Yet Another Tucson Station from Ted?

[kwthom]

I'm in NW Tucson, thought I was listening to KCDX, but today...

103.7 KXZK-FM - Vail

Signal seems to be a similar to KTBX from Tubac. Didn't check, but according to FCC data, comes from same location as 98.5 KRDX.

EDIT: Ooooooh. This is the whole mess re: Tanque Verde & Casas Adobes licensed facilities from Cochise Broadcasting.

Probably fired up shortly after the start of the new year. FCC file is interesting reading.

 

[Smiths and Smittys]

I'll have to check it out. 98.5 KRDX, Vail still on? Wish I could figure Ted Tucker's end game? Maybe there isn't one. I've said it before but the days of moving sticks around into major metro areas and having radio companies paying big bucks gobbling up signals is long gone. And these moves certainly don't seem to be to super serve a smaller market such as Benson or Sierra Vista. Maybe he just likes to tinker. Tax write off?

 

[kwthom]

Signal seems to be time-sharing<?> with 98.5. If one is on, the other seems to be off-air.

Went for a ride along AZ-83, then to points east last Sunday. 98.5 was off-air, and 103.7 was transmitting with no programming.

 

[CAVEMANager]

98.5 might well be the nation's only FM daytimer. The excuse is that it uses solar energy but that fact shouldn't exempt the station from the FCC rule on minimum operating schedules. Ted Tucker has an amazing ability to get the FCC to look the other way when its rules are disregarded. 98.5 is way too close to 98.3 and it needs to be moved to a different frequency before it can be sold at a high capital gain. Ted has many similar irons in the fire and is taking his sweet time in getting them moved from the small town to the big city. Problem is that radio stations are losing value quickly and the longer he dawdles the less gain he will realize. In this case the old adage that time is money has plenty of application.

 

[kwthom]

Tax write-off if operating at a 'loss'??

KCDX has been on the air, what 15 years? Image what *that* loss looks like.

 

[davideduardo]

Tax write-off if operating at a 'loss'??

KCDX has been on the air, what 15 years? Image what *that* loss looks like.

All business expenses are "write-off" items. Business pays taxes on the difference between revenue and cost of operation.

If KCDX has no revenue, it's expenses are counted as part of the overall cost of operation of the owner's properties. He pays taxes only on the total profits.

 

[CAVEMANager]

A couple points: First, Ted Tucker's companies own many stations and nearly all of them are little more than jukeboxes that play mostly 1970s rock. Their biggest operating costs are their electric bills which range from minimal to significant depending on the station's power. Next would come equipment maintenance. Nearly all Tucker stations have no employees to pay. The only exception I know of is KKYZ in Sierra Vista which, I think, has one employee who does everything. KKYZ is also about the only station that sells advertising. Tucker's Cochise Broadcasting bought KKYZ in 2001 and for many years has had permission to move it into a suburb of Tucson. But for some reason the Tucson station has never gone on the air.
Second: On Thursday evening I noticed that both 98.5 and 103.7 were both on the air simultaneously. I was listening to the station on 98.5 and it went off the air shortly after 7 p.m. So I switched to 103.7 and that went off the air about a minute later. Neither station aired a legal ID which is required when a station goes off the air. In both cases songs were playing and the carrier just got chopped.
The main immediate function of the Florence station is to prevent anyone from using 103.1 or adjacent channels in the Tucson market. Eventually Ted will move a distant station into Tucson close to 103.1 and at that time KCDX will move closer to Phoenix.

 

[kwthom]

I've not heard anything from 103.7 in a few weeks... anyone else?

 

[RadioBill]

I've not heard anything from 103.7 in a few weeks... anyone else?

I heard it yesterday while driving I-19 between Green Valley and Tucson.

 

[kwthom]

...Nearly all Tucker stations have no employees to pay. The only exception I know of is KKYZ in Sierra Vista which, I think, has one employee who does everything. KKYZ is also about the only station that sells advertising....

Old post, I know, but...

From the "huh?" file, while listening to the streaming version of KCDX, there have been :60 political spots run. I'm estimating one an hour. Been that way for a couple of months now.

So, if there's a will - and a BIG bank account, I guess Desert West Air Ranchers will take a few coins from those who want to represent us in Congress - at least here in AZ.

 

[kwthom]

The main immediate function of the Florence station is to prevent anyone from using 103.1 or adjacent channels in the Tucson market. Eventually Ted will move a distant station into Tucson close to 103.1 and at that time KCDX will move closer to Phoenix.

....While doing a bit of running around NW Tucson on Tuesday, 103.1 KCDX was received reasonably well in my Civic. Typically, very little until getting north of Tangerine.

 

[kwthom]

Newspaper story from a couple years ago...

https://www.pinalcentral.com/trival...cle_7a65d8bf-69de-5fca-bfe8-16665b6bb8ec.html

[Ted]Tucker isn’t sure why he chooses to foot the bill to broadcast his extensive music collection to the public, but the station’s fans are grateful.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I enjoy it, and it’s fun to share music that the other stations have just dropped. ... There’s a lot of music out there that’s good that’s ignored.

“It’s the love of music and the love of radio combined.

 

[CAVEMANager]

Tucker loves being portrayed as an eccentric lover of old rock who wants to share his love of music with others. He has no self serving motives. That notion tends to fall by the wayside when you look at the things he's done. Many years ago he bought a station in Winslow for small change. It took years to accomplish and a station in Yuma had to lower its power. But the Winslow station changed its community of license to Sun City West (near Phoenix) and it got sold for just over $18 million. Money wasn't a motive? Just love of music? Today I'm wondering about a station licensed to Douglas. For years it has had permission to change license to Tombstone at 100,000 watts. but it just sits in Douglas for years on end. Tucker has had permission to move KKYZ in Sierra Vista into various suburbs of Tucson. But, again, nothing happens. He has a station licensed to Thatcher near Safford. Just sits there. Another station in Lordsburg broadcasts with 250 watts but could be upgraded to 100,000. Just sits there. Nothing happens with 98.5 for Vail. Most of the time it is off the air. So is 103.7. If Tucker wants people to think that his business practices make no sense he's going about it just right. But it's clearly not just love of music.

 

[kwthom]

<...>If Tucker wants people to think that his business practices make no sense he's going about it just right. But it's clearly not just love of music.

Clearly, that $18 million dollar payday has sustained those 'no sense' business practices, I suppose. So, if the effort were to put only one of those additional stations you mentioned into 'sale-able' condition, no it wouldn't be a comparable return, but it might be enough to propagate the activity until Desert West Air Ranchers/Cochise Broadcasting someday morphs into a different entity.

Certainly, being able to keep an attorney busy from time to time with keeping his 'business' out of hot water with regulators, as well as one or two (maybe...) part-time engineers, keeping the power bills and Internet links alive (KCDX occasionally will air a CableOne spot on the audio stream, so a bit of bartering, perhaps?).

No, it's clearly not commercial broadcasting, but for a 'professional hobbyist' station entity, it's working.

 

[kwthom]

Old post...

I've not heard anything from 103.7 in a few weeks... anyone else?

KTBX @98.1 has been quiet for a couple of weeks. I know this, since setting 98.1/103.7 as presets in my new car, I've yet to hear 'em.

Of course, it could also be that the FM tuner in this new car sucks more than the car it replaced.

 

[kwthom]

Old post...

Of course, it could also be that the FM tuner in this new car sucks more than the car it replaced.

South of I-19 is when I really started to catch it - by the time I got south of San Xavier, it was listenable.

 

[RF101]

With so many "Ted Threads" I used a dartboard and aimed my update here...

I noticed Tucker's engineering and legal team filed for an upgrade of KXZK Vail 104.5 back in February. The engineering study is here and worth the read:

https://enterpriseefiling.fcc.gov/dataentry/api/download/attachment/25076f9177d5b55d0177dfb3be0e0230

This proposal takes the 300-watt flatland-dwelling Class A station and upgrades it to a 4,100-watt Class C3 back up on "the hills" to the southeast. To protect a 282B Nogales short-spaced allocation, up to -23.1dB worth of null is inserted (at 200 degrees towards Nogales). Additional nulling is added elsewhere to prevent reflections off the Santa Rita Mountains The projected 60dBu contour reaches into downtown Tucson.

The site proposed is the current KRDX/K244EI facility. "The transmitter site, on an unnamed peak in the Santa Rita Foothills, 15 km southeast of Vail, is inaccessible to the general public. The site is controlled by the licensee, and there are no other site users. There is no existing road or trail access to the peak. The transmitting facility was built out using equipment and materials delivered to the site by helicopter. The only other access to this location is via a strenuous cross-country hike uphill over rough, rocky, desert scrub terrain with no water source. This is a controlled access site."

Cochise Media will need some serious solar panels and batteries to make this a reality. The proposed antenna is a 4-bay with 0.87 wavelength spacing which will give it some gain, thus lowering the power draw. ( It's a Scala 4XCA5-FM/CP/RM. )

The FCC has yet to action on this upgrade petition other than "accept it for filing". A more readable comparison of old-vs-new is here:
https://fccdata.org/?lang=en&facid=164116

There you have it.

 

[CAVEMANager]

Tucker has used this site off Highway 83 for years. Used for 98.5 and 103.7. Both have been FM daytimers, quite possibly the only ones in the world. 104.5 is presently on a cell phone tower and it Is seriously undermodulated. When and if this proposal is built, will 104.5 become yet another daytimer? They should at least get pre-sunrise authority.

 

[kwthom]

<...>When and if this proposal is built, will 104.5 become yet another daytimer? They should at least get pre-sunrise authority.

Same engineering problem seems to exist - the batteries have to have an adequate amount of charge to actually operate the xmtr.

So, one would need to charge to a level that would enable the xmtr and computer to operate for the 'broadcast day'. Once the battery charge level drops to a specific amount, xmtr drops off, while the computer goes idle until the next day.

Yup, just like 98.5 & 103.7.

 

[RF101]

Cochise Media will need some serious solar panels and batteries to make this a reality. The proposed antenna is a 4-bay with 0.87 wavelength spacing which will give it some gain, thus lowering the power draw. ( It's a Scala 4XCA5-FM/CP/RM. )

At first I thought it would take quite a lot of electricity to create that 4.1 kw ERP on that isolated mountaintop - perhaps not. The proposed antenna is actually a Kathrein-Scala CA5-FM/CP/RM and the leading characters "4x" ,eam "four times". The Scala CA5 is more of a translator a directional antenna , providing 6dBd of gain - or 8.14dBd isotropic gain in the H/V planes:

https://www.kathrein-bca.com/files/ca5-fm-cp_1.pdf

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With 0.7 wavelength spacing the 2.7dB gain from a typical second array stacking is probably overly-optimistic, so three additonal stacked elements (total four) might be give 6-7 dB more. .. resulting in an antenna gain of around 15dBi. If the system gain is perhaps 12-13 dB overall then 300 watts RF out of the transmitter might cover things - at 50% efficiency that means 600 watts needed to feed the transmitter alone.. A 5-6 KVA solar array with battery storage might actually be sufficient Some poor tech will need to climb the mountain periodically to clear the desert dust off the panels . More importantly - there will be some serious windloading on that tower with that stacked yagi.