AM 730 Faces Stiff New Competition

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Postby Glen Livingstone » Sun Jun 11, 2006 12:21 am

AM 730 ( formerly MOJO ) which launched its All Day Traffic format just last week will now have some competition to contend with: Clean Air Radio.

Beginning Monday, June 12th, the new FM station will be broadcasting on 88.5 from a tent on the hill above the 152nd street on-ramp to Highway 1 in Surrey.

Clean Air Radio is sponsored by the Society Promoting Environmental Conservation and will have a range of about two kilometres.

The equipment to run the station is solar powered and was built by SPEC Transportation Campaigner David Fields.

Plans are to broadcast a morning show from 7-9am and a 4-6pm drivetime show.
The shows will feature guests and SPEC hopes to create publlic awareness on the subject of freeway expansion.

The station is off the CRTC radar and does not need a license as it has a power of only two watts and will only broadcast intermittently.

Future plans may include broadcasting from other lower mainland locations like Maillardville or Burnaby.

For more information, there is a blog set up at http://www.cleanairradio.ca/
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Postby Stn Brk » Sun Jun 11, 2006 9:03 pm

At least the folks from SPEC know the difference in meaning between 'intermittent' and 'continuous' which is more than you can say for the people running the station-formerly-known-as-MOJO.

But then it's tough to keep up with all those multi-syllable words when you've only got your Grade 12.
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Postby Dan Sys » Sat Jun 17, 2006 2:07 pm

the new FM station will be broadcasting on 88.5 from a tent on the hill above the 152nd street on-ramp to Highway 1 in Surrey.


Hey Pluto.....the calls wouldn't happen to be CFAY would they?
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Postby jon » Sat Jun 17, 2006 3:44 pm

I think the frequency gives away the fact that it isn't CFAY. CFAY only ever had one transmitter crystal and it had 1357.25 KHz printed on it.

I'm sure CFAY's owner has kept up with the times and would not use the call letters on-air. After all, "A-M-Thirteen-Fifty-Seven-Point-Two-Five" just flows off the tongue so much better than "See-Fay".
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Postby Dan Sys » Sat Jun 17, 2006 4:45 pm

Gee Jon.....I hate to tell you this, but CFAY's owner is indeed keeping up with the times. So much in fact that CFAY will be flipping to FM. I also heard some gossip that during non-peak periods the format will be "All Scott Joplin.....All The Time". Also heard a rumour that they might change the calls to CFLP now that Rimouski has dumped them (I assume that will stand for FLIPPO FM). :wacko: :wacko: :wacko:
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Postby Glen Livingstone » Sat Jun 17, 2006 6:53 pm

Dan Sys wrote:

the new FM station will be broadcasting on 88.5 from a tent on the hill above the 152nd street on-ramp to Highway 1 in Surrey.


Hey Pluto.....the calls wouldn't happen to be CFAY would they?



Well Dan, as a one-time employee of Eldon "The Real Eel" Sanders, I think I can state emphatically that this new station has nothing to do with the former Canadian broadcasting pioneer.

Having first met Eldon back in 1966 or '67 through a former neighbour of my grandparents who were living in White Rock at the time, I feel somewhat gulity for being the one responsible for dragging Eldon into all of our lives.

If I could turn back the clock I would.

Until then, I will continue to spend every waking hour drinking myself into a stupor trying in vain to forget those wasted, painful, formative years.
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Postby jon » Sun Jun 18, 2006 8:26 am

Now there is a piece of historical (hysterical) trivia that I did not know. Thank you for that, Pluto. Who connected Mr. CFAY with his transmitter manufacturer (the other JP, as I understand it)?

I always like to admit to my somewhat shady past at CFAY. It sounds so much better than Chuck Chandler's line borrowed from the Mary Tyler Moore show's Ted character: "it all started at a 5000 watt station in Dawson Creek....". A "5 watt pirate station in Surrey" or "a suburb of Vancouver" when outside B.C.

Not that I had much of a radio "career". But, when the subject comes up.....

So, again, Pluto, thank you for the info. And thank you for bringing CFAY into all our lives.

I wouldn't be saying this is the Department of Transport had arrested all of us....

Actually, I'm more thankful that Mr. CFAY wasn't running a Grow-Op to fund CFAY operations, or we most certainly would have been busted.
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Postby jon » Sun Jun 18, 2006 11:28 am

And I almost forgot. Without CFAY, we would not have had the station's most memorable moment: reception in Seattle by a well-know area DX'er, after midnight one Sunday when KMO-1360 Tacoma went off the air for transmitter maintenance. That may well be the only existing aircheck of CFAY. I believe it was also the Seattle DX'er's greatest catch ever. I can understand, since mine was a CBC 40 watt repeater in Banff, from Burnaby.
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Postby Glen Livingstone » Sun Jun 18, 2006 11:51 am

jonedmonton wrote:And I almost forgot.  Without CFAY, we would not have had the station's most memorable moment:  reception in Seattle by a well-know area DX'er, after midnight one Sunday when KMO-1360 Tacoma went off the air for transmitter maintenance.  That may well be the only existing aircheck of CFAY. 



Was it live, or a tape-delayed broadcast of Henry screaming at Eldon to get off the phone?
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Postby Dan Sys » Sun Jun 18, 2006 3:07 pm

I feel somewhat gulity for being the one responsible for dragging Eldon into all of our lives


Don't feel guilty Pluto, Eldon has always added a lot of spice & colour to our lives throughout the decades. Definitely "one of a kind".

Might as well give him a free plug while we're on the topic. Next Sunday (June 25) is the final day for the Langley Flea Market (on Glover Road a block south of the Langley Bypass). Eldon has a booth set up there which features lots of radio station paraphernalia from years gone by (stickers, charts, coverage maps, sales brochures, etc.). If you haven't visited his display I would highly recommend it. Radiofan & yours truly will be there around 12 noon.
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Postby jon » Sun Jun 18, 2006 8:11 pm

Pluto wrote:Was it live, or a tape-delayed broadcast of Henry screaming at Eldon to get off the phone?

Henry would have been asleep by then. Eldon was live, doing his best to sound like the DX Tests of the day done by the dutiful CE. He had patiently waited to see if KMO Tacoma would go off the air that Sunday night (they usually didn't), then signed CFAY on shortly after KMO signed off.

By the way, I always wondered why anyone ever manufactured a crystal for 1357.25 KHz. Well, I just found the answer in a series of six articles on the history of Clear Channels (the frequencies, not the Company) that touches on the whole issue of Superpower (500-750KW) on those Clear Channels:[list][*]http://www.nrcdxas.org/articles/clear01.html[/*:m][*]http://www.nrcdxas.org/articles/clear02.html[/*:m][*]http://www.nrcdxas.org/articles/clear03.html[/*:m][*]http://www.nrcdxas.org/articles/clear04.html[/*:m][*]http://www.nrcdxas.org/articles/clear05.html[/*:m][*]http://www.nrcdxas.org/articles/clear06.html[/*:m][/list:u]The answer is that Herbert Hoover's Second Radio Conference in 1923 expanded the Broadcast Band to 550 to 1350, which is probably the period when the crystal was made, as it would have been just outside the broadcast band, and therefore usable for ham or other purposes, but still receivable with a normal AM radio.

It probably never got bought, because the Third Conference in 1924 increased the top end to 1500.

Of course, I'm just guessing.
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