The Southern Ontario/WNY Radio-TV Forum / HD Radio

**Posted by turkeytop** January 31, 2025 12:02 am

Bought a new car 3 1/2 months ago and learned just tonight it's equipped with HD radio and I din't even know. Tuning around the FM band I found that some stations are offering an extra one, two, or even three aternative streams of programming.

We're in Florida now. Do we have HD radio in Canada?

Last edited by turkeytop (January 31, 2025 12:52 am)

**Posted by Radiowiz** January 31, 2025 1:40 am

Yes.
This very board constantly talks about stations found, including, just recently, talk about 999 HD 3 having Christmas music (after Christmas) instead of Country music in the Toronto market. (it's been back to New Country music for a while now)

**Posted by turkeytop** January 31, 2025 2:13 am

Thanks. When we get back home I'll have to check if we have any in London.

**Posted by RadioActive** January 31, 2025 7:52 am

I'm not sure if this is accurate (and I don't like the way they've listed the HD stations by format and not call letters) but this list should give you some idea what's out there. I don't see London in any of them, but that doesn't mean they're not there.

HD Radio List

**Posted by RadioAaron** January 31, 2025 8:23 am

I believe the only HD station around London is 104.7 out of Woodstock.

**Posted by andysradio** January 31, 2025 9:31 am

Plug-Plug: All HD stations are listed on my web site:

**Posted by Scarboroughbluffsradiof99** January 31, 2025 9:52 am

They are also listed on worldradiomap.com with listen live links.
But I have my own Hd home radio so here's what's in Toronto and the GTA.
88.1 CIND HD1 only the main signal.
88.9 CIRV HD1 main signal with hindi and punjabi programs, hd2 portuguese, HD3 thaalam tamil radio, HD4 persion music and programming.
90.3 CJBC HD1 Ici musique, HD2 CJBC am simalcast.
92.5 CKIS HD1 kiss 92.5, hd2 680 news, hd3 sportsnet 590.
93.5 new country 93.5 only has hd 1.
95.3 energy cing HD1 Pop hd 2 AM 640.
96.3 The new classical 96.3 on hd1, hd2 zoomer radio.
97.3 Boom only has hd1.
Same goes for CHFI.
99.1 HD1 cbc radio 1, hd2 cbc music.
99.9 HD1 vergion radio, hd2 newstalk1010, hd3 tsn 1050, hd4 pure country.
100.7 HD1 chin, hd2 chin1540 mostly ittalian, chinhd3 chin fm 91.9, hd4 spanish music I think the name is ondasfm.
101.3 hd1 CMR, HD2 tamilfm, HD3 bollywood music, hd4 punjabi music.
104.5 chum only has hd1.
Same goes for elmnt fm.
Not much variety on hd radio in the GTA and even less in buffalo.
The only ones that have subchannels that you can get cleerly in the GTA are WBFO, WNED, WKSE and WDCX.

**Posted by turkeytop** January 31, 2025 10:03 am

andysradio wrote:
Plug-Plug: All HD stations are listed on my web site:

Thanks for that. I've bookmarked it.

**Posted by radiokid** January 31, 2025 10:34 am

Scarboroughbluffsradiof99 wrote:
They are also listed on worldradiomap.com with listen live links.
But I have my own Hd home radio so here's what's in Toronto and the GTA.
88.1 CIND HD1 only the main signal.
88.9 CIRV HD1 main signal with hindi and punjabi programs, hd2 portuguese, HD3 thaalam tamil radio, HD4 persion music and programming.
90.3 CJBC HD1 Ici musique, HD2 CJBC am simalcast.
92.5 CKIS HD1 kiss 92.5, hd2 680 news, hd3 sportsnet 590.
93.5 new country 93.5 only has hd 1.
95.3 energy cing HD1 Pop hd 2 AM 640.
96.3 The new classical 96.3 on hd1, hd2 zoomer radio.
97.3 Boom only has hd1.
Same goes for CHFI.
99.1 HD1 cbc radio 1, hd2 cbc music.
99.9 HD1 vergion radio, hd2 newstalk1010, hd3 tsn 1050, hd4 pure country.
100.7 HD1 chin, hd2 chin1540 mostly ittalian, chinhd3 chin fm 91.9, hd4 spanish music I think the name is ondasfm.
101.3 hd1 CMR, HD2 tamilfm, HD3 bollywood music, hd4 punjabi music.
104.5 chum only has hd1.
Same goes for elmnt fm.
Not much variety on hd radio in the GTA and even less in buffalo.
The only ones that have subchannels that you can get cleerly in the GTA are WBFO, WNED, WKSE and WDCX.

5 stations you missed that come in depending where you are.

95.9 KX96 Country HD1, Wave (smooth Jazz/soft AC) HD2, and CKDO Classic Hits HD3. This is setup on both their cochannel repeater in downtown Toronto and their main in Ajax/Oshawa

94.7 KX94-7 Country HD1, Wave (Smooth Jazz/Soft AC) HD2, and THE GRAND Classic Hits HD3 This is mostly heard west side of Toronto without issue.

103.5 Z1035 uses HD1

AM530 Multicultural is in HD (sounds FM Stereo)

92.1 Lite 92 - AC HD1 Hot Country HD 2. Strong signal from Brantford, most of the west GTA gets it without issue.

Kitchener has only one in HD 99.5 Bounce Radio, but this was done mostly to push back 99.5 from Buffalo. This signal is too small to hit any part of the GTA...

**Posted by Scarboroughbluffsradiof99** January 31, 2025 10:59 am

radiokid wrote:
Scarboroughbluffsradiof99 wrote:
They are also listed on worldradiomap.com with listen live links.
But I have my own Hd home radio so here's what's in Toronto and the GTA.
88.1 CIND HD1 only the main signal.
88.9 CIRV HD1 main signal with hindi and punjabi programs, hd2 portuguese, HD3 thaalam tamil radio, HD4 persion music and programming.
90.3 CJBC HD1 Ici musique, HD2 CJBC am simalcast.
92.5 CKIS HD1 kiss 92.5, hd2 680 news, hd3 sportsnet 590.
93.5 new country 93.5 only has hd 1.
95.3 energy cing HD1 Pop hd 2 AM 640.
96.3 The new classical 96.3 on hd1, hd2 zoomer radio.
97.3 Boom only has hd1.
Same goes for CHFI.
99.1 HD1 cbc radio 1, hd2 cbc music.
99.9 HD1 vergion radio, hd2 newstalk1010, hd3 tsn 1050, hd4 pure country.
100.7 HD1 chin, hd2 chin1540 mostly ittalian, chinhd3 chin fm 91.9, hd4 spanish music I think the name is ondasfm.
101.3 hd1 CMR, HD2 tamilfm, HD3 bollywood music, hd4 punjabi music.
104.5 chum only has hd1.
Same goes for elmnt fm.
Not much variety on hd radio in the GTA and even less in buffalo.
The only ones that have subchannels that you can get cleerly in the GTA are WBFO, WNED, WKSE and WDCX.
5 stations you missed that come in depending where you are.

95.9 KX96 Country HD1, Wave (smooth Jazz/soft AC) HD2, and CKDO Classic Hits HD3. This is setup on both their cochannel repeater in downtown Toronto and their main in Ajax/Oshawa

94.7 KX94-7 Country HD1, Wave (Smooth Jazz/Soft AC) HD2, and THE GRAND Classic Hits HD3 This is mostly heard west side of Toronto without issue.

103.5 Z1035 uses HD1

AM530 Multicultural is in HD (sounds FM Stereo)

92.1 Lite 92 - AC HD1 Hot Country HD 2. Strong signal from Brantford, most of the west GTA gets it without issue.

Kitchener has only one in HD 99.5 Bounce Radio, but this was done mostly to push back 99.5 from Buffalo. This signal is too small to hit any part of the GTA...

I can even get light 92 here in scarborough with out the hd subchannels.
I forgot the 2 kx's
In downtown or if you don't have a great antenna, you can only get locals.
Here are the 2 kx's, strangely, I can get 94.7 stronger than 95.9
94.7 HD1 country, hd2 wave98.3 smooth jazz mixxed with motown and soft AC, hd3 92.9 the grand.
On Kx 96, HD1 and 2 are the same, but on hd3 its CKDO.

**Posted by Fitz** January 31, 2025 2:44 pm

Scarboroughbluffsradiof99 wrote:
They are also listed on worldradiomap.com with listen live links.
But I have my own Hd home radio so here's what's in Toronto and the GTA.
88.1 CIND HD1 only the main signal.
88.9 CIRV HD1 main signal with hindi and punjabi programs, hd2 portuguese, HD3 thaalam tamil radio, HD4 persion music and programming.
90.3 CJBC HD1 Ici musique, HD2 CJBC am simalcast.
92.5 CKIS HD1 kiss 92.5, hd2 680 news, hd3 sportsnet 590.
93.5 new country 93.5 only has hd 1.
95.3 energy cing HD1 Pop hd 2 AM 640.
96.3 The new classical 96.3 on hd1, hd2 zoomer radio.
97.3 Boom only has hd1.
Same goes for CHFI.
99.1 HD1 cbc radio 1, hd2 cbc music.
99.9 HD1 vergion radio, hd2 newstalk1010, hd3 tsn 1050, hd4 pure country.
100.7 HD1 chin, hd2 chin1540 mostly ittalian, chinhd3 chin fm 91.9, hd4 spanish music I think the name is ondasfm.
101.3 hd1 CMR, HD2 tamilfm, HD3 bollywood music, hd4 punjabi music.
104.5 chum only has hd1.
Same goes for elmnt fm.
Not much variety on hd radio in the GTA and even less in buffalo.
The only ones that have subchannels that you can get cleerly in the GTA are WBFO, WNED, WKSE and WDCX.

You can get WBFO HD ?. The station got much weaker for me once the near by HD signals from the GTA were added. Sideband issues killed the station and now I can only get in under rare tropo conditions.

**Posted by turkeytop** January 31, 2025 3:46 pm

Do all new cars have HD radio? I wonder why they don't advertize it or promote it. I just stumbled across it by accident on my radio. There isn't even mention of it in the Mitsubishi owner's manual.

I wonder if it will be doomed to the same fate as was AM stereo.

**Posted by mjf** January 31, 2025 10:23 pm

My "old" 2016 VW Golf has HD radio but my wife's 2018 KIA Niro does not. I didn't know it was there until the little HD indicator lit up on a station one day.

**Posted by mjf** January 31, 2025 10:25 pm

Here's a very complete directory of HD stations, both AM and FM. I submitted updates of the GTA area back in December.

https://hddirectory.neocities.org/

**Posted by Dale Patterson** February 1, 2025 12:11 am

turkeytop wrote:
Do all new cars have HD radio? I wonder why they don't advertize it or promote it. I just stumbled across it by accident on my radio. There isn't even mention of it in the Mitsubishi owner's manual.

I wonder if it will be doomed to the same fate as was AM stereo.

I've wondered about that myself. I don't believe I've seen or heard a single ad for HD Radio. Why the lack of promotion?

**Posted by Radiowiz** February 1, 2025 1:53 am

Dale Patterson wrote:
turkeytop wrote:
Do all new cars have HD radio? I wonder why they don't advertize it or promote it. I just stumbled across it by accident on my radio. There isn't even mention of it in the Mitsubishi owner's manual.

I wonder if it will be doomed to the same fate as was AM stereo.
I've wondered about that myself. I don't believe I've seen or heard a single ad for HD Radio. Why the lack of promotion?

It's a word of mouth idea these days. The car dealership is supposed to mention HD radio as a handy addition to the vehicles that they sell.
Back in the mid 90's things were very different. There were at least some radio ads:

**Posted by RadioActive** February 1, 2025 9:51 pm

Streaming and apps have usurped HD in the minds of radio execs. That's one of the reasons it never gets mentioned anymore. Although 640 does have a fairly obscure section about how to listen to its HD feed on its site.

**Posted by turkeytop** February 1, 2025 10:37 pm

RadioActive wrote:
Streaming and apps have usurped HD in the minds of radio execs. That's one of the reasons it never gets mentioned anymore. Although 640 does have a fairly obscure section about how to listen to its HD feed on its site.

When I was shopping for a new car, one of the boxes the car needed to check for me was Satellite Radio.

Many brands no longer even offer SXM. They say satellite is obsolete and has been replaced by streaming.

**Posted by RadioActive** February 6, 2025 2:09 pm

If you're going to do HD Radio, I find this idea to be at least a bit intriguing.

Like many TV stations, the Fox affiliate in Atlanta has its own 24/7 news streaming service that covers local events.

City TV, Global and the CBC all have one here.

So WAGA-TV in the Peach State decided to use an HD signal to rebroadcast its all news stream on a local radio station so you can listen to it in the car. (You can hear what it sounds like here.)

We already have CP24 on CFRB (and occasionally on CKTB) on weekend mornings, so why not put the audio on one of Bell's HD channels so you can hear it wherever you go? I can see why the City feed might not be an option for Rogers, worried that it could compete with its own 680 Newsradio. But Global could surely piggyback theirs on one of the Corus FMs.

An interesting idea that's not just a copy of an existing AM station. I wonder if anyone here would consider trying it, especially since they're already doing it anyway and it wouldn't cost them anything. It would help promote both HD and the station's sometimes obscure 24/7 online streaming news channel. A win-win.

FOX 5 partners with Radio One Atlanta for Atlanta's first 24/7 audio simulcast channel

**Posted by Skywave** February 6, 2025 3:50 pm

Remember when you could pick up the audio of an analog TV Channel 6 station by tuning a car radio to 87.7? Most digital car radios included that frequency even though it was theoretically "out of band".

**Posted by RadioActive** February 6, 2025 4:06 pm

I used to love that anomaly. First it was CBLT and later Global's Ch. 6 transmitter out of Paris, Ont.

I also once had a great pocket size Sangean radio that got all the VHF channels and I remember walking my dog at the time listening to TV programming. A great time that digital wiped away.