AM 730 knocked off air by Burns Bog fire

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AM 730 knocked off air by Burns Bog fire

Postby kal » Sun Jul 03, 2016 3:41 pm

The AM730 signal has gone silent this afternoon. News1130 reports that the Burns Bog fire has damaged the transmitter for AM730 and "several other stations."

Anyone know what those other stations might be?
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Re: AM 730 knocked off air by Burns Bog fire

Postby Tighthead » Sun Jul 03, 2016 4:03 pm

Going to take this moment to remember many of the greats of 730 from days gone by - Jesse Dylan, Arthur Griffiths, and so much syndicated programming.
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Re: AM 730 knocked off air by Burns Bog fire

Postby radiofan » Sun Jul 03, 2016 4:05 pm

kal wrote:The AM730 signal has gone silent this afternoon. News1130 reports that the Burns Bog fire has damaged the transmitter for AM730 and "several other stations."

Anyone know what those other stations might be?


AM 730 isw the only AM site in the area. Until about 6 years ago, the 1410 site was about a mile west.

The other towers possibly affected are cell and communications towers.
Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who couldn't hear the music.
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Re: AM 730 knocked off air by Burns Bog fire

Postby radiofan » Sun Jul 03, 2016 4:10 pm

One of AM 730's 4 towers ...

Image
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Re: AM730 knocked off air by Burns Bog fire

Postby radiofan » Sun Jul 03, 2016 4:14 pm

Image

Thanks to former CKNW/AM730 CE Dave Glasstetter for sharing this!
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Re: AM 730 knocked off air by Burns Bog fire

Postby radiofan » Sun Jul 03, 2016 5:44 pm

A few thoughts about AM 730's return to the air ...

The first is to get it on 101.1 HD-3 immediately.

How quickly could the CKNW auxilary transmitter at the TD Tower downtown Vancouver be converted to 730? Not a huge signal, but it would cover more area than CKPM and Roundhouse combined.

If the Burns Bog site has to be rebuilt again, why not do it right and go the Bell route and build a combined 730/980 site? This would give NW the much needed signal into Vancouver for those who don't have
HD radios.

The big plus would be they could sell off the NW site in Cloverdale and that money could pay for the construction of the new dual site.
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Re: AM 730 knocked off air by Burns Bog fire

Postby Jim Walters » Sun Jul 03, 2016 7:14 pm

Maybe they should go back to playing Hot Hits.
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Re: AM 730 knocked off air by Burns Bog fire

Postby jon » Sun Jul 03, 2016 8:46 pm

Image

With a day and night pattern like this, CKNW pretty much has to be East of the vast majority of its audience.

While it looks pretty nasty, if the 730 towers are not damaged, I could see a new transmitter and such being up and running within a week after the fire is out.
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Re: AM 730 knocked off air by Burns Bog fire

Postby radiofan » Sun Jul 03, 2016 9:20 pm

If there was no damage other than smoke to the main TX building, and there is a tower that wasn't damaged (along with it's coaxial connection), AM 730 could return to the air very soon with reduced power
in an omni pattern.

The TX is the former CKGY-1170 Red Deer Nautel that wasn't too old when GY flipped to FM, and the TX was shipped to Vancouver for 730 when they did the site upgrade back in 2001.
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Re: AM 730 knocked off air by Burns Bog fire

Postby jon » Sun Jul 03, 2016 9:43 pm

Transmitter fire

One of the casualties of the fire: the radio transmitter for CKNW’s sister station AM 730 Traffic.

“I’ve been in the business for 30 some odd years, and through my entire life experience I have never come that close.”

Corus Radio chief engineer Rob Brown says Delta Fire called him down to the site to manually kill the power in the building.

“So basically about 15 seconds into that room, the air intake started to get the smoke and within seconds had filled the entire room.”

Brown says it was so thick he had to shut the system down by feel before running outside.

“First what drew my attention was the sound, the sound of like a fire – the crispy crackling sound that you would get. And then turning and seeing it almost right on top of me.”

Brown says he’s been told the transmitter may have been irreparably damaged.

ref. - http://www.cknw.com/2016/07/03/crews-ba ... burns-bog/
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Re: AM 730 knocked off air by Burns Bog fire

Postby Rocky » Sun Jul 03, 2016 10:26 pm

Burns Bog is one of the few areas that lives up to it's name every few years.
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Re: AM 730 knocked off air by Burns Bog fire

Postby Teacher » Sun Jul 03, 2016 10:54 pm

AM730 is now up and on the air on 101.1 FM HD3
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Re: AM 730 knocked off air by Burns Bog fire

Postby rwbrown » Mon Jul 04, 2016 12:24 am

Still no word on the extent of the damage. I've been downtown amd have CHMJ on HD3 on 101.1. Went live at 10 pm.

I know tower 1 is a loss. The common point building is ok. Have no ideanif the main building is ok. There was a wall of fire to the west side of the building when I jumped out of it at 2 pm.

I still smell like camp fire. I loved that site so I'm keeping my fingers crossed they saved the main building.

Rob
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Re: AM 730 knocked off air by Burns Bog fire

Postby jon » Mon Jul 04, 2016 8:55 am

Peat fires can be really tough to put out, and can burn underground for months. In the late 1970s, my in-laws lived just East of Edmonton on a farm. A peat fire started on a neighbour's land, eventually crossing the road and breaking out on my in-law's land. Extinguished by the Fire Department on the surface, you could see smoke coming out of holes in the ground for months.

A long period of heavy rain finally put it out completely underground.
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