1230 has been dead air for days.. who is minding the store?!
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1230 dead air
- Thread starter ContinuousWave
- Start date
This has happened before, and can go on for several days, as is the case right now. Meanwhile the 92.5 translator is still operating normally. Obviously no one at Liberman (which still owns 1230) or the FCC cares.
Liberman sold 1230 a while back.....PUEBLO DE GALILEA, LLC is the current licensee...
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First Fone 65
Guest
They are losing market share, but now days most radio stations, have no body minding the store, all automated and remote accessed, and if no body calls the right number to let the right person know, it may take days for some one to notice it is has no audio / not on the air, and call a contract engineer to fix it, if they cant just reboot it remotely. it is not currently a FCC priority, I am not sure they have one, now if the Super bowl goes off the air tomorrow night they might say something just to CYA to the politicos.
The current generation of remote control equipment can send text messages, phone alerts and emails in the event of any irregularity, including silence sensors, heat detection, intrusion alarms, SWR, tower lights, etc. There is no excuse for a station not having those functions operating.
You are right, and that occurred to me some time after I posted that. Brain fade on my part. But I guess that somewhat shows how irrelevant the 1230 signal has become in this market.
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First Fone 65
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David You are right, there is no excuse, "But if its No Body's job, No Body does it" and a alarm system that will tell you when a Owl tinkles on the antenna is of little good, if no is responsible for monitoring the system. and the listener should be the observer of last resort.
1230 No Longer Relevant
50 years ago, AM1230 was huge and a major contender for ratings. That frequency was home to many great radio DJs, newsfolks, engineers and sales people who passed through those doors at 4701 Caroline at Blodgett. Box 188, Houston, 77002. Request line, 526-2122. I remember all of it as I spent many years there, too. That is where I met my late wife, who worked there as well. I cannot be objective about this frequency as it died a long time ago. It's time to turn it off and delete it from the table of assignments.
50 years ago, AM1230 was huge and a major contender for ratings. That frequency was home to many great radio DJs, newsfolks, engineers and sales people who passed through those doors at 4701 Caroline at Blodgett. Box 188, Houston, 77002. Request line, 526-2122. I remember all of it as I spent many years there, too. That is where I met my late wife, who worked there as well. I cannot be objective about this frequency as it died a long time ago. It's time to turn it off and delete it from the table of assignments.
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One could, but one would be incorrect. 1st of all, we are dealing with two totally different frequencies. 1230 was considered a local channel. 1070 was known as a US-Canadian clear channel. 2ndly, KNUZ/KQUE owner Dave Morris in the early 1960s leased a portion of the transmitter site to a company that dumped their old batteries. The acid leaked into the ground, which ate up the groundwave, which hurt the signal in southwest Houston. It was bad enough that it had a power of 250 watts at night, but that battery dump did not help KNUZ. Now, on to AM1070. When I got here in November, 2004, I had my doubts about whether it could make it or not. Technically, the station suffered greatly at the hands of multiple owners. Maintenance, was costly and the owners were not willing to spend the money. Incompetent engineering did not the situation. We turned it around by spending over 200 grand at the transmitter site, which included much needed upgrading to the groundwave system. We are a lot better now, than we were when I got here. 10,000 watts during the day and 5000 watts at night gives AM1070 more coverage that AM1230. Although, our signal is hampered to the southwest by 1070 KOPY in Alice, just west of Corpus. We have to protect that station. I have discussed that deficiency many times on the board previously. We do not subscribe to the ratings. We do that to keep the overhead low. However, when ad agencies come to you wanting to advertise, that says a lot. We are holding our own in today's radio climate. Two 'news' stations have come and gone since we changed formats in 2004. Most AM signals in Houston are afflicted. Both 610 KILT and 740 KTRH have the best coverage to the southwest. Even those two have problems to the north.
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First Fone 65
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Chuck, I remember KNUZ quite well, I was a student at San Jacinto High school not far from their studio having driven past the place on many occasions, I remember Paul Berlin and still can hear the jingle for His show," Paul Berlin, Paul Berlin, Paul Berlin" I remember when they got a new Gates Vangard 1 transmitter and it was the talk of the town at the time they did heavy promotions on how great it was, turned out it was very tricky to tune for Hi Fi audio it was capable of and many small station engineers didn't know how to tune it up correctly, I remember the summer contests and the buried car with clues to the where bouts and the first to find it won it, but that may have been on KILT ? another big player at the time, wonder if any one remembers the weather ball on the green Coneco ? building down town Houston which changed colors depending on the weather, white was the color reserved for snow and You didn't see that color very often. Good memories of a time past didn't realize how great it was at the time, now with all the many many radio stations on the air and web based along with cable and web surfing it has diluted the audience like pouring a gallon of water into a glass of tea till it has no taste or appeal any more, SAD indeed. wonder in fifty years what memories of today people will remember ? as far as radio goes "it's the end of the world"
KNTH managed a 0.6 share in the October-November-December books, with about 85% of that being over 65 years old.
KCOH gets a 0.1 with the translator. The FM likely has 100% of the listening as tropical music just sounds awful on AM, and people in the demos for the Tropipop they play grew up on FM and won't listen to AM unless there is no alternative... and we know that today there are hundreds of alternatives online for that format.
The 103.3 signal will probably make little difference. It's a low powered translator with a directional signal that will just cover North Harris County. And KJOJ will dominate in most of the market.
By "dominate" I meant that the KJOJ signal, despite its limitations, will step all over the 103.3 translator in most of the market. And when tropo kicks up, KJOJ can come blasting into my Cy-Fair location like a Missouri City stick. The translator's coverage area will be very limited. You will see some lateral moves of listeners from the AM to the FM signal, but I doubt KNTH picks up new listeners. Fans of right wing talk are already quite familiar with AM radio.
Yes, let's do go back to the beginning. KNX 1070 in Los Angeles is classified as a 1-A clear channel. It's 50KW non-directional. KNTH (KENR) 1070 is designated as 1-B (10KW Day/5KW Night, DA-2) AM1230 is indeed a class C. Class D stations are daytimers, like KTEK. I never gave a reason why it should be deleted from the table of assignments. I made a statement of opinion, that's all.
The FM stations have nothing to do with the way AM broadcasts. There is no comparison.
Again, I never mentioned any reason why. It was a statement of opinion. You're speculation is way off base. Radio Masala on the weekend is a contemporary Hindi music station aimed at their audience. KTEK is our business talk station during the week. You would not find that programming on KKHT, our Christian teach talk format. It is a big struggle for daytime AM stations to survive financially, that is why you hear a lot of time brokered programs on AM stations.
I'm not sure about the temperature of the air but, those people were long gone by the time I arrived at KENR in the spring of 1982. By that time the format had changed to "The Radio Magazine 1070 KENR." By the end of the year it became "The Radio Magazine 1070 KRBE."
When Salem purchased it from Susquehanna, it was not known as "1070 The Word." It was being leased as a foreign language station from the same group of people who illegally moved 1270 KFCC (KIOX) to southwest Houston from Bay City. (Eventually, 1270 was deleted from the table of assignments. It had been operating on temporary permits since 1968, when it was caught for double billing.) The KENR call letters were restored before the sale to Salem. Salem continued to operate it as a foreign language station until 2000. That's when SALEM sold KKHT 106.9 to Cox broadcasting for $80 million and five stations in other markets across the country. That is when the format and call letters were moved to 1070. (I was working there part time during this period) In late 2004, Salem purchased KOBT and flipped it to KKHT The Word. During the month of November, The Word was on FM100.7 and AM1070. By December, "Newstalk 1070 KNTH" was the latest newstalk station. Again, I must repeat that I never mentioned what type of format was on the air on 1230. You did that by speculating what I was thinking.
Stan, I do not even know Frank. Plus, I don't think anyone has made an accusation or something derogatory directed any particular person. There was no name calling. Certainly a lot of opinion and speculation has been addressed. However, that's not enough to close this thread. I have disagreed with Frank's decision to close a thread but, I never addressed it to him because its his board and he has the right to do whatever he desires. Plus, in the overall scheme of things, does it really matter?
You misunderstand Salem. Salem is a for-profit enterprise that has the purpose of making money based on serving specific segments of the radio audience in which they specialize.
I bought shares in Salem at the IPO about 20 years ago. The lengthy prospectus said nothing about bringing folks to God. It spoke about a successful business model with a significant moat and a strategy of buying undervalued facilities and applying the company's several successful program strategies to them.
While the Salem management may have an affinity with the formats, the primary goal of the company is to profit. The side benefit in this is that they achieve other goals which they may find personally of great satisfaction.
I thought the 1-A designation went away with the new definitions. KNX and CBA were classified as 1-B stations on a shared channel that also allowed lower classes of stations; CBA is gone and KNX is a class A. KNTH is licensed as a Class B, with no numeral as those were eliminated in the reclassification.
There were 25 US 1-A channels that did not, till the breakdown in the 70's, have anything else on the channel. KFI, WSM, WMAQ, WNBC, WLW, WGN, WSB, WJR, WABC, WBBM, WBAP/WFAA, WCCO, WHAS, WWL, WCBS, WLS, KDKA, WBZ, WHO, KYW/WKYC, KMOX, KSL, WHAM, WOAI , WCAU using the 60's era call letters (including one shared channel)
"Class A Station. A Class A station is an unlimited time station (that is, it can broadcast 24 hours per day) that operates on a clear channel. The operating power shall not be less than 10 kilowatts (kW) or more than 50 kW."
1070 now allows A, B and D class stations.
I had totally forgot about the reclassification. You are correct, David.
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