Bayshore Broadcasting’s AM 560 CFOS will switch to FM radio August 1st.
After 85 years on the AM waves, the station will continue on the FM dial at the new 89.3 CFOS FM.
Managing Director Peter McKeown, says CFOS will continue to offer your favourite programming, noting, “It’s a wonderful radio station we have wonderful heritage products and announcers and more importantly we’re all set to broadcast for another 85 years at 89.3.”
The station will flip to FM August 1st, just after the 8 o’clock news with special programming and visits from local representatives, organizations, government and clubs.
The company has been working on reinforcing its FM tower for a number of months to accommodate the additional FM signal. There will be a simulcast period where the station will continue to play on the AM signal and also launch on the FM. The simulcast will end at the end of October.
Director of Operations Ian Solecki says, “While the AM signal could sometimes be received well outside of the local area, as far as Toronto or even the United States under certain conditions, it has significant limitations within Grey & Bruce.”
He explains, “Federal regulations require the power to be reduced substantially every day from sunset to sunrise, and some substantial areas of Grey and Bruce counties are unable to get the AM signal clearly under any conditions. Increasing interference from electrical systems, the lack of AM radios in electric vehicles, sensitivity to weather conditions, and the increasing cost of operating and maintaining an AM transmission site were all contributing factors to the decision to move the station to FM.”
Solecki says, “The new FM signal will broadcast at 1,500 watts from the top of Bayshore’s 700’ broadcasting tower in Georgian Bluffs, and will reach most parts of Grey & Bruce counties 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in all weather conditions. The station will also continue to stream online, through the Radioplayer app, and on smart speakers.
A testing period is underway.
McKeown says, “When we test this signal it’s done so you can hear and listen to different waves of the sonic spectrum and it’s also to see how are we being picked up in Walkerton, how are we being picked up in Meaford.. so we’re going to test all kinds of things but not much is changing to CFOS,”
He says, “It will be a process and that’s why I ask for everybody’s patience as we continue to tweak it, adding, “It is very much a living breathing signal that shoots out over the airwaves.”
Solecki says “You won’t hear any off-air periods. The station will continue to broadcast right through until we launch on FM and then right through until we turn off the AM in October.”
Solecki says some things will be adjusted on the station to suit its new place on the FM dial, including its positioning statement.
Solecki says, “For a long time we have said, ‘The oldies you want the info you need on CFOS,’ and certainly we’ve lived by that, but the positioning statement that we are using going forward —and we put a lot of thought into this and everybody at the company had some input on it—- is ‘Putting Grey Bruce first.’
Solecki says, “That is the mantra by which we will live our lives going forward on CFOS. Not that we haven’t before, but we really want to put that foot forward for you.”
Program Director Rob Mattice says, CFOS will always be a community station, and the source for information for all of Grey Bruce. He adds, “Musically, we’re not going to make a whole lot of changes. A lot of the stuff we play now will stay on the new FM signal as well.”
The musical era will largely be from about the 1960s to 2001.
“It’s going to sound better, it’s going to be in stereo,” says Mattice.
Many programs will continue including Dial A Deal, bingo, funerals, birthdays and anniversaries, Open Line the food and ag report and Community Connection.
While some things will stay the same, there are some new highlights including that every Owen Sound Attack game, both home and away will be broadcast on the new 89.3 CFOS FM.
Follow the new 89.3 CFOS FM on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/893cfos