CFCB

CFCB
City Corner Brook, Newfoundland and Labrador
Broadcast area Western Newfoundland
Branding 570 VOCM
Slogan Local News Now
Frequency 570 kHz
First air date October 3, 1960
Format News/Talk/Classic hits
Power 10000 watts (day)
1000 watts (night)
Class C
Callsign meaning Coming From Corner Brook
Owner Newcap Radio
Sister stations CKXX-FM

CFCB is an AM radio station in Corner Brook, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, broadcasting at 570 kHz operating at a power of 10,000 watts daytime and 1,000 watts night time. Owned by Newcap Radio, CFCB first went on the air on October 3, 1960. The station was founded by Dr. Noel Murphy. On March 26, 2012, CFCB rebranded, which included a new slogan, logo and programming. The "Local News Now" slogan was adopted from VOCM in St. John's who had rebranded just weeks before. The new CFCB logo also features the VOCM color scheme, which includes yellow and red.

As of September 2016, CFCB is branded as 570 VOCM.

Shows and music format

Being owned by Newcap, CFCB carries VOCM's Open Line, Backtalk and Night Line live phone-in shows, Saturday Evening (Lions Club and VOCM Cares Radio Bingo) Host Greg Smith, Producer Jordan Keating, and the Saturday Night Cabin Party, which is devoted to classic country music from the 1950s to the 1980s, as well as the 1:00 PM and 5:30 PM VOCM newscasts (though those newscasts are carried on weekdays only), but not the 7:45 AM newscast, or the 5:00 PM newscast, as CFCB has its own 8:00 AM and 5:00 PM newscast. The station's regular music format is primarily country music. Prior to the early 2000s, CFCB was an adult contemporary station.

The longest-running radio show on the station (and in the province) is This One's for You, which is broadcast every Saturday from 7:00 AM to 1:00 PM. After airing on Sunday mornings from 9AM-12PM since its inception, on January 29, 2017, CFCB announced that the program would be moved to Saturday mornings. No reason was given for the change, although this new time slot corresponds with The Irish Newfoundland Show. It is believed this change was made so CFCB could carry the syndicated talk programming bring broadcast Sunday mornings on VOCM.

Without notice, on April 25, 2015 at 12:00am, CFCB along with its other network station CFSX dropped its country music format in favour of soft AC and classic hits. This format change was also made on VOCM in St. John's just weeks prior, a network of which CFCB is part of. Both stations previously aired a country music format, but switched to classic hits. Due to this format change on CFCB, there are now no longer any country music stations outside of the Avalon peninsula.

Since CFCB's rebrand to VOCM in late 2016, there have also been significant changes to the station's programming. Besides the elimination of virtually all music in favour of talk, there is now virtually no programming coming from Corner Brook. The only local programming that remains is the local weekday morning show from 6-9 am, and This One's for You, the longest running radio program in the province, which was recently moved from Sunday (where it was for many decades) to Saturday mornings. The majority of CFCB's programming now comes from VOCM in St. John's, or is syndicated from national networks, all of which is talk in format. One of the notable syndicated programs is Coast to Coast AM, a paranormal show which fills the entire overnight period.

Rebroadcasters

CFCB also operates rebroadcasters in the following locations:

For some time now, the repeater CFNW in Gros Morne National Park has been off the air leaving the Northern Peninsula without radio service from CFCB. The cause of this transmitter failure is due to an ice and wind storm in late 2011 which damaged the tower. When the transmitter site was constructed in 1971, the area was not a national park. Now that the station has to construct a new facility for their equipment, there are some issues with disturbing the environment in the park, all that have yet to be resolved. As of 2012 the signal in this area is still off the air. On October 3, 2012, Newcap Broadcasting applied to convert CFNW to FM.[1] On January 25, 2013, the CRTC approved Newcap's application to convert CFNW to FM. CFNW now operates at 96.7 MHz.[2]

In September 2013, the CFCB transmission tower in Corner Brook was taken down. Construction on a new tower has been recently completed with a modern three-legged guyed mast radiator. The previous mast radiator was in terrible shape and over 50 years old prior to being taken down. The old mast radiator, according to the website www.broadcasting-history.ca, was a second hand tower that was erected and begun broadcasting at 1000 watts in 1961. No CRTC or Industry Canada records indicate the station filed any application to do this work. However, according to the broadcasting-history.ca web site, the CRTC approved the daytime transmitting power to 10,000 watts from 1000 watts which could be achieved with the new and more modern mast radiator now located on the same plot of land that the previous one had been erected. Photos of the old and new towers are illustrated below.

Old Mast radiator tower for CFCB
New CFCB Mast Radiator tower

In the daytime, CFSX operates independent of CFCB aside from the phone-in shows and the weekday 1:00 PM and 5:30 PM news. CFGN and CFCV serve as repeaters of CFSX. At night, CFSX and its repeaters serve as repeaters to CFCB. Originally a full-time repeater of CFCB.

On April 2, 2001, the sale of Humber Valley Broadcasting Co. Ltd. to Newcap Inc. was approved.[3] This included a number of radio stations such as:

  • CFCB Corner Brook
  • CFDL-FM Deer Lake
  • CFNW Port-aux-Choix
  • CFNN-FM St. Anthony
  • CFSX Stephenville
  • CFGN Port-aux-Basques
  • CFCV-FM St. Andrew's
  • CFLN Goose Bay
  • CFLW Wabush
  • CFLC-FM Churchill Falls

In September 2016, CFSX and its repeaters were shut down by Newcap Radio without any notice. The station appears to now be serving as a full-time repeater of CFCB, changing its identity to VOCM. Before then, CFSX operated as a daytime station, and served as a nighttime repeater to CFCB.

References

  1. ↑ Newcap's application - CRTC to convert CFNW Port aux Choix from the AM band to the FM band - October 3, 2012
  2. ↑ Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2013-24, CFCB Corner Brook – New transmitter at Port au Choix, CRTC, January 25, 2013
  3. ↑ Decision CRTC 2001-208

Coordinates: 48°56′13″N 57°59′28″W / 48.93694°N 57.99111°W / 48.93694; -57.99111

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