CANADIAN RADIO NEWS – Jon Pearkins jon@pearkins.com
530 ON Brampton CHLO HD (hybrid/IBOC) transmissions have resumed according to several DXers in the area. The station previously suffered transmitter damage that saw them discontinue HD. CHLO is the only remaining station in Canada on 530; all others have either moved to FM or failed to renew their licenses. During the last major rebuilt of the transmitter site, nearly 20 years ago, owner Evanov explored all possible options to create a decent signal into all areas of Toronto. The international treaty governing broadcasting in most of North America was found to set a maximum of 1000 watts day and 250 watts night non-directional for stations on 530, to avoid interference with existing airport beacons just below
530. With no other restrictions stated, Evanov opted to build a very tall tower to adequately serve the majority of their ethnic audience who live in Toronto and its suburbs. The recent addition of HD was done in hopes of eliminating background noise in RFI-plagued areas of Toronto.

680 MB Winnipeg CJOB Owner Corus has two FM stations in Winnipeg, CFPG-FM and CJKR-FM. Corus just eliminated the announcers on CFPG-FM, promising a new format soon. Nonetheless it is widely
speculated that the move is part of the preparations for the station to become a simulcast of CJOB once a CRTC decision is made on Calgary AB Corus station CHQR’s surprise move to simulcast full-time on CFGQ-FM at the beginning of this year, without appropriate CRTC licensing in place. Corus is also expected to move to FM simulcasts of CHED Edmonton AB and CKNW New Westminster BC. As for the rest of the Corus AM stations, not all are planned for FM simulcasts but are more likely to be shut down as Bell did with most of its Western Canada AM stations. Of course, a few will remain as is when both the current AM and FM stations are financially viable.

1220 ON St Catharines CFAJ The live two host morning show did debut at 0600 September 25th, with their own Newsman providing News and Sports. The show was not aired the next morning but has since resumed, along with the Afternoon Drive program.
The station’s classic1220.ca web site has promised more hosted programming for the near future, including Rockin Rewind and The X-Zone, covering similar topics to Coast to Coast AM. It originally aired on competitor CKTB-610 and is promised to be, appropriately, just in time for Hallowe’en.

1330 SK Rosetown CJYM Full-time simulcasting of CFYM-1210 Kindersley SK was confirmed by checking the streaming web sites of both stations during their weekday Morning Show. Both stations were playing the same song at the same time.

Canadian Radio News (CRN) posts on https://radiowest.ca by Dan Sys provide much of the information for this column, with additional tips from https://sowny.net
IRCA DX Monitor Oct 7, published Oct 2 via WOR iog (2023-10-03 )

Broadcast Station Totals as of September 30, 2023
https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-23-921A1.pdf

Dennis Gibson to irca iog (2023-10-03)

I have picked up in Southern Sweden this station with a repetitive interval signal on 1449 kHz.
I have been told it is located somewhere in northern Italy.
Any idea?

Karl-Erik Stridh (2023-10-03)

The Ministry of the Dominican Republic now lists new prefixes for some of the stations in an updated list.
Unfortunately, the name of the stations ”on the air” are not always given, but the name of the licensee. Here are the prefixes for the stations in Dominican Republic that were reported to MV-Eko season 56 onwards:
540 HICM ABC Radio, Santo Domingo
660 HIAM R Visión Cristiania. Santiago
670 HILB R Dial, San Pedro de Macorís
790 HIL La Voz del Trópico, Santo Domingo
830 HIJB Emisora HIJB, Santo Domingo
1200 HIDD648 R VEN, Santo Domingo
1240 HIBQ81 R María, Santo Domingo
1330 HIDD296 R Visión Cristiana, Santo Domingo
1430 HIBQ79 R Emanuel, Santiago
1440 HIAK R Impactante, Santo Domingo
1560 HIDE364 R Única, Santiago
1580 HIBQ38 R Amanecer, Santo Domingo
1590 HIDA R Libertad, Santiago
1640 HIBQ73 R Juventud, Santo Domingo
1670 HIBQ83 LV del Yuna, Bonao
1680 HIBQ67 R Senda, San Pedro de Macorís
INDOTEL via Mauno Ritola, ARC‘s mv-eko (2023-10-02)

BBC longwave update.
On 25 Sep the BBC started, as first reported by participants of the Digital Spy forum, to put an announcement at the end of its Daily Service programme:
(BBC announcement 25-29 Sep 2023.mp3)

This confirmed what will not be more than an interim solution because it is planned to close the BBC Radio 4 Extra channel within the next few years, too. It further confirmed the closure date of the Radio 4 (LW version) mediumwave fill-in transmitters. And it suggested that no BBC programming would appear on 198 kHz anymore from April.

But the Daily Service edition on 2 Oct contained a redone announcement, now again with the already known wording about the end of “a separate longwave schedule”, leaving open the possibility, while not really confirming it, that BBC programme material could still be transmit on 198 kHz after March.
(BBC announcement 02 Oct 2023.mp3)

There are indications that the transmitters could stay on air beyond 31 March because the Teleswitching function will still be needed. It looks as if the BBC is not willing to pay a single penny for that, thus previous references to a “third party platform” and the avoidance of clearly stating what will happen.

Digital Spy participants wonder if perhaps regulatory problems could be seen for putting out a carrier without AM component on this broadcasting signal, as France does on 162 kHz for soon to be seven years now. On the other hand some could say “competitive advantage” if the BBC has its programming put on such an expensive distribution platform free of charge. So it looks as if the piggybacking of the Teleswitch application now leads to a bad mess.

Kai Ludwig(2023-10-02)

549 kHz Radio Rossii transmitter is situated in Bolshakovo and not in Kaliningrad [both in Kaliningrad Oblast but approx. 90 kilometers apart/Ed].
It is currently on air and audible on SDRs in Finland.
It also reached Romania, but very weak.
Video of the transmitter hall:
https://vk.com/public158109176?w=wall-158109176_3446

Marco (2023-10-02)