Editor,
This is an open letter to Todd Doherty, MP, Government of Canada and Scott Nelson, Councillor, City of Williams Lake, B.C.
Re: Flushing of CBC signal AM 860 replacing by FM 92.1
Gentlemen, as our federal and civic representatives, I hereby implore you both to intervene to prevent CBC AM 860 radio going off the air to be replaced by CBC FM 92.1.
CBC broadcast centre in Kamloops is now broadcasting a bulletin on AM 860 announcing this pending change and calling for listener comments at phone number 1-866-306-4636. This change will be effective Dec. 7, 2017 — unless it is stopped now.
Thus, CBC has arbitrarily decreed that most Cariboo-Chilcotin rural residents extending from the Likely/Horsefly area in the eastern Cariboo to Anahim Lake in the western Chilcotin, a 450-mile swath of B.C., will be largely cut off from CBC radio.
Perhaps CBC brass should be reminded that its mandate is to provide coverage to all Canadians — even us marginalized denizens who subsist beyond the grids.
Remind CBC that a vast series of booster stations now in place assures Cariboo-Chilcotin residents that CBC AM radio reaches them in all their far flung abodes.
Such a distribution system for FM radio is not in place now, and likely will not be, because FM radio is line-of-sight reception.
So the existing AM signal distribution grid is not compatible with the coverage of the incoming FM signal. In fact, I tested the FM 92.1 signal and just got static on their trial broadcast site that began on Nov. 16, 2017.
To put this matter in perspective, if CBC AM 860 is cut off, we rural residents of the Cariboo-Chilcotin areas will be denied membership in the vibrant Canadian mosaic by being deprived of the groaner puns regularly spewed forth by Steve Paterson, host of The Debaters, and the hosts of As It Happens.
So, on behalf of all Cariboo-Chilcotin rural residents, and certainly our compatriots in our urban centers, I trust that together you — MP Todd Doherty and Williams Lake City Councillor Scott Nelson, our go-to-get-done guy locally — will twist the CBC brass monkeys’ tails to flush this silly scheme and keep the existing CBC AM 860 coverage.
Because, as silly as CBC is at times, it certainly keeps us in the mill by feeding us a steady stream of delights that keep us intrigued by the fascinating happenings that span Canada — and the world.
Don Wise
Moore Mountain