No Subject

The rest of the market sounded mostly the same way we'd left it at the
end of our 1998 visit: Shaw's oldies CIWW (1310) and country CKBY
(105.3) up in their 19th floor aerie downtown on York Street; new
sister stations CHEZ (106.1, rock) and CIOX (see above) in their home
in Byward Market; the CBC holding forth in English (CBO 91.5 and CBOQ
103.3) and French (CBOF 90.7 and CBOX 102.5) from the Chateau Laurier
hotel at the heart of the city; rocker CKQB (106.9 the Bear) out in
Nepean, next door to CJOH-TV on Merivale Road; Christian contemporary
CHRI on 99.1; and university stations CKCU (93.1, Carleton U.) and
CHUO (89.1, U. of Ottawa).  On the Francophone side, it's all
Radio-Media's world, with news-talk CJRC (1150), AC "Rock-Detente"
CIMF (94.9), and rhythmic "Energie" CKTF (104.1).

Since that 1998 trip didn't give us much time to see the Ottawa tower
sites, we left time this year to finish the job, starting north of
Hull up in Gatineau Regional Park.  From the base of the Camp-Fortune
ski area, the intrepid tower-hunter is offered a splendid view of the
mammoth tower that carries just about all of the region's FM and TV
activity.  On FM, that means CHUO, CBOF, CBO, CKCU, CKKL, CIMF, CJMJ,
CBOX, CBOQ, CKTF, CKBY, CHEZ, and CKQB.  On TV, the mighty stick
carries the CBC's CBOT (4), Global's CIII (6), Radio-Canada's CBOFT
(9), TVOntario's CICO (24), Tele-Quebec's CIVO (30), TVA affiliate
CHOT (40), and Quatre Saisons affiliate CFGS (49).  

Staying on the Quebec side for another hour or so, we tried to find
the site of the long-dead CKCH (970), but new townhomes now fill the
site in Aylmer, west of Hull.

Some live AMs awaited us back on the Ontario side (after a drive past
the industrial park on Walkley Road where CFRA and CKKL still have
their studios while CHUM finishes the Byward Market facility), with
CIWW's five towers and CFGO's six towers both out in the farm country
southwest of Ottawa.  (CFGO apparently moved at some point, since a
housing development occupied the more northerly of the two sites
listed for the station in FCC records, which was the site shown on a
fellow tower-hunter's early 1980s map.  We found the same six-tower
setup at the more southerly of the two sites, near the village of
Richmond.)

And this being Canada, there were dead AMs to chase, too: we saw the
transmitter building that once belonged to CJSB (540), as well as the
one once used by CBO and CBOF in their 920 and 1250 days, about a
kilometer apart and just south of CFGO.

One last Ottawa site to finish things off: the Rogers Cable tower far
to the southeast of town carries CHRI (99.1), CHCH-TV-1 ("OnTV"
Channel 11), CFMT-TV-3 (Channel 60), CITY-TV-3 (Channel 65), and
CHRO-TV-1 (Channel 43).  The first three TVs are all relays of
Toronto/Hamilton signals; the CHRO relay brings CHUM's
Pembroke-licensed operation to the viewers it's now aimed at in the
Ottawa area, 140 or so km away.  (Ain't Canadian TV fun?)

As the rain began falling, we made one last Sunday-evening stop, at
the water tower just off Highway 401 outside Iroquois, Ontario, from
which little CISD (107.7) provides its community-oriented signal.
Automated classic rock was the order of the night, with frequent
announcements mentioning that CISD would go silent the last two weeks
of August for technical repairs and maintenance.

Monday (8/7) turned out to be a holiday, so the studios of Cornwall's
two commercial radio stations were closed when we pulled up outside.
CFLG (Variety 104.5) offers AC music, while sister CJSS and its
country format uprooted last year from 1220 AM to "Blaze" 101.9 FM.
We found what appeared to be the CFLG/CJSS transmitter site, adjacent
to 401 at McConnell Street, and just a bit to the north, on Headline
Road, we saw the two towers of AM 1220, soon to be back in use as a
new adult-standards outlet co-owned with the two FMs.  

We saw from 401 (but didn't stop at) the transmitter of Cornwall's
French-language community station, CHOD (92.1).

Cornwall also has a TV station of sorts: a drive east to Lancaster,
then north on Highway 34, brought us to the tower of what was once
CJSS-TV (Channel 8).  While its local identity has vanished after
thirty-plus years as CJOH-TV-8, rebroadcasting the Ottawa CTV outlet,
the huge "8" on the building at the tower base is a reminder of a
long-gone small-town TV operation.  

Two more Cornwall sites before crossing the border: The CBC's CBOC
(95.5) and CBOF-FM-6 (98.1) transmit from a stick west of Cornwall, on
Power Dam Road, and downtown, Tim Martz' US-based WVNV (96.5 Malone
NY) and WYUL (94.7 Chateaugay NY) have a sales office on Pitt Street.

And with that, we were over the bridge (passing through the Akwesasne
reservation that's home to eclectic CKON 97.3) and back in the U.S.,
en route to Massena.

Massena turned out to be a nifty little town, at least where the AM
dial was concerned.  At 1340 on the dial, and with a neat old
self-supporting tower behind the studio building on route 420 south of
town, WMSA was live, local, and everything a small-town AM used to be,
complete with death notices.  It now shares the studios with its Martz
sisters and brothers: "Rock 101.5" (WRCD Canton), "The Valley 96.7"
(WVLF Canton), and country "Q102.9" (WNCQ Morristown), all of which
had gone to satellite by afternoon (though all, except Imus affiliate
WRCD, are live and local in the morning).

But Massena proved to have another AM surprise as well: Downtown, we
were treated to a tour of mom-and-pop talk station WYBG (1050), a rare
stand-alone daytime AM that seemed to be doing well with its mix of
local and national talk.  (When we say "mom and pop," we mean it: our
nickel tour of WYBG's studios was conducted by Dotty Wade, who not
only owns the station with her husband, she also hosts the daily
"North Country Speaks" talk show!)