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KOLE Port Arthur

I looked at Birach's web site...rates on KOLE are no different than Birach's bigger market stations....I ran the number on their longest available rate out to 30 days..$$216,00!!! The station is not billing that and is no way worth even 100K!!! Soooo since noone wants to pay $300/hr, he has no income to spend on keeping it on the air....
 
Curious, what format does this station play when it is on?
 
KOLE's most recent format before going silent focused on the area's African-American community. If you have Facebook, you can do a search for the KOLE Facebook page as it was a couple of months ago.

Type in Universal Vibrations KOLE 1340am in Facebook search box to see what they were broadcasting before they went silent.

When I listened to them while visiting Port Arthur a few months ago, the KOLE signal was loud and clear and they were playing Black Gospel music.

I don't know why they went off the air, but they had been leasing the station from Birach Broadcasting in Michigan.
 
stan said:
If I recall correctly, when KOLE was still a news talk station they upgraded the transmitter to a Kahn CAM-D system. Wonder if it's still there.

http://radiomagonline.com/digital_radio_update/iboc_update_020905/
Click to expand...

Cam-D was a joke....noone ever made it work right and the "increased" coverage because of the one sideband favored over the other (originally done in the Powerside system)? NONE...an envelope detector used in MOST AM radios does not care (and does not have the filtering to avoid the lesser sideband anyway)..No receivers were ever made for Cam-D and like ISM AM stereo, Leonard would NOT license any receivers..Ralph McBride, who owned 1340 and 1380, swore it worked but was embarrassed at a TAB convention by so many reputable engineers, he never talked about it again.

Kahn was his own worse enemy.....he was right about decrying IBOC on AM...but he often shot himself in the foot by his actions or sometimes no actions...
 
dualux said:
KOLE's most recent format before going silent focused on the area's African-American community. If you have Facebook, you can do a search for the KOLE Facebook page as it was a couple of months ago.

Type in Universal Vibrations KOLE 1340am in Facebook search box to see what they were broadcasting before they went silent.

When I listened to them while visiting Port Arthur a few months ago, the KOLE signal was loud and clear and they were playing Black Gospel music.

I don't know why they went off the air, but they had been leasing the station from Birach Broadcasting in Michigan.
Click to expand...

KOLE was playing some soul/urban hits of the 70s some short time back while still on the air..it actually sounded pretty good and reminded me of when KOLE was the top40 leader of the area in the 70s..

Birach charges WAY to much for its billing on the station....and probably Universal Vibrations could not make the payments..the market in Port Arthur is not there anymore....all you have is a lot of ghetto areas and the refineries Gulf way Drive is losing all its businesses (even the McDonalds there closed years ago..when a McDs closes you have serious problems!)..Jefferson City already lost the Radio Shack to Groves (due to a female store employee attacked and almost raped at the former location)...sad but the area stuck on oil and refineries...no diversity and its killing the area
 
The last time I blew through there few months back I also found them playing gospel music as well. The observation of gaging an area's commerce ability going by McDonald's locations is one I would have never thought of, knew about the one being shut down in Groves but this closure is a bit more recent; I think there's one left in PA, the one on Memorial Boulevard..........
 
The one in Groves was rebuilt (its on Twin City in front of the former K Mart) and still going last I checked; it has not closed...The one on Gulfway was the 1st one in S Jefferson County; its been closed for YEARS....the one on Memorial is due to the mall and Wal Mart (where an Express is located inside)...Another one is just down the road on Nederland Ave...
When an area loses a McDs, that's bad (McDs usually will not build or franchise one where it is expected NOT to see 100K a month in revenue..if it drops below that, they have a limited time to bring it back up or they close.)
 
For one I've gotta be glad these forums are back up, not only do you learn about the broadcasting business, but other things along the way as well! Now I'm wondering if the original Gulfway location's structures are still there (opened in 1969) occupied by another business. Didn't think too ill of this when that one went down around '93 or so, area lost lots of commerce, and the service wasn't all too great!
 
The building of the original McDs on Gulfway is still standing...(I think some floral store took it over)....I used to use the drive through of that location back in the 70s when the main drag on Gulfway was popular...and KOLE, KAYC and KLVI were fighting for Top40 dominance....then KWIC came along and then KAYD flipped to Top40...I signed it off as an AOR station and was playing some of the music on the turntables....and got a call on the request line!..the exciter was leaking out enough for someone in Beaumont to still hear it and was wondering what the #%$&* had happened to his rock??...Funny thing was, most of the time overnight, KAYD had a cart automation system that usually sat quiet for long stretches..the jock on the AM, 1450 KAYC, would see a red spotlight in their face...and there was a reset button on the system...push it and carts would move, clank, make noise...and by the time you got back to the AM control room, that damned light was back on...and would stay that way until the TOH which ran from a separate cart in the system
 
dualux said:
I don't know why they went off the air, but they had been leasing the station from Birach Broadcasting in Michigan.
Click to expand...

I finally looked at the FCC database...Birach claimed they lost the studios (Im not sure where they were...last I saw was an Orange address??)...so they asked for a 90 day STA to go silent...then almost 2-3 days later, they filed another STA stating some equipment problems and requesting 90 days.....uh huh....Sounds like they cant get their story straight.
 
The mid to late 70's was an interesting time for top 40 radio in the BPT, what's more I recall KAYC not only reaching PA somewhat better during the nighttime hours, last time I tried listening in that vicinity KSIG can be heard under it...as for Birach, gotta wonder where they'll house the studios next, har-har......
 
Yep, when the night power was 250 watts (and KAYC's ground system was fairly new), it covered South jefferson Co better than it does now (but then the market in PA south of 73 is not there anymore and I dont think KAYC made it to Sabine Pass back then anyway)...KSIG actually covers up KIKR (former KAYC) in Groves at night...the raising of Class Cs to 1KW fulltime only raised the noise floor....and 1450's ground system has probably deteriorated...the tower is about to fall down (Cumulus has a CP for a replacement 1/4 wl antenna) due to the insulator cracked and leaning (how they got a crew to remove the old 12 bay KAYD antenna is anyone's guess)
 
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