 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| A Rainy Day In K-Town |
|
|
|
By Ben MacMurchy |
|
|
|
Monday, August 19 was a day off for yours truly and CHUC's Paul Herriot. Paul was bored out of his mind that afternoon, so we embarked on yet another road trip; this time, a return to Kingston.
Driving east on the 401, Paul was laughing hysterically at an e-mail sent to syndicated sports talker Jim Rome, heard
on The Team 1380 (CKLC Kingston). The e-mail was some reference to the board game "Clue", but Paul nearly
drove off the road laughing.
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
We arrived in the limestone city at around 2:00, and made our first stop at Kingston's youngest radio station, K-Rock 105.7 (CIKR-FM), where midday personality Nancy Slater welcomed us to the studios. Slater was on the air the whole afternoon, since "G", their afternoon driver, was doing mornings while Shadoe & Taz, the real morning team, were on vacation or something.
K-Rock's studio facilities are simply amazing. Look closely at the picture on the right: those are Neumann condenser mics, it's Scott's SS32 automation/live assist, and that's a Ward-Beck R2K board at the centre of the stand-up studio. The production room is much more impressive, and in this radio geek's opinion, the Tragically Hip could cut their next album here if they so desired. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
After flipping through the Kingston radio dial, we heard colleague Charlie Groulx on the air at community/educational station CKVI 91.9 FM "The Cave", based at Kingston Collegiate & Vocational Institute. The station was on from about 9am-4pm all summer, and Chuck was in charge of the station, at the same time doing a new music show called "Cave Stew". Here's a rarity among radio stations today: no computers in the on-air studio! CKVI's all-manual control room is based around a 10-channel Audioarts R-17 board, and contains two mics (one is an Electro-Voice RE-20), two Technics turntables, two Sony CD players, a JVC dual cassette deck, and a Sony MiniDisc machine. The station's transmitter is next door... a vintage Harris, running at the authorized 6.5 watts, with the antenna on the roof of the school.
Thinking we were running short of time, we headed downtown to the historic home of CHUM Radio Kingston, consisting of AC FLY FM (98.3) and The Team 1380 (CKLC). Their newly-renovated digs are in a old bank building at the northwest corner of Brock & Wellington Sts, with administration & sales on the second floor, studios & the newsroom on the third floor, and engineering topping it off on the fourth.
Each air studio is pretty much identical: a big McCurdy console, the digital system (AM uses DCS, FM uses Maestro), a mic or two, a skimmer, the phone system, and other little things hidden behind the racks. David Bussiere welcomed us to AM control, and talked about various Loyalist radio grads, and his responsibilities on The Team. On the way out, we were each handed a FLY FM mug and a Team 1380 T-shirt.
Unfortunately, the folks at the Corus cluster (CFFX 960, CFMK-FM 96.3, CKWS-TV 11) were a little too busy to take us around, considering the radio stations just moved back in with the TV station. We'll probably head back there sometime before internships come around. |
|
|
|
 |
|
Another priority on this trip was to see the two big FM/TV towers north of town. We first caught a glimpse of the CBC site, on McAdoo's Lane, north of the 401. Given the number of little industrial access roads along the Lane, we didn't take any chances looking for the right one. Instead, we just pulled over while I grabbed some close-ups of the antennas on the tower. (I apologize for the slanted photo; I didn't bother checking the bubble level on my tripod.) Anyway, three FM and two TV signals emanate from this 600-footer: both English-language CBC stations, the main French network, as well as rebroadcasters of TVO and the French CBC TV network. On the tower, the TV antennas are on top, with twelve FM bays below them, and a microwave antenna in between. |
|
|
|
Our final stop was way north of Kingston, near the little town of Harrowsmith (yes, the home of the magazine), where FLY FM calls its 519-foot tower home. FLY FM blasts out nearly 100 kW (95,500 watts to be exact) from a ten-bay antenna. Again, it was impossible to find the transmitter building, because the road there was long and winding. Plus, we don't like to trespass on CHUM property, or anybody else's property. Then again, if any engineers are reading this, please feel free to show us around your transmitter site next time we're in town.
During the Ice Storm of '98, the transmitter itself was destroyed after large chunks of ice fell from the tower and smashed right through the roof of the transmitter building. The signal from the backup transmitter barely reached the city limits. |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
Shortly after this trip, several events occurred in Kingston radio: firstly, eight days after, The Team folded as a network, with CKLC switching to adult standards, making our Team T-shirts relics. Secondly, Corus' GTO 960 (CFFX) dropped its network talk programming and became "Oldies 960". Thirdly, just after the Labour Day weekend, Chuck's boss at The Cave, Austin Lowe, passed away after complications from a heart attack. We send our condolences.
Back to the home page |
|