Boston is a Top 10 market again

[Scott Fybush]

Doug Drown wrote:
> I wonder to what extent Canadian (Toronto-area) radio is listened to in
> Buffalo and Rochester, and vice-versa?  -Doug

Less and less every year, thanks to the congestion of the FM dial.

Toronto radio was never a huge factor in Rochester - we're just too far 
east to get reliable signals from most of the Toronto stations. A few of 
the big CN Tower FMs - CFNY 102.1, CHUM-FM 104.5, CILQ 107.1, CBL-FM 
94.1 - used to be adequately listenable here. Then a whole bunch of 
80-90 drop-ins and new translators came along, and today there's not a 
one of them that's really listenable in Rochester. CFMZ (ex-CFMX) 103.1 
from Cobourg, directly north of us across the lake, does put a decent 
signal over Rochester and has a cult following for its classical format. 
On AM, most of the Toronto stations are directional away from us. CHWO 
740 is the big exception, and again has a small following here. (Many of 
us down here listened to 740 religiously in its CBL days, too.)

Rochester radio doesn't reach Toronto at all. Our FM stations have small 
listenership along the lake east of Toronto (Belleville, Cobourg area), 
but that's dying off as more new FMs go on the air up there and block 
our signals off the dial.

The relationship between the Buffalo and Toronto markets is much closer. 
It's only 35 air miles or so from downtown to downtown, and both markets 
have superpower FMs that far exceed usual class B maximums. Until about 
a decade ago, Toronto was very under-FM-ed, which meant plenty of room 
for most of the Buffalo FMs to get in cleanly. Several - most notably 
urban WBLK 93.7 - offered formats that were unduplicated in Toronto and 
thus picked up not only listeners but advertisers up there. Likewise, 
most of the big Toronto FMs were heard clearly in Buffalo and drew 
ratings there.

Again, translators and Canadian FM shoehorns have had a big impact. 
Canada has gone so far as to put class A signals in Toronto 
first-adjacent to and even co-channel with Buffalo FMs, so WBLK is now 
wiped out by CFXJ on 93.5 (also urban), WYRK 106.5 is wiped by CFAV on 
106.5, and so on.

There's plenty of signal back and forth on the AM dial between Buffalo 
and Toronto - indeed, Buffalo's WNED 970 is heard better in downtown 
Toronto than in some eastern Buffalo suburbs - but not much cross-border 
listening anymore. It was not always thus; old radios from the 
push-button era that were used around Toronto invariably have buttons 
set for Buffalo's WGR, WBEN and WKBW.

s