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WDEA's transmitter was next, a two-tower job with guy wires all the
way out in the water.  Then it was on to Blue Hill and Blue
Hill-licensed WERU (89.9).  After seeing the transmitter on its
eponymous hill, we headed into East Orland and the nifty new studio
building.  Thanks to volunteer DJ Kim Mitchell for setting this one
up; we didn't meet him but we had a very friendly visit with the folks
on duty.   It's a wonderful facility, complete with three
well-equipped studios, a basement performance space, and a huge record
library -- and it's a great station to listen to as well.

We headed Down East next, stopping at the WMDI transmitter (the road
to which was blocked by a fallen tree) and the WLKE transmitter, then
to Machias.  We are now prepared to answer some of the confusion about
AM 1400 in Machias: it is NOT on the air, but the tower is still
standing out behind a garage.  Machias' WALZ-FM (95.3) *is* on the
air, but it's a total relay of WQDY from Calais, though we're told a
local studio is in the process of being built.

Continuing on the road east, we found ourselves in Eastport, home of
the most easterly radio station in the U.S., Shead High School's WSHD
(91.7), which was not, alas, on the air for our visit.  Calais' WQDY
(1230/92.7) certainly was on the air, and we had a very nice visit
with Tom McLaughlin, who wears many hats -- WQDY news director, oldies
show host, WSHD advisor, and alumnus of WTBS/WMBR in Cambridge (where
he went by the name "Firedog.")  Proof of the power of NERW -- he knew
who we were when we showed up unannounced.  And since we now know NERW
shows up on the WQDY bulletin board, we'll mention that it was
wonderful to see a station with so much local emphasis and so little
satellite programming.

And from there it was across the bridge into Canada, where our first
stop was at CBAO (990), the CBC's low-power relay transmitter in
St. Stephen.  We didn't know what to expect, so it was a pleasant
surprise to drive up to the site the GPS receiver pinpointed -- and
find a longwire strung between two telephone poles, at an NBTel
maintenance depot!

With darkness setting in, we pushed on to Saint John, stopping at the
transmitter sites of the late CHSJ (700) and the still-living CFBC
(930) before heading into town.  

The less said about Saturday night's lodgings the better; suffice it
to say the rule for future NERW trips is, "Name brand hotels, only."

At least there was a cable hookup; we were able to plug in and watch
some of the programming from CBC's CBAT (Channel 4), ATV/CTV's CKLT
(Channel 9), and Global's CIHF (Channel 12) before drifting off to
sleep -- but not before noticing that CHSJ's new FM outlet on 94.1 had
signed off for the evening.

*Sunday morning started with a round of airchecking, which was
dampened somewhat by the realization that half the stations in Saint
John were running religion on Sunday mornings.  

Leaving the hotel, we stopped for breakfast with NERW reader Alan Lamb
(thanks for the donuts!), and a trip around Saint John's studio
facilities.  It seems CFBC (930) and CJYC (98.9) have moved out of the
Fundy building on Chesley Drive; through the window there we could see
a room with studio furniture, an inflatable shark, but no radio
equipment.  We're told CFBC and CJYC have moved in on Union Street
with CIOK (100.5).  CFBC was having a bad day; much of their morning
was filled with the sound of the transmitter going on and off the air
and miscellaneous buzzing and strange noises.  The jock must have been
on a hard drive; there was no mention of the technical problems after
the station came back on the air mid-song.

We tried, and failed abysmally, to get to the Saint John TV/FM site on
Mount Champlain.  We did succeed in finding the listed location of
CJYC's transmitter above Rockwood Park, but there were no FM bays to
be seen.

A brief stop yielded the transmitter site of Saint John's CBAFT (CBC
French TV) relay, which was inexplicably located far northeast of the
city -- perhaps a spacing issue with co-channel WABI-TV (Channel 5)
down in Bangor?

So it was off to Sussex we went, where we spent more than an hour
driving in circles in search of CJCW (590), which proved to be nothing
more than a relay of oldies station CKCW (1220) from Moncton, which at
least had the good graces to do a double-legal ID for both stations.

Regaining our senses of direction, we plowed on to the Moncton area,
where we promptly got lost again on some mountainous dirt roads until
finally finding the transmitters of Moncton's TV and FM stations,
including the CBAT relay on Channel 7 (co-located with CIHF/Global on
27), the CHMO (103.1) tower, and the tall beast that carries CKCW-TV
(Channel 2, CTV/ATV) and CHQM (103.9).  

We made it down from the mountain just as the needle on the gas tank
hit the bottom of the "E," but we found an Irving station just in
time (it's not a difficult task in New Brunswick!) and gassed up for
the drive to Prince Edward Island.

As most of you (well, the roadgeeks among you, anyway) know, the ferry
to PEI has been replaced by a bridge, and what a bridge it is.  In
between glimpses of the scenery on the eight-mile crossing, we had
plenty of time to play with the radio.  AM reception in mid-span is
incredible; we think we heard the 870 from Newfoundland, we know we
heard WBZ, and CHNC (610) from New-Carlisle, Quebec was like a local.
WBZ disappeared once we were off the bridge and on land, but CHNC
might as well be Radio-Media's local affiliate for PEI, considering
the strength of the signal.

Our first stop in PEI was in Summerside, at CJRW (1240), a little
country outlet with a big signal that we heard across most of the
drive from Moncton.  We made the required tourism stop at the House of
Green Gables in Cavendish, where we noted that the national park
TISes, CBPP-1 (1280) and CBPP (1490) were not on the air.