CKLW and WJR Radio

[charlestondxman]

I have gotten CKLW many times here in the Charleston area, as they used to come in stronger, but they are much weaker than WJR now. WJR still comes in, in fact, I am listening to them right now here. 

[nightfly61]

Technically, if you're lucky when Coast To Coast is on every so often George or Art let a tune slide in their entirety. Art's always good for letting Brandy by Looking Glass or Al Stewart's Year of the Cat. Just bumper songs "extended".

If you're in range of CKLW's nighttime signal, it can briefly remind you of the old days.
[/quote]
Not really since it's a completely different xmtr & I'm sure the processors are all newer units than what they used when it was music radio. Plus the settings are probably set for "talk" now. I wonder what they did with that gorgeous sounding old transmitter.

[Goldilocks94941]

I understand the nighttime directional pattern is more in compliance with what CKLW is licensed for, than it was "back in the day."  Also, one of their transmitter engineers told me on a tour of their facilities in Windsor back in 1974 (during the Big 8 heyday) that they modulated their transmitter at an average of 130% or something like that, and that they also boosted the signal on the sidbands to make it louder.  When dialing across the AM band - even from a far distance -- you had to stop and notice AM800.  Being Amplitude Modulation, it essentially made their signal something like 70,000 watts instead of 50,000 by having a custom transmitter setup which allowed it to be so loud, without distorting.  Since they are a Canadian station, they were able to bend the rules that US radio had to play by back then to have the loudest, strongest AM signal in the East. 

In Toledo and all along the south shore of Lake Erie, CKLW used to come in stronger than any of the local stations.  But for some years now, since changing hands and formats, the nighttime signal is still stronger than most of the local AMs in northern Ohio, but you can now hear some interference in the background at times in some places (since there actually is silence between words, unlike when it was a music station.)  Last time I checked (in September), their night signal also doesn't sound as good as far south as it used to, which again is my understanding of adhering to their licensed directional array, which puts most of the signal toward northern Ontario.  From Findlay south is isn't as dominant as it used to be from its 5-tower location straight up and across Lake Erie from Toledo. 

[gr8oldies]

I don't believe CKLW was operating with an illegal pattern, but eventually the CRTC made them shoot the majority of the signal into Canada. The pattern dipped southeast a little, where it's almost straight east now. Where I grew up in West central Ohio, after pattern change CKLW was much weaker but there. Trans World Radio pummelled it. When I went to Boys Scout camp in Defiance, Ohio, they were strong day and night. When I make trips north, I noticed I could barely get CKLW's night pattern in Bucyrus, Ohio (no doubt in the old days it would have been blasting in). They were perfect in Cedar Point's parking lot, however. Subsequent trips to the Lorain County area I've heard the present day CKLW strong, but you can hear some background din. I don't know about the modulation, I've read they actually kepy the modulation low but used other techniques to keep the Big 8 sou ding crisp and loud (Canada was not Mexico). They had an old RCA transmitter and I don't know that it would have taken 130% modulation.

[Goldilocks94941]

OK - maybe it was 125% modulation.  But trust me, I visited CKLW just out of high school, and plenty of people there were nice enough to show me and my other radio aficianado friend around the place.  The guy who designed the customized transmitter for them explained it to us, and and I said, "so does that effectively mean you're really like a 70,000 watts station with the higher amplitude you put out?," and he twinkled back, "yes." 

There was some kind of a deal going on back then that let CKLW escape a lot of attention for awhile, until the Canadian content regulations forced them to play more Canadian artists.  Wasn't such a bad thing.  Without them, where would Terry Jacks be today?? 

[gr8oldies]

Around what year out of curiosity? I know CKLW got a new transmitter around 1975. I worked at a station that had the same Optimod.

The CRTC was never happy about the success CKLW had in Detroit. RKO, then Baton had to make CKLW-FM All Windsor All the Time to keep the CRTC at bay.

Could I have lived without "Seasons in the Sun".....yeah.

[Goldilocks94941]

I showed up one afternoon at the CKLW studios on Oulette Avenue in the spring of 1974, and got around a half hour tour of the station without having made an appointment.  Got to meet some of the important people, and everyone was gracious and patient with an inquisitive and opinionated 17 year old who wanted to see the place and ask a few questions about radio.  That's how I got the inside info on the customized transmitter and why it not only sounded louder than other stations, but was louder, and without distorting.  Their signal was so powerful along western Lake Erie, I used to hear them jump frequency and bleed all over the AM dial when driving under a big set of power lines along the DT&I railroad tracks (the ones that run paralled and between Telegraph Ave and I-75) near the Ohio-Michigan line, some 35 or 40 miles south of their transmitter site.

Now that was radio you simply had to notice.

[Jay Walker]

Before XELO/XEROK made the power increase/facility upgrade CKLW was a regular catch in south central Kansas in the late 60's and early 70's. The only station pre-XEROK that caused "interference" in my location way back when was PJB-Trans World Radio "On the Island of Bonare in The Lesser Antilles"

The Big 8 always sounded good, and definitely had the signature sound of "Positive Peak" modulation.
As a technical aside positive peak modulation levels in the US and Canada were and are still allowed up to 125%.
Negative peaks are of course limited to 100%. The old GE, RCA, and Continental 50,000 watt plate modulated transmitters of the era had tremendously over-built power supply and modulator stages to handle the higher positive peak modulation.

CKLW was one of the great ones...

[nightfly61]

Still wondering how much a full timer like Teddy Bear, Johnny Williams or Super Max made a year. Anybody? Also, how about what the news dept. made & JoJo in the Sky?