I lived up in that area for a lot of years. I seldom listened to the station. But I remember driving up around Sudbury and receiving it loud and clear. I also heard it when driving in Eastern ON around Bowmanville.

The land on which their towers are located may be worth something someday. It's too rocky for agriculture. Someone told me once that some of their ground radials are on the surface because the ground is too rocky to dig.

I discovered the station two summers ago scanning somehow my golf kart radio one day on the AM band searching for 680 and came up some good oldies, this was across in the Midland area. 

I wouldn't get the signal anymore if they do this conversion.  

An actual stand-alone real 60s and 70s playing oldies station on FM? Never happened in Toronto. (Sorry, but as great as Boom is, it's just not the same.)

Nearly every other market, large or small, including Grimsby, has one. (Hello, The Grand! Wish your signal was better!)  Here, it's either been kiboshed back when the CRTC was handing out licences or never taken up by the Rogers, Bells and Corus' of the world as viable. (The AM740 signal at 96.7 doesn't count, since it's just an AM repeater, not a stand-alone, and a weak one at that.) Yet Owen Sound will possibly have one.

That says everything you need to know about the GTA radio market. 

It may be too late as the Baby Boomers age and advertisers make clear that they don't care about them. But I still believe a true oldies station and a true country station could work in Toronto proper, if it's done properly. But those last four words are the key. No one's ever been willing to spend the money or seriously try. 

(I think the closest we ever came was back in 1987, when CKO and then-mostly gold CKEY made a proposal to swap frequencies. The former would go to 590, while the latter would take its music format to 99.1. I often wonder what would have happened if the CRTC had okayed that swap and whether either would still be on the air today.)

CFOS as an AM station has remained relavent in Owen Sound and area.  They have a good on air staff, news and strong community involvement.  Bayshore tried for a 5,450 watt rebroadcaster at 96.1 about 15 years ago. They were planning to keep the AM on the air and use the FM to fill in areas in and around Owen Sound and Bruce County where their signal was poor.  CRTC didn't buy it back in 2008 and there were interventions against.
 
This time I agree with RA it will likely get approved since the CRTC has already said that little or no commercial impact will happen in the market.  However this time CFOS 560 will go dark.  The station will be 84 years old on March 1st. 

I don't think CFOS moving to FM will hurt them at all with listeners or the local business community.  It will be an interesting format for FM, True the new signal won't travel like AM, but if it reaches their core market 45-60 km outside of the city they will be happy I am sure.  

Watch for CKNX 920 in Wingham, which traces it's history back to 1926, do the same thing. 

Last edited by paterson1 (January 17, 2024 5:17 pm)

markow202 wrote:

    Yes but don't care so much for country haha. 

The point was that based on existing FM signals you should be able to also enjoy your favorite Oldies on FM haha

 

Last edited by R-S-T-L-N-E (January 17, 2024 7:30 pm)

paterson1 wrote:

 
This time I agree with RA it will likely get approved since the CRTC has already said that little or no commercial impact will happen in the market.  

This will be the second test of the new regulations allowing 3 FMs in a market. I recall the CRTC had some caveat like "under certain circumstances" under that announcement? 

Aside from CFAJ, which barely made it onto AM, do you see the four AMs wanting to move to FM? Would this only come into play iof the CRTC allows three-fers on FM?

Saul wrote:

Aside from CFAJ, which barely made it onto AM, do you see the four AMs wanting to move to FM? Would this only come into play iof the CRTC allows three-fers on FM?

The CRTC does allow "three-fers" on FM, but only in small markets - so yes, 600 in North Bay and 800 in Belleville would fit that qualification, as would CKNX. Guelph and CFAJ could in theory apply at any time to go FM, since it's a 1-AM/1-FM situation in Guelph and CFAJ is a standalone. 

RadioActive wrote:

But where would CFAJ go on FM, surrounded by signals from Toronto and Buffalo?

107.5 has been talked about and I think it's even allocated to the area by Industry Canada. I think one deciding factor will be the station clearly deciding it doesn't want to reach across the lake to Toronto. The old CHSC was all about serving the Toronto market. I can't imagine CFAJ has many listeners in the GTA aside from some of us on SOWNY.

Thank you, Scott F, for the info above...

RadioActive wrote:

But isn't WLKK at 107.7 in Buffalo/Wethersfield a bit too close for comfort?

It's probably workable. The WLKK signal isn't protected from interference on Canadian soil, so a hypothetical 107.5 in St. Catharines would have to use a directional antenna to keep its interfering signal off US soil.

It would be very much like the 92.1 that got squeezed into Buffalo - it's a very directional signal with a deep notch toward Brantford to protect CKPC-FM. As you drive up the 190 over Grand Island, you can clearly hear the Buffalo signal give way to CKPC and by the time you're in Niagara Falls NY it's all Brantford.

fybush wrote:

Saul wrote:

Aside from CFAJ, which barely made it onto AM, do you see the four AMs wanting to move to FM? Would this only come into play iof the CRTC allows three-fers on FM?

The CRTC does allow "three-fers" on FM, but only in small markets - so yes, 600 in North Bay and 800 in Belleville would fit that qualification, as would CKNX. Guelph and CFAJ could in theory apply at any time to go FM, since it's a 1-AM/1-FM situation in Guelph and CFAJ is a standalone. 

The CRTC last year opened up consideration for 3 FMs in all markets.

Last edited by RadioAaron (January 18, 2024 8:25 pm)

There is also a 107.5 FM station in Barrie. I am not aware of how far their signal reaches south , I do know Rock 95 can be heard into the north of the GTA . https://1075koolfm.com/

RadioActive wrote:

Bayshore Broadcasting has applied to the CRTC to transfer its long time 560 AM CFOS signal to FM, changing to 89.3 with a power of 1,500 watts. That's a far cry from how well the station currently propagates - you can get it most days fairly clearly in Toronto. That will end if the transfer is approved. 

So what happens to the oldies? Turns out the old 50s adage is true - rock and roll will never die.

"The applicant indicated that the station’s programming format would remain the same, consisting of a mix of news, talk, and music targeting the adult population over 50 years of age."

I have to wonder if that will continue once they've been on the new band for a while. The CRTC will consider the request at its hearing on March 25th, but it seems a fait accompli. The Commission notes the "application would have very little or no commercial impact" on the market, which to me says rubber stamp. 

CRTC Release

Remember this story from January? The CRTC came out with a new release on Monday, that relates to this application. It says this:

"The Commission has been informed that a low-power station that would be affected by the proposed new station was not served with the application by Bayshore Broadcasting Corporation, as per the Rules of Procedure.

To ensure that the low-power station, as well as any other applicable respondent, is served with the application and has time to review it and intervene, the Commission reopens the public record of the proceeding and extends the deadline to submit interventions, comments and answers... until 7 May 2024."

Anybody know what the "low power station" referred to is?

Purely by coincidence, the Commission release referred to was also the same one that revealed the sale of Indie88.1, the station that's promising a big announcement on Tuesday. 

Thanks for the info. I'm pretty sure this will still happen. The only question now is when.