CBD-FM

CBD went on the air October 15. It was owned and operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. CBD operated on a frequency of 1110 kHz with a full-time power of 10,000 watts.

CBC Radio’s all-night service, started in 1963, came to an end on March 1. When the service started it was primarily intended as a national information and warning system to be used in emergencies. Even though the service had now ended, the CBC said it would maintain a stand-by procedure through the night and broadcasts would begin immediately in the event of an emergency.

On April 10, the CBC was granted an FM rebroadcaster at Saint John on 91.3 MHz to duplicate the programming of CBD-AM. The duplicate channel was needed in order to offset severe night-time coverage deficiencies of the AM signal and to improve the reception of the station in outlying areas.

CBD-FM 91.3 with 100,000 watts of power, signed on the air on May 13 to simulcast CBD 1110. The FM antenna was on Mount Champlain.

On July 14, 1987, the CRTC renewed the licence for CBD to August 31, 1989. The CBC’s application for renewal of CBD Saint John was published for comment, calling representatives of the CBC to appear at a public hearing in May 1987, to show cause why the licence should be renewed beyond September 30, 1987. The CBC was using two frequencies to simulcast its English-language basic AM services in Saint John for more than seven years, despite the Commission’s repeated requests that the Corporation find more appropriate means of serving the people in these communities and the CBC’s own commitment to phase out the duplicated services at the latest by November 1, 1986. In Saint John, the CBC distributed the English-language basic service via CBD on 1110 kHz and 91.3 MHz. The use of two frequencies to provide a duplicate service to the same area was contrary to a long-standing policy of the Commission and the Department of Communications. The Commission licensed the operation of an FM broadcasting station to rebroadcast the AM programming service of CBD Saint John on April 10, 1980 at the request of the CBC, in order to offset severe night-time coverage deficiencies of the AM signal and to improve the reception of the station in outlying areas. Decision CRTC 80-292, approving the Corporation’s application under the Accelerated Coverage Plan for an English-language rebroadcaster of CBD Saint John, stated: At licence renewal time the Commission intends to review with the CBC the need for the continued use of the AM [frequency] … 1110 kHz, particularly in view of spectrum demands for the area. The decision noted the statement of a CBC representative that the Corporation wished to retain the CBD frequency “until everybody is satisfied that the accessibility of programming on the FM transmitter is equal to the accessibility of the programming on the AM transmitter…” The Commission also noted that the new FM transmitter would “extend the English-language AM radio network service of the CBC” to four previously unserved communities. It was clear from these statements that the Commission intended the simulcasting of the AM radio programming on the FM band in each of these communities as a temporary measure to ease the transition of listeners from the AM to FM frequency band. The Commission recognized that service deficiencies existed in some areas and was particularly sensitive to the concerns reflected in interventions received from the public in the Saint John region and from their elected representatives with respect to the continued use of CBD and its importance for listeners who were unable to receive the FM rebroadcasts of the signal. It also noted that the engineering solutions to the duplication problem presented by the CBC were inordinately costly at a time when the Corporation’s budget was subject to serious restraint. The Commission considered it unacceptable that the CBC had failed to embark upon a meaningful campaign to inform its radio listeners of the availability of its basic radio service on FM. Such promotion could have changed listening habits, as had happened in other areas of the country where the CBC moved its AM service to FM frequencies, and might well have altered the current situation. The Commission also considered it unfortunate that the CBC failed to submit any practical proposals for an early and reasonable solution to these difficulties. However, because of the strong representations received from the communities involved, the Commission was prepared, notwithstanding its serious concerns in this matter, to grant an exemption to its policy for a further interim period of two years. The exemption was intended specifically to allow the CBC, in concert with the CRTC and the DOC, the time necessary to find a practical and reasonable solution to this problem that would ensure that listeners in the Saint John area receive complete and adequate signal coverage of the English-language CBC basic radio services. 

CBD-AM was to have gone silent by November 1, 1986 but the CBC kept it going until September of this year. In the end, CBD-AM operated on 1110 kHz with a power of 10,000 watts (directional at night). 

CBD-FM operated the following rebroadcasters: CBZA-FM Grand Manan and CBAO St. Stephen.  CBD-FM rebroadcasts programming originating with the CBC English AM network, and originates 21 hours and 50 minutes of locally-produced programming weekly.

CBC Radio added overnight programming to its schedule on May 1, with “CBC Radio Overnight”. The programming started out on certain CBC stations and was expanded to all of its stations by September. The program aired between 1:00 and 6:00 a.m. (local time) and offered reports from public broadcasters in 25 countries, with Canadian news on the hour. The program service was provided by the World Radio Network in London, England.

The CBC Radio network (CBC Radio) was renamed “CBC Radio One” on September 1.

CBD-FM operated the following transmitters: CBZA-FM Grand Manan (on air since October 15, 1975) and CBAO St. Stephen (on air since January 30, 1963). CBD-FM broadcasts approximately 25 hours of local programming each week from Saint John.

On July 26, CBD-FM was given approval to decrease effective radiated power from 100,000 watts to 80,000 watts and to increase antenna height. 

On May 12 the CRTC renewed CBD-FM’s licence. The renewal included the following rebroadcast transmitters: CBAO St. Stephen and CBZA-FM Grand Manan. 

On August 9, the CRTC administratively renewed the licence of CBD-FM (and its transmitters) to August 31, 2011.

Three Saint John stations (News 88.9, CBC Radio One and CBC Radio Two) were knocked off the air in November when high winds interrupted power at the CBC transmission tower. Service for listeners was down for about three hours. Rogers’ Atlantic News Director Mark Campbell said CBC technicians were doing electrical upgrades to the transmitter and had disconnected the back-up generator.

On August 25, the CRTC administratively renewed the licence for CBD-FM and its transmitters to March 1, 2013.

Succeeding John Agnew as regional director of radio and television at CBC Yellowknife was Janice Stein, who had been managing editor at CBC St. John’s. 

On February 22, the CRTC administratively renewed the licences for CBD-FM Saint John and its transmitters to August 31, 2013.

On May 28, the CRTC renewed the licence of CBD-FM Saint John and its transmitters CBZA-FM Grand Manan and CBAO St. Stephen, for a five year term to August 31, 2018.

On November 6, the CRTC approved the CBC’s application to amend the licence for CBD-FM Saint John in order to operate an FM transmitter in St. Stephen to replace the existing AM transmitter CBAO. The new transmitter would operate at 88.1 MHz (channel 201A1) with an average effective radiated power of 233 watts (non-directional).

On July 3, the CRTC approved the application for CBD-FM in to change the frequency of its transmitter CBD-FM-1 St. Stephen from 88.1 to 106.3 MHz. 

On April 20, the CRTC approved the CBC’s application to increase the power of CBD 91.3 from 80,000 to 88,960 watts (average and maximum ERP). Antenna height would be lowered from 395 to 374.6 metres (EHAAT).