» Why Would CBC Radio 1 Do This In London?
March 4, 2021 11:54 am #1
Why Would CBC Radio 1 Do This In London?
The CBC put out a warning to listeners in the London area Thursday that their signal may be down for transmitter maintenance between 9 AM and 4 PM.
My question: why in the world would they do this during the day? Couldn't this necessary work be performed at 2 AM when far fewer people might tune in? Is there some TX work that can only be done when the sun is up?
I cannot imagine this happening in Toronto.
Possible CBC Radio One outages in London area for transmission repairs today
Re: Why Would CBC Radio 1 Do This In London?
They probably need a long outage to do some major antenna or transmission line repairs in the daylight. At least they are avoiding drive-time hours. You don't want to be doing hoisting work in darkness.
March 4, 2021 1:37 pm #3
LOSat
As it is a shared tower it may not even be them that is doing the work but someone else on the tower and they are collateral to the work but still have to power down. It could be their transmitter or TVO who I believe owns the tower or Omni who is also colocated on it.
MJ Vancouver
LOSat wrote:
I believe Bell Media also has Virgin 97.5 on that tower, and Yes TV is there as well.
I live in London. Right now around 1:55 PM it's on. I haven't been listening all day.
This is a really cold, windy day here. I wouldn't want to be working up on a tower for anything.
Last edited by turkeytop (March 4, 2021 2:59 pm)
markow202
https://goo.gl/maps/SEwszDdiRN3ft4D97
Is this the tower? Owned by CTV its on? Imagine this in your backyard!
Last edited by markow202 (March 4, 2021 4:17 pm)
markow202 wrote:
That's a different tower - the one CBCL is on is this one at the edge of Byron.
The CTV tower includes several radio signals in addition to Channel 10 - notably FM96 and Jack 102.3. I believe there was also a proposal by Corus to move Fresh 103.1 up there.
It's a weird location for a tower, but CFPL-TV and its tower were in that location long before the residential development around it was built. That was well outside of London back in 1953.
Last edited by MJ Vancouver (March 4, 2021 4:59 pm)
Hi RA
Not sure why you think it's a perfect world?
There are many reasons why they might need to do this. I'm sure it's not their preferred approach.
As noted by others, there is tower work that can only be carried out safely and properly during the day. I could list many things but won't for the sake of brevity.
It is rare for a station to be completely off-air in Toronto, but there tends to be more backup & alternate systems available in a major market.
I NEVER think it's a perfect world! (Not only is my glass half empty, I don't even have a glass!)
But I'm not an engineer and it's always been my experience that most of this kind of work is done overnight, when there are fewer listeners. I wasn't aware there was some maintenance that has to be done in the daylight. But hey, I love learning new stuff about these things.
It must be very tough to have to go up on one of those things, especially in the winter.
I've told this story before, but there used to be an engineer at the place I worked - a very large Toronto radio station - who would show up for work at 9 AM every morning, then constantly declare, "I'm going to the transmitter." And then he'd disappear for hours and hours and hours, not to be seen again until the next day, when he would often repeat the performance. And the next day. And the next. And the - well you get the idea.
I'm not entirely sure where he was, but how many times a week or month does someone need to go all the way out to a TX site, especially when it's out of town? And why come all the way downtown first, only to go way out in the middle of nowhere in the opposite direction just after you arrived at the studios? I used to joke that somewhere, there's a place called The Transmitter Bar & Grill that only engineers know about - and that's where he was all day!
I guess we'll never know, but hey - the station never went off the air, so whatever he did, it must have worked!
March 4, 2021 6:22 pm #10
MJ Vancouver wrote:
Thats also an old tower...I believe I read built in the 60s. These dont have expiry dates?
there used to be an engineer at the place I worked - a very large Toronto radio station - who would show up for work at 9 AM every morning, then constantly declare, "I'm going to the transmitter." And then he'd disappear for hours and hours and hours, not to be seen again until the next day, when he would often repeat the performance. he was all day!
initials BC? just curious...
TH. But I'll say no more!
fybush
London towers? Here, have some pretty pictures from a few years ago! (CBC/TVO tower included...)
https://www.fybush.com/site-20171117/
I suppose that if CBL was still on 740 Londoners would have had no trouble hearing Radio One.
Gillick
CBL 740! Hands up those of us who had the experience of booming out on that blowtorch from an RCA 77DX mic?
NW wrote:
I grew up on the west side of the city closer to Detroit than Toronto, but I don't ever remember 740 being super clear where I lived - listenable, but usually with some interference. WJR Detroit came in clearly though. It seems to me 740 was a lot more clear to the north and east.
March 4, 2021 10:48 pm #17
I live in east London now but for much of my life I lived up on the Bruce Peninsula. Back in the 70s the only CBC we got up there was from CBL and it was unreliable. When, in the mid 70s, CBC put a transmitter in London, it seemed unfair to me. London already had decent reception of CBL and now they were getting a local transmitter.
We didn't get local CBC up there until about 1983.
Its crazy that CBC doesnt have much OTA anywhere unless your in a big city like Toronto and Montreal. They even had Barrie re-transmitters on the CKVR tower until the digital change. It was nice to see CBC in cottage country but nothing now however satellite solves it. I dont even know what im complaining about as I dont watch them.
Fortunately these days if you have high speed Internet you can watch for free on CBC Gem from anywhere in Canada, and if you create a free account you can pick any station.
Doesn't help for those without high speed Internet, of course, which is the case in rural areas that often relied more heavily on OTA.