.  I also enjoy listening to your airchecks and clips on your web pages.

Yes, that is the same JB Shayne.

RadioWest's sister site profiled him a while back -

https://bcradiohistory.com/Biographies/JBShayne.htm

WION AM Stereo 1430 from Ionia Michigan transmits in AM stereo. You can listen to the received signal here: https://www.i1430.com/listen/

This is one of those successful AM stations that understand the importance of concentrating on their local area. These folks are also creative; the engineer figured a reduction of 600 watts (from 5000 to 4400 watts) allowed them to switch from a highly directional day pattern to omnidirectional and cover a lot more area. They are still lower power /  directional at night. 

Here's an interesting video about the station.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4qgdRQjaoQ
 

RadioActive wrote:

On the original subject, were there any local FM stations that tried quadrophonic stereo? I think Q107 experimented with it for a time, but it quickly crashed and burned. Again, another innovation I never got the chance to hear. 

I think that by the time Q 107 lunched Quad was pretty much dead for radio and even other-wise. The last time this topic came up on the board someone said that WBEN FM tried it but I have not been able to find anything about that on the net.
 

Big8Newsie wrote:

Here’s a link to a series of reports that aired on CKLW when it moved to AM stereo in 1982. They include legendary engineer Ed Buterbaugh who gave The Big 8 its remarkable sound.
https://m.soundcloud.com/terry-scott-980453183/cklw-goes-am-stereo-sept-1982

Just a note of weird coincidence - when I came across this latest post, it just happened to show that the number of page views for this thread was exactly 800. Somehow seems only appropriate! 

Here's a snip from a 1997 AM stereo air check I have from CHNS Halifax. The Motorola C-Quam system was the standard by this time. Have picked a section that included 3 songs I enjoy by Badfinger, The Box Tops and Zombies' Time of the Season where the stereo is really apparent..

CHNS 1997 AM Stereo Snip

Not to resurrect this again, but I just found this article from Sept. 1983, that insists CHUM was the first Toronto station to go AM stereo, before others in the market followed. There was some question about who went first and if this story is to be believed, it was the folks at 1050.