KBBW is a blowtorch during the day, spanning from the Oklahoma state line to the Gulf of Mexico. At night, however, the signal fades as soon as you cross the Falls County Line (Old Blevins Road on I-35, to be exact). Any word on a nighttime upgrade?
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KBBW Nighttime Upgrade
- Thread starter Pete Pyeatt
- Start date
Pete Pyeatt said:KBBW is a blowtorch during the day, spanning from the Oklahoma state line to the Gulf of Mexico. At night, however, the signal fades as soon as you cross the Falls County Line (Old Blevins Road on I-35, to be exact). Any word on a nighttime upgrade?
The KBBW night signal is a tight boomerang pattern--one major lobe WNW right at Waco, the other almost due south. Not much signal either way on I-35.
I recall some years back there was some noise about KBBW possibly moving to 1020 with a daytime upgrade to 50kw, and a better might signal. I recall it was discussed on these boards, Apparently nothing ever came of it.
The KBBW night pattern, on paper and in reality, is one of the ugliest around. It sort of reminds me of the old KRZI 1580 pattern that barely made it across town, and it had a similar unnecessary lobe pointed south. That old pattern (dating back to the KBGO days) was an absolute nightmare, and I'm not sure the thing was ever fully within the licensed parameters for any extended period during its entire existence.
If something could be done to improve KBBW's night pattern, I believe it would have happened over the last few years. There are many other co-channel stations that have to be considered, not only in the U.S. but in a number of other countries. From what I gathered the engineers did the best they could, given the location of the array and other factors.
Somehow I missed that, but a search turned up a post from the late Mike_O about the idea of KBBW moving to 1020, and it looks like it was just that, an idea about reducing interference to co-channel KLAT in Houston. While it was an interesting thought, such a change would be very tough to engineer, and very expensive. First, there's an application still on file for a station in Tyler on 1020 with 5,500 watts day and 350 at night (although it looks like that one should have been declared officially dead a few years ago). But even little KOKP 1020 up in Perry, Oklahoma would have to be considered. There would also be potential daytime interference issues with stations on 1030: KCTA Corpus Christi and KWFA in Tye (near Abilene, which has a CP for 5,000 watts).
If something could be done to improve KBBW's night pattern, I believe it would have happened over the last few years. There are many other co-channel stations that have to be considered, not only in the U.S. but in a number of other countries. From what I gathered the engineers did the best they could, given the location of the array and other factors.
Mediafrog+ said:I recall some years back there was some noise about KBBW possibly moving to 1020 with a daytime upgrade to 50kw, and a better might signal. I recall it was discussed on these boards, Apparently nothing ever came of it.
Somehow I missed that, but a search turned up a post from the late Mike_O about the idea of KBBW moving to 1020, and it looks like it was just that, an idea about reducing interference to co-channel KLAT in Houston. While it was an interesting thought, such a change would be very tough to engineer, and very expensive. First, there's an application still on file for a station in Tyler on 1020 with 5,500 watts day and 350 at night (although it looks like that one should have been declared officially dead a few years ago). But even little KOKP 1020 up in Perry, Oklahoma would have to be considered. There would also be potential daytime interference issues with stations on 1030: KCTA Corpus Christi and KWFA in Tye (near Abilene, which has a CP for 5,000 watts).
I knew a DJ at KBBW when it was country in the 70s, he told me a story from an ex-engineer there. He was sort of crazy. He decided to experiment late at night to see what would happen if he loaded all of the power from the 10 towers on to one tower and make it non-directional. He had a several friends in far off places listening to the frequency to see if they could hear the station over a vast area of the U.S. When he loaded all the power on 1 tower, the arcing was so bad in the phaser cabnet, it welded the door closed. Needless to say, this engineer was not working for the station the next day.
That's interesting, except I don't think you meant to say there were 10 towers, did you? The 10,000 watt daytime site east of Waco near Tradinghouse Creek Reservoir has three towers. South of there, the nighttime array off Highway 6 near Riesel has six towers; it wasn't fully operational until mid-1980, with the license to cover being granted in December of that year.
jd said:The KBBW night pattern, on paper and in reality, is one of the ugliest around. It sort of reminds me of the old KRZI 1580 pattern that barely made it across town, and it had a similar unnecessary lobe pointed south. That old pattern (dating back to the KBGO days) was an absolute nightmare, and I'm not sure the thing was ever fully within the licensed parameters for any extended period during its entire existence.
I remember that old KRZI night pattern--when making a frequent drive between DFW and Austin in the 70's I recall there was only a relatively short stretch of I-35 that KRZI covered at night. And it got slopover from then-more-powerful XERF on 1570.
a search turned up a post from the late Mike_O about the idea of KBBW moving to 1020, and it looks like it was just that, an idea about reducing interference to co-channel KLAT in Houston.
That was the discussion I was thinking about, didn't think to search the Houston board.
I recall that in the KAWA days (1960's) 1010 was almost a local in Austin--very solid signal.
Mediafrog+ said:I recall that in the KAWA days (1960's) 1010 was almost a local in Austin--very solid signal.
And that daytime signal's pretty good over a lot of the DFW area, too, thanks to the excellent ground conductivity.
What's really puzzling about this whole nighttime thing is that part of the groundwork was laid for them to do something about the pattern but that didn't happen. The boomerang shape you mentioned earlier had the dual purpose of covering two COL's---Waco and Marlin. It still covers Marlin, but in no way does it provide a decent nighttime interference free signal to the majority of McLennan County.
The KBBW major change application filed in 2004 took a long time to be approved and licensed but it accomplished two things. Although nothing was done about grandfathered daytime overlap with several other stations, the FCC approved corrected tower coordinates for the site which had been wrong since the early 1960's. That's really not a big deal at all (just making sure it's legal) but secondly, and more important, the FCC allowed KBBW to drop their dual-city ID. With the station licensed only to Waco it doesn't have to mention or cover Marlin at night, so theoretically the pattern could be altered to cover more of the Waco area. Granted, it still wouldn't be easy for them to get approval for radical (and expensive) changes in the pattern, but at least they could take the Marlin lobe out of the equation if they were to get serious about it.
What are KBBW's chances of obtaining an FM station in Waco to make up for its poor nighttime coverage?
It's a shame HD radio is virtually non-existent in Waco, I would love to see a KBBW-AM simulcast on 99-9HD2 or 97-5HD2. Capstar may not work with them, however, even if those HD stations existed.
College Station's KZNE has horrible nighttime directional coverage much like KBBW. If you drive five miles east of College Station at night, you will lose KZNE. They obtained an HD3, 95-1HD3, which covers Aggieland and its surrounding areas very well. No such option is available for KBBW, however.
It's a shame HD radio is virtually non-existent in Waco, I would love to see a KBBW-AM simulcast on 99-9HD2 or 97-5HD2. Capstar may not work with them, however, even if those HD stations existed.
College Station's KZNE has horrible nighttime directional coverage much like KBBW. If you drive five miles east of College Station at night, you will lose KZNE. They obtained an HD3, 95-1HD3, which covers Aggieland and its surrounding areas very well. No such option is available for KBBW, however.
Pete Pyeatt said:College Station's KZNE has horrible nighttime directional coverage much like KBBW. If you drive five miles east of College Station at night, you will lose KZNE. They obtained an HD3, 95-1HD3, which covers Aggieland and its surrounding areas very well. No such option is available for KBBW, however.
That's why WTAW applied for an expanded band AM signal almost 20 years ago. They wanted off 1150 at pretty much any cost. While 95.1-3 might have a decent coverage area, I have to wonder how many people actually listen to KZNE on it.
On a side note, I recently picked up the Gigaware HD radio adapter for my iPhone. I figured it was worth a try at $17 at Radio Shack (a far cry from the roughly $70-80 they were charging two years ago!). It's actually a really good receiver, but the app has never worked properly on iPhones that run IOS 4.0. It says the radio receiver comes disconnected every 10 minutes like clockwork. I've since found out it's been a known problem that's been brought to Ibiquity's attention several times. If Ibiquity won't invest in simple ways to listen to its product, it's got some real problems beyond just the poor promotion. The sad part is, I'd be a true believer in HD Radio and its potential if the app worked. When it works, it's easily the best radio receiver I have, even with just headphones or speakers for an antenna, and, in spite of technical glitches with some of the local HD stations, HD Radio is a pretty nifty option to have.
fredcantu said:How many HD radios do you think are out there in Waco or BCS?
Not many as of yet, but when you expand your coverage, that makes you a more viable radio station. It's then up to the marketing team to get the word out that KBBW is available in FM on an HD2, and to let advertisers know that with that HD2, the coverage has widened. It's an investment that KBGO (Waco) and KNDE (College Station) have both made.
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