First Chapter : CANADA 2003 TRAVEL 1-25 August 2003
London Stop
My story will be in Monferinglish....

Greetings from Toronto, today after an Odisseya travel we arrived
here in Toronto sky city with only 3,40 hours delay...
Our fligh from Milano Malpensa on 1st august to London H. was perfect
one, and we arrived on friday at 1850 hours , my place was near
window , north view, so the Alpi mountains was a great show...but no snow at all!
From London H. Airport by Metro line Piccadilly we arrived in 50
minutes directly to Piccadilly Circus, in the subway we looked at the "show" done by a
local "Latinos" ganggroup drinking Gin and Koke... and dancing & looking at tourist bags...hi
We crossed the dirty square of Piccadilly Circus full of strange "dark" people...
and we saw new London Riscio (like in Japan) cost 3 pounds a ride for
2 people....may be we will test it next time.
We had time to try a short visit to Virgin Radio London ... but sorry too late....
the offices was closed... however my eagle view eyes... seen 2 "VIP Pass
Virgin Radio sticker round"(they geave them only to visitors) on an steel
street info parking traffic and so we had this sticker for our collections.
The Italian restaurant "IL CUCCIOLO" located very close to Piccadilly
Circus, was still open and so we eat Spaghetti allo Scoglio (me) and
Tortelloni burro e salvia( Roberto).... both very good ...
Our Hotel in Victoria area , St.George Hotel in St.George street was
met at 1100 hours pm... 75 pounds one night....but only one soap found to
wash our hands.........
But before to close the day ...we had time to do an FM Bandscan of
London... and great surprise to log 46 FM pirates and 8 with RDS....
87,6 FLAVA FM; 87,9 SHINE FM ; 88,4 VISION fm (GREAT RAGGAE SOUND!);
88,6 HOUSE FM (GREAT JINGLES WITH TUBE EFFECT); 89,60 FLARE FM
(BOOMING SIGNALS); 89,80 STATION FM (ALSO HEARD IN 1997 VISIT TO
LONDON); CHILL FM (VERY "TOSTA" STATION); 90,4 YIPER FM; 90,60 Y.2 K.;
90,8 LIGHTNING FM (RASTA MUSIC); 92,30 DEJA VU FM; 92,70 FREEZE FM
(WITH LIVE ! PHONECALLS); 93,80 VIBES FM (NOTHING TO DO WITH VIBE FM) GREAT
RAGGAE MIX; 94,00 PURE FM; 94,20 BLUES FM; 94,40 STREET FM LONDON; 95,20
ORIGIN FM ; 95,40 ROOTS FM LONDON (RASTA MIX); 96,6 BEAT 966 ; 97,10 UNKNOWN
FM (INCREDIBLE DJ WITH BEAR VOICE); 97,60 BOUNCE FM; 97,90 BASSLINE FM (A
B0MB...RDS BASSLINE); 98,10 RAMPAGE FM; 99,30
FLASHBACK (NEGRON SOUNDS); 101,1 UNIQUE FM LONDON; 101,7 XETREME FM; 102,0
THE BEAT FM; 102,5 GALAXY FM (POLITICAL MESSAGES AGAINST
MULTINATIONALS IN AFRICA); 102,70 (new?) STATION NATURY FM ; 102,80 WBLS
(NOTHING TO DO WITH THE GREAT NEW YORK BRONX STATION...THIS FEATURING A
DRUNKED DJ WITH KOKA AND GIN; 103,00 DELIGHT FM; 103,60 FLEX FM (GREAT
RAGGAE SOUNDS); 103,80 AFRICAN COMMUNITY RADIO (PIRATE STATION ...GREAT REAL
AFRO MUSIC );104,7 TIME FM (rds SUB-JAM); 105,60 HAZARD FM (GREAT TECNO
MIX); 106,60 HOT 97; 107,0 RAINBOW FM ; 107,40 CUCH FM (TERRIBLE AUDIO
MUFFLED); 107,70 SWEET FM ; 108,00
AFRIC-FM (NO MUSIC AFRO...BUT house TERRIC NOISE...HI)...may be more over
108 MHz ??? Hi ! References : http://www.dxradio.co.uk/scanpirate.html
WELL This LONDON pirate bandscan was only made possible thanks to Mark
Hattam pirate London list and to my ATS 909 sangean.... with 2 filters FM 80
kHz MURATA... and naturally thanks to the cooperation of Roberto Pavanello....
Well we let London the saturday by subway and we arrived at 105o hours in
the Airport.... soon something strange : Thousands of people at British
Air....ceak in.... and so we had the impression( correct) something of
very unexpected arrived.... our flight was first delayed and after 2
hours united to another FINNAIR flight to Toronto.... and we boarded
at 1500 hours.... but some people was sent to another British Air
flight scheduled to Toronto at... 1505.... we started to roll on the
departing area only at 1545..... the other flight I don't know...
My seat again looking at window and looking to north... so this offered the
chanche to see the Groenland mountains full of snow...great
panorama... but neverthless my attemps no FM reception during the flight !
We arrived with 3,4o hours of laterness ... and more depressing our
baggages lost.....somethere over the Atlantic Ocean .... hi
By taxi private cab we arrived to the hotel really stressed and
destroyed....at 2ooo hours !!!!!!! 5 hours total delay.....
Glen Grove Suite are good apartments 55 Euro per day.... very good
price....it's 3 rooms apartment.... quite far from centertown but near
Subway Yellow line. WEB offer a good view of the building.
http://www.number1hotels.com/discount-hotels-cheap/Glen-Grove-Suites-Toronto-ON.htm
Roberto ... was only able to open the door ...303...after to try 5
minutes the 302...by mistake...ha ha ha.... and he went soon to sleep....
I took a taxy and after a 15 minutes ride I arrived to Insomnia cafe
in Bloor street...563.... but surprise they have no more internet...
now is Taiwanese group CYBER SPACE next door at 559 same street to carry
internet service for 24 hours.... so I got the right place for my worldwide contacts....
Weather was cloudy...smokey... with warm night 22° C....but quite
humid....and even foggy !!! and the Skyscrapers was all in the fogs....
Bye bye

Versione Italiana by Roberto Pavanello :

Dopo tanto peregrinare per l'Europa, a parte le due brevi escursioni a Ceuta
e Tangeri del 1998, è finalmente giunto, in questo 2003, il primo tour
radiofonico extraeuropeo, fatto, come sempre, con Dario Monferini, del Play
DX. La destinazione? Il Canada.
La partenza è avvenuta in treno dalla stazione di Vercelli alle 13.45 di
venerdì 1 agosto. Arrivato alla stazione di Milano Centrale incontravo il
Monfa e in pullmann ci si trasferiva all'aeroporto di Milano Malpensa ove
alle 18.30 si partiva a destinazione di Londra.
Giunti all'aeroporto, dato che i nostri bagagli avrebbero direttamente
proseguito per Toronto, prendevamo l'underground per raggiungere il
Ristorante "Il Cucciolo", nostra scoperta dell' English Tour 1997. Il
ristorante, posto nella prima parallela di Piccadilly Circus, produce dei
ravioli burro e salvia che neanche in Italia si trovano e poi è posto a 200
metri da Virgin Radio, l'emittente di musica attiva su 1215 KHz per cui
decidevamo di andare a dare un'occhiata. La reception era chiusa ma su di un
palo a fianco vi erano due adesivi a noi mancanti. Sarebbero stati i primi
di una lunga serie. Nottata al nostro solito St. George's Hotel, ove il
Monferini, con l'aiuto della lista redatta da Mark Mattan si divertiva a
sintonizzare 42 pirate londinesi in FM ed io ad ascoltare la nuova emittente
attiva sulle onde medie al posto di Liberty Radio sui 963 e 972 KHz, Asia Club Radio.
Nella mattinata del giorno succcessivo, anzi nel pomeriggio dato un
colossale a misterioso ritardo di 4 ore, del nostro aereo a destinazione di
Toronto, l'unica ex SARS City del mondo occidentale. Bin Laden decideva di
non vendicare su di noi i massacri crociati di 800 anni fa e quindi sani e
salvi giungevamo nella prima serata in Toronto.
Superate le non eccessive formalità burocratiche di ingresso (anche perchè i
nostri bagagli erano probabilmente il volo sulla Groenlandia con il volo
successivo) subito ci si trasferiva all' Hotel Glen Grove Suite e si dava
inizio allo smaltimento del cambio di fuso orario approfittando del week-end
di quasi inattività. Le uniche cose che avremmo infatti fatto domenica 3
agosto sarebbero state delle passeggiate nella Downtown (il centro) e in
Little Italy, il quartiere popolato dalla gente di origine italiana (circa
750.000 persone in tutto l'Ontario). Si raggiungeva anche la sede della CBC
ma la reception era priva di materiali ed il museo era chiuso (lo sarebbe
stato anche il lunedì festivo). Se volete farvi una visita virtuale la web è
http://www.cbc.ca/museum.
Second Chapter : CANADA 2003 TRAVEL 1-25 August 2003
Toronto arrival
Hallo to everybody !
here in Toronto is still sunday 3 August.... We have spent the
day "travelling" in the city with : Metro lines, Bus lines, Tram
lines..... with a daily ticket 4 Can $ ....valid 24 hours for 2
peoples.... Hey boys 2,30 Euros !!!valid for two people.... incredible
cheap price !
We have been at the Central bus station to vidimate our Canadian Pass
Greyhound valid 21 days, to travel in all areas of Canada.
The central bus station is on 3 levels and very well organized, at
the information service we get also a good map of Toronto public
transportations services. (Very important !!)
After this we went to see CN tower....but surprise ..the clouds was
so low ...the tower was half in the clouds... so we preferred to
let this visit for monday 4 august...in Canada is a Civic holiday...
so almost all the radiostations office are closed.... and we hope the
clouds will be also in holidays.... may be.
It cost 39 Can $ to go to the top of the tower..... about 22 Euros...
I guess a bit costing....to see ABSOLUTELY nothing.... hi...
So we went to see Little Italy in College street area.... great fun
to see the Shops.... the most "amazing"..... FRATELLI PORCO "best
shop in town" they advertise.... You may guess what kind of shop ???
SALUMERIA ITALIANA......
We stopped to BAR DIPLOMATICO Clinton street corner College, and so
we had time to look at our plan for tuesday to visit the Toronto
Radio stations.....this took quite time.... but on the other hand it
started to rain around 1500 hours.... a real strange rain...thin like
"merdinha" you get usually in Sao Paulo and in Barcelona .....
The humidity was 99%.... and a real FOG covered the bay area and
central skyscrapers .... quite impressive weather... however Toronto
is at the same latitude of Firenze....
Tram line 506 is passing all along College street and the head line
start in Subway Yellow line stop College. Unfortunatly a funeral
service stopped the TRAM service for 50 minutes.... it was a special
one... Paghi 2 per 3 funerali.... so 3 funerals runned today in
College street..... followed by many inhabitants...and even by 3
trams !!!!!
Finally we also done some photos at CHIN building in College street
the station owned by Lombardi family and in full Italian on FM band
100,7 MHz.....a giant wall photo of Padre Pio is standing in the hall.... we
will try to visit them on monday .... they said
they are open for us..... (may be a Caribena ciste ???)
We find "Giovanna Italian Restaurant"....in College street and we
wanted test it... but no one was speaking Italian and the test
resulted negative....hi... Cannelloni Ripieni di Spinaci....but
covered by Pommarola tomatos.... a disaster.... Risotto con Funghi
(cultivated in a CAMPOSANTO) ..... same desaster.... like dessert
they listed "La Strega nera".... but she remained a mistery cause
they said not avaible today.... may be she was in holidays in Italy ....???
After that Roberto went back to Glen Grove Suite Apartment and I
arrived in Cyber Pub in Bloor street 559.... near Bathurst Subway
green line.... Metro lines works till 0200 AM local time.
So today no stickers.... but lot of city sightseen.
We saw at Television the British Columbia is burning and the Highway
Edmonton-Vancouver is blocked to the traffic.... cause the forest
fires....40000 people living in the area has been evacuated...terrific news
for us.
Currently, there are 33 radio stations in Toronto; 12 AM and 21 FM. Of these
33 stations, 6 are ethnic. (CJMR-AM, CIAO-AM, CHKT-AM, CHIN-AM, CHIN-FM,
CIRV-FM.) The 3 community-based campus radio stations, (CIUT-FM, U of T;
CHRY-FM, York and CKLN-FM, Ryerson) also offer some ethnic programming
Preferred FM station in Toronto 106,50 CILQ Aboriginal Voices Radio
they play popular indian ethmic music .... GREAT TRUE SOUNDS !!!!.
Till tomorrow....

Third Chapter 04 August 2003: CANADA 2003 TRAVEL 1-25 August 2003
Toronto sighseen
Hallo !
Monday 04 August is gone also in the new continent, a civic holiday
in most parts of Canada.... but you know we never respect the
holidays of the others.... so this morning we arrived at 11oo hours
at the reception of CHIN Radio Toronto in Little Italy area, in
College street , and we met Paolo Canciani the news speaker of the
Italian service... after to have heard very interesting Italian news
from Italy.... they take from RAI International service, CHIN has the
exclusive for Canada...and relay it to many stations FM or Cable to
the whole Canada. We went to the Bar Azzurra for a real Italian
espresso cafe.....where we heard a barzelletta about Bossi and
Berlusconi (very unpopular also in Little Italy...not just in
Italy) ..... and went back to studio to meet the Director.
The meeting with the Director Umberto Manca has been very friendly
and has talked to us for almost 90 minutes.... he was in the station
to meet us ....even if the Civic holiday.
Almost 700000 Italians living in the Toronto greater area listen to
the programs. The station has been the first to broadcast Italian on
MW 1540 kHz (50 kW daylight and low power at night to protect the
WPRT Albany US border station)in Canada, and now they have 2 channels
on FM
100,7 & 101,3 MHz.... Mr. Umberto Manca told us in September CHIN
will open also a new FM frequency in Ottawa area....on 91,90 MHz !!!
WEB : http://www.chinradio.com if you want listen and know more about
this historical station.
I went after that to my usual internet place CYBER PUB ... 2 $ can ( 1,20
Euro!!)
per hour...... to look at messages and WEB pages of the stations me
and Roberto will visit in Ottawa and in Montreal in coming days....
The price of the Cyber Pub is very low...and it is open 24
hours......other internet shops in Toronto costs 7-9 $ can per hour !
But...but... unfortunatly... you must accept to stay with local
youngers who play nintendo idiotic plays..... a white boy of 13 years
for example stay 3 hours ...killing arabs in a nintendo PLAY....
don't know the total killed.... the next one was a NEGRON
young ..killing Texas rangers... with cars or motocross ..... quite
unusual indeed ...but the noise was Horrible.... and last one a
Vietnamite young... killing Monsters attack to old Chinese empire...
I remained 7 hours...and believe my head was looklike a football ball.
BBBOOOOMMMBOOOMMKKRRAAKKKKPPOOOOPPPPP.....
Around 1900 hours Roberto arrived (he preferred to do a sighseen
touristic of the Bay area of the city....) and together we went to
the great CN TOWER !!!! We utilized the Subway line green and yellow
 ... the ticket for 24 hours transports cost for 2 people one day(if it is
holiday or sunday)
 5 Can $ only !!!!
The reservation I done by Internet was confirmed at reception ... so
by elevator with a group of many tourists coming from Madrid
Spain .... (I naturally said soon "FORCA BARCA !!!!" ) hi !!! in 58 seconds
we arrived on the Top floor...there is the phantastic restaurant
called 360 degree..... the food is stardard but the view is unicum...
The restaurant turn completly in 1 hour and 10 minutes... so we done
3 tours.... the glittering skyline view at night was perfect....
difficult to describe.... the highways with yellow lights full of the
cars coming back from south and lake area and Quebec .... after 4
days bridge holiday..... no fogs ..so was possible to see the Air flights
coming and departing from Toronto ...great !!!! the airport at the west
of the city.... some far away stormy lightning in Montreal direction....
and many lights of the skyscrapers...almost all the offices remain with
office lights
switch on at night.....don' t know why but....probably ...the multinational
selling lamps
are surely happy....... we get some free souvenirs by a very kind
Korean camerero..... sugar little containers and the bachelite "bacchetta"
for turning cocktails (both sponsoring the CN tower).... you can not miss
both them in the SOUVENIR PACKAGE OF THE CANADA TRAVEL 2003 of
PLAYDX....contact PLAYDX headquarters for price (15 Euro) .....hi...end of
advertising...
Roberto took the <seasonal fresh soup> <grilled pugliese cicken honey
glazed boneless> , I preferred <Atlantic salmon with vegetals> and
same cicken.... all goodies even if the pepper was everywhere...hi..
surely a plate for LINO BANFI friends.... hi.
WEB : http://www.cntower.ca/
A great day naturally..... hope tomorrow will be good also for
our ...collections ...

Versione Italiana by Roberto :

Lunedi 4 agosto avremmo dovuto iniziare il tour radiofonico di Toronto; ed
invece no! Il primo lunedi del mese di agosto in Ontario fanno festa, è il
Civic Day. Tutti al lago a fare il barbecue. Per fortuna che, preso da pietà
per due italiani "idioti" che manco conoscono il calendario delle festività
dell'Ontario, Umberto Manca, il direttore della CHIN, aveva deciso di
ugualmente riceverci (nonostante il negron receptionista portiere un po
scemo se ne fosse dimenticato.).
La CHIN, attiva sull'onda media di 1540 KHz e sui 100.7 e 91.9 MHz in FM, è
l'emittente della comunità italiana di Toronto. Fondata 50 anni orsono da
Giovanni Lombardi, deceduto pochi anni fa e a cui oggi è dedicato il
marciapiede della College Str. su cui si affaccia l'emittente, la CHIN oggi
opera per 20 ore al giorno, alternativamente sull'onda media e sull'FM, in
italiano lasciando il rimanente tempo a disposizione di una quarantina di
programmi in varie lingue autonomamente prodotti dalle varie comunità
nazionali di Toronto. Umberto Manca ci ha parlato dei primi duri tempi della
stazione e della comunità italiana, quando, agli inizi degli anni '50, gli
italiani erano ancora considerati dai canadesi i fascisti contro cui per 5
anni si era combattuto e rivendicato all'emittente il merito di aver
contribuito all'integrazione della prima generazione di immigranti, una
massa di contadini che da un momento all'altro si è trovata catapultata in
una grande metropoli straniera con i problemi che tutti possiamo immaginare.
Ma non solo, a parere di Manca, la CHIN ha anche contribuito a cambiare la
mentalità di questa generazione; negli anni '50 la donna italiana camminava
due passi dietro il marito, oggi no, la ragazza italiana aveva l'unica
ambizione di sposarsi, anzi "sistemarsi", oggi studia all'Università, si
laurea a lavora autonomamente. Oggi si è alla 3-4 generazione di italiani,
molti ragazzi di origine italiana non parlano più la nostra lingua ed il
pubblico italiano della CHIN cala sempre più, sostituito da quello dei nuovi
immigrati, asiatici ed africani, a cui anch'essi la CHIN dedica spazio con
programmi loro dedicati. Al termine della chiaccherata si scattavano un po'
di foto, si prendeva un caffè (italiano) si ascoltavano barzellette spinte
su Belusconi.. ma di adesivi e materiali vari neanche a parlarne. Il nulla.
Il resto della giornata veniva dedicata da Dario alla navigazione in
Internet a da me al turismo aeroportuale alla ricerca della mia valigia
ancora dispersa nei cieli sopra l'Oceano Atlantico ed alla sera si ceneva al
ristorante girevole posto sulla CN Tower, a 360 metri di altezza, la torre
di proprietà delle ferrovie canadesi ove sono sistemati i trasmettitori di
quasi tutte le radio e le tv della città.

Fourth Chapter 06 August 2003 : CANADA 2003 TRAVEL 1-25 August 2003
Toronto (30 stations)
Hi To all of you !
Our travel never stop ..... on 6 August we were still in Toronto,
sunny morning with usual humidity 99% but sunny day.... our visit to
stations started with a famous Dx catch of the 70's on MW 1010 kHz
CFRB Newstalk WEB : http://www.cfrb.com/ ..... at same place are also
located
EZ ROCK 97,3 WEB : http://www.ezrock.com/ & MIX 99,9 Toronto Best Variety
WEB : http://www.mix999.com/ However a thin woman buldog door controller at
reception... (a bit acid too) did not allowed to find anyone at station at
0915 hours to
show us the studios...too early Sir !!!!!.. so.... no photos, no
souvenirs....
We had same results at CHUM 1050 kHz http://www.1050chum.com
 another hit DX station in the 70's..... in Italy.... I had 2 names but.....
both not yet in their
offices at 0945 hours..... so no photos, no souvenirs.....
By subway we arrived at a very far place the end of Dundas Street
West 5302 !!! that place is just 250 meters from Kipling Metro green
line final stop...... a more friendly station and nice looking
receptionist called Mary Ieraci make our smiles reappear after a bad
start.... Z 103,5 MHz Top 40 & Best Music WEB : http://www.z1035.com/
is quite brand new station with nice stickers.... they own also CIAO 530 kHz
....
http://www.radio530.com/ they plan to operate also in Italian !!
We jumped with Subway at ONE DUNDAS West street... the place of power money
station
Pure Rock Q-107 Toronto Best Rock , WEB : http://www.q107.com/ they have
studios at HARD ROCK CAFE in front of the headquarters WEB :
http://www.hardrock.com/279/ , Mojo 640 SPORTS , WEB :
http://www.mojoradio.com/ , The EDGE 102,1 MHz
http://www.edge.ca/home/index.cfm they have also at 228 Yonge street a
live shop studio ..... so cleary they are the most visible group in town for
live sessions !!!
the appointment at 1300 hours at 16 floor was okay but Darren
Wasylyk was iper busy ...so we started to run in
offices .....studios.... doors... meeting other people running in
opposite directions.... very funny indeed.... but we got T-shirts
and many stickers.... specially at the reception..... hi...after all
such streesss we opted to visit Classical FM 96,30 MHz the slogan of the
station is :
" Making life sound better " WEB : http://www.cfmx.com/  ... ohhh
boys... what difference !! Miss Louise Thomas the Office Manager met
us at the reception with a great smile and pure mineral fresh water
for us.... we stay almost one hour at this OASIS of good classic
music.... far away from EVERY kind of noise and Toronto Jam traffic.
The station is 20 years old and has many listeners of voluntary support the
station.
We got lot of CD music with classic music and I may say Miss Louise
is a real gentlewoman !! most surprising item got ...a CANDLE at
Vanilla flavor... in a glass container with Classical FM logo...
Next was a suddenly soft shower ...imagine the humidity to the
stars.... WOOOW that to do for become a star of the Radio travels..hi
Next to see the Rogers stations see WEB for history of the group
http://www.rogers.com/english/aboutrogers/historyofrogers/index.html
 are located in a mega building located at Jarvis street 777.... but was
not
 so easy to enter.... my "bronze face" assured to the woman guard (more kind
and comprensive) to have a contact by e-mail with the reception to get
souvenirs items,
this give the possibility for us to go up ... and at reception desk at 25th
floor.... to get some stickers...but no photos... the BIG BOSS Mr. Ted
Rogers Jr. doesn't want photographers in the studios....
Radio FAN 590 Toronto Sports Radio WEB :
http://www.fan590.com/eprise/main/fan/index.html
Radio 680 NEWS WEB : http://www.680news.com/home.html
THE JACK 92,50 new station ... (Ex Kiss FM) Slogan is "Playing what we
want!" WEB:
http://www.kiss925.fm/eprise/main/925jackfm however to be true they play
only what THEY want !!!! hi ; 98,1 SOFT
ROCK CHFI WEB : http://www.chfi.com/chfi/content/home.html ..... you add 2
TV stations.... many cable tv ... CYBER TV ....
The owner is look like the Berluscao of Canada.....
Next we stopped at Jazz FM 91,1 MHz... naturally playing only
JAZZ music... WEB : http://www.jazz.fm/ The PRESIDENT ! Chuck Camroux...
 tried to make us Jazz listeners ...but my preferences are for Good old
Rock'n'roll...hi... Coffee Mug got and T-shirt XXXXLLL for me.... hi
Last was a flop... FLOW 93 is urban radio hip hop station music WEB :
http://www.flow935.com/home.htm ...the dirty
enter...the "comic" receptionist.... "really do you collect speakers...????"
I said "No I collect STICKERS !!!" ohh sorry we don't
have... speakers...
But time was running out and the 1730 hours make us in the meaddle
of the "gold rush" to the homes by all the Toronto workers... making
everythng a real inferno... The Subway (pls don't say Metro line)
becomed a box for fish..... the street full of people prisoner of
cars... a clacson music everythere.... a real normal late summer
afternoon in downtown Toronto central area... So at 1800 hours we
pick up our baggages and arrived at the Greyhound Central Bus station near
Yonge corner Bay street... our Taxi driver was a real formula 1
driver...like Pedro Montoya specialized ...to destroy cars... and
just few inches and another car should have crashed us.... hi...
We exchanged our travel pass Canadian valid 21 days... and the young
worker... said... "but this is valid for 2004'''''....." I said yes
but we prefere to use today...." luckly a more aged man explained the
limit is 2004 for that pass....
We boarded at 1830 as per schedule ... our bagages was ..sent in to
the bus Greyhound... by an energumic giant NEGRON man... surely champion of
baggages sent like an hammer into the bus.... new olimpic speciality
from Athens 2004 Olympic games.....may be....imagine the coffee mugs and the
candle
glass .... in our baggages....
After 4 hours drive and one stop at NORTH CHINA fast food.... (the
land of Gabrielli ancestral people???) we arrived in a rainy steamy
Toronto ...humid, foggy... but warm as 25°C at midday..but it was midnight
!!!
Our place the CHIMO hotel is well known by taxists so no problems to
arrive quickly at the hotel.
http://www.faresrus.com/hotels/canada/on/ottawa/chimohotel.htm
We got a supert SUITE at last floor 10th with a very long range
view...to south... (the town center is to north...hi)
Just some thrilling to use the elevator.... to arrive at our floor
you need to use the room plastic card.... or the elevator does't
move... after 5 minutes tentatives and some ... irripetible
sentenses by Roberto in perfect dialect Vercellese... we finally
found the way to go up....
WooW a real great day....

Versione Italiana by Roberto
Martedi 5 agosto era il giorno dell'inizio dei "lavori", ma prima un breve
accenno al sistema radiofonico canadese.
Esso ricalca a grande linee quello inglese; ad un ente pubblico esteso a
livello nazionale, la C.B.C. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, si
affiancano emittenti private sia su onde medie (e qualcuna anche sulle onde
corte) che in FM.
La C.B.C. è attiva con 4 servizi nazionali, CBC Radio One in inglese,
essenzialmente di notizie, CBC Radio 2 in inglese di musica, Premiere Chaine
in francese di notizie e Chaine culturelle in francese. Esiste inoltre un
terzo canale di sola musica diffuso via cavo. CBC Radio 1 e Premiere Chaine
per 6-7 ore al giorno interrompono la programmazione nazionale per
diffondere quella provinciale e locale realizzata da 38 differenti sedi
dislocate in tutto il paese. Normalmente i programmi locali hanno durata di
2-3 ore nella prima mattinata, 2 ore nel primo pomeriggio e 2 ore nella
prima serata. Esiste inoltre un servizio sulle onde corte per lo sterminato
nord del Quebec e un servizio per l'estero, Radio Canada International. Le
emittenti private operano sulle onde medie e l'FM e quasi tutte sono
specialistiche, pochissime le generaliste. In onde medie vanno in onda talk
show, news, sport e musica oldies, in FM i programmi musicali, di rock,
classic rock, country, etc. Notevole la presenza di radio sia per le
minoranze immigrate, specialmente cinesi ed italiane, che per i nativi
nordamericani (Aborigenal Network) e la presenza di radio universitarie sia
nelle università pubbliche che private, WEB :
http://www.cleverjoe.com/radio.html
Detto ciò partiamo con la cronaca dei nostri "lavori".
Mai inizio fu peggiore. Si iniziava dall'unica sede di 4 emittenti: CFRB di
news su 1010 KHz, CFRX sull'onda corta di 6070 KHz inattivo durante la
nostra visita (canale bloccato in Europa) con ritrasmissione dei programmi
della CFRX, Mix 99.9 (in Canada non a più obbligatorio l'utilizzo del solo
call letter in 3 o 4 lettere
iniziante per C) di disco dance e EZ Rock. Il nulla più assoluto, tutti
ancora in ferie! Lo stesso avveniva anche alla vicina sede della mitica
CHUM, la stazione operante su 1050 KHz che qualche fortunato mortale ha
avuto la fortuna e l'abilità di sintonizzare anche in Italia... anche Dario
tra di loro...
In metro (pardon subway) prima e taxi(150 metri dalla subway.)dopo si
raggiungeva una casettina alla periferia della città ove hanno sede altre
tre stazioni. La CIAO di news sull'onda media di 530 KHz, Z 103,5 di rock
music a FOXY di country su 88.8 MHz. Qui le cose andavano decisamente
meglio. Eravamo infatti accompagnati ad una visita di tutte le installazioni
a finalmente si raccoglievano i primi adesivi canadesi, quelli di Z 103.5 e
FOXY. Il ghiaccio era stato rotto!
Dopo una visita puramente turistica all'University of York (situata a 40 Km
dal centro.)si tornava in centro ove si aveva un appuntamento in uno dei più
imponenti grattacieli di Toronto per una visita ad un'altra concentrazione
di 3 emittenti: Mojo su 640 KHz, Q107 e The Edge su 102.5 MHz. Anche qui
visita delle installazioni ed adesivi.
Un errore nel salire su di un tram ci portava casualmente alle sede di City
TV, la stazione televisiva locale (dislocata nei vecchi studi della CHUM,l'
ingresso è ancora identico!), che gestisce anche un museo della televisione
ed uno shop. Il tempo di visitare il museo non c'era ma quello di acquistare
qualche adesivo delle varie tv via cavo gestite dall'emittente si!
Si andava quindi a Classical FM, stazione di sola musica classica attiva sui
96.3 MHz, finanziata dalla municipalità ove la florida responsabile dei
programmi, Louise Thomas, ci accompagnava in una visita completa degli ampi
studi e ci omaggiava di vari CD a di una candela mangiafumo all'aroma di
vaniglia con un'etichetta autoadesiva col simbolo della stazione (peccato
che durante il viaggio l'etichetta realizzata con una stampante a colori si
sia completamente deteriorata). Si proseguiva con le emittenti del gruppo
Rogers (Rogers l'inventore delle valvole Rogers!!). Rogers 6, la Mediaset
canadese: proprietaria di varie stazioni televisive via cavo a di varie
stazioni provinciali in tutto il paese (la legge canadese sulle
telecomunicazioni impedisce ai privati la creazione di network radiofonici a
copertura nazionale riservando il monopolio alla CBC). In Toronto Rogers
gestisce 4 stazioni: 680 News e The Fan 590 di sport sulle onde medie, CHFI
di soft rock su 98,1 MHz e Jack FM su 92,5 MHz. Niente visita agli studi ma
lavorandoci un po' la receptionista poliziotta, compilando un paio di moduli
e mostrando i documenti i piu sudati adesivi del viaggio riuscivamo ad
ottenerli!
Era poi la volta di Jazz FM, stazione di sola musica Jazz sui 91 MHz. Benché
fosse a loro totalmente sconosciuto il nostro Franco Cerri erano ugualmente
simpatici e non solo ottenevamo i loro adesivi ma anche la prima T-shirt del
viaggio, senza dubbio molto utile se la vostra valigia è sempre
desaparecida.
Toccava quindi a Flow FM, scalcinata emittente di musica rap che ci faceva
concludere la giornata nello stesso modo con cui era iniziata! Mitica la
receptionista che capiva che "we collect speakers"..Non erano certamente
terminate la emittenti di Toronto, ma il tempo a nostra disposizione si.
Tornavamo in albergo a prendere i bagagli e quindi un taxista latino,
che considerando come guidava oggi sarà già in compagnia del suo mitico
connazionale Juan Pablo Montoya (famoso sfasciamacchine F1..) , facendoci
portare alla stazione degli autobus per partire alla volta di Ottawa.
Eravamo dotati del Canadian Pass della Greyhound, la pia importante rete di
pullmann canadesi, che permette l'utilizzo di ogni suo mezzo per un periodo
di 21 giorni al modico prezzzo di 435,28 $ canadesi (circa 270 Euro) e che
potete acquistare, tramite carta di credito, direttamente in Internet
all'indirizzo http://www.Greyhound.ca. Vi giungera direttamente a casa nel
giro di una decina di giorni. Il viaggio di circa 400 Kilometri durava
l'intera serata ma gia verso la mezzanotte, eravamo al Chimo Hotel, ove
avremmo fatto una megadormita di una diecina di ore.

Fifth Chapter 07 August 2003 : CANADA 2003 TRAVELLING 1-25 August 2003
Ottawa (25 stations)
Ciaoooo !
We have also positively survived the Ottawa tour of the local FM-AM
stations, we had a ... later wake up... surely necessarily to
equilibrate our loss of spleeping hours after a running of 3 days in
Toronto quite stressing.... so we wake up at 1000 hours... cause the
door was opened by a negron woman asking "Clean up the room?" ...
translated "Bosso fare la camera?" ,,,we replied ..thanks not now...
But at 1100 we were yet standimg in front of the building were are
located the stations of Mr.Rogers (alias the Beluscao of Canada)...
the stations are located outside the central area... in a very quiet
place with lot of green grass (but now no more caws or buffalos..nor
Indians .... unfortunatly)
My new tactic ..to say we have no appointment but we should like to
do a visit to your studios worked... so we done photos at CHEZ 106 Ottawa
Classic Rock WEB : http://www.chez106.com/home.html,
Oldies 1310 kHz BIG COUNTRY Radio WEB : http://www.oldies1310.com/
101,1 X FM new rock music http://www.101xfm.ca/home.html , and Y-
105 CKBY http://www.y105.fm/home.html (just for curiosity but all the WEB
offers travels in nice places around the world...to the listeners...hi) &
Country 92 FM WEB :
http://www.country92.ca/
 .... we got many souvenirs and so we started in the best
way the day.... just 500 meters far from we found the christian
station CHRI 99,1 MHz WEB :  http://www.chri.ca/default.php
 .... they have stickers... and big van car all painted.
To arrive to both stations you may use the bus 84 line bus
stop St.Laurent corner Thurnston Drive. Back to center town to see
the other big group station... at 87 George street... but again I
had problems with the woman police guard... she gave me the phone to
call for an appointment to visit the studios... we tryed to call
but.. the authomatic secretary ... said the man you call is is
holidays... try again after 13 august.... we promptly come back to
bulldog woman guard... explaining but we leave Ottawa tomorrow...
the reply was ... sorry but you are not allowed to enter today....
After some ... moments of high voltage electric air... finally we
get 2 stickers of BOB 93,90 MHz... "one of each to you is more than
sufficent" the bulldog guard sentenced.... "I replied Hija de
puta..." but luckly she doesn't know Spanish.....
 BOB FM 93,9 WEB : http://www.939bobfm.com/home/index.asp
CFRA 580 kHz WEB : http://www.cfra.com/headlines/index.asp
Majic 100 FM, Ottawa Best Music, WEB : http://www.majic100.fm/home/index.asp
CFGO The Team Sports 1200 kHz WEB : http://www.team1200.com/home/index.asp

We changed target area visiting CBC Canada... well the address is 1
Rideau steet... and we arrived at 1400 hours in front of the
building just 300 meters from Parliament House .... but we found
only a giant Hotel called Fairmont Hotel "THE CASTLE".... super luxury
hotel... SIX stars !!!! WEB :
http://www.ottawa--hotels.com/Fairmont/fairmont.html
So with some exitation we entered and we took the elevator till the last
floor
in reality it is true... can you imagine the RAI italy in Roma
allocated in the Grand Hotel Michelangelo in Roma ??? I can't ..hi
At 7th floor there is the reception.... but NO ONE attending for more
than 20 minutes.... so we had sufficent time to take everything was avaible
and to do photos... visit some office with live programs... no one
asking...what are you
doing ??? Simply INCREDIBLE.....
Finally a guard arrived.... after his lunch time ? may be.. making
a "soft" BBBUUUUURRRPPPP ... and Hallo can you help you ??? We
said thanks we just miss some bumper stickers.. (he probably did
not understood the humor) he replied...sorry I have only a fridge
magnet..... of CBC Radio One 91,50 MHz... I said thanks very good
item. WEB : http://www.ottawa.cbc.ca/
Cause outside was still running a big shower fall and even
thunderstorm lighting... we stopped in the luxury hall of the
Hotel... where other tourists were doing a picnic ... on the satin sofa
chairs..... probably this hall is famous for this possibility...
during snowfalls in wintertime... ans showers in summertime...
At 1600 we went to see Standard Radio Group WEB :
http://www.standardradio.com/contact/contact_sta.html
The Bear 106,9 Rock Mix WEB : http://www.thebear.fm/
and New Hot FM 89,9 MHz WEB : http://www.hot899.com/
in 1504 Merivale Road, to south west area.... at same place also CTV
Television ... well the receptionist Miss Sharon Barnard with big blu eyes
resulted really friendly and even Roberto becomed for just a few seconds a
star going live over the AIR of THE BEAR ...sending greetings in
Italian to all Italian language listeners of THE BEAR !!! This made
really euforic Roberto ..... Many souvenirs ...also 2 key chain
rings ... 2 t-shirts XXXLLL and another surprise 2 bottles of pure
water in a plastic container... with logo of HOT MIX 89,9 MHz....
But our day was not yet ended... we arrived with a taxist of French
colonial Martinique area.... (sentencing after we were
arrived "Siciliano from Italy ???" but I replied no "Padano from
Padania" ..but probably he doesn't know Mr.Bossi) .. to CHUO the
University Campus free radio 89,10 Mhz of University of Ottawa... 85
building university , suite 229 2nd floor ... WEB : http://www.chuo.fm/
 The station is totally volunteer operated and totally free programs.... a
dream for us in Italy to have such quality radio for students.... We got the
stickers and I covered many scaffals with the stickers from Italian
FM stations I always carry with me like souvenirs to the stations I visit...
Great tour almost 90 % positive....
I was even able to stay 2 hours (price 4 Can.$ per hour) at a Cyber point,
WEB : http://www.aemicro.net located at 288 Banks street found thanks to :
 WEB : http://www.netcafeguide.com/countries/canada2.html
So after this Roberto arrived and we opted to go to eat... we choose on
Yellow pages phone book... IL MANGIA...Pasta fatta in casa.... in Dalhousie
street.... cause my hungry level was over RED LINE LIMIT..the taxy driver
was....Lebanese talking at cellular phone about AL QUEHIDA ..BIN
LADEN...SADDAM HUSSEIN...DOLLARS......He was so busy on line...even
not to stop at right place ...We did not see soon in front of IL
MANGIA another restaurant..at 297 of the street......called CAFE BACI....
So after a first horrible plate of green pasta mixed with all kind
of vegetals.... like to eat insalata boiled with tagliatelle not boiled....
we
transferred ( under the eyes of the "ALLIBITI" owners of IL MANGIA) to
CAFE BACI... what difference.... they have also a nice WEB :
http://www.tordine.com/ontheroad/ontario/ottawa/cafebaci.html
SPAGHETTINI ALLA PUTANESCA.... SPAGHETTINI alla SICILIANA with
MANDORLE !!!! Antony Morello the chief cooker is really an artist of
PASTA !!!
So this made really perfect the day also for our...estomac !

Versione Italiana by Roberto:

Ottawa è la capitale in quanto sede della residenza del Governatore di Sua
Maestà la Regina Elisabetta II, non certo perchè sia la citta più grande del
paese a quindi è molto più vivibile e tranquilla della caotica Toronto,
percui anche il tour radiofonico del mercoledi 6 agosto è risultato
facilitato. Si iniziava dal gruppo di emittenti più lontane dall'albergo e
dalla città..infatti era a 20 Km a Sud owest; quelle del gruppo Rogers che
in Ottawa sono ben 5: Country 92 di musica country, Y105, CHEZ 106.1 di
classic rock, X FM 101.1 di modern rock, CIWW di oldiees su 1310 KHz. Questa
volta eravamo più fortunati che in Toronto: non solo nuovi adesivi e T-shirt
si aggiungevano al nostro bottino ma anche, caso raro con le Rogers
stations, visita e fotografie degli studi. A piedi ci spostavamo alla
vicinissima CHRI, emittente cattolica attiva sui 99.1 MHz, ove raccoglievamo
altri adesivi, e poi in taxi tornavamo in centro per una visita al gruppo
CHUM che in Ottawa è attiva con 4 emittenti. Bob FM 93,90 MHz, CFRA su 580
KHz, Majic su 100 MHz e CFGO di talk e sport su 1200 KHz.
Purtroppo sulla nostra strada trovavamo alcuni poliziotti (1 donna e 2
uomini). una massa di "stronzi": degli adesivi di Bob, gli unici presenti in
reception, abbiamo dovuto insistere per averne 2 in quanto erano a
disposizione unicamente degli ascoltatori locali perchè servivano per un
concorso radiofonico in atto, per visitare gli studi ci hanno dato un numero
di telefono da chiamare da una cabina telefonica fuori dalla stazione,
telefoniamo e ci dicono che il tizio era in ferie. Stufi di essere presi per
i fondelli siam tornati indietro ad abbiamo omaggiato la receptionista
poliziotta di uno dei vecchi adesivi preparati dal CO.RAD. per Cobisi in
occasione dell'EDXC Conference di Firenze, quelli con un buono per un
vaffanculo gratis!
Andavamo quindi, mentre su Ottawa si aprivano le cataratte del cielo,
all'indirizzo a nostra disposizione della CBC, a 25 km a nord della città.
Li giunti venivamo a scoprire che nel megapalazzone vi erano soltanto gli
studi televisivi e gli uffici amministrativi e che la radio era invece
ospitata al 7mo piano dell'Hotel Fairmont Chateau Laurier, il più importante
hotel
della capitale, posto proprio a fianco del Parlamento Federale. Ottenevamo
però un adesivo di servizio con simbolo della CBC a la scritta VISITOR,
probabilmente il più raro adesivo raccolto in tutto il viaggio! Ed anche il
più costoso !!!! Si tornava quindi in centro, entravamo all'Hotel Chateau
Laurier, nulla indicava ne fuori, ne all'interno la presenza di CBC Radio.
Prendevamo ugualmente un ascensore (senza che nessuno ci chiedesse chi
fossimo, chi cercavamo, cosa volessimo) e salivamo al settimo piano.
Incredibile ma vero: le porte dell'ascensore si aprivano sulla reception
degli studi radiofonici della CBC! La reception era completamente
abbandonata a se stessa: ci fornivamo di bellissime cartoline locali, liste
di frequenze e
quant'altro a disposizione e poi ci sedevamo in attesa di qualcuno. Dopo una
ventina di minuti lo stanco poliziotto receptionista faceva la sua comparsa,
ci chiedeva cosa volevamo.e gli spiegavamo che ci eravamo già serviti. Ci
facevamo omaggiare un paio di biro (non avevano adesivi) e ridiscendavamo
nella lodge dell'Hotel in attesa della fine dell'uragano ancora in corso.
Perche i cittadini canadesi paghino l'affitto di un intero piano del più
lussuoso albergo di Ottawa quando nella stessa citta la CBC dispone di un
palazzo di una ventina di piani, lo sa solo il Padreterno.invero poi
scoprivamo leggendo un libro sulla storia dell'emittenza in Canada, che nell
'Hotel nel 1921 ci fu la prima trasmissione dal vivo organizzata da Marconi
con un concerto sinfonico.dunque L'Hotel Chateaux Laurier è un museo vivente
per la storia della CBC Canadese..Comunque ci viene il dubbio che anche in
Canada circolino mazzette? Cessato l'uragano ci trasferivamo in due altre
stazioni operanti dalla stessa sede; The Bear di rock music su 106.9 MHz a
Hot 89.9. Mentre visitavamo gli studi di The Bear una connazionale di Reggio
Calabria residente in Ottawa telefonava alla stazione e subito la dj mi
invitava a salutarla. Andavo così in onda in diretta da The Bear! Altri
adesivi ed una bella T-shirt di Hot 89.9 si aggiungeva al nostro bottino.
Li a fianco vi era anche la sede di CJOH TV, facevamo un tentativo e l'esito
era positivo, altri stickers! L'unico positivo con la CTV..in tutto il
viaggio.
Si chiudeva con CHUG, l'emittente universitaria attiva su 89 MHz. In tutte
le universita canadesi, sia pubbliche che private, è attiva una radio FM
gestita direttamente dall'Union Students, l'unione degli studenti, e
finanziata dall'Universita. Tutte si basano sul lavoro di volontari e
certamente rappresentano una bella scuola di radio per chi magari proseguirà
poi il lavoro in più importanti stazioni. Tutte sono sempre state molto
gentili nei nostri confronti e con gli adesivi e la T-shirt di CHUO
concludevamo il nostro "lavoro" in Ottawa.

Sixth Chapter 08/09 August 2003 : CANADA 2003 TRAVEL 1-25 August 2003
Montreal (30 stations)

Hi from old good modern Montreal metropolis...
In past 2 days we have been in Montreal visiting the 30 radio
stations, a great fun indeed, the only problem it has been the very
warm humid weather... like to be in a giant sauna....
We started our travel from Ottawa at 0800 hours with good quiet
Greyhound bus ...just 15 passengers in the bus 2445... and in the
highway not so much traffic ... the bus had some problems to go in
first run...but survived to the trip...hi...
I listened to the FM band.... in just 2 hours we were in Montreal...
oh boy... the center is full of skyscrapers really impressive...but
no radio tower .... just the olimpic "bent" tower in the northwest.
The travel Lodge Hotel given us the room 323 at 1130 !!! hours....
usually they gives at 1500 hours... So we had time to acclimate to
the air conditioned... the only way to survive to steamy Montreal
air..
We listened to CFMB 1280 in Italian, a nice program of live battle of
ships you know the play you must devine were are placed war ships by
numered positions...a to z and 1 to 10... but imagine some true
Italian wifes to do it.... the speaker trying his best to help ...but
with very poor results... the quality of the program was look like to
listen to Radio Canicatti International .... more or less.
The advertising captured our attention...Mr. Benito offered live some
of his products of his shop .... quite anusual way to advertise...
CAPRETTI SCORTICATI VIVI..... for exemple...
We went after this rustic listening..making however our spirit at
good levels... to a visit to some stations... all 3 located at same address
:
211 Gordon in Verdun area.
CKOI 96.9 in French WEB : http://www.ckoi.com/ckoi2/indexckoi_800.htm
New Q-92 in English WEB : http://www.q92fm.com/
Cool FM 98.5 in French WEB : http://www.coolfm.ca/ecouter.html
with poor results...in fact no stickers was found.
At around 163o hours we arrived by BUS 150 under the big building of
Radio City & Radio Energie 94.3 FM located in Boulevard Levesque 1717.
WEB : http://www.radioenergie.com they cover Quebec & a part of Ontario
However Radio Cité was changing address to Levesque right that period... so
nothing
yet in the new building ... and only 2 stickers from Energie FM .....
So we were in time at 17oo hours for the meeting with the spanish section of
Radio Canada International located at Boulevard Rene Levesque 1400 ...
around
1 mile from our hotel .... the smoky weather conditions did not
permitted to see the building top seeming to disappear into the sky...hi
The spanish section of Radio Canada International, is located at
underground level of the building... were are 16 differents radio
stations... of the national service. WEB : http://www.rcinet.ca/
Cesar Guerra the speaker welcomed us, he is from Lima,Peru, so we had
lot of talks about radio stations of Peru... at 1800 hours we went at
the studio to record the program dedicated to the listeners of the
Spanish service .... on the air next sunday.... many arguments was
the topics in the interview... and also Roberto shown a good spanish
knowing... this surprised me and Cesar indeed.
We got some stickers new model of RCI and we said hallo to Cesar.
Our evening was spent at Tour de la Ville attic restaurant atop the Delta
Hotel,
http://www.bar-resto.com/delta/tourdeville/ at 777 University Street
at 29 floor... a round system permitted to see Montreal Lights
at night, impressive cause a providential wind from west put clear
the visibility.... lights of highways coming to Montreal...the bent
stadium tower, the many skyscrapers... but most important the BUFFET
of the restaurant made the night unforgottable for us... I eat 25
plates.... 7 fish plates, 1 second pasta ravioli with panna and
parmigiano...5 second plates, 6!!! sweets, 4 fruits plates....
Guess if total calories was above the normal level good for 12
people.... in Torino they were used to say some years ago "...ma che
bestia...ma che bestia..questo Monferini.."....probably it's true....... hi
!!
The night was spent by me at Cyber point located in red light street
St.Catherine Blvrd 289..... 24 hours open... with Sauna massage
optional (not used however...), cost 4 $ Can per hour...
http://www.highwayhome.com/travel/tourismbycity/montreal/montrealnightspots.
html
Roberto preferred to look at the human fauna in the street... all the
Montreal human trash was possible to located on the street .... hi.
Friday we had to be at 9 hours at RCI again to met Bill Westenhaver
the Audience Relations of Radio Canada International English
section... very friendly and he give to us all kind of informations
about the station.... with a round trip in the building...and also
with lot of nice presents for our collections.... he said "quite rare
to see visitors from Europe here" We are really thanksfull to Bill for his
great
kindness and for the many presents he kindly give to us.
At 1230 in a sunny day we started our running visit to the Montreal radio
stations,
we utilized metro lines and taxis, this cause the traffic jam in some areas
of Montreal is very high....being friday...
First to see CITE 107,3 Rue Peel 1410 ... moving next monday to new office
at Boulevard Rene Levesque 1717 East (together with Radio Energie yet
located there .... both
stations has 8 frequencies covering almost all Quebec province)
WEB : http://www.rockdetente.com/bienvenue.asp
So in Rue Peel 1410 is now located only the historical CKAC 730 kHz WEB :
http://www.ckac.com/ so we got absolutely nothing at all....hi.
We visited CINQ 102,3 MHz quite far from the center city... WEB :
http://www.radiocentreville.com/ multilanguage station, operating also in
Spanish & Creol
Mrs. Suzanne Charland the coordinator really esquisite
talked a lot about how the station is able to serve many communities
living in the city...not yet in Italian however... got some "macilenti"
paper stickers.
CKUT radio Mc Gill University with 100 collaborators all free
lancer students... WEB : http://www.ckut.ca/ got stix and T-shirts !
CIBL 101,5 MHz... the most free station in Montreal... belonging to
AMARC association ... they advertised free smoke of Cannabis... hi !
WEB: http://www.cibl.cam.org no stix but ..captured 5 years old stix from a
meuble.
Time was running and dramatically making our running look like in the
moovie...LAST
48 hours.... by metro ! (yes sir in Montreal they call it again
METRO !! there are 4 lines we utilized all them more than 20 times
 the cost is 1 day ticket just 7 can $)......busses.....and even we took
Taxis connections....
Last visit at 1411 Front Street resulted pantagruelic at CHOM the spirit of
rock 97.7 Skip
Snair the Promotion Director... show to us the studios also of sister
stations THE MIX 96 and CJAD 800 kHzews radio. Skip has worked for
THE STONES for more than 12 years.... he has an incredible collection
of souvenirs from THE STONES...the Jacket of Mike Jagger and the play guitar
with
signature and dedication.... the CHOM play only real good old
rock'n'roll and I really love to listen to it here in Montreal...and from
Italy in real audio !
WEB : http://www.chom.com/
The MIX 96 WEB : http://www.themix.com/www/
CJAD 800 Khz WEB : http://www.cjad.com/
We get many t-Shirts...key rings...cloth patch.... more and more....
you can't believe.... don't know how Roberto was able to carry these items,
to the Hotel ONLY with his giant plastic bag and two additionals ... at our
back arrival to hotel at 1830 hours the receptionists looked at us look like
some clandestine coming from Albania...hi
So really satifeated we went back to our air conditioned hotel room ....
Unfortunatly no possible to visit the CFMB Italian Radio, too far from and
too late
http://www.cfmb.ca/ .... but you may listen to them in real audio...if you
wish .....
I had a long phone call to my local area Dx friend Bogdan ...we
talked for 50 minutes about differents topics like MW DXing in Canada and in
Europe.... receivers, antennas... this cause Bogdan had no
possibility to meet us ...he live outside Montreal at Pierrefonds and
the bus service stops quite early as 2200 hours...a real pity not having had
chanche to meet him.....hope next time will be better chanche.
So we cocluded the exaustive day again at"Tour de la ville" Buffet
Restaurant DELTA TOWER for 140 Can. $ in TWO !!!! you may eat for 20
people..if your estomac
is sufficent large... as mine...hi... I will never forget the cakes with
chocolate, cacao creeme.(I was able to eat 16 of them.....) the only problem
has been to "BBBUUUURRPPP" them...... don't ask me more...please... hi !!!
So that's was our 2 days in Montreal....tomorrow back to Toronto ...

Versione Italiana by Roberto :

Il giorno successivo ancora in
viaggio, questa volta a destinazione di Montreal, la piu grande citta
francofona al mondo dopo Parigi.
Non attendetevi però un'altra Parigi: le atmosfere parigine, i suoi
boulevard, le brasserie, i bistrò, purtroppo, non hanno copia in Montreal.
Montreal, come tutte le città canadesi, è una città americana, vale a dire
con un centro finanziario pieno di grattacieli ad uso uffici, parchi attorno
ad esso e poi una sterminata periferia con casette ad uno o due piani con un
pezzo di giardino con erba rasata, tipo old England, ove la gente vive (e
passa I weekends a rasarla). Montreal è pero l'unica citta canadese con una
vera vita notturna: la Rue Sainte Catherine, proprio la prima parallela a
quella del nostro albergo, è la fotocopia della parigina Rue Saint Denis
(chi ben conosce Parigi sa cosa voglio intendere!). Il nostro hotel, il
Travel Lodge era posto in pieno centro e quindi già nel pomeriggio potevamo
darci da fare con le varie emittenti ma prima ci dilettavamo all'ascolto
della CFMB sui 1280 KHz, l'emittente in lingua italiana. Una cosa
obbrobriosa: ricordate i programmi delle emittenti di paese della seconda
meta degli anni '70, quelle che poi sono fallite tutte? Ecco, proprio gli
stessi programmi, per 40 minuti è andata in onda una battaglia navale che
dalle chiamate delle ascoltatrici ci ha fatto pensare che il livello
intellettivo medio delle massaie italiane viventi in Montreal sia 27, a
questa battaglia navale è seguito un notiziario con aggiornamenti sulla
situazione del traffico sul grande raccordo anulare di Roma e, dulcis in
fundo, un programma pubblicitario di 25 minuti della Macelleria Benito, 25
minuti con l'elenco dei prezzi di tutti i possibili tagli di carne e
l'invito ad andare al assistere allo "scorticamento" dal vivo! del capretto
acquistato, il tutto intervallato dal meraviglioso slogam "MACELLERIA
BENITO, BUON APPETITO ". Decidevamo che l'emittente non era degna di una
nostra visita! dalla loro WEB : http://www.cfmb.ca/
IL MATTINIERE
L'animatore Nick Di Vincenzo tra una canzone e l'altra propone in blocchi di
mezz'ore programmi di giochi e svaghi: Indovina Indovinello programma a
premi con indovinelli per gli ascoltatori, Hit Parade la classifica locale
basata sulle preferenze d'ascolto del pubblico, Ricordidel cuore, cosa può
ricordare una canzone? molto e le lettere che arrivano lo rivelano. Solo per
bambini un programma vietato ai maggiorenni, e asecondo della stagione Ieri
o Domani Sposi ovvero i racconti delle coppie dopo il loro 25.mo
anniversario di matrimonio o la voce tremante degli sposi il giorno prima di
andare all'altare
Dopo tanto disgusto, uscivamo dall'hotel ed in subway (pardon metro)
raggiungevamo la sede di tre stazioni locali: CKOI in lingua francese sui
96.9 MHz, CFQR Q92 in lingua inglese e COOL sui 98.5 ancora in francese. Si,
perche Montreal è l'unica vera citta bilingue del Canada percui i vari
broadcaster attivano, in molti casi, stazioni sia in lingua francese che
inglese. Non vi erano adesivi (erano sul furgone..che era sparito.) ma una
visita completa degli studi premiava il nostro sforzo per raggiungerla. In
metro e bus ci trasferivamo ad altre due stazioni Cite e Energie.
La prima di musica rock opera sui 107.3 MHz, la seconda sui 94.3 MHz. Questa
volta vi erano un paio di adesivi di Energie,(grazie all'email inviato da
Dario prima di partire per il Canada, dato che la receptionista molto scema
ci aveva detto,l'emittente non ha mai fatto adesivi..) ma niente visita. Non
si puo mai avere tutto! Di fronte vi era la sede della CFCF TV, la City TV
di Montreal ma "les autocollants" erano merce sconosciuta.a Toronto li
vendevano a 0,5 $ Canadesi l'uno.Era ora di raggiungere la sede centrale
della CBC ove avevamo un appuntamento con il servizio spagnolo di Radio
Canada International per registrare un'intervista per la rubrica della posta
che sarebbe andata in onda la successiva domenica 10 agosto. Eravamo un po'
in anticipo e quindi abbiamo deciso di tentare un'incursione all'interno per
conto nostro. La tecnica adottata è stata la stessa gia attuata, con
successo, in Bruxelles sia da me che dal Monferini: chiedere al
receptionista se all'interno vi è una boutique ove comprare souvenirs
dell'emittente. La risposta è stata che una vera boutique non esisteva ma
che dentro vi era un negozietto ove qualcosa vendevano, se volevamo andarci,
prego, passate pure. E' incredibile come la sicurezza in queste grandi
emittenti statali sia un puro optional! Il negozietto era niente piu di un
edicola di giornali, ma una passeggiata la facevamo vedendo gli studi delle
radio nazionali sia francesi che inglesi, la sala stampa per le dirette dgi
notiziari tv e pure staccavamo un paio di adesivi di CBC SPORT appiccicati
su degli armadietti metallici dei dipendenti.
All'ora fissata per l'appuntamento tornavamo alla reception e dopo un po'
di peripezie (dovute ad un receptionista di 92 anni.) in
quanto la persona che ci aveva fissato l'appuntamento alla fine scoprivamo
che
era in ferie .....venivamo raggiunti da Cesar Guerra, il giornalista del
servizio spagnolo che quel giorno avrebbe realizzato la rubrica della posta.
Venivamo quindi condotti nello studio di registrazione e qui passavamo
ad un'intervista di 26 minuti sul tema del radioascolto, del futuro
dell'onda corta, sulle nuove tecnologie, sull'importanza del servizio
radiofonioco pubblico, sul futuro dell'Unione Europea..con messaggio
finale di Dario che salutava gli amici del gruppo Argentino Conexion
Digital.
Il tutto naturalmente in spagnolo.
Mia seconda intervista in spagnolo dopo quella a Radio Ceuta nel 1998!.
Al termine Cesar ci accompagnava a visitare la sala stampa di Radio Canada
International, posta ance lei nel sottosuolo del palazzo e un centinaio dei
nuovi
adesivi di RCI finivano nella mia capiente borsa gialla. A sera si cenava
nel ristorante panoramico girevole posto in cima al grattacielo dell'Hotel
Delta. Il ristorante era a buffet per cui la mangiata è stata pantagruelica,
specialmente quella del Dario..25 portate...
Il giorno seguente, venerdi 8, era ancora dedicato alle radio di Montreal.
Si tornava a Radio Canada International, ove avevamo un secondo
appuntamento, questa volta con Mr. Bill Westenhaver dell'Audience Relations,
l'equivalente del Sig. Papi della Radio Vaticana tanto per intenderci. Bill
era veramente cordiale, non solo ci riconduceva ad un'altra visita di tutte
le installazioni, ma pure ci omaggiava di un altro centinaio di adesivi,
dell'ultima bandierina e ci accompagnava al Northen Service, il servizio
sulle onde Corte per il Nord Canada, dove una gentile "nonnina" ci omaggiava
di 2 medagliette della CBC north service (le QSLcards le hanno finite nel
1993). Congedatici da Bill incontravamo nella grande hall-reception Daniel;
un
collezionista di carte telefoniche con cui Dario aveva fissato un
appuntamento. Daniel era accompagnato dalla sorella Sophie, la quale per
alcuni anni aveva lavorato alla CBC e quindi non solo era in grado di andare
a cercarci gli adesivi di CBC Sport visti il giorno prima ma anche di
trovarcene un altro gigante per noi assolutamente inedito. Un colpetto
niente male!Grazie al loro aiuto ed ad una dettagliata mappa di Montreal
predisponevamo il giro da fare alle altre emittenti della città....
Congedatici da Daniel e Sophie lasciavamo la CBC e ci recavamo alla CKAC, la
radio operante sull'onda media di 730 KHz. Mai visita fu più inutile e
inconcludente, ci spostavamo quindi nel quartiere olimpico ove ha
sede la CIBL, emittente multietnica legata all'ultrasinistra canadese attiva
sui 101.5 MHz. Di adesivi non ve ne erano ma tutti erano molto gentili,
tanto
che ci permettevano anche di staccare alcuni dei loro vecchi appiccicati
sugli armadi da almeno 5 anni! e pure ci omaggiavano di un CD. Una
curiosità: per la prima volta ho visto in una emittente dell'ultrasinistra,
un manifesto denunciante la mancanza di libertà di espressione per i
giornalisti nella Cuba castrista..i tempi cambiano..
Altro trasferimento ed altra emittente multietnica, questa volta la più
"centrista" Radio Centre Ville, radio comunitaria finanziata dalla
municipalità di Montreal. Avevamo un appuntamento con Suzanne, la quale ci
accompagnava a visitare i piccoli e disagiati studi posti in cima ad una
scalinata a dir poco terribile ..per Dario ormai allo stremo delle forze e
ci omaggiava di alcuni adesivi alquanto bruttini. Suzanne voleva pure che
tornassimno verso le 21 per un'intervista in diretta per il programma in
spagnolo, ma fra un'intervista a Radio Centre Ville e una cena alla Delta
Tower non avevamo dubbi su cosa scegliere. La tappa successiva era alla
nostra seconda stazione universitaria, la CKUT, l'emittente della Mc Gill
University attiva sui 90.3 MHz. Altra visita agli studi, altri adesivi,
altra T-shirt. Si chiudeva con un gruppo di tre emittenti, CJAD 800 KHz, Mix
96 a CHOM 97.7 MHz. Dario aveva fissato con vari messaggi e-mail (tale
tecnica si è dimostrata preziosissima e la consiglio a tutti i nostri
eventuali emuli) un appuntamento con Skip Snair, responsabile dei programmi
e quindi non vi erano problemi ad entrare e a visitare tutte le
installazioni di queste emittenti che senza dubbio sono le più professionali
esistenti in Montreal. Tutte in lingua inglese emettono il miglior rock che
sia possibile ascoltare nell'intero Quebec, grazie alla grande esperienza
musicale di Skip che per anni ha lavorato nello staff dei Rolling Stones e
che nel proprio ufficio conserva una chitarra ed un giubbotto da scena
utilizzato da Mick Jagger con dedica. Una quintalata di materiali ci veniva
consegnata al momento del congedo, degna conclusione della nostra visita in
Montreal. A sera si tornava al Ristorante della Delta Tower e qui il DM
rischiava veramente di lasciarci le penne dopo il sedicesimo!!! dolce al
cioccolato trangugiato... e corretto al Gran Margner..hi!

Seventh Chapter 09/10 August 2003 : CANADA 2003 TRAVELLING 1-25 August 2003
Back to Toronto

Hi to all the readers !
We are now in peaceful Thunder Bay...however no clouds ..so no
thunders sounds has been heard !
10 August we had the great pleasure to take part to a friendly get
together organized by Brian Smith of the Ontario Dx Association, he
pick up us at Glen Grove Apartments at 9.30 AM and we went directly
to the meeting point in a big park on the south shore seaside on the
lake, a surprising sunny day assisted us. We started soon to listen
with portable receivers, and many FM stations from Buffalo and
Rochester in US was a good catch, in total almost 40 differents
signals.
Around mid day more ODXA members arrived and so we started to share
the materials we had with us, stickers , old Canadian QSLs, 1950
stamps of CKY CBC Manitoba .... old QSLs issued by CBC in the
1933,1950,1963,1975.... Saul Chernos helped me to ID many FM
stations, he is a real FM-TV Dxer, the ODXA Gen Mgr. Harold Sellers
kindly geave me some copies of the bulletins edited in past months.
A special "visitor" Wayne Plunkett he is collector of Automobile
license plates, he has from Canada stations too, he is writing a book
about the story of the broadcasting in Canada... I surely will buy it.
Saul asked to me about the "Bellabarbas way to do his hobby" and I
explained my view point... and got the view point of Saul.....
but surely not as "predicted" by someone living in Brasil....
At 1600 hours we started back with Brian car to Central Bus station
in Toronto....the sky suddenly becomed black and a storm started then
we were yet in our bus.... the time to say a big thank you to Brian
for the very pleasant day spent together and we let Toronto under a
massive rain...
Greyhound bus are good, but you must learn the temperature in
summertime in the bus is 24 hours around 8-9 degrees....so to wear a
t-shirt at night may be ...dangerous.... hi!
The air conditioned is running automatically and where isn't no way
to stop it.... Our travel was, however a bit warmed by a young guy going to
Winnipeg ...specialized in to break the ball to all passengers.... crying
all the time
"FREE FOR PETER" (Peter was the bus driver first name.....)
every driver has a plate with his names and the plate is put in way
all the passenger may see it.
Stop after stop the bus gradually resulted totally empty of
voyagers.... and so Roberto met Seline Manitou.... yes a real
original redskin aborigenal.... she kindly given to Roberto an indian
towel..against the freeze air in the bus.... and during the night
travel she also given lot of....human warmess.... don't ask me more
please.....but read the Italian text...and buy a vocabulary..... hi !!!!
Well I was a bit more fortunate cause at 2330 hours I get as
companion in my nearer seat.... a fisher man dressed look like to be going
to fish
in winter time.... he ...disappeared suddenly at a stop at 0330... no
ideas of what happened to him...but I was very happy cause I had again 2
seats for me....hi.
The Highway Toronto-Thunder bay (Hw17) is a normal 2 way street in the
middle of thousands green trees and litte lakes and seems look like
the Sweden highway ...... and another thing in commun is.... the
mosquitos.... I met them at the 23oo hours bus stop of 30 minutes....
really a continuos fight against hundreds of Tigre Mosquitos...hi
We arrived in perfect time 125o hours at Thunder Bay bus station.
Tomorrow we will visit the 3 local area FM stations.
The only internet point I have been able to find is located at 1100
Memorial Drive.... not so far from Magic FM at 998 same avenue... but quite
far from our Hotel Prince Arthur... we got there a room with view on
the lake area and we may see also the SLEEPING GIANT lighthouse...
Very nice place to be....

Versione Italiana by Roberto:

Sabato 9 agosto era dedicato al trasferimento da Montreal a Toronto.
Un viaggio nel Canada che tutti immaginiamo, un'unica successione di
laghetti, torrenti e foreste di abeti. Tornati in Toronto (e finalmente
ritrovati i miei vestiti nella valigia mancante...anche semi distrutta)
dopo le 1700 si faceva ancora una minivisita alla receptio della CHIN
ove il gentile Manca ci aveva promesso una busta con vari materiali
informativi e si mangiava una discreta pizza in una delle tante pizzerie
della College Street nella Little Italy. Capitol 597 College street. Poi ci
si fermava al Caffè Diplomatico per qualche "dolcetto" e il caffé.
WEB : http://www.collegestreet.ca/CL/CollegeStreet/CS.nsf/web/home
Domenica 10 agosto era la giornata dell'incontro con gli amici dell'Ontario
DX Association. Ci si ritrovava in un bel parco sulle rive del Lago Ontario
(solo un severo divieto di balneazione mi ha impedito un bagno nelle sue
calde acque) ove ci si scambiava vari materiali, fra cui copie del loro
bollettino LISTENING IN, (se siete interessati a conoscerlo meglio
l'indirizzo da contattare è Box 161 - Willowdale Station A - Toronto ONT M2N
5S8 - Canada, web http://www.odxa.cn.ca), si parlava di ascolti in FM e
sulle onde corte, di Bellabarba (su insistenza di Saul Chernos grande Dxer
dell'Ontario), si ascoltavano radio USA in FM dallo stato di New York e una
canadese in lingua italiana sulla frequenza di 1220 KHz, la CHSC Radio da
St. Catharines, WEB info :
http://www.hhpl.on.ca/Niagara/details.asp?RSN=4499
 si sgranocchiavano panini e si bevevano bottigliette di
birra e sprite. Grazie a Brian Smith l'organizzatore della bella giornata
allietata anche da un bel sole caldo. A sera si partiva in pullmann per un
lungo viaggio da Toronto a Thunder Bay, località turistica sul Lago
Superiore.
Benché lungo, il viaggio era tutt'altro che spiacevole. Facevo infatti il
mio primo incontro coi nativi nordamericani (i pellerossa tanto per usare un
più noto termine se pur politicamente scorretto) nella persona di Celine,
una squaw di imprecisata età fra i 25 e i 40 anni che mi dimostrava che:
a) se pur rare le ninfomani esistono realmente
b) anche i maschietti, sotto una coperta indiana a due piazze, possono
subire molestie sessuali nell'ultima fila dei sedili di un pullmann
Greyhounds (a sua scusante devo però precisare che nulla ho fatto per
respingere le sue molestie, anzi!!!). Mi ero sistemato li per allontanarmi
dal Monferini che di notte ronfa come un treno a vapore in folle..hi.
Arrivati in Thunder Ray nel primo pomeriggio del giorno seguente mi facevo
una sana dormita e poi cenavamo nel primo vero ottimo ristorante italiano
del nostro viaggio; "DA ARMANDO", posto proprio di fronte al nostro Prince
Arthur Hotel, bellissimo hotel con vista lago. Il giorno seguente, martedì
12 era quello del giro delle radio di Thunder Bay.

8th Chapter 11-12 August CANADA 2003 TRAVELLING 1-25 August 2003
Thunder Bay ( 12 stations)

Ciao!
ebbene si abbiamo avuto un CULO formidabile.... infatti abbiamo
lasciato la zona dell'Ontario qualche giorno prima della colossale
panne elettrica che ha colpito il nord anerica nella sua
storia ...50 milioni di persone in una zona grande come l'Europa
senza luce per 2 giorni...

We restart the day after day story of our travel...
After the red light night on the Greyhound Bus of Roberto with
Seline Manitou of the Tribu Black Feet..... we arrived in Thunder
Bay at midday of monday 11 August.
The Prince Arthur hotel is in a real good position and from our 3rd
floor room we had the panoramic view of the entire Bay with the
famous sleeping giant lighthouse..... simply great !
WEB : http://www.princearthur.on.ca/fend/main.asp
Weather was sunny and finally fresh & nice with a good breaze from south.
I went to look at my e-mail at MAIL BOXES service shop...the only
place in Thunder Bay open ... (there is naturally also the public
library...but with too many people waiting....) the cost of the Taxi
and the cost of the internet 10 Can $ one hour !!! did not permitted
to me to send a message ...just looking at e-mails and send some e-
mails to next radio stations to visit in coming days... I also had the
opportunity to visit a Mega store center near MAIL BOX offices to buy a
second travelling bag cause too much empty my giant one, the Mega store so
big you need 30 minutes to go out !!
While I was there Roberto done a good sleeping afternoon after
the ...very hot  ... quite exausted of his .... night
ride...on the green prearies...... hi !!!
We went to eat later to a real nearer restaurant Italian called
ARMANDO (in front of the Prince Arthur Hotel) located in 28 North
Cumberland street. This resulted to be the best Italian restaurant
in 12 days of travel in Canada...his SPAGHETTI ALLA PUTTANNESCA are
really phantastics.... Armando is in Canada from 1972 and is
originarily from Pozzuoli Naples area....
WEB : http://www.goldenfork.com/armandos.htm
12th August tuesday we spent our morning hours to visit the local
stations in Thunder Bay ...the weather was splendido and blue sky on
the bay.... At CBC House we had the pleasure to see at the desk
kilos of stickers (2 models 88.3 MHz and 1240 kHz ) and tons of post
cards featuring the differents programs speakers.... CBC Thunder Bay
is quite local station but it is incredible how many souvenirs they
given to us..... so much I was forced to buy a new BAG !!! hi!
Well .... it must admit which is always very dangerous to let a
front desk uncontrolled if two guys from Italy namely Dario and
Roberto are visiting the radio..... hi...everything will disappear
in few seconds !!!!! ha ha ha....
Mr. Rob kindly shown the studios and they have 7 hours of local
informations !!! in Italy RAI carry 30 minutes of local service over
AM & FM per day.... ohhh boys it is a big different public service !
We get many presents , but most surprising of all : a fish stainless bolt
 to go to fishing !!! with a logo of CBC Radio.....
absolutely a first timer in my collection !!
WEB : http://nwo.cbc.ca/about.html
After this good start we visited MAGIC 999 on FM 99.9 ... they are a
quite new station but they are very friendly Miss Lynda Ahtila at the
reception offered lot of souvenirs again , a we also done some photos of
studios
indoor and outdoor house, they are located at 995 Memorial Drive ,
the WEB is www.magic999.fm
Next the most important private group in the city operated by DOUG
MEDIA Group in a large building at 87 Hill Street North, they
operate also a local area television. the station Rock 94 FM on 94,3
MHz with good old rock hits of the 60's and 70's.... and HOT 105 Hit Music
on
105.3 and CKPR 580 kHz Classic Country the MW talks news station.
Rock 94 WEB : http://www.rock94.com/index.asp
HOT 105 WEB : http://www.hot105.fm/index.asp
CKPR 580 WEB : http://www.ckpr.com/
Patty Rozakos with Greek origins was really kind to spend with us 45
minutes visiting the radios and we done photos and we get many
items..... I may say: please go to Thunder Bay you will find friendly
stations, beautiful sightseen and great restaurant Armando.
The afternoon of 12th August we went to public park on sealake area
not far front the Hotel Prince Arthur and we Dxed with my ATS 909
receiver and the Sony 7600 of Roberto.... about 5 hours session...
Well I may say I have been really surprised to log many many US
stations coming from Michigan,Minnesota and may be even more far
from... 600-1000 Km distances
FM Dx session with my ATS 909 with two FM filters 80
kHz wide , we had some US FM stations.... wonder if some of you
experts
may help me to ID them ?
Here the list :
87,7 with US weather forecast no id
89,9 US just music
90,1 NPR news & gospel talks
90,5 WPFF ? News weather forecast Michigan & come to the Bible
90,7 North Shore Radio with BBC news relay
91,3 KWS ???? mentioning Detroit area YL Dj oldies
91,7 Public Radio News US ?
92,3 WJPB Big country 92
93,5 53degrees in Hanckok (?) WKNJ ?
95,7 RBC ministries program
96,7 J 96 the best classic rock
97.7 channel 97 point 7 Hanckok THE WOLF
98,3 2 TXs rock'n roll & Great Lake Radio News WCSC 98 point 3
guess who was the first rocking 98 point 3 ??
98,7 THE NEW 98 ! rock music no stop +IDs
99,1 Canadian UNID with oldies like Beatles
99,5 Great oldies 99 point 5 Michigan US area
100,5 weak US station
101,1 Abc news Country music 101 radio Duluth Advertisements
102,3 Unid station US ?
104,3 Religious classic music WDCA ? Bellerica ??
105,1 105 Best country adv in Minnesota
105,7 Magic 105 point 7 Country Music US ?
105,9 your choise is Christ US ??
106,9 WUPM ?? 106 point 9
107,7 Q 107 point 7 WMQT ???? Big sound Q 107 ?

This the list I compiled and I e-mailed
to Ontario Dx Association Yahoo Group....
and Morris Sorensen living in Winnipeg kindly helped us to identify
some of them :
It looks like you guys had some good tropo in Thunder Bay. Here are
my guesses and suggestions re some of your loggings there.

90.7 North Shore radio is definitely WTIP Grand Marais MN. See their
website at www.wtip.org

92.3 WJFB Ishpeming-Marquette MI

93.5 WKMJ-FM Hancock MI

96.7 WJJH Ashland WI J-96

97.7 WOLV Houghton MI The Wolf

99.1 possibly CKFW Sorrel Lake ON listed as 5 watts but not far from
Thunder Bay!

100.5 possibly WSCN Cloquet MN

105.1 possibly KKCB Duluth MN which is country

106.9 WUPM Ironwiood MI

107.7 WMQT Ishpeming MI Q-107

Some very fine DX there guys!

Morris Sorensen
Winnipeg MB

Well really a kind way to show how is important to share the knowing
everyone of us has and may offer to others friends in our beautiful
hobby !!!

Around 2000 hours we naturally went to Armando restaurant... how to
miss another phantastic SPAGHETTI ALLA PUTANNESCA ????
So at 2230 we were ready to leave from Thunder Bay to go to Winnipeg
by Greyhound bus.... the Bus station in Thunder Bay is a bit little
and also the operators that late evening resulted a bit ....
confusionals... and was look like to bring the DILIGENZA in the XIX
century.... imagine 85 people trying to pass a streat passage....
well finally we understood the system... the passegers first to
abord the DILIGENZA ...sorry BUS.... was the one coming from
Toronto.... after the ones from SUDBURY... and finally ... they said
another bus for Winnipeg will leave in 30 minutes for the one not
able to take the first one.... all right ??? no SIRS... cause the
bus resulted to have the air conditioned broken.... so up 30 degrees
temperature..... and a terrific taste of Candeggina...coming up the
WC door.... naturally our place was near the WC .... for about 10 hours....
hi
This time Roberto had no RED LIGHT meeting... but he was not able to
sleep... the travel was interrupted many times cause many stops.....
So I guess DON'T travel at night with Greyhound if you can..... you
earn money cause you don't neeed Hotel...but you surely meet very
strange FAUNA !!!!! abord the busses..... (hhhmmmm may be some one
said the same after having looked me ??? ha ha ha )
Well this cause I was able to make my preferred hobby at night
during my sleeping.... SNORING so strong !!! Russare come un treno a
vapore delle ferrovie Inglesi.... ha ha ha .....
Well ..... next coming soon !!
Dario MonferEnglish & Roberto Rapanello (as they said in NHK Italian
Service)

Versione Italiana by Roberto :

Iniziavamo dalla locale sede della CBC.
La porta era chiusa, scampanellavamo, una misteriosa mano da qualche
misteriosa stanza ci apriva ed entravamo in una reception ricchissima di
adesivi e di materiali vari completamente abbandonata a se stessa. Inutile
dire che il peso della mia borsa gialla è subito aumentato in
modo..esagerato. Dopo una ventina di minuti (ed una sigaretta rigorosamente
fumata fuori dall'edificio) qualcuno si ricordava di noi e veniva a
prenderci per accompagnarci ad una visita di tutte le installazioni fra cui
una fantastica sala controllo che permette di seguire tutti i trasmettitori
della CBC nell'Ontario Nord Occidentale, un territorio di 1500x2000
Kilometri! Al momento del congedo ci venivano consegnati ulteriori
adesivi..ed a Dario un AMO per pescare con il simbolo della CBC Thunder Bay.
Ci si muoveva poi in taxi verso Magic 99.9, una piccola emittente
commerciale (loro si vantano di essere il secondo gruppo commerciale della
città, vero anche se purtroppo per loro in Thunder Bay vi sono solo 2 gruppi
di emittenti commerciali) e anche li visita degli studi e adesivi vari. Lo
stesso avveniva anche nell'altro gruppo commerciale, quello che gestisce tre
emittenti, la CKPR di news su 580 KHz, Rock 94 e Hot 105. Fra i vari
materiali raccolti vi è da segnalare un cappello da pescatore coi simboli
delle tre stazioni.
Senza risultati, entrambe chiuse, le visite alle altre due emittenti
cittadine, la Tourist Radio di informazioni turistiche sui 97.1 MHz
 (effective radiated power of 1.3 watts!!!!) e la
cristiana CJOA operante dall'interno di un ricovero per anziani sulle
frequenze di 95.1 e 93.1 MHz WEB : http://www.cjoa.org/
Il resto della giornata veniva passata in un bel parco in riva al lago ad
ascoltare stazioni U.S.A. in FM,dal Michigan (700-1200 Km di distanza).
Dopo un'altra cena dal "partenopeo" Armando dove gustavamo i famosi
"spaghetti
alla puttanesca Pozzuolani" si ripartiva a destinazione di Winnipeg, la
capitale del Manitoba. Qui il panorama cambiava: lasciata la regione dei
laghi iniziava quella delle praterie che, se negli USA sono la spelacchiata
distesa di terreno vista in tanti film western, in Canada sono un'enorme
estensione di campi di grano e pascoli.

9th Chapter visit to Canada by Dario MonferEnglish & Roberto Rapanello
Winnipeg (20 stations)
13 August

Ciao !
Here again our story .... the arrival in Winnipeg was in time....
and another hot sunny day in the city said hallo to us....
our Howard Johnson Hotel in Ellice Avenue 1740 was quite far from
the city ...but this cause the other Hotels I contacted had price
too much high for our possibilities.... up to 290 Can $ for one
night.... we paid just 79 $ Can ....and perfect hotel ...they even
geave us the room at 0830 hours !!!!!!!!!!!! and at the office desk
they offered to me 50 minutes free of internet !!!!!!! where to find
so good service ??? So if you will visit Winnipeg you know the best
Hotel now ! http://www.hojo-canada.com/
However as usually not everything is going in perfect way.... we
started to meet TAXI operated by exclusively people coming from ...
Thamil,Urdu,Indian,Bengali,Bangladeshi, Srilankesi.... people...
well I must say I have nothing against these ethnics cultures but
the way they manages the TAXis in Winnipeg is really terrific...
First in Winnipeg is no possible to pick up a Taxi on the
street...if you do it...you will get replies like... " il mio
Badrone non vuole che si brenda gente senza aver faddo chiamata ber
ordinare il Taxi"...... "my BADRONE doesn't want I pick up people on
the streets cause he think I will take part of money for me and my
family of 25 peoples....." Well I understand the problem but this
do not authorize the drivers to do round trips or to make every time
you pick up a taxi the price around 10 Can $.....
We visited in ONE day 12 places on the 16 planned.... the missing
only cause we lost 90 minutes total on the streets to wait taxis or
to call even 3 (three times !!!) per one taxi..... horrible service.
It is a pity cause most of the radio stations we visited resulted
extremely friendly (apart 3 ).......
Informations about Manitoba Radio stations WEB :
http://www.mikesradioworld.com/ca_mb.html
We started with Power 97 Winnipeg Best Rock & CJOB 680 Manitoba
informations Superstation all news, located at 930 Portage Avenue.
Power 97 WEB : http://www.power97.com/
CJOB 680 WEB : http://www.cjob.com/
Miss Lindsay Filbey the kind receptionist offered 2 georgeos coffee mugs
and some items for free.
 Next the CBC Winnipeg CBW 98.3 located in 541 Portage Avenue.
 WEB : http://www.winnipeg.cbc.ca/ (don't forget in each town they operates
French and English service and relay Classic FM channel...)
Mrs Janice Moeller (surely with relatives from Germany ...and long
blonde hairs) really was able to astonish both of us.... in 5
minutes we.... went LIVE over the medium wave regional station 50 kW on 540
kHz
covering the entire Manitoba..... sending greetings to the listeners
(may be too astonished to listen to two guys coming from Italy to
visit Winnipeg) However in the town lives more than 30000 Italians...
and the Italian Community ran on 810 kHz Radio Winnipeg they call it
Radio Italia 810 kHz. We got again many nice souvenirs... t-shirts
..pens....krings...pins.... transfer stickers tattoos (this seems the new
hit
 of the moment in Canada) ....and surely never got before a Hornet to
kill mosquitos and flies.... surely useful also at next AIR Meeting....
Woooww 90 miuntes of great time at the CBC building.
We visited next Freq 107 WEB : http://www.freq107.com/
....over the air they say "FREAK 107" .... hi , they play
Christian Rock Music and Tom Hiebert Gen Mgr. in person was pleased
to meet us (I e-mailed to him 10 messages in 3 days.... hi) they are
located in OSBORNE street 738 .... this street becomed a real
calvary for us.... we lost 20 minutes for going to Osborne 166 cause
some works on the street.... at CITI 92 rock classic station we...
get 2 nice t-shirts ...... free.... but nothing more.... the station
is also owner of 580 kHz CKY ...this year 80ty years old.... so I
given to the lady of the prom.office a photocopy of the station stamps
issued in 1950.... but apart a "cold" "... ohhhhhh nice souvenir of
the past.... I did not know...." She cleary was totally uninterested to such
document,
cause in reality CKY 580 kHz will soon move
to FM band and will change format.... CKY was one of the first 2
stations started in Canada 80ty years ago operated by privated
companies in the 1940's it was bought by Radio Canada.... and more
recently sold to privates again..... a sad end of a legendary
station..... AMEN.
CITI 92 WEB : http://www.92citifm.ca/home.html
CKY 580 WEB : http://www.cky.com
Well the next was the lost of 45 minutes to find a taxi... in bloody
Osborne street..... I become still red hot pepper thinking to those
Sub...normal Asian sub...continental drivers....
Next we arrived at 201 Portage Avenue... a giant skyscraper with at
30th floor...with a view glitterin skyline...really great..... New
Cool FM... CJZZ JAZZ music only station 99.1 MHz..... in 5 seconds we
becomed even more COOL than their Jazz music... "we don't have
promotional items.... we don't permit visit to our listeners"...
Woooww a real Cool FM station .... I mentally said... "ma va a fare
in CUUL ...." don't translate please....
Cool FM CJZZ WEB : http://www.canada.com/entertainment/features/cooljazz/
Well the square was the convergence of 5 streeets... imagine how to find
the taxi we called ?? we opted to go to near Sheraton Hotel... and
we get a taxi... managed by a real Indian (from India...not from a local
area
"lager reserve")..... with big Turbant on head... we went to Lombard
166 Avenue.... Ohhhh boy a real surprise it was the next street back
to Sheraton.... ha ha ha.... At 3rd luxury floor we had another
unpleasant meeting....with a very steaky receptionist (over 70's I
guess) I asked for Miss Jaret Sereda.... the receptionist said she
is no more working for us..... I kept the name & e-mail from their
WEB one week before.... I said Mr. Tom Beau... the sosia of Lady
Tatcher said... He is in holidays will be back in 1 week.....
So we let the reception.... of Hot 103 Today's Hit Music and QX 104.1
Winnipeg Country Music Station......... with quite black-hot humor...
but tis is the normal level of Rogers radio group
Standard quality.... for them the visitors are less than shit.....
HOT 103 WEB : http://www.hot103live.com/main/main.asp
QX 104 WEB : http://www.qx104fm.com/main/main.asp
Next after another desaster to find the Taxi.....my God....
we wanted to see the other most important stations group in Winnipeg
the one of CHUM Radio group......BOB FM 99.9 and Q-94 Today best
 music (not today however we said) .... and CFRW 1290 big country
oldies..... we arrived after a foolish round trip by taxi.. at 1445
PEMBINA road..... and we discovered they were ermetically closed ...
no door to enter.... cause they were doing some works... so no
public visit admitted till 21 august next..... lets say in Italian
"Madonna mia che sfiga!!!!"
BOB FM 99.9 WEB : http://www.999bobfm.com/ the Web is still not operative,
 there is a man hydraulic with a pomp to open a water close empty of.....???
Q-94 WEB : http://www.q94fm.com/q94fm.pnm
CFRW 1290 kHz WEB :
http://www.chumlimited.com/radio/stationpage.asp?stationID=73
A terrific dry cold wind and the high pression opted us to avoid the
street research of a may be taxist Belucistani driver.... we kept a Bus and
arrived again in central Winnipeg.... we took another taxi at Sheraton to go
to
CKJS Radio Italia 810 kHz..located in Corydon avenue 520 ... finally
a good idea... Mr. Tony Carta the President !!!! (Mr Coppola the
director was in holidays in Italy) make us smile again and we stay 2
hours to talk with him about topics related to the broadcasting....
Tony geave to us some rarity stickers of CKJS with a relay of Voice
of America program..... during Clinton govern.... now NO ONE in
CANADA will relay Voice of America after the bloody war to Iraqi
petroldollars...
Tony also invited to go later at Folklorama Italia the fest of the
Italian community of Winnipeg....starting at 1745 ....
CKJS 810 kHz WEB : http://www.ckjs.com/Ethnic_First_Page.html
Tony is pleased to have e-mail contacts to carta@ckjs.com
So we had time to visit CHVN Christian Radio operated by Family
Radio Group US, Mr.Wade Kehler and the kind receptionist,they had
 for us many souvenirs ....very friendly
indeed not all US people are look like President Dabliu....luckly.
CHVN 95.1 WEB : http://www.chvnradio.com
They are located at 1111 Chevrier Road (I was thinking to kill a
TUGS Taxi driver cause he was able to missunderstanding the
address ...AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH.......)
We arrived after that to CAMPUS RADIO CJUM or UMFM located at
the University of Winnipeg in Portage street 515... to find the correct
 room was this time the Roberto eye .... may be I was a bit "cooked" by
the
fights with the Taxi drivers...ha ha ha...
Campus Radio WEB : http://www.umfm.com/
Well the station is managed in a very free way and more than 300
students cooperate to make the programs usefuls and interesting...
the station is at 3rd floor exatly over the restaurant of the
University..... not easy to find the place....if are coming from
Italy..hi However Miss Liz Clayton the Station Mgr. was very kind to tell us
all the informations you may find visiting their very good Web page.
We went back to Radio Italia and with Tony Carta car we arrived
quite far from the city to the place of the Italian fiesta....
So we had an interview in Italian ... the ones preferred by
Roberto.... we shared lot of friendship and geave stickers of Radio
Italia from Italy to many of the visitors.... almost 700 people
arrived from all areas of Winnipeg....
Thanks to the technical operator & Producer of the daily portuguese
program, a portuguese living in Winnipeg from 1968 Sr. Cezilio de
Almeida ... we had a providential passage to our hotel ... missing may be
another
nightmare Cingalese Taxi driver from ?? southern Sri Lanka forests.....
At 1930 at the Hotel desk reception arrived local area Dxer Morris
Sorensen....
he kindly accepted to be our guest for that evening, geaving to us
some interesting AM-FM listings of Manitoba radio stations and
copies of his fanzine sent via e-mail compiled with Shawn another FM &
TV Dxer living in Winnipeg (but outside the city during our stay).
So all 3 together we enjoyed our meal at the Royal Crown Revolving
Restaurant high over Winnipeg as the sun set and the moon rose over
the River City, and a giant full moon...moon rise... atop the 31
floor...dominating the Winnipeg city.... a great place.... the food
was quite good.... but most important Morris talked to us about what
to see from the restaurant tower.....
http://www.rcrown.mb.ca/
Another great day also thanks to many friendly people we met in
Winnipeg...making our visit valuable... apart the ....TAXITS...hi
13 August we leave the Hotel ...naturally I had another 50 minutes
free session at internet in the administration of the Hotel....
Next chapter will come sooner...

Versione Italiana by Roberto :

Nella mattinata del mercoledi 13 agosto si arrivava a Winnipeg.
Depositati i bagagli all'Hotel Howard Johnson si attaccava subito col duro
"lavoro" di collezionisti di adesivi. Per prima cosa svegliavamo il taxista
hindu che dormiva nel taxi davanti all'albergo e ci facevamo portare alla
sede di due stazioni commerciali: la CJOB attiva sui 680 KHz di sole news e
Power 97 di musica rock. Non avevano adesivi ma ci omaggiavano di una coffee
mug, la tazza ove tutti gli anglosassoni bevono il loro quotidiano litro di
caffè, pardon acqua sporca. Ci si spostava quindi con un altro TAXI
scalcagnato condotto da un Belicistano alla sede locale della CBC; li Dario
aveva fissato un appuntamento con la responsabile delle pubbliche relazioni,
Janice Moeller, e quindi non vi erano problemi a visitare gli impianti. La
sorpresa arrivava al termine della visita quando la speaker in quel momento
in onda per il programma regionale ci faceva un'intervista in diretta sui
motivi del nostro viaggio. Mio secondo intervento radiofonico in lingua
inglese dopo l'intervista rilasciata ad Anker Petersen per l'AWR Europe un
po' di anni fa! La consegna di due capienti borse con materiali vari fra cui
un acchiappamosche con i simboli dell'emittente (che Dario promette di
utilizzare alla prossima riunione AIR) chiudeva questo simpatico momento.
Altro taxi condotto da un Indiano con turbante gigante cremiso, ed altro
ingorgo e raggiungevamo Freq 107, emittente di heavy rock. la stazione è
alquanto piccolina, ma il responsabile era alquanto gentile e non solo ci
accompagnava a visitare gli studi, ma ci omaggiava anche di alcuni adesivi,
senz'altro alquanto rari. Era poi la volta di Citi 92 a CKY, storica
emittente di news operante sull'onda media di 580 KHz (compie 80 anni di
vita quest'anno!). Li le cose andavano un po' peggio, niente visita ma un
omaggio alquanto insolito: una borraccia di Citi 92 che già utilizzo nei
miei giri in bicicletta. Assolutamente negativa la successiva visita a Cool
FM, emittente di solamusica jazz, un accidenti di niente!. famoso poi il
saluto di Dario alla austera receptionista (tipo Tatcher): "MA VA FA IN
KUUUUUUUUULLL !!"
Un po' meglio alle altre due emittenti del centro cittadino, Hot 103 e QX
104 di musica country. Una T-Shirt di Hot 103 finiva nelle nostre borse.
Nuovo taxi e nuova escursione in periferia: Bob FM. Il nulla: la stazione
era chiusa per restauri. Avremmo poi avuto modo di constatare che mandava in
onda solo dei nastri preregistrati. Era giunta la volta di CKJS,
l'emittente multietnica operante su 810 Khz e di proprietà del sardo Tony
Carta, attiva in una trentina di lingue fra cui l'italiano, ogni giorno
dalle 18 alle 19. L'accoglienza era veramente calorosa: non solo venivamo
omaggiati di vari adesivi ed accompagnati ad una visita dell'emittente, ma
venivamo invitati anche a tornare verso le 17 per essere accompagnati al
Centro Italiano di Winnipeg per partecipare a FOLKLORAMA ITALIANO
da dove sarebbe andato in onda in diretta il programma italiano ed essere li
intervistati. Momentaneamente congedatici da Tony raggiungevamo con un
taxista Bramino la CHVN, stazione religiosa affiliata alla Trinity
Broadcasting, quei matti che possiamo seguire in televisione anche qui in
Italia. Tutti erano molto simpatici e con nostra sorpresa il loro argomento
di conversazione preferito erano le "canadian girls", ci facevano vedere gli
impianti e ci omaggiavano di vari adesivi alquanto bellini. Si chiudeva con
la CJUM, l'emittente dell'University of Winnipeg. Altro pieno successo.
Tornavamo quindi con un taxista Libanese alla CKJS e Tony ci portava al
Centro Italiano. E' questo un grosso complesso costruito dai nostri
connazionali nel Manitoba (circa 300.000) che ospita un bar, un ristorante,
un teatro, sale di esposizione, la Camera di Commercio italo-canadese, il
Vice Consolato d'Italia e aule per corsi di italiano per canadesi
organizzati in collaborazione con la Società Dante Alighieri. In quei giorni
la CKJS operava dal Centro Italiano in quanto la nostra comunità aveva
organizzato una serie di spettacoli folkloristici che stavano attirando un
grandissimo pubblico canadese. Li venivamo presentati a tutti i
mammasantissima della comunita e poi ben volentieri ci sottoponevamo al
rito, dell'intervista. Piccola nota curiosa: l'intervistatrice ha una zia
che vive a Vercelli. Al termine rifiutavamo il gentile invito a cena
(dato che avevamo già preso un altro precedente impegno) ed il
tecnico della CKJS, nonche responsabile del programma in portoghese, ci
salvava da un taxista Turkmenistano disperso nella periferia ventosa e
polverosa di
Winnipeg e ci riportava in albergo ove avevamo appuntamento con Morris
Sorensen un Dxer locale che ascolta da oltre 40 anni, per una cena sul
ristorante panoramico della città..e per parlare del nostro hobby preferito.


10th Chapter visit to Canada by Dario MonferEnglish & Rob.Rapanello
14-15 August
(Brandon 4 stations & Regina 20 stations)

Tutto bene ???
Qui in Canada nella zona centrale tutto okay... sono all'internet
point ULTIMATE Cyber cafe un ottimo posto per fare Internet... dopo
le 2ooo ci sono "live sessions" di gruppi e cantanti country music del
posto.... situato al 1852 Scarth Street, nel centro di Cornwall Shopping
Center
 (area pedonale angolo 11th Corner street).... con aria condizionata
ovviamente mentre fuori ci sono 40 gradi all'ombra .....
We are now in Regina ..... (they prononce please REGIAINA !!) the
town was founded 100 years ago by Queen Victoria...but cause yet founded
Victoria town in British Columbia....they opted to call this one Regina.
The town is modern and there is a giant garden public .... 20 Kmq of
space of green river, trees,peace..... Roberto has gone to explore
the park ...today there is a folk country music festival starting in
the center of the park....with live exibitions and free real country
food...
We let 14 August the Winnipeg city in the morning , the bus station
of Greyhound Winnipeg is comfortable they have big troilers for
baggages.... my total weight is yet over 50 kilos (2 bags)..... woow.
The bus driver Randy resulted the most friendly and the drive of 8
hours was very nice...with perfect air conditioned level.... the
area in the country is cultivated to rice,mais,corn..... you can't
believe kilometers of cultivations..... not so much caws has been
seen from N 1 Hyghway we utilized to arrive to Regina....
But at 1230 we stopped 55 minutes in Brandon .... so thanks the
precious help of Morris seen the precedent evening I got via e-mail after
our meeting, the address of the 2 group stations operating in Brandon.....
Hot
101 located at 624 14th St. East .... and Star 94.7 located at 2940
Victoria....
HOT 101(CKXA) Today Hit Music WEB : http://www.hot101.ca/jt.asp
KX 96 (CKX)Best Rock WEB : http://www.kx96online.com/main.asp
Star FM 94.7 (CKLF) WEB : http://www.starfmradio.com/ nice WEB ..try it !!
hi !
CKLQ 880 kHz Wild Country WEB :
http://www.mymanitoba.com/CKLQ/index2.html
so I runned to keep a taxi ... and met a friendly taxi driver.... white
skin !!!
(no more asian mobbers in Manitoba) hi! in 25 minutes I was able to
see both stations groups and to get many stickers from STAR 94.7
 .....and ONE !! sticker from HOT 101 the other local station in Brandon
.... thanks the good cooperation work of Morris !!!
We earned one hour cause the time here in Saskatchewan (I have
copied it from a depliant this time...hi) is one hour before respect
Winnipeg.....
Another Howard Johnson Hotel with 400 rooms on 2 floors.... very
very large...and like a labyrint ...hi
So we relaxed a little at the hotel and we went to eat at TONY's
ROMA beef grill house WEB : http://www.ribs.ca/info.htm ....
General Manager Shawn Swicheniuk (ukrainian ?) WOOW..
look like to be in an old saloon with ...nice Camereras with hot pants....hi
missing only Buffalo Bill Cody ..... and naturally true original
Indians..... we eat giant grill beef....called RIBS... very well cooked like
they
do in Argentina... (Pero...no se puedes olvidar tu ASADO ...Nicolas...hi...)
However we had problems to drink...all the drinks we tested had the
same unpleasant taste CANDEGIAINA of water of REGIAINA.....
yes probably they wash the drink containers & glasses with water to
avoid problems of SARS & insects.... with some lotion to kill insects..
the taste is like to...... drink the water of a swimming pool.....
GGGHHHHAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
While we were eating this Country food stile our attention was
keep out by a big wall television carrying CNN news.... and what
news.... half US and CANADA eastern part was with no energy...for a
big problem to 25 super power Hydroelectrics services in the area of
NIAGARA FALLS.... so it was surprising for us to imagine if this
desaster should have been happened JUST ONE WEEK before.... we were
in Toronto and Ottawa area.... we used many times the Subway.....
I can't imagine how this should have changed our travel.....
The cases of the life are always a misterious plane.... so probably
we were permitted to make our historical travel of more than 200
radio stations visited in 25 days...... thanks GOD !!!!!
We naturally went back to the hotel and we looked at Televisions (66
channels in the television set of our hotel...not RAI international)
We also listened to the radio dial on Medium wave.... we will do it
again tonight..... 15 august here .... yet 16 august in Italy.
We noted 850 KOA Denver, 1120 KMOX St.Louis with very good signal...
KJR 950 Detroit...with live report of the black out....
So a real night of impressive listenings.... on FM only the 16 local
area stations..... nothing from Winnipeg nothing from Calgary both
too far away....to arrive here in Regina...
We were ready at 0900 hours on 15 august....a normal working day
here in Canada...not the same in many countries of Europe....hi
We visited first ROCK 94 ...another ROCK but on 94,3 MHz with great
music.... same owner of Z 99 on 98,9 Easy listening music.....
Z 99 WEB : http://www.z99.com/ Rawlco radio station, the brand new
CKCK 94,3 MHz purchased recently (ex CKCK 620 kHz
operated for more than 75 years on MW band....) called Rock 94
 (how many in Canada with same slogan...boys ???) and CJME on 980 kHz
 (ex 1300 kHz from 2001) ..... a great hall ....but did not get anything
...
just a perentorial request to call again from a........ "boy" called Natham
 the station after 2 pm cause the board !!! should have decided if it
was allowed to 2 Italians to see the studios.....(we do it at 2 pm and
receptionist said, sorry it's luch time....)... incredible.... worse in all
our travel.
Guess if Rawlco group is doing this with all potential costumers visiting
their office
in few weeks they will surely close down their activities in whole
Canada......
Next going better the visit to the Harvard Broadcasting Group located at
2060 Halifax street , good thanks to reply I got via e-mail from Daryl
Holien the Progr.Dir. who ordered to Rob Pettigrew to assist us in the tour
of CKRM 620 news talks , Lite 92 goldies hits, The Wolf 104,9 Rock station.
They are offering a very good service to the people living in
Regina who wish differents good music and informations.
Lite 92 CHMX WEB : http://www.lite92fm.com/hc/lite92fm/index.html
The Wolf 104.9 CFWF WEB :
http://www.thewolfrocks.com/hc/thewolfrocks/index.html
CKRM 620 kHz Country Sport Radio WEB :
http://www.620ckrm.com/hc/ckrm/index.html
We got some good items.... no stickers only tattoos ... seems they are
not printing them in Regina...in this moment... hi...sorrrryyyyyyy...
So we arrived at 2440 Broad Street of CBC Regina.... a great great
building...
a young girl in uniform at the front desk said "HI" may I help you.... well
in fact she
helped us really a lot !!!! ... for 20 minutes he tryed to find
a...volunteer to
show us the facilities of CBC Radio & Television in Regina.... and
finally she found the.... right people ..Mr. Luc Archambault Chief of CBC
French
 Communications... cleary of French origins.... so we suddenly started to
speak in
French and this helped very much to make our visit really pleasant...
So we visited a little museum at desk with many souvenirs of the
past.... also a giant paper water sticker (I have one little with same logo
from
CHNS Halifax) of the 60's.... I also seen the book with 50 years
of story of Radio Canada in Regina ..... anyone in Ontario Dx
Association knows about this ?? We visited all the sections ...even
the central desk room connected to Montreal .... with computers
equipments.... and we met M.me Anne Brochu chief redacteur of news
at regional level.... so she wanted to record an interview with
us... but the man to interview us was in another town( CBC Saskatchewan !!)
 .... a real unusual experience for us.... hi.... the interview in French
was
surely a new one for me.... so I started to speak in MonFrench !!!!..ha ha
ha.
Thanks to Luc we had the street address of CJTR 91,3 Community Radio
 located in Regina.
We really remained at CBC Regina for 3 hours !!!!! and I may say CBC
workers are really friendly..... another good reason to see the CBC Radio
broadcasting stations in Canada.... "MERCI Luc !! Tres aimable !!!!"
 WEB : http://radio-canada.ca/regions/saskatchewan/
So we arrived at CJRT 91.3 located at : 301-1102 8th Avenue,
and we met Keith Colhoun the young but very active Operations
Manager of the station, which is operated thanks the
help and money of volunteers and people who believe in the power of
the broadcasting media ! this is a very good matter.... to do a
station not for money but for help the others living in a community
and who needs informations and alternatives news.... web:
http://www.cjtr.ca if you want to know more or to cooperate with
them... the e-mail radius@cjtr.ca . We got also the stickers.... free ..
from a real free speach station.......
The station has also a program in Italian on Sunday 2 times per month
we had another short but very funny interview live.... Roberto very pleased
to have 3 in one day ... new record for him !!!
So this concluded in the best way our visit in Regina....
Next coming quite soon is the big Calgary.... see ya later !!!
Dario Monferinglish & Rob. Rapanello
PS : the mistakes are copyrighted !!!!!!!!!

Versione Italiana by Roberto :

La tappa successiva era la citta di Regina, capitale della provincia del
Saskatchewan, ove giungevamo nella serata di giovedi 14 agosto. Dopo una
sana dormita all'Howard Johson Inn Hotel, dedicavamo alle radio cittadine la
giornata di Ferragosto che i canadesi da bravi sudditi del Capo della Chiesa
Anglicana non festeggiano. Iniziavamo dal gruppo Rawlco che in Regina attiva
CJME di news su 980 KHz, Z99 di hit e Rock 94. Uno schifo! Il capoccione non
c'era, la receptionista trovava solo un ragazzotto sbarbatello che senza
l'autorizzazione del capoccione non si prendeva alcuna iniziativa, bisognava
telefonargli più tardi, l'avremmo richiamato alle 12 ma era ancora troppo
presto, alle 14 aveva dovuto uscire un attimo, bisognava richiamare alle
15... e alla
fine capivamo che NON ERAVAMO GRADITI !!
Decidevamo di mandarlo a fare in KUUUUUUULLL pure lui e le sue tre radio di
m.... Più fortunata la visita ad un altro gruppo di tre stazioni, CKRM di
musica country sui 620 KHz, Lite 92 FM e The Wolf 104.9 MHz di musica rock.
Li il capoccione (allertato con 4 messaggi e-mail da Dario), benché in
Shorts
Bermuda, ci stava ed era pure alquanto gentile per cui la visita delle
installazioni era assicurata. Fra i souvenirs finali molto originale il
portatarga automobilistica coi simboli delle 3 emittenti.
Toccava poi alla CBC. Non avevamo appuntamenti ma la receptionista
giovanissima poliziotta ( tipo la Arcuri...) era veramente OK (in tutti i
sensi..)
e si attaccava al telefono finché (dopo 20 minuti di ricerche!!!) non
trovava
qualcuno disposto a riceverci. Questi era addirittura il responsabile dei
programmi
locali in francese, Luc Archambault, persona veramente grande che ci
dedicava più di due ore mostrandoci tutto quanto c'era da vedere e pure ci
collegava con gli studi di Saskatchewan per la registrazione di
un'intervista che sarebbe andata in onda il lunedì successivo nel programma
regionale in francese. Mia prima intervista in lingua francese! Ma non solo
al momento del congedo, oltre che con un bellissimo orologio a forma di
radio per i 50 anni di trasmissioni in francese nel Saskatchewan, ci
omaggiava con la promessa, effettivamente mantenuta, di contattare il suo
omologo in Edmonton per una analoga visita agli studi della CBC Alberta.
Ultima tappa alla CJTR, piccola emittente comunitaria attiva sui 91,3 MHz
dell'FM. Altri adesivi a altra intervista, questa volta in inglese. Battuto
ogni record in fatto di interviste!
Erano appena le 13oo, Dario decideva dl raggiungere un internet point ed io,
che riconosco la supremazia del Vescovo di Roma a quindi la festività, del
giorno 15 agosto, mi dedicavo ad un po' di turismo (Regina è la città col
più grande parco cittadino al mondo) e poi mi godevo la piscina del nostro
hotel ed il suo meraviglioso gigantesco scivolo, 15'' di pura adrenalina!
Piccola nota: anche in Canada questa è stata l'estate più calda degli ultimi
5
secoli.


11th Chapter visit to Canada by Dario MonferEnglish & Rob. Rapanello
16 August saturday
Regina - Calgary travel

Hi .... ciao!....
dove eravamo rimasti ??? al nostro arrivo a Calgary dopo la
strabiliante giornata a Regina....
We started saturday morning the transfer travel with Greyhound bus.
with Mrs. Bonnie the woman driver (125 kilos of Hambourgers...and beer)
....the line Regina to Calgary is crossing first SALT lakes areas and after
kilometers of crops cultivations and also  thousants of Caws said hallommuu
uuuuuuuuhhhh........................
to our passage,we stopped at famous place Medicine Hat.... but being
saturday no possible to do a visit to 2 locals stations...and no
Taxi seen outside bus stastion....and a hot dry wind was all over the
city....(look like in the Spaghetti Westerns movies) we arrived in Calgary
around 18oo hours and our Hotel was another good
Bestern Western at 1330 - 8th street.... I soon noticed in the lobby an
internet office, and in fact it was for the visitors. But to my
surprise it doesn't worked for TIN it and Infinito.it.... so I did
not payed, the cost is 10 Can $ for 30 minutes !!!!
WEB : http://www.bestwesternsuitescalgary.com
I phoned to Joe Talbot living in Red Deer (120 km north to Calgary)
and so the meeting for the following day sunday was positively confirmed.
We ended the day at 402 - 8th street at Ristorante Abruzzo, we found it
thanks
local yellow pages book .........were Nicola and Paula the owner offered
to us Spaghetti alla Puttanesca alla Lancianese.....
very great plate to eat after a day of a real COUNTRY CAVALCADE !
Our on the road story will continue sooner .....
Dario MonferEnglish & Rob. Rapanello

12th Chapter visit to Canada by Dario MonferEnglish & Rob. Rapanello
17 August
Regina on Sunday

Here again....the server often cut the connection....so more
chapters.... sorry
The sunday meeting with Joe Talbot at 10oo hours at Hotel was
perfect and naturally it becomed historical after the arrival of mitic
Ed Kusalik driving for more than 200 km from south to meet us.
He took to show to us some of his great selections of verifications
from exotics countries in Asia,Pacif Ocean, Papua New
Guinea....Africa....Indonesia..... from the mid 60's up till now.
We discussed lot about Dx listenings, fake QSLs, fake Dx groups of
the past like Numero Uno..... and naturally also about bloody fake
reporter Carlo Goodbarbe..... around 13oo hours we searched for a
restourant but being sundays almost all good ones was closed so we
recovered in a normal food store .... but quality was below zero...
The omelette was not cooked.... and the first taste of liquid 7up
sprite was ....with CANDEGIAINA.......................................
AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Luckly Ed suggested to take MILK for me....this saved me...
Around 3 pm Ed went back to his home, his QSL collection is really a
great one, and 242 BC countries verified make him at top leader
position for active Dxers in North America.
Thanks to Joe we found the only internet shop open in Calgary on
sunday, Mired ..owned by Korean ..very iper clean, iper
confortable...but quite high cost 10 Can $ per 1 hour.... located at
1032 - 17th avenue SW.
All the others internet points in Calgary are closed.
So we say see tomorrow to Joe who went back to Red Deer.
We had yet done a reservation at Panorama Restaurant atop the Calgary tower,
WEB : http://www.calgarytower.com/ 190 meters over the city level....
for that night, surely a good looking but not so good (for us
Europeans) food taste.....but hopefully the grilled Salmon was still
available for me.... I drinked Milk...naturally ! hi
The camerero was a friendly Portorican so we spoken a little in
Spanish for a while... and we got informations about ....
Portorico.. may be the travel in 2007 will be done by us in
Portorico...
The panorama from the restaurant was really nice and thousands of
lights was shining from the Highways....but also some ...smokes from
the west .... a signal the Rocky Fire Mountains was still burning... so
absolutely no traces of mountains .... covered by smokes fires...
A real good sunday indeed.... spent with two great Dxers and in a
modern city.
See you later.....
Dario MonferEnglish & Rob Rapanello

Versione Italiana by Roberto :

Era giunto il momento di avvicinarsi alle Montagne Rocciose e raggiungere la
città di Calgary, la sede olimpica che nel 1988 ha visto i più straordinari
trionfi del grande Alberto Tomba. Sabato sera trovavamo un altro fantastico
ristorante Italiano "Abruzzo" il proprietario originario di Lanciano
ci ..offriva un altra versione dei famosi "tagliolini alla puttannesca
Lancianesi" .. Indimenticabili. WEB :
http://www.wineanddineonline.com/WDO/res/info.jsp?id=15
La nostra base era all'Hotel Best Western Suites Downtown Inn, domenica 17
abbiamo incontrato I due tra i migliori Dxer canadesi, Joe Talbot ed Ed
Kusalik, 242 paesi confermati, naturalmente
contati con il sistema americano secondo il quale la Sicilia è un country,
la Sardegna idem ed il resto dell'Italia un terzo ancora. Avevamo così modo
di vedere un incredibile raccolta di QSL indonesiane a papuase che in
Italia, anche per i "faiallari" resteranno sempre e solo un sogno. Dopo un
frugale spuntino lasciavamo i nostri colleghi Dxer e mentre il Monfa si
rinchiudeva nel solito Internet point io mi dedicavo alla visita della
downtown cittadina. Purtroppo la vista delle Montagne Rocciose era preclusa
dalla spessa coltre di fumo generatasi dagli incendi che da più di cinque
settimane stavano bruciando ettari ed ettari di boschi provocando anche non
pochi disagi alle popolazioni. A sera si cenava alla Calgary Tower nel
solito ristorante girevole. Molto simpatico il cameriere portoricano che ci
permetteva di riutilizzare l'idioma castellano.

13th Chapter visit to Canada by Dario MonferEnglish & Rob. Rapanello
18 August monday
Regina 20 stations
details stations info : WEB : http://www.pugetsoundradio.com/calrad.html

Monday morning we met again Joe Talbot who kindly offered to drive
us to visit the radio stations, this surely has been very
appreciated cause we had in this way the possibility to see all !!! the
existing
radio. We started with Standard Radio group located at 1110 Centre street
NE
with THE VIBE 98.5 Hip Hop sounds and CJAY 92 Calgary Classic Best Rock,
 Mr. Ben Jeffery Music Director assisted us with stickers and t-shirts.....
we also
visted CKMX AM 1060 kHz Great Songs & Great Memories, Don Sade was at
mike,
this station also operates on 6030 kHz on shortwave as CFVP with 100 watts
.....it seems strange but really they don't know about 6030 kHz bloody
Radio Marti operations....may be now
after our alert they will send an official protest to the US govern !! Hi
!!!.
The Vibe (CIBK) WEB : http://www.vibe985.com/
CJAY 92 WEB : http://www.cjay92.com/
CKMX 1060 kHz WEB : http://www.ckmx.com/
At same place (1110 Centre street NE)we also found at ground floor
THE BREEZE 103.1 MHz....a Jazz music station the Marketing Director Michael
Godfrey and kind Traffic Manager Jacklyn kindly showed us the station
studios. They also has
no recording of Maestro Franco Cerri of Italy.... but the Dj Sue Deyell
wanted to do a photo with us ...and may be even more with Roberto...hi
No stix but many post cards ! and lot of kindness !!
WEB : http://www.thebreeze103.com/
Next SHINE 88,9 MHz Contemporary Christian Music station they
offered many stickers, Director Allan Hunsperger really friendly geave us
good information about the station, located at 1121 Centre street N
..... exactly in front of the precedents radio station seen.....
WEB : http://www.shinefm.com/
We arrived at CBC Calgary 50 kw on 1010 kHz at 1724 Westmount Blvdr NW,
but did not get much souvenirs as in other places..... but we visited all 6
stations
in the large building and we took nice photos too.
WEB : http://www.calgary.cbc.ca/
After a short but productive tentive with Channel A television we arrived at
the
Radio Rogers Group located at 2723 37th Av. NE (4 radio stations at 2nd
floor))
 as usually we had some difficulties to be admitted to the offices,
 but almost in this case we get some..........souvenirs,
and I was able with the complicity of Roberto to "bring" 3 big
 books featuring the life of Ted Rogers Sr. the founder of the
Radio Group, each book is sold for 50 Can.$ ..... not in this special
occation....hi !!
Lite 96 CHFM WEB : http://www.lite96.ca/home.html
Jack FM (Ex CKLG KISS FM ) 96.9 WEB :
http://www.jackfm.ca/eprise/main/jack/cindex.html still WEB under
construction...
CFAC 960 kHz All Sports THE FAN (81 anni a maggio 2003!!) See story at WEB :
http://www.rcc.ryerson.ca/ccf/CCF_Listings_and_Histories/Radio/Ab/south/CFAC
_Calgary_History.html
66 CFR 660 kHz (CFFR) no WEB sorry .... hi
 At same address but at ground floor we wanted to see the
Chinese owned group called Fairchild Radio 94,7MHz
 but may be we arrived at wrong moment, cause the manager remained
shoched to see 3 white men asking for stickers.... and one even
asking to do a photo in the office.... so we were ordered to go out
soon or ..... he should have phoned to the Police.... incredible and hard
to believe.
Surely a missunderstanding....of the owner of ..... "Fuckchild"...radio....
HI !!
 CHKF 94,7 MHz WEB : http://www.fm947.com/en/index.php
To make the day a bit more "quiet" we visited the University Station Campus
Radio
located at - room 127 - Mc Ewan Hall - University of Calgary, not so easy
to find
the room as usually... but "detective" Joe found it in the underground
level. We got
friendship as usually, and stickers.
CJSW 90.9 MHz WEB : http://www.cjsw.com/default.html Miss Jane McCullough
the Program Director was able to find some "knife stickers" and also took us
to see
the even more underground NUTV the University Television operating on
channel 78 UHF .... ohhh boy .... Kevin Allen the Executive Director of
NUTV
in charge .... said I have still only 6 fridge magnets on the freezer
(empty) ...
 and started to care them with his hands.... never saw in my life a so
strong love
for some ....fridges magnets ........ hi !! WEB : http://www.nutv.ca
So I only got the last normal existing sticker of NUTV ( in our planet
called earth)
but sorry no NUTV fridge magnet.... and Roberto started to say something in
strict Vercellese dialect.... look like "porcu sciampin..... ma l'è propi
n'ciulon" !!!!! hi !!
Well naturally this is really true and surely Joe will remember all these
funny
 moments... he never saw before two guy from Italy searching "dead or alive"
stixs !
We closed the tour with 2 FM & 1 MW stations all located at: Shaw Court,
room 105,
630 - 3rd Avenue SW.
The Peak 107.3 MHz ;Country 105 & CHQR 770 kHz
The Peak 107.3(CKIK) WEB : http://www.thepeak107.com/
Country 105 CKRY WEB : http://www.country105.com/
CHQR 77 on 770 kHz WEB : http://www.qr77.com/
 Mrs Tracy Pound the active Promotion Manager tried her best to geave us all
the souvenirs of the stations... so we ended really in the best way....
So at 17oo hours we were at Ristorante Abruzzo for another big dinner ...a
giant Spaghetti alla putannesca Lancianesi..... enjoyed also by Joe our
guest for that evening dinner..... time running out so we said bye bye to
Joe and our bus for Edmonton departed at 20oo hours..... to arrive
at Edmonton around midnight....... Thanks Joe !!! Your help was GREATTT !!!!
To all of us readers see you sooner !
Dario MonferEnglish & Rob Rapanello

Versione Italiana by Roberto :

Il giorno successivo Joe ci riraggiungeva per accompagnarci
con la sua Jeep Toyota ad un giro delle emittenti cittadine.
Veramente gentile ed un servizio perfetto!
Iniziavamo da un gruppo di tre emittenti: Vibe 98.5 Mhz , CKMX 1060 KHz a
CJAY 92 MHz. Visita degli studi e vari materiali fra cui un altro cappellino
da pescatore erano il risultato finale. Al piano terra dello stesso palazzo
ha sede Breeze FM, stazione di musica jazz attiva sui 103.1 MHz. Niente
materiali ma ugualmente visita delle installazioni e foto con la dj,
quarantenne, a parer mio, ..."gran porcona" (don't translate please).
 Si attraversava la strada dopo un giro di circa 2 chilometri..... e si
raggiungeva l'emittente cristiana della città, Shine 88,9 MHz. Al momento
del nostro arrivo la reception era deserta percui il numero di adesivi in
nostro possesso subito significativamente aumentava. Poi visitavamo gli
studi e venivano congedati con un ulteriore adesivo a testa! Altra grossa
concentrazione di emittenti è quella che raggruppa The Peak 107.5 MHz ;
Country 105 e CHQR 730 KHz. Studi veramentre all'avanguardia, addetta alle
pubbliche relazioni e receptioniste incredibilmente gentili ed ecco che
ancora il peso delle nostre borse aumentava. Una breve sosta alla sede di "A
Channel" e MTV, due emittenti televisive, incrementava ancora il nostro
bottino e poi si raggiungeva il gruppo Rogers, che in Calgary attiva Lite
96, CFAC 960 KHz; CFR 660 KHz, Jack FM 96,9 MHz.
Come quasi sempre accaduto con il gruppo Rogers anche
 in Calgary la nostra media è calata, anche se una
T-shirt di Jack ci è state omaggiata. Gli occhi di falco del Monferini
vedevano, inoltre, su di un tavolo, alcune copie del libro con la storia del
mitico gruppo Rogers. Subito tre copie finivano nella mia borsa gialla. La
giusta ricompensa per i materiali che non ci hanno voluto dare durante
tutto il viaggio. Anche qui al piano terra vi era un'altra stazione, la
Fairchild Radio, la radio multietnica dei cinesi in Calgary sui 94.7 KHz. Un
direttore "cinese-stlonzo" ci sottoponeva ad un interrogatorio tipo
"vietcong" sul perchè della nostra visita e poi ci diceva che tutte le
informazioni sulla loro emittente potevamo trovarle in Internet. Ora, a
parte il fatto che se ci fossimo accontentati di guardare un po' di web non
saremmo certi andati fino in Canada, la loro web è in cinese e l'indirizzo
di web che ci ha dato era pure in cinese. Ma non solo, alla richiesta di Joe
di poter fotografare il loro gigantesco logo riprodotto nella reception ha
risposto di no. Gli ho gia spedito una cartolina dall'Italia con la
scritta .." FUCK YOU STLONZO ! ".
Si chiudeva con l' University of Calgary ove operano una stazione
radiofonica sui 90.9 MHz, la CJSW e una televisiva sul canale 78 la NUTV.
Molto gentili e T-shirt e adesivi della CJSW chiudevano il nostro tour
radiofonico di Calgary. Si cenava di nuovo nell'ottimo ristorante italiano,
Abruzzo, e poi Joe ci accompagnava alla stazione della Greyhound da dove noi
partivamo a destinazione di Edmonton, la capitale della provincia
dell'Alberta e dell'Hotel Best Western West Wood Inn.

14th Chapter visit to Canada by Dario MonferEnglish & Rob. Rapanello
19 August
Edmonton (15 stations)

Hi here we are again !
The Bestern Western Wood inn....Hotel in Edmonton is located at
18035 Stony plain Road...... you guess where...well it's the last
block before the city limits ends...hi.... the Hotel however had a
nice surprise for me...Internet access from the TV set in our room
13 Can $ per 24 hours......so I experienced the first time to look
at internet with a TV Set..... naturally they offer the mouse and
the console at the front desk of the lobby..... I tryed to use it
without the console... hi....but it doesn't worked ! Hi !
In Edmonton in the FM band you may hear only the local stations area
plus the 3 from Red Deer .... 120 km northern...... so really a
quite place for the FM band.
Wednesday we done the visit to the stations, weather still sunny but
gradually going with clouds.
The visit to CBC Edmonton, resulted really great !!! We arrived at
the Television building asking for Pierre Noel, Chief of
Communications in Alberta..... so he arrived by car to the TV building,
cause he works in the Radio building of Radio Canada in the French
section .... you must know the 2 colors of the radio Blu and Red
stands for English & French sections........so blu is more large
cause English section is more large. After an incredible quantity of
souvenirs got from Pierre we transferred to the other building.... of
Radio CBC Edmonton, and we visited also this one..... with more
souvenirs....also a winter t-shirt of CBC Alberta with old fashion
logo....really beautiful !!!.... finally Pierre wanted to show us the
new future studios in the center of the city at 100th street..... in
a complex of magazines..... still hard working.... the 2 studios
will be at ground floor with direct view on the street ....really
unusual for a CBC Radio station.
http://edmonton.cbc.ca/ very full complete detailled informations.
Really satisfeat to know everything about CBC Edmonton after 3 hours
of visiting we let Pierre Noel really a kind people ..... and we
visited the other radio stations....we had a good precious
promemoria compiled by Joe Talbot, and so we did not loose our time.
We visited CHED & CHQT both AM and CISN & CKNG FM located at 5204
84th street getting stickers and other souvenirs.
CHED 630 kHz News Talks Sports WEB : http://www.630ched.com/
(CHQT) Cool 880 kHz SuperHits 70's & 80's WEB : http://www.cool880.com/
CISN 103.9 Best Country Radio WEB : http://www.cisnfm.com/
CKNG New Power 92 on 92.5 WEB : http://www.power92.com/
Next CKUA Radio Network 580 kHz & 94,90 MHz..... folk,jazz,pop !!!
with many FM frequencies covering almost all Alberta ! located in an
old building at Jasper Avenue NW 10526..... in fact resulted very very
friendly...
after we broke the "ice" buying the T-shirt of the 75 anniversary
Yes the station was active from 1928 and its specialized in good old
music and jazz contemporary.... they have a foundation and a club of
listeners.... I also bought a nice book large with the story of CKUA... a
great book with many many photos ! , cost 30 Can $
..... see WEB : http://www.ckua.com
Brian Dunsmore show us the studios located on 3 floors...and offered
also many souvenirs..... a real friendly popular radio station.
Mext to be seen CJSR FM 88 the University of Alberta campus
radio, located in the Union building operating on 88,50 MHz as you
imagine lot of fun, lot of stickers...lot of freedom .... but this
time not so much stickers....in fact I kept 3 from glass door...and
one from the outdoor desk of the room number.....hi.
This cause the advertising manager was out of office.....
WEB : http://www.cjsr.ualberta.ca/ the logo is in an OAK .
The last one to be seen was 3 stations 100.3 MHz THE BEAR
(but their jingles sounds more a tiger than a bear...) EZ Rock 104.9 MHz
and The Team 1260 kHz Sports. We let them last cause they were
 at just 500 meters from our Hotel.....at #100 - 18520 Stony Plain Road...
 a road which end to the Rocky Mountains.... hi!
 but sorrry too late (1645 hours!!!) ...a real "Bear" guard man with
yellow
hairs.... said...so and we just got 4 stickers of THE BEAR 100,3
MHz....well better few than nothing.... hi !
The Bear 100.3 Edmonton Best Rock ,WEB : http://www.thebearrocks.com/
EZ Rock 104.9 WEB : http://www.ezrock1049.com/
The Team Sports Radio 1260 kHz (CFRN),WEB : http://www.cfrn.com/
The dinner was that time at super restaurant atop the Crowne Plaza
Hotel , at La Ronde restaurant.... not so high 25 floors...but
surely top quality...however they had yet finished the smokey
salmon..... so I opted for a dead rab