CFOS-FM countdown clock...https://www.560cfos.ca/

turkeytop wrote:

markow202 wrote:

Good to hear - I wonder how it will be in Barrie?  Their AM signal reaches decently but I think the escarpment of Blue Mountain will block the low power FM.   Why so low power?  A station like that with its coverage and history should have atleast been 20,000 watts lets say on FM. 

For years we lived on the Bruce Peninsula, north of Wiarton. CHAY from Barrie used to pound in up there. After their tower got struck by an airplane, they were back on the air a few days later at greatly reduced power. But the signal was still strong up on the peninsula.
 

Yes they still to this day have a strong signal.  I assume CKVR came in aswell in the analog days there?  CKCO was the other one up there on Channel 2 - now gone. 

CFOS on FM will be a different story than Chay which has much more power. 

Last edited by markow202 (July 30, 2025 12:37 pm)

I live near Grand Bend and this afternoon tuned to 89.1 on the car radio. I received a nice clear signal from KLOVE 89.1 WLKB Bay City Michigan. Radio locator shows their power at 50 kilowatts at 371 feet. I have never bothered tuning to this frequency so I can't comment on how reliable the signal is. They have a pretty good shot across lake Huron. I can reliably pick up WHNN 96.1 from Bay City but they run 100 kilowatts at 1000 feet.
 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9uMF-wfyMI

Launch live..

paterson1 wrote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9uMF-wfyMI

Launch live..

I happened to log on just around 8:15 am when the switch from FM to AM took place. The first song on the FM dial was “New Sensation” by INXS.

RadioActive wrote:

First song played on official FM launch: New Sensation by INXS. (Not exactly the kind of "oldie" they usually play, which further increases questions about what the ultimate format will be.)

Actually 560 would have played INXS New Sensation.  They were playing mostly 70's and 80's music with 60's tunes and a bit of 50's in the old format.  They claim the format won't be changing that much.  What will be interesting will be if they keep the specialized programming like Remember When (mostly MOR standards, Big Band) on weekday evenings, and the Doo-Wop Stop on Saturday afternoons.  I don't see these on the schedule, so they may be gone. 

Kind of funny that the last commercial on CFOS AM and the first on CFOS FM was for the Bell store in Hanover!  In addition to the sales pitch, the spot also congratulated on the new CFOS FM.  Since Bell Media sold Bounce in Owen Sound to Zoomer, they are no longer competition for CFOS. 

gch wrote:

I will try to listen on 560 on the old signal as long as I can


If what is being said is correct,  I wonder if the weekday evening show, Remember When, will still be on the new FM station.
I listen to it on line several nights a week
I know 630 CFCO is going to be FM only, but what about Blackburn's   CHOK Sarnia which has been on 1070 AM since 1946.........they presently have an FM repeater at 103.9






 

From what the program schedule on the website says, I’d say remember when isn’t continuing. When the Bayshore Brass was talking about what shows would continue it wasn’t mentioned, plus Zoomer runs some similar programming in the evenings. It will upset some older listeners, but I’m sure it will be more than offset by the gain in new audience.

mace wrote:

Fortunately, I saw this post at 7:55, so I was able to watch the entire ceremony. I am curious what CFOS's format was in the 50's, 60's and 70's. Perhaps a CFRBish style of programming?

I listened to them from 1964 - that's the year my parents bought a cottage at Sauble Beach. At that time CFOS was the only local station you could pick up on the cheap Admiral tube radio we had; yes there was CKNX 920 but it was much weaker.

Dad had the radio on most of the time and I remember CFOS carried the CBC time signal at 1:00 pm. It had funeral announcements every day before the noon news. They went off the air at 11:00 pm or midnight. Music was middle of the road very little 'rock & roll'. I seem to recall on Saturday nights for a couple of hours they did have a rock show - first time I ever head "Mrs. Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter".

Sundays - gosh Sundays, from a 7 year old kid's prospective gospel music and church services. So they were pretty conservative (not necessarily politically).

They were sure well listened to - I hear CFOS everywhere: in stores and at other folks houses. I do not remember any meaningful counterpetition until CKNX launched its FM station in the mid 70's.
 

The trick is to be very Owen Sound, with music the broad community will listen to.

Saul wrote:

The trick is to be very Owen Sound, with music the broad community will listen to.

Yes.

While there's tons of space above the agencies' ridiculous age 54 cutoff, playing 80 year old music is going to hurt your local sales. You need your potential customers to also be listeners, and their perception of who the audience is is crucial. 
 

Remember When had been on the air for well over 40 years, and the syndicated Doo-Wop Stop on Saturdays 4-7 for a long time as well.  Both of these shows had sponsors at one point but they are long gone, so if they were going to be off the schedule now would be the time. 

Do any of the BayShore FMs have HD? If so, I think adding CFOS as a sub-channel would improve its reach. Still, you would be surprised at how high-speed internet is available up there. There aren't many cellular dead zones, either. So, I don't think they will lose much of their audience. The only audience that might be lost is the one they have been trying to shed for the last 10 years. 

 Even most of the seniors' homes. Now I have Wi-Fi, so even promoting the fact that you can get the station on Amazon, echoes could be a good promotion

Last edited by arc23 (August 4, 2025 4:54 pm)

Listening on line to Paul Hill's morning show this morning on CFOS.  Paul reads out birthday/anniversary announcements every morning and also takes some live calls.  Interesting that about three callers in addition to calling about a family or friends birthday also congratulated Paul and his wife on their anniversary today, and a few others commented positive about the station and the move to FM.  Nothing like small town radio to be close to the audience.  Holiday Monday afternoon the station was live and counted down the top 89 songs.  

BTW, with Owen Sound on, I'd say my most constant station in north Kawarthas is undoubtedly  Peterborough (Barrie has the truly dominant signal and is very tough to beat - I have to intentionally rotate my antenna just-so to have even a remote chance of letting anything in). When I turn my antenna away from Peterborough I get a mix of Owen Sound, Chatham, and Silver Creek NY - all roughly equally. And anything else that pops in.