[Stilgar]

Early speculation was sparked when Morning Drive host Bob Derro was released last week. Today the pending format change to an All News/Talk format to directly compete with rival station 580 News (CFRA) was announced. The change goes into effect Oct. 18th.

From Ottawa Citizen: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Format+change+ahead+Oldies+1310/3661773/story.html

 

[jayoldschool]

Disappointing for me. One of my classic cars only has AM radio, and 1310 is/was the only place on the AM dial to actually play music.

 

[BGY11]

Sounds like a parallel to 660News here in Calgary. It definitely was a shock having them switch from an Oldies station to news, so I can easily relate to Ottawa residents who may not be happy with the change.

Are there any FM radio stations in Ottawa that play the Oldies?

 

[CamDAB]

Are there any FM radio stations in Ottawa that play the Oldies?

Not when I was there in July of this year. That will be a huge hole to fill...

Cameron

 

[james039]

92.3 Jack FM Smith Falls covers much of the Ottawa area with a tower located in Carleton Place. I usually hear oldies on that station.

 

[CamDAB]

92.3 Jack FM Smith Falls covers much of the Ottawa area with a tower located in Carleton Place.

From a vehicle, probably. I was visiting in the north-east end of Ottawa and 92.3 was very weak to non-existent on my best pocket receiver (which is quite good for DXing), or my portable Grundig, my reference FM receiver. 101.1 from Smiths Falls (Country) was OK, but not anywhere as strong as the locals.

Cameron

 

[tvlurker]

From a vehicle, probably. I was visiting in the north-east end of Ottawa and 92.3 was very weak to non-existent on my best pocket receiver (which is quite good for DXing), or my portable Grundig, my reference FM receiver. 101.1 from Smiths Falls (Country) was OK, but not anywhere as strong as the locals.

Cameron

When James says "much of Ottawa" he means west and south of downtown, not northeast.

By the way, the CJET/CKBY tower is in Blacks Corners, between Carleton Place and Franktown on highway 15.

 

[itcamrch]

CRTC hit-music content regulations in Ottawa make Oldies on FM extremely difficult, and unlikely. Also, a pure 50's - 70's traditional style oldies station is not demographically pleasing to advertisers. If it were to happen, it would likely be more of a 70's & 80's Classic Hits style format.

 

[sailmaker]

Music from the '80's is not old. I have socks older than that!

 

[itcamrch]

60s Music was called Oldies in the 80s.

 

[Jake]

I can only handle 580 is small dosages. Same with CNN and most of the talk/rant hosts on air now. Now music I can put on and leave it all day. But good luck to them if they can make it work.

Maybe it is just me but I find Ottawa is not a particularly newsworthy town (which is a good thing). Unless you are a political junkie. I suspect there will be little news with mostly fringe talk.

entertainment reports

Oh gawd no!

 

[itcamrch]

The whole model of the newswheel format is that you do only put it on for 15 minutes, maybe once or twice a day. What they count on is lots of people doing that.

 

[tvlurker]

CRTC hit-music content regulations in Ottawa make Oldies on FM extremely difficult, and unlikely. Also, a pure 50's - 70's traditional style oldies station is not demographically pleasing to advertisers. If it were to happen, it would likely be more of a 70's & 80's Classic Hits style format.

I think the "no hits on FM" rule was recently changed. I think that an FM station in Lingston has reverted to oldies, and to their original AM calls (CKWS)

 

[tvlurker]

The whole model of the newswheel format is that you do only put it on for 15 minutes, maybe once or twice a day. What they count on is lots of people doing that.

or just checking the "traffic and weather together" on the threes.

Could give Info Radio 97.5 a run for its money -- at least there is a better chance that we would get TODAY's weather forecast.

 

[itcamrch]

The rule was removed for everywhere but Ottawa and Montréal.

 

[CamDAB]

Could give Info Radio 97.5 a run for its money -- at least there is a better chance that we would get TODAY's weather forecast.

Funny you mention that. It's also next to non-existent in the northeast end. By the Ottawa Via train station and westward it was rock solid, same for CBC on DAB... I guess the CRTC doesn't allow contour maps to cover the northeast end.........

Cameron

 

[tvlurker]

97.5 is an unprotected service. It operates second adjacent from 97.1 and 97.9. At least in the west end, it comes in better than the last three incarnations on 99.7, 101.9, and 104.7.

 

[CamDAB]

There's enough diversity now in Ottawa that I'm not sure a format flip would work in that area with what stations are currently available.

But, if 2 stations added HD ratio, an HD2 stream on one could carry AM1310 oldies format and on another station (or the same station) could put an HD3 stream (at reduced bitrate) the info channel. This would add more flexibility in accommodating stations and if blowtorch powered stations are used, decent coverage could be had.

Now, if we really wanted to push the envelope, HD radio does have an all-digital mode with no FM fallback.... That would be interesting to test.

Cameron

 

[17671]

Got a chance to listen to 1310 News this morning, its pretty good. Its a replica of 680 news toronto, same theme music, and sound effects. It even had some toronto news reporters announcing some headlines too such as pam seattle, and barb di giulio, pretty cool.

It does not come in very clear by Pembroke, but its pretty darn clear around Cobden and south east. Hope This Helps!

 

[Walter Dnes]

Got a chance to listen to 1310 News this morning, its pretty good. Its a replica of 680 news toronto, same theme music, and sound effects. It even had some toronto news reporters announcing some headlines too such as pam seattle, and barb di giulio, pretty cool.

I assume that it's part of the "Rogers News Network" ("Son of CKO") and that they're all alike. At the bottom of the 680News web page http://www.680news.com/ is a list of the network stations...

* Toronto, ON -- 680News
* Vancouver, BC -- News1130
* Calgary, AB -- 660News
* Kitchener, ON -- 570News
* Saint John, NB -- News 88.9
* Moncton, NB -- News 91.9
* Halifax, NS -- News 95.7