~ryanlowe/blog: Terrestrial Radio on Ottawa Rogers Cable

Terrestrial Radio on Ottawa Rogers Cable

While browsing through the channels today I noticed that Rogers digital cable now has local Ottawa radio stations in the 900's. On one level this isn't a big deal -- digital cable and satellite services have had their own music channels for a while. On another level it's really bizarre seeing old-style analog terrestrial radio stations taking up cable TV spots.

Is this a reflection of how hard it is to fill 999 channels with quality video programming? Maybe it's just acknowledging the fact that not many of us have radios in our homes any more. A lot of people have their cable service hooked up to a good stereo, so it could be pretty convenient...

...if you actually listen to radio.

Here's the lineup in Ottawa. If other cities have the same kind of thing the channels are probably different.

902 CHFI 98.1 FM Toronto - adult contemporary
903 CFTR 680 AM Toronto - 680 News
904 CJCL 590 AM Toronto - The Fan 590, sports
906 CKLG 96.9 FM Vancouver - Jack FM

912 CISS 105.3 FM Ottawa - Kiss FM
913 CHEZ 106.1 FM Ottawa - classic rock
914 CIWW 1310 AM Ottawa - Oldies 1310
915 CJET 92.3 FM Smiths Falls - Jack FM
916 CKBY 101.1 FM Smiths Falls - Y101

925 CJMJ 100.3 FM Ottawa - Majic 100, soft rock
926 CIHT 89.9 FM Ottawa - Hot 89.9
927 CFRA 580 AM Ottawa - News Talk Radio
928 CKTF 104.1 FM Ottawa - Énergie 104.1
929 CFGO 1200 AM Ottawa The TEAM 1200, sports
930 CHLX 97.1 FM Ottawa - Couleur FM, classical music

941 CBO 91.5 FM Ottawa - CBC Radio One
942 CBOF 90.7 FM Ottawa - La Première Chaîne
943 CHUO 89.1 FM Ottawa - U of Ottawa campus radio
944 CKCU 93.1 FM Ottawa - Carleton U campus radio
945 CKDJ 107.9 FM Ottawa - Algonquin College campus radio

The TiVo/PVR Factor (edited)

I was all excited to use the magic recording box on terrestrial radio but it seems to be disabled. I cannot pause, rewind or record these channels. Brutal.

Posted at January 04, 2007 at 02:20 PM EST
Last updated January 04, 2007 at 02:20 PM EST

Comments

That's great to hear. I'll have to check out those channels sometimes. We have trouble picking up the broadcasts in our aparment sometimes.

I'm not sure if Rogers does it, but some cable companies broadcast the radio along with the cable in a signal that a radio can understand. I know my old cable provider in Elliot lake used to do it. You a bunch of stations, from all over, and they were clear, which was a great upgrade from the 2 or 3 stations you could usually get, I'll have to check sometime if they offer this on rogers cable.

On the PVR front, I'm probably going to be buying a TV Tuner for my PC, which will allow me to record the first 70 channels that still come in over analog. I may get a second box and hook that up. That way I'll be able to record all the channels. Still debating whether or not that will actually be worth it.

And finally, they do seem to have a lot of trouble filling up all those channels. I get channels listed 3 or 4 times on different channel numbers. Not to mention the CBC|Global|A-Channel West|Central|Eastern channels.

» Posted by: Kibbee at January 4, 2007 10:01 PM

To answer the first comment, Rogers seems to have phased out "Cable FM" (where you can plug the TV cable into an FM receiver's coaxial cable input). They only provide normal FM (on-air) signals this way now. I've e-mailed Rogers (at cabletv@rci.rogers.com) and have yet to receive any official response.

The list above is very complete except one channel isn't in the list:
906 CKLG FM Vancouver

» Posted by: Nathan at January 11, 2007 04:24 PM

(sorry I didn't condense all these comments into one post)

Kibbee: I use the Hauppauge WinTV PVR USB2 along with a digital cable box and that setup seems to work fine to record digital channels.

» Posted by: Nathan at January 11, 2007 04:27 PM

I decided to go and get the Hauppauge PVR 150 PCI,
read more about it on my blog.

http://www.kibbee.ca/Blog/index.php?blogid=323

» Posted by: Kibbee at January 11, 2007 11:26 PM

Thanks for the heads up Nathan. 906 wasn't there when I did this, I swear. :)

» Posted by: Ryan at January 12, 2007 04:11 PM