Re: CBF, RIP

[fybush@world.std.com (Scott D Fybush)]

Joseph Ross, J.D. wondered...

>What's the latest on CBL?

The answer is, it was granted a reprieve until the end of 1999, 
because the replacement FM transmitters weren't all operative
by the scheduled end date of 20 Oct. 98.

To replace CBL's 50kw will take FMs on 99.1 in Toronto (on air
19 Apr. 98 as CBLA), 89.1 in Paris (on air as of last October 
and probably earlier), and 90.5 in Crystal Beach (across the
river from Buffalo, and on air this week -- I just heard it 
while driving to Pittsburgh yesterday).  In addition, CBCP
Peterborough will move from 93.5 to 98.7 to open the 93.5A 
channel for use at Toronto for an urban-formatted station, to
appease those who had wanted the 99.1B channel in Toronto to 
become a commercial urban station.  This move was only
recently approved by the CRTC and has not yet been consummated.
(When it does, it will remove the only other CBC signal that
reaches Rochester on a regular basis, since 98.7, like 99.1,
is first-adjacent to WBBF Rochester's 50kw on 98.9 and thus
unlistenable here.)

And at that, CBLA's directional 99.1 signal still doesn't cover
many of the areas of Greater Toronto outside downtown as well as
740 did (it's NOT transmitting from the CN tower but from the
lower First Canadian Place, because mounting a new FM antenna
on the CN was cost-prohibitive), and it doesn't do a thing for
US listeners.  And having found CBC to be the ONLY intelligent 
thing on the radio for much of my Friday night drive south
through Buffalo and Erie (and the signals of CBE and CBCL London
don't get there anywhere near as well as CBL), I can again 
testify that it will be sorely missed here.

The point of this exercise, in part, was to rectify a problem
with streetcar interference that does indeed make 740 unlistenable
in a few blocks of downtown Toronto.  It could have been solved
by doing the Peterborough 98.7-for-93.5 swap, putting 93.5 on the
air with a few hundred watts in Toronto as a CBL relay (and
giving the urban group the better 99.1 facility), and keeping
CBL on 740 for the rest of us.  It could even have been solved
by moving 740 from the distant Hornby site to diplex from the
Mississauga (1010, 1050) or Grimsby (680) sites.  

Now ask me what I think of the 88.5-for-940 exchange in Montreal :-)

- -s

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