Hi Sky Valley and everyone, I had not seen much from you recently, so it's good to see you back again. Yes that's quite an idea, doing a test on 87.7 MHz. once CHEK TV leaves the airwaves. VE7ROX are you listening????? Anyway, I'm sure we will give it some thought. If you read my posting today under the thread FM DX alert you'll see my comment about CFSI coming in the strongest yet on Sunday night at Thorne Hill, Maple Ridge. It was good hearing it that strong, like a local station, even with CFML in the same general direction. CJUJ FM is a cousin to the CFAY of yesterday, which is operated by VE7ROX. We were trying for signals on 89.1, hoping to hear CJJZ Saltspring from Thorne Hill ( a really hot DX location that we hadn't been at for 25 years). What we heard on Sunday night was a repeater or FM translator from Mt. Vernon, WA, of KAWZ or KEFX (Cause and Effect), two religious FM broadcasters operated by Calvary Chapel, with a lot of gospel music programming. That 89.1 FM from Mt. Vernon is only about l0 watts so it was amazing hearing it on Thorne Hill. It was weak but listenable. Could not hear anything else on 89.1 . We were DXing there on Sunday Night from about 9 PM to midnight. Was CJJZ on-air, and is it operated 24/7??? By the way Sky Valley, I really like your CJJZ website, love to hear the station, do you stream on the internet? So far I haven't been able to find it on any of my WiFi radios. They use the Reciva and Vweb portal lists. Both lists can access well over 12000 radio stations worldwide, including a lot from Canada and the USA. That includes Internet Only stations.
Oh, I made one mistake about 89.1 - ROX had brought the FM transmitter along,and associated computer studio equipment (for an audio feed), and fired it up at the top of Thorne Hill. It was running one quarter of a watt stereo, and CJUJ was getting out about a mile radius. Didn't do the range check beyond that. ROX was sending a lot of CJUJ FM 89.1 station ID's, with lots of surf music playing. He had it operating mobile, from the vehicle, and it was on for about 1 and a half hours. We phoned Dan who lives near downtown Maple Fridge, and he tried for it on his GE Superadio. He was about 5 or 6 miles west of Thorne Hil. He later told me he didn't hear it. So CJUJ was the other station on 89.1 that night, besides the repeater out of Mt. Vernon, WA.
By the way SKY VALLEY, I have a large brown envelope with some CFAY historical memorabilia, and other radio related items, that I am going to send to you. VE7ROX got me your address from the amateur radio list, but I was holding off mailing it till I get a confirmation of your mailing address. If you want to send me the mailing address by e-mail through RadioWest, that would be great. I'll send the envelope right away. Also SKY VALLEY, did you ever try coming out to the North Surrey area or New West, to listen for CFAY 1360 or 1357 back in 1969 or 1970? We were not on-air 24 Hours, or even l8 Hours daily, but were on a lot weekends and from 4 or 5 PM to 4 or 5 AM quite often, certainly practically every weekend. CFAY had regular DX tests on Sunday and Monday mornings, especially when KMO Tacoma went off-air for equipment maintenance. On one such date, a DX friend and member of the IRCA (Bruce Portzer), heard CFAY 1357 in Seattle, WA, while we operated with about only 8 watts! Brian "Crash" Williams verified the DX report he sent to us. I believe he still has the verification letter and considers it one of his best DX catches. Jon knows more about this.
Of all the CFAY staff from 1967 to say the early 1970s I really thought that one of them would probably start or buy a licensed radio station in the future. RadioFan, Pluto and Jon P. certainly could operate a radio station well in my opinion. They probably could do a better job than some of the large radio corporations that seem to care only about the bottom line! I do realize that the bottom line (profit margin) is important but not at the expense of ruining radio creativity and reducing the quality of radio station staff. Also the enthusiasm and fun in radio seems to be lost by large radio corporations that own stations. One thing about CFAY, even though it may have been a beginners rinky dink radio station, we had a lot of enthusiasm and fun at it! Of course as you get older and have worked at various radio stations, some people can get a bit burned out in the radio profession. You aren't quite as enthusiastic as when you are young!!! One thing I really like in Canada is the relatively new developmental 5 watt licenses that the CRTC started in the early 2000s. Those are for 5 Watt Development License Radio stations on the AM and FM Band in Canada. We have several in B.C. including CFCH Chase, CHLS Lillooet and CJMP Powell River, there are others as well. One for Hornby Island, CHFR, still isn't on-air yet. Anyway, of all the ones licensed so far, they are all on the FM Band. It was for AM too but none licensed yet at 5 Watts AM. If time and finances permit, I may just apply in the near future for a 5 watt AM station, and CFAY might come to life again!!! That's a big IF, but who knows what the near future may hold!
One other question Sky Valley, how long did you work at KYAC 1460 Kirkland/Seattle, WA? I really liked listening to KYAC in the early l970s, enjoyed all the R and B music which we didn't hear much up here in Greater Vancouver. CFAY did play some from the Duke-Peacock label including Bobby Bland, Little Carl Carleton and O.V. Wright among others. If I remember correctly the Little Carl Carleton songs used to drive PLUTO crazy when we played them!!! I think I still have some in my record collection. Dan Sys, Cool Bill (he was only about l2 years old!) and I visited KYAC in the downtown Seattle about 1970 or so. I also have some old music charts from KYAC in my collection. I later listened to them on 1250 AM. Great station!!! There was a really nice poster that Pluto made about CFAY, I think it went up in one of the local record stores in Greater Vancouver, back in 1968 or 1969. He has a real talent for artwork!!! Anyway, take care, look forward to hearing from you Sky Valley by e-mail. You can use either of my P.O. Boxes too, but of course that's slower.