MacBlog - As heard on 92.3FM CJLX

A "9-11" rant
Tuesday, September 10, 2002 | Now don't think that I'm bitter or cold-hearted by writing this, but for the past year tomorrow, I've been absolutely flabbergasted by the fact that the television news media have profited from the deaths of thousands of New Yorkers. Oprah Winfrey sat on her high horse for the past year sucking in millions of dollars in ad revenue, listening to sob stories about WTC victims' friends & family members (and not likely giving a crap), if not kissing Dr. Phil's ass. That newfie Max Keeping on CJOH-TV went on for three minutes last night plugging every memorial service going on in Eastern Ontario tomorrow, then throwing to J.J. Clarke... "oh, the weather for 9-11 will be FABULOUS!". Shut up and just give me the forecast, rather than dwelling on you-know-what. Obviously, I'm really pissed off at CNN, who started the whole patriotism craze, and forced the rest of the international TV news media to make a mountain out of a mole hill, such as the B.S. in Afghanistan, or "Bush v. Hussein". I might watch for just a couple of seconds longer if you take the stars & stripes out of every title graphic, and get rid of that annoying ticker at the bottom of the screen. Oh yeah, and just a reminder: my television and radio will be turned off tomorrow. Again, don't see me as being a bitter person, or worse, a terrorist. I'm not going to destroy any buildings, nor am I going to send a disease through the mail. I'm just asking that the TV news media PLEASE lighten up and actually make people want to watch television without having to be ready to change channels when the above-mentioned B.S. comes on.

A Rainy Day In K-Town
Monday, September 9, 2002 | The photos from my August 19 tour of Kingston radio is up! Click this entry's title to check it out!

More and more DX
Monday, September 9, 2002 | The FM dial this past weekend was roaring with distant signals. From my third floor pad, the radio was pulling in a bunch of additions to my reception log, including Guelph's "Magic 106.1" (CIMJ), Welland's "Spirit 91.7" (CHOW), Toronto's CIUT (89.5), as well as a whole slew of smallish Christian stations from Western New York. Note to Joel Scott & Paul Herriot: I could hardly pick up Star 93.3 this weekend, because the people across the lake at Syracuse's 93Q (WNTQ-FM 93.1) like to blast Canadians with their 97 kW flamethrower. Just hope Star didn't get overpowered in Cobourg. Anyway, back to the DXing... the TV list also had some additions, the most notable being a TVO rebroadcaster 80 km north of Napanee (CICO-TV-92 Ch. 55 Cloyne), which I pulled in early this morning, greeted by classical music and a still of Polkaroo sleeping on the bottom of the TVO logo.

1050 CHUM Forever
Thursday, August 29, 2002 | I know this entry is a couple of days late, but what can a morning jock do? As most of you already know, "The Team" has very much folded as a network. To the best of my knowledge, here's what some of the stations have switched to... CHUM Toronto:oldies; CKLC Kingston:standards; CJCH Halifax:talk/oldies; CKKW Kitchener-Waterloo:oldies. For the most part, I think all the stations that split from the network have gone to either oldies or standards. Pre-Team, CFST Winnipeg was standards as "1290 Starlight", and before that, took on perennial ratings leader CJOB in the Winnipeg talk game. I first heard about the switchover about fifteen minutes after, when Shilo Bellis, one of Jim Rome's biggest Canadian fans, called me and said "the Team's dead". At first, I thought he meant that CKLC was off the air or something. Then, he explained that they were playing "old s--t". I tuned it in, and heard a liner for "the all-new 1380 CKLC". I thought only CKLC had switched over, like CKPT Peterborough did not too long ago. Shilo called me back about an hour later and said that former CHUM jock Steve Bolton e-mailed to all current Loyalist radio students a news release from CHUM Radio explaining the switch back to oldies on 1050 CHUM, and that 44 Team staffers were shown the door. For the next few hours, it was a little hard for me (and probably Shilo, being the sports fan that he is) to realize what had happened. From now on, Shilo will have to rely on a half-decent radio to pull in Buffalo's WGR 55 for his daily fix of Jim Rome.

K-Town Adventure #2
Wednesday, August 21, 2002 | It was back to Kingston for Macblog, almost a year after our mid-September trip to Wolfe Island. This time, we checked out most of the radio studios, and the two TV/FM sticks north of town. Photos and the full story will appear on my Geocities page in the next couple of days. Check out what's on there right now by clicking this entry's title.

Ottawa encore?
Thursday, August 15, 2002 | Just found out on Monday (my 19th b-day) that my old man's now in Ottawa, and he wants to see me. At the same time, while I go up and see him before classes start, I may have the chance to do something Paul & I couldn't in May, because of the hockey games: get tours of the CHUM and Rogers clusters, and maybe the CBC's Lanark Avenue digs, which we didn't find. As soon as I get my bus ticket for the trip, I'll get in touch with audience relations or whoever is in charge of studio tours. If they allow cameras, I'll have photos for you on my Geocities page.

Sandy Hoyt passes
Tuesday, August 6, 2002 | I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but veteran broadcaster Sandy Hoyt passed away yesterday at Prince Edward County Memorial Hospital in Picton. For any MacBlog regulars who aren't in the know, Hoyt was an on-air personality at Toronto's CHFI (98.1), and also co-hosted the annual Toronto Santa Claus Parade broadcasts on Global Television. To the Hoyt family, my condolences.

The sound of memories
Sunday, July 28, 2002 | This weekend, I trekked up to Peterborough to visit the family. However, it wouldn't be complete without some degree of radio geek activity. For example, Lindsay's Y92 (CKLY-FM 91.9) was coming in from as far away as Norwood - inside a bus, and on a cheap, digitally-tuned personal radio. Next, I flipped on my dad's new stereo and scanned through what it can pick up with little more than a short wire for FM (the rig has a 75 ohm coax input for cable), and an air-core loop for AM. FM reception was pretty typical, with the most distant station being Belleville's OJ 95.5 FM (CJOJ-FM), whose sale to John Sherratt was approved by the CRTC on Friday. AM results were very good, despite the thunderstorm static; the most distant stations received were Trenton's CJTN (1270) and Rochester flamethrower WHAM (1180). This morning, before the severe t-storms hit, I climbed up High Street to try out my new birthday gift (a camcorder), and to get a glimpse of Country 105's (CKQM-FM 105.1 Peterborough) antenna on Sherbrooke Street. | Paul & I may be heading down to Hamilton sometime in August, so stay tuned to my Geocities site (www.geocities.com/macvoices2001) for some shots of Steeltown's tower sites, and maybe some of Toronto's big AM sites over in Grimsby!

CHUM changes in Peterborough
Tuesday, July 23, 2002 | Once again, music has returned to Peterborough's CKPT (1420), as adult standards "1420 Memories". Promotions boss Ray Hebert is doing mornings, and has taken over as music director & assistant PD. CKPT/CKQM PD Rick Ringer has taken over as OM in both Peterborough and Lindsay. More details will appear here as it becomes available.

Star is officially on the air!
Thursday, July 18, 2002 | I'm not sure what time it happened this morning (I had intended to stay up and tape it), but Cobourg's Star 93.3 (CKSG-FM) is now on the air! The station is reportedly commercial-free all day, and all music played today has been chosen manually. Here in Belleville this morning, reception is pretty good... it isn't clear from my third floor pad, but it's definitely listenable. On a car radio, it'll probably come in loud & clear, unless WBBF (93.3 Fairport) decides to bleed in. The only hash I was getting on my radio was a little bit from CJLX (92.3), of all stations. FYI, I live within about a kilometre of 'LX's antenna.

How did I know...
Saturday, July 13, 2002 | ...that CICX-FM 105.9 Orillia would be renamed Lite FM? Heading out to do my show this afternoon, I was thinking about the potential branding changes hitting Rogers' newly-acquired ACs in Northern Ontario. I haven't heard anything about the other four EZ Rocks (CHUR-FM 100.5 North Bay, CJMX-FM 105.3 Sudbury, CHAS-FM 100.5 Sault Ste. Marie, CKGB-FM 99.3 Timmins) becoming Lite FM. Oh, and the rebranding in Orillia took place yesterday.

93.3 update
Friday, July 12, 2002 | I pulled in 93.3 last night, albeit with a great deal of interference from Rochester's 93BBF (WBBF-FM Fairport) and Syracuse's 93Q (WNTQ-FM 93.1). But I did receive & tape the initial testing, made up of a continuous loop of sweeping tones and periodical announcements stating the test period, and the usual required statements if anybody experiences technical problems, and where to call about it. There is also a "test" of stereo separation, with 1 kHz tones coming out of each channel.

93.3 is now on the air (unofficially)
Thursday, July 11, 2002 | That's right, no less a figure than Summer Events Reporter Paul Herriot has informed us that Cobourg's new "Star 93.3" is now on the air! A reply to his posting on Craig Smith's Southern Ontario-Western NY Radio-TV Forum says Star's signal is coming in loud and clear in Tweed, about 20-something kilometres northeast of Belleville. I haven't tried tuning in yet, but I will have a reception report within the next 24 hours or so.

The log
Wednesday, July 3, 2002 | Since I cut the cable at my pad, my FM reception log has grown by leaps and bounds! Three months ago, there weren't very many stations on the list beyond Belleville, Peterborough, Kingston, Rochester, and the odd Syracuse catch. Today, my most distant Canadian FM catch from Belleville is probably the grandfathered superpower FM96 (CFPL 95.9 London). Through all this hot & muggy weather we've had, FM stations have been coming in from all over -- Ottawa, Toronto, Buffalo, Syracuse, and Watertown! About a week ago, Syracuse's B104.7 (WBBS Fulton) completely overpowered Peterborough's Country 105 (CKQM 105.1)! On the TV side, I haven't pulled in anything spectacular, other than Watertown ABC affiliate WWTI (Ch. 50).

The BIG -and exhausting- trip
Saturday, June 22, 2002 | This past Tuesday, I baffled my colleagues by biking 70 kilometres, all the way to Cobourg. Why? To drop in on CHUC/Star 93.3 summer events reporter Paul Herriot! After recovering from my five hour journey, we cruised around to the transmitter sites in the area: CHUC's three towers, the Global/CFMX/Star stick, the CBC mega site, 980 Kruz's five towers, and the Team 1420's four. Unfortunately, on the way back the next day, I gave up only ten kilometres out of Cobourg, in Grafton (it felt like I was going to sprain my left knee), and ended up having to call back to Belleville for a ride home. Also, it's too bad I couldn't get any photos of the transmitter sites... neither of us had a camera. Oh well, maybe sometime later this summer.

CJLX power the tower update
Thursday, June 13, 2002 | The results are in! Engineering firm Promethean Electronics has released the coverage map for CJLX under the proposed specifications. According to the map, CJLX is applying for an average power of 2.6 kW (peak 4.1 kW), from the T.A.S. Communications tower, northwest of Belleville. A great deal of the signal will go to the northwest, almost reaching Peterborough, with the edge of the proposed contour reaching Wellington to the south, Napanee to the east, Roseneath to the west, and just past Madoc to the north. I'll have the map up here as soon as I can get a copy of it... the only available copy is posted under the CJLX sign outside the studios.

When did this happen?
Tuesday, June 11, 2002 | Turned on the TV this afternoon, and noticed during a news teaser that CKWS (Ch. 11 Kingston) is phasing in a new logo. It contains the name "C K W S / Television", with a stylized bluish human figure to the right of the call letters. Not sure yet if sister CHEX (Ch. 12 Peterborough) will adopt the same style logo as well. As of tonight they're still using the logo they've had since spring 1999.

A perfect show, and a not-so-perfect show
Sunday, June 9, 2002 | Finally, for the first time in a while, I've done a CJLX show without any mess-ups! I'm still a tad rusty with hitting BN right on time, but automated stations are worse - fading a good song halfway through. || Up north, nine people were laid off at Sudbury CHR Z103 (CHNO-FM 103.9), in the sales and news departments, after entering a sales agreement with the city's three-station Rogers cluster (CIGM 790, CJRQ-FM 92.7, CJMX-FM 105.3). The Northern Life newspaper says Newcap wants to improve the overall sound of Z103, not just in programming, but also at the transmission side of the station. With just 11 kW, their coverage is reportedly not very good, and not receivable in some downtown offices. Under Haliburton's previous ownership, Z103 had authorization to power up to 100 kW, but from the current site, the signal would interfere with NAV/COM signals. As part of this "revamping" of Z103, Newcap should seek out a site that will accommodate a fourth hundred-kilowatter, joining CBC Radio One (CBCS-FM 99.9), Q92 (CJRQ-FM 92.7) and EZ Rock (CJMX-FM 105.3).

WXXI/WUHF update #2
Wednesday, June 5, 2002 | As of 1:30 this afternoon, both stations are sporadically on and off the air. Through this interruption, both stations are running their regular program schedule (currently kids' stuff on WXXI, infomercials on WUHF).

WXXI/WUHF update
Wednesday, June 5, 2002 | As of about 12:45, WXXI & WUHF are back on the air, albeit with probably one-third of their regular signal strength. If you're in Belleville, and you use an antenna for your TV, neither station will show up until they come in clear on cable.

New antenna for WXXI
Wednesday, June 5, 2002 | There are probably several thousand tots in Rochester wondering this afternoon "what happened to the Teletubbies?" Their parents & caregivers will have to find a way to explain that WXXI (Ch. 21 Rochester) is having a new antenna installed today on Pinnacle Hill, and as a result, the Rochester public broadcaster, as well as Fox affiliate WUHF (Ch. 31), are off the air temporarily. The big three network affiliates (WROC 8, WHEC 10, WOKR 13), however, are unaffected as of 12:30 p.m. In February, a freak storm damaged WXXI's antenna, leaving them with a reduced coverage area. They'll be back to full power as soon as the installation is complete. Scott Fybush has a pre-installation photo of the new antenna on his Northeast Radio Watch page. Click this entry's title to check it out.

Net problems - little OT
Tuesday, June 4, 2002 | Today I had a bit of a problem with my Net connection... according to a tech at Cogeco, someone else was trying to use my IP address, so the tech cut it and gave me a new one. Back to radio - the past few days have been kind of boring in the world of radio in southern Ontario, especially since BBMania (I still haven't found numbers for Barrie, Peterborough & Kingston!!). Nothing from the CRTC except telecom orders, plus the fact that, unless I'm asked to do a fill-in shift on twelve hours notice, I'm not on the air until Saturday afternoon. Dropped by Shilo's place tonight and talked radio for nearly four hours... pulled out a vintage Lloyds radio (tunes anywhere from 530 kHz to 180 MHz!!) and a dust-collecting RadioShack 40-channel CB. Heard a couple of truckers on the CB, and tuned in a bunch of hams on the Lloyds, probably on the 2m band. (Is this legal?) Shilo's thinking of becoming an amateur radio op himself, but he's not completely sure.

CJOH update #2
Wednesday, May 29, 2002 | As of about 5:55 a.m., CJOH-6 is up & running again. It may have just been an Ottawa problem... engineers may have been tweaking the STL at the Merivale Road studios. As for WXXI, their video is still jumpy.

CJOH update #1
Wednesday, May 29, 2002 | Just after I put the previous entry into the system, a picture returned to channel 6: a test pattern with the text "CJOH TX TEST SET/OTTAWA". Still not sure if this is a screwup in Deseronto or Ottawa, since I don't know anybody in CJOH's other coverage areas (Ottawa, Cornwall & Pembroke).

Technical difficulties
Wednesday, May 29, 2002 | I don't know what's going on, but having been awakened very early this morning, I turned on the TV and noticed problems on several channels... but I doubt it's the cable company's fault. Since at least last night, CJOH's Belleville-Kingston transmitter (CJOH-6 Deseronto) has been having major troubles. As of 5:40 this morning, there is still a channel 6 signal coming out of the transmitter, but no video or audio being beamed from Ottawa. It's most likely that the STL failed or something. Oh well, CTV engineers will likely hit the Mount Carmel site in the next 24 to 48 hours, should the station get flooded with phone calls from Belleville. Also, for the past hour or so, Rochester's WXXI (Ch. 21) has had similar video problems, but the colours keep going in & out of sync, showing an almost reversed colour picture. Again, I doubt it's the cable company's fault, as they pull it in over the air. Finally, it looks like TVO and TFO have yanked their logos as substitutes for colour bars. Both channels had this message printed on the screen, white-on-blue: "TVO is off the air for the evening. Good night." Same thing in French on TFO. Stay tuned for updates on the technical difficulties.

Ottawa trip now online
Monday, May 27, 2002 | As of 7:00 this evening, the details & pics from my May 6 trip to Ottawa are on my Geocities page! Take a peek by clicking this entry's title!

Da Book
Friday, May 24, 2002 | The Mix still dominates Belleville radio. Just checked the numbers, and here's how the stations fared with the 12+ audience: Mix 97 (CIGL-FM 97.1) - 37.7; CJBQ (800) - 17.2; OJ 95.5 FM (CJOJ) - 7.6; Q100 (CHCQ-FM 100.1) - 4.5; CJTN (1270 Trenton) - 4.4. Being a campus-instructional station, CJLX wasn't listed.

K-Rockin' Belleville
Thursday, May 23, 2002 | After a lengthy online chat with Paul last night, it has been confirmed (unofficially) that Kingston's K-Rock 105.7 (CIKR-FM) and Country 96 (CFMK-FM 96.3) have increased and decreased power respectively. K-Rock is now blasting out up to 50 kW (24 kW avg.) from close to the top of the CKWS tower, while Country 96 is pumping out a maximum of 28 kW (14 kW avg.) from just below K-Rock's antenna. As a result, K-Rock can now be heard loud and clear in Belleville, adding to the list of rockers available in town: CJLX (92.3 Belleville), The Wolf (CKWF-FM 101.5 Peterborough), Toronto's Q107 (CILQ-FM 107.1, cable 100.3 Belleville) as well as Rochester's WCMF (96.5) and The Nerve (WNVE 95.1 Honeoye Falls).

Catch up
Thursday, May 23, 2002 | If you've been away from MacBlog for a while, catch up on what rants & raves you've missed. Click the "MacBlog Archives" link at the top of the page to view everything I've written to date.

fybush.com
Milkman UnLimited
MacBlog Archives