[78-L] Radio blues

[David Lennick]

Not only CBL..a few other CBC AM stations had terrific range. I had a listener 
in Spirit Lake, Iowa who could get a signal from Winnipeg if she kept her foot 
on the radio and it didn't get blotted out by a signal from Mexico. We were 
also on short wave and I heard from listeners in West Covina, CA and Finland.

Then I spent a couple of days in Montreal and heard my pre-recorded programs 
there and found out why I had so few listeners there (other than the infamous 
Saul Avrutick, who was probably really Mordecai Richler). They had the worst AM 
signal I'd ever heard.

Speaking of Mordecai, I don't know if this episode made it into the new film of 
"Barney's Version", but in the book the hero torments his ex-wife who hosts a 
popular request program on the CBC by writing requests under different names, 
always asking for "Bluebird of Happiness". Two guesses who was the host of a 
popular request program in the early 80s and what record we always had to play.

dl

On 9/26/2010 11:57 AM, Royal Pemberton wrote:
> Back in the late 1980s I lived in Keokuk, Iowa, and with a somewhat
> Frankensteined Wilcox-Gay Recordette III machine's AM radio section would
> pick up 740 in late evenings 'on the skip'.  Thus I heard 'Nightcamp' and
> such.  One problem with that was KTRH, another 50 kw flamethrower, from
> Houston, that would sometimes swamp the signal from Canada.
>
> On Sun, Sep 26, 2010 at 4:46 PM, David Lennick<dlennick at sympatico.ca>wrote:
>
>> I used to listen to WQXR while driving home from Oshawa late at night in
>> the
>> 70s. Sometimes I could pick up WCFL in Chicago. As for CBL's coverage,
>> Vince
>> Giordano used to listen to my late night programs at his home in Brooklyn,
>> and
>> he sent me a few albums..this is how I made his acquaintance. (I once had a
>> phone message from someone at NBC in Chicago, as well, and I thought maybe
>> they
>> were going to lay down the law on my running vintage radio material.
>> 'Twasn't
>> the case.)
>>
>> dl
>>
>> On 9/26/2010 11:38 AM, DAVID BURNHAM wrote:
>>> WQXR went up the dial to 1560FM,  a 3 candlepower station which does not
>>> reach my location a mere 25 miles from NYC ...
>>>
>>> Al Simmons
>>>
>>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>>
>>> I'm rarely in NYC but surely you mean 1560AM.
>>>
>>> 740 AM did reach a huge area - I was once heading along the south shore
>> of Lake
>>> Superior from Sault Ste. Marie and I was able to listen to CBC 740, (this
>> was in
>>> the mid 60s).  I was surprised last year when, while driving between
>> Alabama and
>>> Mississippi I was able to listen to CFRB.  On the other hand, quite often
>> in
>>> much closer Parry Sound at night, WINZ in New York City, (which has the
>> same
>>> frequency as CFRB), obliterates the signal from CFRB.
>>>
>>> CBC obviously opted to convert Radio 1 in the Toronto area, (and other
>> areas),
>>> from AM to FM because of the improved audio quality.  When they first did
>> it,
>>> they were broadcasting in Stereo since a number of Radio 2 music shows,
>> (Mostly
>>> Music, Clyde Gilmour, Rick Philips etc.), were repeated on Radio 1.
>>   However one
>>> of the mis-guided VPs determined that stereo broadcasts don't have the
>> same
>>> coverage as mono broadcasts so the Stereo was dropped.  I tried to have
>> him
>>> re-think that reasoning since while I was travelling home from Kitchener
>> one
>>> night, I had no problem picking up Radio 2 in Stereo but couldn't get
>> Radio 1 in
>>> mono at all.  I think what happens is that when the signal gets weak, the
>> stereo
>>> sub-carrier is lost and the sound reverts to mono.
>>>
>>> But someone, I think it was Mr. Barr, mentioned that FM signals have a
>> coverage
>>> of 100 miles, (160 kms);  I think that's rather generous.  FM signals
>> travel
>>> straight, like line of sight, so once you've gone about 50 miles, the
>> curvature
>>> of the earth masks the signal, (of course cable companies can build large
>> towers
>>> in high altitude locations to nab some of the space-bound signal).  In
>> southern
>>> Ontario, if you're driving up the 400, Toronto FM stations abruptly get
>> garbled
>>> shortly after you pass Barrie.
>>>
>>> db