BGM doesn't have to sell any of the radio stations.

CHUM Radio is extremely profitable, and once the one-time expenses of the takeover are complete, will contribute nicely to BGM's profits.

DAB is irrelevant. The licenses are for nothing more than repeaters of existing programming, and are inspererable from the AM/FM licenses.

DAB is irrelevant. The licenses are for nothing more than repeaters of existing programming, and are inspererable from the AM/FM licenses.

Red is speaking of the pay terrestrial audio service that CHUM gave up on when Sirius and XM licenses were granted, not the Toronto area DAB.

Ahh, forgot all about that. That thing won't ever see the light of day regardless of who owns it, especially Bell, who will be more interested in streaming regulation-free audio through cell-phones.

Nobody's going to pay the massive start up costs for a service with half as many channels as satellite and with Cancon to boot.

Keep in mind that the last (now ancient) news item on CHUM's subscription radio page was something like 2005-07-12. Now that's what I call dormant.

The Toronto DAB ensembles (the original ones) are all still there.

L3 (LC on a Perstel) has seen CHUM-FM gradually sound better. The other stations on that ensemble sound the same.

L4 (LD on Perstel) CFRB's level has come up and sounds good. Loud hum on JAZZ FM on left channel. Don't understand that... The FM feed is fine. EZ.ROCK's level very low. Mix 99.9 has small hum left channel.

L6 (LF on Perstel) CBC sounds great all-round. Strange how they've really come up signal stregnth wise in the last month.

L8 (LH on Perstel) No real changes noted.

L9 (LI on Perstel) This ensemble defies logic.
CJYE and CJMR, both mono, when they're audio is present, sound fine.
CIRV, while in stereo, the feed is out of phase.
CIAO has audio on left channel only.
CFMX, while good stereo sound, it's out of phase.

With these kinds of engineering occurrances going on, it does kind of make one wonder what is going on in Toronto.

I'm listening to DAB from Hamilton as I write this.

Don't get me started on this, CamDAB. The 6 years I had DAB in my system was very frustrating. I had tried for years for someone to turn up the level on EZROCK 97.3, and improve the quality on other stations. At one point I was told they were waiting for new equipment from the UK to replace defective equipment regarding the EZROCK situation, but nothing happened. There was some success regarding problems with CBC and CHUM signals over the years. It was a little easier to get some service when the DAB web site was being taken care of by a company called Hennesey and Bray, but their services were terminated a couple of years ago. You're keeper of the torch now, CamDAB. Good Luck.

It was a little easier to get some service when the DAB web site was being taken care of by a company called Hennesey and Bray, but their services were terminated a couple of years ago. You're keeper of the torch now, CamDAB. Good Luck.

I wrote to David Bray too. Once the DAB site got obsorbed into the CAB as a sub site, it never got updated.

I was also invoved in the AM Stereo fiasco too, as a listener with a contact in engineering at an AM Stereo station.

Thing is, these guys don't know what they're dealing with (DAB). The CBC, using relays, could easily create solid uninterupted coverage thoughout the GTA and Hamilton.

It's really sad to see something that can sound great (DAB) be pushed aside for a continuation of compressed FM with a dynamic range of 4dB on the average rock / MOR station.

Cameron

If somebody is going to start up a service, pay or ad supported, and be tied clost to the Cell phone systems, they might have to get CRTC approval and meet Cancon guidlines.

If somebody is going to start up a service, pay or ad supported, and be tied clost to the Cell phone systems, they might have to get CRTC approval and meet Cancon guidlines.

I Would think that would be a given, judging by the fact that the Sat radio services are also tied to CANCON, albiet at a much reduced level. This is what has the current crop of commercial broadasters insensed over.

Not if the cell-phone is simply accessing an internet radio station - even if that internet radio station exists primarily to feed cell-phones. It's no different than a laptop wirelessly accessing internet radio.

FWIW, HD-Radio is not DAB.So, what is it then? Have you tried to pick up HD Radio from where you are?

DAB (by name) is stanadlone digital on a different band ( a bit over 1 Ghz I think). It is my opinion this thread is about the specific broadcasting technology known by the acronym DAB, not Digital Audio Broadcasting in general.

HD-Radio piggybacks a digital audio carrier on existing analogue FM band transmissions.

I have no chance of picking up either technology where am, nor can afford the equipment to recive it.

If (for instance) Rogers sets up a streaming service for their cell-phone customers, I'd think the CRTC would have something to say about that.

If (for instance) Rogers sets up a streaming service for their cell-phone customers, I'd think the CRTC would have something to say about that.

Rogers could get around that easily. They make most of their money as a "common carrier". Sell cellphones with internet access enabled. Post a list of sites like...
http://www.live365.com
http://www.shoutcast.com
http://www.radio-locator.com
http://www.radiotower.com
http://www.live-radio.net/info.shtml

Charge cellphone customers by the megabyte, and you don't care who they listen to. Nothing short of the CRTC regulating all internet access could stop it. It's fortunate that the web hit so quickly it caught the CRTC flatfooted. 10 years ago it was already too late, but the CRTC chair was ranting and raving about the fact that Canadians did so much of their browsing at non-Canadian sites. See http://www.efc.ca/pages/media/ottawa-sun.18nov96.html

To bring it a step further, the first few links could be

http://rogers-rock-internet-radio.com
http://rogers-all80s-internet-radio.com

Charge people to listen online, but give it to wirelss customers "freee". Just like that, CRTC averted.

Within the last two weeks EDGE102 now is the latest to sport a large hum.

My impression is that it's not a case of testing for coverage, audio fidelity etc, but rather, install it, and let it run till it fails. Lets see...

680NEWS, very faint hum (mono)
EDGE102, audio on right channel now faint with loud hum
MIX99.9 medium hum left channel (hidden most of the time by compression)
Jazz91 Massive hum left channel

and... for those who wire their speakers out of phase, this will correct that: :-)

CFMX and CIRV continue to be out of phase themselves...

and... When digital silence is needed...
CIAO hasn't had any audio for a long time now.

I don't know...

One bright spot, the clipping on CHFI has been fixed. Go figure...

And, for the first time ever for me, I heard on 1050CHUM via DAB (not that the programming was any different) the uncensored version of Boy Named Sue by Johnny Cash Sunday morning of this week.

And one niggly, Q107's Left and Right channels are reversed on DAB....

It just kinda makes ya go Hmmmmm....

Cameron

There has only been one minor change on the DAB scene in Toronto.

The CBC has dropped the component "EMB IP packets" from the channel 6 (LF on a Perstel DR101 sold by Radio Shack). Thus, there is now just the Radio 1 feeds (192KB/s) and Radio 2 feeds (224KB/s) for each English and French (total 4 components on that ensemble / multiplex).

No other changes, including the hum and out of phase audio noted before on other ensembles. (?!?)

The result of the CBC change is a blessing for me, as often, the Perstel would lock-up solid when switching from the packet (data) service back to either radio 1 English or the French radio 2 component. Now it tunes normally. :-)

Any changes I notice I'll report.

Oh.... Channel 2 (LB) and 15 (LO) haven't appeared yet as approved by the CRTC, nor has the switcherroo approved by the CRTC between the EDGE102 on Channel 3 (LC) and Q107 (or was it Jack92.5) that are on channel 8 (LH). That one got approved, what, 3 years ago.

Go figure...

Broadcast Dialog has a prety exhaustive look at the state of DAB in Canada for any one looking to get up to speed.

http://www.broadcastdialogue.com/magazine.asp

Thanks for the reference. Extremely good article.

The radio (Perstel DR101) had some idiosyncrasies that didn't help in using it.

And also, other radios imposed technical limitations that caused endless confusion too.

It's still salvageable (DAB) but needs re-thinking on both a programming and technical level. Large coverages are it's real forte with the use of repeaters, something the CBC seems to be missing a great opportunity with.

Since my last report back in February, there has been some notable improvements, but still some severe problems remain. I'll be posting a detailed report within the next few days.

Cameron

Hi Folks,

As I've alluded to elsewhere, some stations have improved, while others stay the same.

There are 5 frequencies in the L-Band currently carrying 5 audio services each (CBC excepted).

The Canadian designation is CH##, whereas the the radio that was sold nationally through then Radio Shack used the international designation of Lx, covering 23 frequencies from LA - LW. The channel designations will be noted in brackets (Lx) for the Perstel DR101 sold by Radio Shack.

Channel 03 (LC)
680News. Mono stream, 128KB/s. Sound: satisfactory.
CHFI Stereo Stream, Stereo content. 192KB/s Overall, OK, with occasional clipping
1050CHUM Stereo stream, mono content 192KB/s. Sound is satisfactory
104.5 CHUM.FM Stereo stream stereo content 192KB/s Sound much improved in level, although heavy on the bass and somewhat muffled and compressed. Sounds like analogue to me.
EDGE102 Stereo stream stereo content. 192KB/s The audio last reported was right channel low, that has now gone the other way and is higher than the left with frequent clipping, like it was before the right channel went low. If it weren't for the clipping and being louder, this could be a fine sounding station as little compression is used.

Channel 04 (LD)
CFRB Mono stream. 128KB/s Sound is satisfactory.
MIX 99.9 Stereo stream stereo content 224KB/s. Sounds just like the FM feed with a small hum added to the left channel that can be heard during speech.
THE FAN Mono stream 128KB/s Sound is clean but low in level
EZ Rock Stereo stream stereo content Sound is clean, but extremely low in level.
JAZZ FM Stereo stream stereo content. Massive hum on left channel. One evening recently I heard voices over that hum not coming from the programming, I suspect some kind of ingress from short-wave rectification.

Channel 06 (LF)
CBC Radio 1 stereo stream mono content 192KB/s Sound is satisfactory
CBC Radio 2 Stereo stream stereo content 224KB/s Sound is satisfactory
RC Premier Stereo stream mono content 192KB/s sound is satisfactory
Espace Musique Stereo stream stereo 224KB/s content Sound is satisfactory

Channel 08 (LH)
CHIN Stereo stream stereo content 224KB/s Sound is slightly low but OK
CHIN.FM Stereo stream stereo content 224KB/s Sound is slightly low but OK
Mojo 640 Stereo stream stereo content 224KB/s excellent sound, slightly low
Q107 Stereo stream stereo content 224KB/s Sound is satisfactory
92.5JACK Stereo stream stereo content 224KB/s Sound is low and somewhat muffled and heavy on the bass

Channel 09 (LI)
CJYE Mono stream 96KB/s NO AUDIO (has been like this for some time)
CJMR Mono stream 96KB/s NO AUDIO (has been like this for some time)
CIRV Stereo stream stereo content 224KB/s Out of Phase audio, Level OK
CIAO Stereo stream Left channel audio only 224KB/s Level is also slightly low
CFMX Stereo stream stereo content 224KB/s Good sound but out of phase

Channel's 02 (LB) and 15 (LO) haven't been heard to date as licensed by the CRTC.

The switcheroo involving EDGE102 and 95.5JACK hasn't happened either

A recent trip to Toronto confirmed an observation from Hamilton that the CBC is extremely weak. It was great from last October /06 to the middle of January /07, then went weak again. Reception in the Hyde Park area of Toronto confirmed this effect. Cause is unknown.

Cameron

Sounds like your not thrilled with the sound quality on any of them.