FORMER COUNCILLOR HERBERT OPPOSES CBC MOVE

FORMER COUNCILLOR HERBERT OPPOSES CBC MOVE

Hi All, below in bold is a post former City Councillor, Alan Herbert, sent to CBC on its proposed move from AM to FM--Jamie Lee.

The move of a talk station to FM makes no sense at all. FM signals are the ones that are inconsistent suffering interference from as little as the swaying of tree leaves. AM is powerful, it carries hundreds of miles during the day, and thousands of miles at night because the ionosphere freezes and bounces the signals. It does not bounce FM or TV signals. In the old days (I am old) stations like KNX, KABC, KFI and KNBC from Los Angeles; KGO and KCBS from San Francisco plus KING, KOMO, KVI and KIRO from Seattle, all of them broadcasting on AM, were listed in the daily program listings of the Vancouver Sun.

All of those stations and about a dozen more still can be heard clearly any night of the year … the Seattle ones during the day as well.

Those were the days of network radio. FM stations have never been listed because their signals do not carry over long distances and to underscore that ‘inconvenient truth’ the CBC has had to apply for a series of ‘Radio One’ rebroadcast transmitters for the Fraser Valley, Howe Sound, Gulf Islands and Vancouver Island just to fill in the geographical gaps that an FM transmitter in Vancouver cannot cover. That is not necessary with AM – the job is done without rebrods.

FM is for music. It does yield superior sound but so what, that is for music, not talk, news or information. Further, the audience is greater on FM only because there is a large audience seeking music. But the number one and number two stations in the market remain, as they do in Seattle , News-TALK stations on AM.

The move to FM makes no sense. If they want Radio One on FM, install a rebrod to do that and leave 690-AM alone.

Alan

Alan Herbert
(604)736-3990
ahbbl@shaw.ca