{"id":9165,"date":"2016-08-27T10:26:10","date_gmt":"2016-08-27T14:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/?p=9165"},"modified":"2023-03-19T11:59:45","modified_gmt":"2023-03-19T15:59:45","slug":"%d0%bf%d1%80%d0%be%d1%89%d0%b0%d1%82%d1%8c%d1%81%d1%8f","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/2016\/08\/%d0%bf%d1%80%d0%be%d1%89%d0%b0%d1%82%d1%8c%d1%81%d1%8f\/","title":{"rendered":"\u041f\u0440\u043e\u0449\u0430\u0442\u044c\u0441\u044f!"},"content":{"rendered":"

This information is from an occasional reader who wished to remain anonymous.<\/p>\n

Another AM station surrenders its license, this time from north of the border. CKSL<\/a>, London, Ontario, Canada is gone for good.\u00a0 The current owner, Bell Media, has determined that it would cost more to repair the deficiencies with the antenna system than economically feasible, especially considering its low ratings.\u00a0 Here is their filing with the CRTC:<\/p>\n

Bell Media is the licensee of CKSL-AM 1410, assuming stewardship of the station in 2013 as part of the Astral Media acquisition.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

A technical review of the transmitter site was recently completed both by Bell Media and contractors, which has resulted in the determination that the AM array poses an unacceptable risk from a health and safety perspective.\u00a0 The five towers are experiencing serious structural degradation and also require repairs to the aviation safety lighting system. In addition, the building which houses the transmitter has shifted off its foundation (as have several of the individual tower sheds). <\/em><\/p>\n

Given these problems, Bell Media would need to make a significant financial investment to bring CKSL-AM\u2019s transmitter up to compliance with Human Resources Development Canada, Industry Canada and NavCanada operational codes and standards, all of which is estimated to exceed $3 million dollars.<\/em><\/p>\n

From a market perspective, CKSL-AM has consistently ranked last out of all ten commercial stations in the London market, both in audience share and revenue generation, over the last several years.\u00a0 In fact, since 2013 the London market has seen radio revenues drop 4% and CKSL-AM generates the least amount of revenue of the stations in the market. Even with a significant investment in programming, this trend is unlikely to be reversed.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

In light of the significant capital costs coupled with the absence of revenue and audience share, Bell Media is respectfully requesting the revocation of the CKSL licence. <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, 24\/7 comedy will do that to you.\u00a0 Somebody in the business said to me recently “The listeners are abandoning radio!”\u00a0 No, it is the broadcast station owners who are abandoning their listeners and their cities of license.\u00a0 I have a news flash for all current broadcast station owners; as surprising and radical as this might sound, bland, boring, canned, completely irrelevant, dismal, uninformative, unimaginative, unentertaining, dreary, stale, unenjoyable programming will drive away even the most loyal listeners.\u00a0 People really want to listen to the radio, it is an easy habit and readily accessible.\u00a0 Radios are ubiquitous; they are in our kitchens, bedrooms, cars, hotel rooms, offices, restaurants, barber shops, etc.\u00a0 That, however, may not always be the case, as more and more people move to Spotify, Pandora, or Apple radio when they are tired of the disappointment.\u00a0 I was listening to a certain sports radio format the other day and I kept waiting for something interesting to happen.\u00a0 I waited and waited. I would say to myself; okay, this will be the segment when I will learn something or be entertained.\u00a0 This upcoming guest will say something interesting.\u00a0 Sadly, those expectations were never met and I will never tune into that station again. Elevator music would have been better.\u00a0 Worse than sports radio, 24\/7 comedy is the absolute death knell.\u00a0 This is like saying; we are out of ideas and we do not care.<\/p>\n

Here are a few pictures of the former CKSL-AM transmitter site:<\/p>\n

\"CKSL<\/a>
CKSL antenna array<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"CKSL_transmitter\"<\/a>
CKSL transmitter building<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"CKSL_transmission\"<\/a>
CKSL transmission line bridge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"CKSL_tower\"<\/a>
CKSL tower base<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Actually does not look too bad, at least the field is mowed. I have seen much, much worse.\u00a0 Those bolt-together towers, though. I would bet that they are the real problem, bolts are deteriorating faster than the tower steel. Very likely all the towers need to be replaced and that is why the license is being surrendered.<\/p>\n

If you are a radio geek, get out there and take some pictures of your favorite radio station.\u00a0 If the current trends continue, eventually they will all be gone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This information is from an occasional reader who wished to remain anonymous. Another AM station surrenders its license, this time from north of the border. CKSL, London, Ontario, Canada is gone for good.\u00a0 The current owner, Bell Media, has determined that it would cost more to repair the deficiencies with the antenna system than economically … Continue reading \u041f\u0440\u043e\u0449\u0430\u0442\u044c\u0441\u044f!<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[87,284,18],"class_list":["post-9165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-am","tag-am-tower","tag-am-transmitter-site"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9165"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11116,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9165\/revisions\/11116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}