Re: 1010 AM

["Dan Strassberg" <dan.strassberg@att.net>]

A little-known fact is that 1010 is a Canadian (and once also a Cuban)
"clear" Channel that WINS occupies under a special treaty with Canada. Under
NARBA, the US could license full-time AMs on Canadian clear channels if the
US stations were located more than 650 miles from the nearest point of land
in Canada and delivered no more than 5 microvolts/meter groundwave or 25
microvolts/meter 10% skywave to any point on the Canadian border. A few
exemptions to thje 650-mile rule were granted and WINS was one of the
earliest. Others were the 990 stations in Philadelphia PA and Knoxville TN
(and much more recently, Rochester NY) and the 940 station in Des Moined IA.

Some horse-trading apparently resulted in the move (back in the 40s) of a US
station in the San Francisco area (which is just more than 650 miles from
Canada) from one Canadian clear channel to another. KQW San Jose (now KCBS
San Francisco) moved from 1010 to 740. This provided better protection to
the dominant Canadian station on 1010--CBR Calgary. But the CBC later put a
50 kW Class II station, CBX Edmondton, on 740 in AB.

WINS was a Class II (now a Class B). CFRB was, I believe, theroretically a
Class IB (now Class A). The reason that CFRB was (until non-CBC-owned
stations replaced the CBC stations on 690, 740, and 940) a station of a
higher Class (on paper, anyway) than all but one other non-CBC-owned
Canadian AM (CKWX 1130 Vancouver) is that CFRB was on 860 as a Class I until
the CBC (which at the time, besides owning networks and stations, performed
the regulatory functions now performed by the CRTC) forced CFRB to swap
frequencies with CJBC, which the CBC had acquired. This swap took place
during the 40s--sometime after the end of World War II.

Before the forced swap, CFRB 860 operated with 10 kW-U ND-U and CJBC 1010
operated with 5 kW-U, (I think CJBC 1010 was ND-U, but I don't know for
sure.) After the swap, the CBC increased CJBC 860 to 50 kW-U ND-U and CFRB
1010 also increased to 50 kW-U but became highly directional to protect
WINS. Back when CFRB moved to 1010, there was supposed to be no (or almost
no) nighttime interference to Class IA or IB) stations within their
nighttime 0.5 mV/m 50% skywave coverage areas. However, WINS has always
substantially interfered with CFRB and vice versa. That a Class A station
(CFRB) should interfere with a Class B (WINS) is nothing new at all, but I
believe that WINS interferes with CFRB quite substantially within
Canada--and that situation  (a Class B _designed_ to interfere substantially
with a Class A within the borders of the country in which the Class A is
located) may--on paper, at least--be unique to 1010.

I guess that, in practice, there are plenty of such situations with other
western hemisphere countries--especially Mexico. And there have been many
such situations with respect to Canada, too. But the Canadian stations that
interfered with US Class As were, I believe, technically operating outside
of the terms of their licenses (albeit, with tacit CRTC approval). A
particularly flagrant case that went on for about 15 years involved CKTY
1110 Sarnia ON (now an FM) using its day facilities every night and
completely wiping out WBT in the northeast.

--
Dan Strassberg, dan.strassberg@att.net
617-558-4205, eFax 707-215-6367

----- Original Message -----
From: Stephen Pickford (new account) <nmi@saturnus.com>
To: <boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org>
Sent: Sunday, September 02, 2001 7:05 PM
Subject: 1010 AM


> Yes, 1010 Toronto is CFRB-AM...the 2 signals, Toronto and New York, often
co-
> mingle, and mix in and out of each other.