CBCL-FM is a Canadian radio station in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, broadcasting at 93.5 FM. It is the city's

CBC Radio One CBC Radio One is the English-language news and information radio network of the publicly owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It is commercial-free and offers local and national programming. It is available on AM and FM to 98 percent of ...

station. Their studio is located in downtown London in the Central branch of the

London Public Library The London Public Library (LPL) is the public library system of London, Ontario, Canada. All 16 locations city-wide offer services and programs for adults, teens and children residing in London and the surrounding counties of Oxford, Middlesex, a ...

while its

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to ...

is located near Byron in West London.

History

The station was launched in 1978. Prior to its launch, CBC Radio programming was aired on private affiliate CFPL. CBCL started out as a

rebroadcaster A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater (two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tran ...

of CBL

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...

, but was granted a separate licence in 1998. It began producing a limited amount of local programming, consisting of its own regional news service. From 1998-2004 it produced its own local newscasts which aired during ''

Ontario Morning Ontario Morning is a Canadian radio program, which airs as the CBC Radio One local morning program for non-metropolitan markets in Southern Ontario.Bill Prentice, "This country sounds good in the morning". '' The Globe and Mail'', November 14, 1 ...

'', separately from regional news heard on all other stations airing ''Ontario Morning''. The two news feeds were merged in 2004. Regional news originating from London was hosted by Gary Ennett or Kerry McKee. In September 2011, the CBC announced plans to expand CBCL's local programming for the London area beginning in 2012, though the new local programming scheme did not leave the planning stage at this time. On October 24, 2013, the CBC submitted an application to the

CRTC The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC; french: Conseil de la radiodiffusion et des télécommunications canadiennes, links=) is a public organization in Canada with mandate as a regulatory agency for broadcasti ...

to add a new FM transmitter at

Tillsonburg Tillsonburg is a town in Oxford County, Ontario, Canada with a population of 18,615 located about 50 kilometres southeast of London, on Highway 3 at the junction of Highway 19. History Prior to European settlement, the present site of Tillso ...

at 88.7

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one h ...

, which was approved by the CRTC on March 7, 2014. In 2015, '' Here & Now'' originating from

CBLA-FM CBLA-FM (99.1 MHz) is a non-commercial Canadian radio station in Toronto, Ontario. Owned and operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the station is the flagship station of the CBC Radio One network, broadcasting a mix of news and tal ...

Toronto was replaced with a new regional afternoon drive program, ''Afternoon Drive'', based at

CBEW-FM CBEW-FM (97.5 MHz) is the call sign of the CBC Radio One station based in and serving Windsor, Ontario, Canada. CBEW broadcasts from transmission facilities at McGregor and also reaches the nearby Detroit area and parts of Southwestern Ontario ...

Windsor with contributors based in London. On April 25, 2016, the CBC announced that it had plans to launch a new morning show for London, ''London Morning'', as well as establish special digital-based programming for the region. To that end, a new studio was built at the London Public Library's Central branch in the Downtown Core and it began operations on June 12, 2017 with ''London Mornings premiere, with Rebecca Zandbergen as the program's original host. In addition, ''Afternoon Drive'' was moved from Windsor to London, with a new host, Chris dela Torre. Gary Ennett and Alessio Donnini serve as news editors and news readers for the morning and afternoon shows respectively.

Local programming

As of June 2017, CBCL produces the local morning program, ''London Morning'', which covers London and the surrounding area, and the local afternoon program, ''Afternoon Drive'', which covers all of

Southwestern Ontario Southwestern Ontario is a secondary region of Southern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario. It occupies most of the Ontario Peninsula bounded by Lake Huron, including Georgian Bay, to the north and northwest; the St. Clair River, Lake ...

from London to Windsor. ''London Morning'' is hosted by Rebecca Zandbergen, and ''Afternoon Drive'' is hosted by Allison Devereaux. In addition, the station also produces short news updates at the 30 minute mark of selected hours of national/provincial programming throughout the weekday, in addition to a noon broadcast, concluding with a slightly longer version at around 6:26 PM after the nationwide broadcast of CBC's main evening news show, ''

The World at Six ''The World at Six'' is the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's flagship dinner-hour radio news program, airing Monday to Friday from 6 to 6:28 p.m. local time on CBC Radio One except in Newfoundland where it begins at 6:30. The program was l ...

''. The station previously aired the regional morning program, ''

'', produced by CBLA and airing on nearly all Radio One rebroadcasters in

Southern Ontario Southern Ontario is a primary region of the province of Ontario, Canada, the other primary region being Northern Ontario. It is the most densely populated and southernmost region in Canada. The exact northern boundary of Southern Ontario is dis ...

. Prior to 2015, it aired CBLA's afternoon program ''Here and Now'', but in that year ''Here and Now'' was replaced with ''Afternoon Drive''. The latter show was previously produced at Windsor's CBEW, but moved to London at the same time as the launch of ''London Morning''."Changes afoot at CBC Radio's Afternoon Drive"
CBC News, June 6, 2017.

Rebroadcasters

On February 2, 2015, the CRTC approved the CBC's application to relocate the transmitter site, changing the class from B1 to A, decreasing the maximum

effective radiated power Effective radiated power (ERP), synonymous with equivalent radiated power, is an IEEE standardized definition of directional radio frequency (RF) power, such as that emitted by a radio transmitter. It is the total power in watts that would ...

(ERP) from 8,180 to 1,320 watts (average ERP from 2,060 to 1,320 watts), and changing the antenna's radiation pattern from directional to non-directional; and decreasing the

height of antenna above average terrain Height above average terrain (HAAT), or (less popularly) effective height above average terrain (EHAAT), is the vertical position of an antenna site is above the surrounding landscape. HAAT is used extensively in FM radio and television, as it ...

from 78.9 to 3.5 metres.Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2015-29
CBCL-FM-1 Tillsonburg – Technical changes, ''CRTC'', February 2, 2015

References

External links

CBC London
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cbcl-Fm Bcl Bcl Radio stations established in 1978 1978 establishments in Ontario