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Free FM 105.3?

H

hondo77701

Hey guys, anybody know the back story on these guys? They mentioned coming out of Beaumont and Baytown... I caught about a week of them with Walton & Johnson in the mornings and one of the most cut-n-paste music formats I've ever heard (think Alan Jackson followed by Fleetwood Mac). Then, POOF! Off the air. Wondering what happened? Thanks!
 
If Walton owns this station, why don't they have their show broadcast live in instead of tape delayed a day or so?
 
93QClassic.com said:
Hondo, Free 105.3 is a great new station that just upgraded equipment and coverage. Here's a brochure about it. http://www.waltonandjohnson.com/templates/default/images/FREE-Brochure.pdf There's another broadcaster on the same frequency NW of Houston who is raising hell because the new station is drastically reducing his coverage.
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Actually kind of getting into the format - a bit like an ipod on shuffle...
They are back this morning... clean signal into Lamar College, Beaumont.
Good to hear more signals into this area!
 
rageradio said:
It's John Walton's LP station
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It is a C2, 50KW at 500 ft...not a LP...It was moved to Winnie from Port Bolivar couple of years ago to replace the "move" of 100.7 from Winnie to Lumberton under Univision before being sold to Salem (yeah right, it really served/serves Lumberton!) Of course, 105.3 really "served" Winnie too under Univision (HA!) which is why they sold it off...(there was a long going fight on that channel for several years...iirc, Crawford had filed to put a Class A on in Vinton La on that frequency....it took Univision's move off 100.7 to Lumberton, or was it Kountze first??, to sway the Commission on allowing the Univision station to upgrade/move...then Walton bought it several months ago..). It is not "newly" upgraded...the current tower site has been standing for 3 years (built in Sept 2011; licensed to cover filed for on Sept 28 2011; BLH - 20110928AAG )

It is NOT causing any changes or reducing range to KTWL...that station, licensed to Hempstead and owned by our dear Mr. Roy E Henderson himself (which just about everyone on this board knew that anyway!!), has been hemmed in where it is at due to spacing with 104.9 and 105.7 in Houston. KXXF is far enough co channel to not bother KTWL and hasnt been for a good while (Look at the Facility number of KXXF...479!! That shows you how old this station is...it was the Galveston 104.9 Class A before all the shuffling took place years ago to allow now KAMA to upgrade) In fact, it has a CP to somewhat downgrade in a compromise application and relicense to Todd Mission (east of Navasota on 105)...its ERP would be going up from 9.2 to 20KW but its HAAT would be going from 166m to 78 to become a contour protection station of 105.7 KHCB's contour! In fact in 2004 iirc, Henderson under KTWL tried to get the FCC to downgrade KSMG from a Class C to a C0 so he could do something with his 105.3. Eventually KSMG was downgraded but Henderson could not improve the easterly signal of KTWL (which he claimed would cover the Woodlands and thus the callsign KTWL...but this was before 2009 and all of us knew it would not cover at all..and there was NO way to get 60, much less 70dbU signal over the Woodlands)...

So 93QClassic, please keep your false opinions to yourself....The technical facts (and OLD discussions here on this board back in the days), prove otherwise..

BTW KXXF had been off the air for the last three days..but its back on today...was able to hear Dallas and KSMG coming in..not sure why it was off.....I THOUGHT I heard W&J at one point in the noise..which could have meant the PA kicked off but the exciter was still leaking through....

Stan, I will pop John a question about why the delay...I am curious as well...

and thats Lamar University, not Lamar College
 
bradgoehl said:
105.3 Covers the heck out of the Triangle but calming East Houston and Galveston is a bit bold.
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BOLD? Down right impossible! BUT in Galveston there is no competing signal so they can probably be heard due to enhanced coverage because of the flat land, water and no other signals close by...but once around Baytown, the typical FM radio will start to get hit with desense by 104.9 and 105.7's signal..plus noise sources...Nope...not East Houston (not table top or home radios anyway!)
 
Hey CW, I saw you had messaged me. I'm not ignoring you, you too Anonymouse, but when I open it (as with any PM), I get a blank page. I've been meaning to send Boz a line to see what the deal is, but que sera sera, I just haven't. Call it laziness. Don't want you two to think I'm passing out cold shoulders over here! :D I think it's because I'm on the mobile site.

Now, to the topic at hand, 105-3. I live on the north end of Houston (as most of you know), outside of KTWL's 60dbU, let alone 70. Unless tropo conditions are active, KTWL has NO problems from KXXF whatsoever here. The only culprit of interference with "Texas Mix" is KSMG over in San Anto...er, uhh...Seguin. From Bellville, KTWL stands alone. I have yet to hear KXXF up here, period. Last I heard from Winnie was the "Tu Musica" simulcast with our own KAMA you mentioned. That tells you how little Winnie makes it up here, and I'm a radio geek looking for this kind of thing! If I'm not hearing KXXF in Houston, normal people certainly aren't.
 
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My guess as to why KXXF was off the air... They're brand new and are still working out the bugs. Best of luck to this station!
This is the kind of thing I'm into, radio stations which like to experiment/break out of the general radio idea and play interesting (but still fun to listen to) things.
 
The tower site has been on the air for 3+ years....John Walton of Walton and Johnson bought it and they changed calls and flipped the format to the FREE format several months ago...I have yet to find any local studio waiver so not sure where they are getting audio from...(could be automation at the tower site)...

I plan to drop John an email and ask...also offer any engineering help they need..wish they would maybe do some live DJs afternoon/evening or weekends...hell, I'd go back to being a DJ...(been a LONG time since I was one in the BPT market and last time I was on the air at all was in the DFW market...but not as a DJ...just did some "guest" voices and a Christmas greeting on my two CC stations...wait they were licensed under Citicasters in Covington...so I guess someone could have filed for Citicasters in Texas and claimed the stations as theirs) speaking of Christmas, I read in one forum a station has already started with Christmas music (probably stunting before they flip to a new format but GEESH...cmon!)
 
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Yeah, I know the Seguin COL is just lip service to the Commission.*The farm is*actually closer to Floresville, isn't it?

KGLK is okay, but personally I have better luck with holding on to its northern counterpart, KHPT. On trips down to Goliad or Victoria, I don't make the switch to 107-5 until we're past Rosenberg. Up here on the north side, obviously, 106-9 blows away 107-5 in strength by a long shot. That 106-9 signal is a monster. Wish it would've been so during Z Rock's days on the signal. I kid you not, I've locked in 106-9 as far north as Streetman, enhanced I'm sure. Typically have no problems holding 106-9 as far north as Buffalo on 45. It and 97-1 are absolute behemoths.

Is that Todd Mission move still on the table for Roy? I though it was put to rest when KTWL dropped "Bob", quit targeting The Woodlands, and started trying to serve Tomball/Magnolia. There used to be a CP for KLTR to raise height and power as well, but I've sern nothing recently on either front.
 
Yep, the Todd Mission move is still on....KLTR would move its COL to Hempsted as well as transmitter site and a power increase...all this was part of a counterproposal from another application..so Midway and Oakwood get FMs allocated to them. I meant to post the link but guess I forgot to do that...The TM move will actually put more signal toward Montgomery...but not enough to really make it worth anything..CS/B is the big loser in this move...a lot of 105.3s signal over Aggieland will be much less...oh well....

Here is the link to the Termination of the proceeding of all the above: http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/getimportletter_exh.cgi?import_letter_id=42307

As to 106.9, for some reason, the rimshots to the northeast (which is 106.9 and 97.1) have monster signals all over the Houston market...with even a 106.7 translator in Port Neches (licensed to Vidor) for KHCB, you can hear 106.9 4-5 miles away or even less sometimes..yeah Z Rock was on 106.9 when it was still on its original 1200 ft tower west of Cleveland...I thought the 2000 ft one had been built before 96 but according to the FCC ASR info, it wasnt built until 1998...I DO remember talking to US Radio's VP of Engineering in 95 about putting a ham repeater on it when they built it...he was willing to talk about it but I was holding him up....his family was outside in the car waiting to go to the Orlando hamfest!! OOPS!! BUT US Radio sold the station before the tower was built...

At least the 106.9 down near Victoria flipped to Rock recently..
 
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On a good tropo night you can have KXXF and KTWL fight it out in the car over by Hobby Airport, but that's a stretch for either signal.
 
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