Yesterday at 16:00:11 (that's 11 seconds after 4pm) an era ended in Peterborough when our city's, and one of the region's oldest radio signals went dark. Just a little over three months after we flipped to 100.5, Corus technicians Paul Lee and Henry P. hit the "off" button and silenced a radio signal that has been broadcasting continuously for 67 years—first at 1430, then at 980.
It was done without fanfare, or circumstance. A signal that has served as a backdrop for three generations and has been witness to the evolution of this city since March of 1942, was unceremoniously abandoned.
980 was a part of my life, continuously, for 33 years.
I'm a sentimental sort—and while I applauded the decision to move to the FM band (really, we HAD to for competitive and technological reasons) I wanted to make a bigger deal of the switch back in June than we did. "Let's get some of the former staff of 980 down here, the day before the flip, and do a trip down memory lane," I said. I envisioned a grand audio retrospective that might have featured the voices of Sean Eyre, the late George Franks, Ted Woloshyn, even Wally Crowter of CFRB fame (who worked at CHEX, the precursor to CKRU, as a young man before making the move to CFRB and in so doing making broadcasting history.
No, I was told—and not just by a few—that it would be the wrong thing to do. We were basically invoking a simple transfer of our service over to FM. And I saw their point.
Conversely, I thought the time to do something would be the day when the music died on AM. The day when they switched it off. Nothing fancy, but just mark it somehow.
Nothing doing. Somebody just hit the 'off' button. That was it.
It's unfortunate that we have lost 980, as it has served to bolster an FM signal that, so far, has left a lot to be desired. Efforts are still in the works to improve the signal, so folks in Lindsay, Bobcaygeon and Campbellford—among other places—can pick us up without interference. Of course we have a fabulous audio feed online 24/7 at www.kruzfm.ca so in reality, anybody with a computer and a decent connection speed can listen to us anywhere, anytime.
But that doesn't help people who have dial-up, or don't have a PC (and there are some), and it doesn't help in the car. For those having trouble getting 100.5 on FM, 980 on AM served to fill in the blanks.
But that couldn't go on forever. There were commitments that forced the hand of our parent company, apparently, to silence 980 when it did—which was yesterday. It's too bad.
But what really irks me is that there was no reference to it happening. None. And I think our company erred in taking that position. My position is that it was newsworthy.
980—and 1430 before it—was a constant companion back when AM dominated the airwaves, and even more recently when…in the face of increasing competition from FM, the Internet, a 500-channel TV universe and satellite radio (and the ubiquitous mp3 player and iPod) 980 KRUZ held its own as a community and music station to which Peterborough City and County residents felt compelled to listen for news, sports, community happenings, entertainment.
That was also true in 1942. And we all know what was happening in the world in 1942.
More recently 980 was there to celebrate the construction and arrival of the new Peterborough Regional Health Center, and reported on the demolition of the old Civic Hospital.
But we were also there way back when the old Civic was just being built. We were there when the Centennial Fountain was installed in Little Lake and, for that matter through the entire evolution of Little Lake from a Canada Packer's dumping ground to what has become a music and tourism Mecca—not to mention a beautiful park in the heart of the downtown.
980 reported on the construction of Peterborough Square, the original Lansdowne Place and Portage Place. We reported on the contentious debate that saw the King Street Parkade located over Jackson Creek, much to the chagrin of environmentalists who preferred the location where the Promenade building now stands.
980 bore witness to the loss of Eatons, the evolution of the old Empress Hotel to Empress Gardens, and the construction and subsequent occupation of the MNR building at Robinson Place.
And 980 served as a backdrop to the entire Parkway debate since the very beginning.
Times change, and the evolution towards FM was one we could not ignore. Be that as it may, AM 980 remained a source of entertainment and information for more than 67 years. Our's was the first AM service in the region and lasted the longest, following the demise of CKPT 1420 and CKLY 910. We lasted longer than our Kingston affiliate, CFFX (the former CKWS) that was retired two years ago.
We retain the capacity to inform and entertain as we always have, with even more opportunities on FM. Internet technology allows us to push our service to the four corners of the globe, and affords us the opportunity to go anywhere in the world and transmit back to the studios and make it sound like we're just down the street. Those advantages can't be ignored.
That said, we should not have ignored, for historical purposes, the retirement of a vehicle with a long history in Peterborough. It was the end of an era yesterday at 16:00:11, and not a word was spoken.
I think it's a damn shame.