CBR is a Canadian

non-commercial A non-commercial (also spelled noncommercial) activity is an activity that is not carried out in the interest of Profit (economics), profit. The opposite is Commerce, commercial, something that primarily serves profit interests and is focused on bu ...

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based rad ...

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

. It broadcasts the programming of the

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 o ...

network, both on 1010 kHz on the AM dial (as a Class A

clear-channel station A clear-channel station is a North American AM radio station that has the highest level of protection from interference from other stations, particularly from nighttime skywave signals. This classification exists to ensure the viability of cross ...

) and 99.1

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base u ...

on the FM dial as CBR-FM-1. The studios are in the Parkdale neighbourhood of northwest Calgary. The AM

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter (often abbreviated as XMTR or TX in technical documents) is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna with the purpose of sig ...

is east of Calgary, off the

Trans-Canada Highway The Trans-Canada Highway (Canadian French, French: ; abbreviated as the TCH or T-Can) is a transcontinental federal–provincial highway system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada, from the Pacific Ocean on the west coast to the A ...

in Rocky View.FCCdata.org/CBR
/REF> The FM transmitter is off Old Banff Coach Road near 85th Street SW in Calgary. The AM daytime signal covers most of the southern two-thirds of Alberta. It can be heard at city-grade strength from

Red Deer The red deer (''Cervus elaphus'') is one of the largest deer species. A male red deer is called a stag or Hart (deer), hart, and a female is called a doe or hind. The red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Anatolia, Ir ...

Lethbridge Lethbridge ( ) is a city in the province of Alberta, Canada. With a population of 106,550 in the 2023 Alberta municipal censuses, 2023 municipal census, Lethbridge became the fourth Alberta city to surpass 100,000 people. The nearby Canadian ...

, and provides secondary coverage as far as

Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

to the north and several counties on the

Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...

-Alberta border to the south. At night, it covers most of the western half of North America, but is strongest in Western Canada. CBR-FM-1 has an

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 ha ...

(ERP) of 1,870

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...

s (7,000 watts maximum). It covers Calgary and its adjacent suburbs.

History

CBX

CBC Radio launched its first owned and operated station in Alberta on . It broadcast on 1010 kilocycles with the

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally as ...

CBX. Its studios were in Edmonton and its transmitter site was near Lacombe, roughly halfway between Calgary and Edmonton, in an attempt to serve the southern two-thirds of the province from a single 50,000-watt transmitter. Prior to CBX's debut, private station CFAC had aired CBC Radio programming. While the CBC had served most of

Manitoba Manitoba is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population ...

and

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...

from single transmitters, it met with far less success doing so in Alberta. In particular, reception in Calgary left much to be desired, mainly due to interference from television signals. Edmonton listeners also reported issues, forcing the CBC to set up a "nested" AM repeater in Edmonton.

CBR

As early as 1956, the CBC had begun considering separate stations in Edmonton and Calgary in order to rectify CBX's weak signal in Calgary. on October 1, 1964, the original CBX transmitter was decommissioned. The single station was split into two distinct 50,000-watt stations: one serving Edmonton and one serving Calgary. The Edmonton station kept the CBX

but moved to a frequency of 740 kHz. The Calgary station retained CBX's former frequency of 1010 kHz and clear-channel designation under the call sign CBR.

Nested FM

On March 16, 2006, the

Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC; ) is a public organization in Canada tasked with the mandate as a regulatory agency tribunal for various electronic communications, covering broadcasting and telecommunic ...

(CRTC) approved an application by the station to implement a new, nested FM transmitter in Calgary. It would

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of "simultaneous broadcast") is the broadcasting of programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultaneously) ...

the AM programming, due to the AM signal's poor reception in some parts of the city. This new FM signal, CBR-1-FM 99.1 was launched on November 28, 2006. In recent years, the CBC has branded 99.1 as the main transmitter, even though 1010 AM is technically the main station. Various other AM and FM rebroadcasters have been installed throughout southern Alberta to carry CBR's programming. On December 19, 2008, the licensee proposed to use a

subsidiary communications authority Subsidiary Communications Authorization (SCA) in the United States, and Subsidiary Communications Multiplex Operation (SCMO) in Canada, is a subcarrier on a radio station, allowing the station to broadcast additional services as part of its signa ...

(SCA) channel to broadcast multi-cultural programs.

New AM site

On July 7, 2011, the CRTC approved an application by the CBC to relocate CBR's transmitter and antenna array from their original site in southeast Calgary. They would be moved to a site to the northeast in

Rocky View County Rocky View County is a municipal district in southern Alberta, Canada that is named for its views of the nearby Rocky Mountains to the west. It surrounds most of Calgary, forming the city's northern boundary and most of the city's western and e ...

. Despite changing the transmitter's location, all other technical parameters would remain unchanged. The move was completed in 2013.

Local programming

CBR's local programs are ''Calgary Eyeopener'' on weekday mornings, and ''The Homestretch'' on weekday afternoons.

Transmitters

On January 18, 1993, the CRTC approved the CBC's application to operate new FM transmitters at Medicine Hat 98.3 MHz and Etzikom 92.1 MHz. The new FM transmitter at Medicine Hat would replace CJMH the existing AM transmitter 1460 kHz owned by Monarch Broadcasting Ltd. Monarch would surrender the license of CJMH once the new transmitters were in operation. On August 15, 2013, the CRTC approved the deletion of AM transmitters CBXC 1450 kHz Coleman and CBXL 860 kHz Blairmore. On April 30, 2015, the CBC submitted an application to add a new FM transmitter at 103.9 MHz in Lake Louise with the call sign CBRQ-FM. The CRTC approved the CBC's application to operate a CBC Radio One transmitter at Lake Louise on July 14, 2015. The 103.9 MHz frequency was previously used by a radio station VF2105 in Lake Louise which was owned by the Lake Louise Community Association.

References

External links

CBC Calgary

CBR history
- Canadian Communications Foundation * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cbr (Am) BR BR Radio stations established in 1964 1964 establishments in Alberta Clear-channel radio stations