• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

KKBZ FM 105.1 - On The Move

M

MisterGort

KKBZ 105.1 (B1) Auberry has been granted a new CP to relocate to a new Site closer to Fresno. The site will be shared with KJFX 95.7 (B). KJFX on top with a 6 Bay ERI (Full wave) and KKBZ on the lower tower with a 4 bay ERI antenna (Half wave spaced) and an ERP of 4.7 KW.

Will have to see if this site does the job. Might be a good site for Fresno but the coverage might not be that strong farther south near Visalia-Tulare. 95.7 is not that strong in Tulare County.
 
MisterGort said:
KKBZ 105.1 (B1) Auberry has been granted a new CP to relocate to a new Site closer to Fresno. The site will be shared with KJFX 95.7 (B). KJFX on top with a 6 Bay ERI (Full wave) and KKBZ on the lower tower with a 4 bay ERI antenna (Half wave spaced) and an ERP of 4.7 KW.

Will have to see if this site does the job. Might be a good site for Fresno but the coverage might not be that strong farther south near Visalia-Tulare. 95.7 is not that strong in Tulare County.
Click to expand...

I'm surprised that John O. would let them on that stick, being that KKBZ is probably The Fox's closest competitor, over 50 percent of KKBZ's playlist is Classic Rock, unless Lotus is going to flip "La Buena" back to 105.1 and move the Blaze to 101.9. LOL
That station did need to move closer with more power, 600 watts off of Meadow Lakes is weak, the 70 dbu cuts through metro Fresno and is poor in office complexes, with 6 times more power and a closer stick that signal will penetrate them office buildings much better.
 
95.7 is very strong in Tulare county, all the way down to Delano. This new location for the Blaze won't go as far as before (down as far south as McFarland), but it should serve Fresno fine.
 
I think it's the hills northeast of Visalia are blocking/weakening the signal. When you drive out further west, it's fine. That seems to be a problem with lots of stations from Fresno pointing south/southeast.
 
Last edited:
MisterGort said:
KKBZ 105.1 (B1) Auberry has been granted a new CP to relocate to a new Site closer to Fresno. The site will be shared with KJFX 95.7 (B). KJFX on top with a 6 Bay ERI (Full wave) and KKBZ on the lower tower with a 4 bay ERI antenna (Half wave spaced) and an ERP of 4.7 KW.

Will have to see if this site does the job. Might be a good site for Fresno but the coverage might not be that strong farther south near Visalia-Tulare. 95.7 is not that strong in Tulare County.
Click to expand...

Then WHY are they moving to a different site? Usually, there are two reasons: interference with a nearby station/frequency; Or just wanting more power/coverage to serve a larger area?
 
DanielBoone said:
I think it's the hills northeast of Visalia are blocking/weakening the signal. When you drive out further west, it's fine. That seems to be a problem with lots of stations from Fresno pointing south/southeast.
Click to expand...

It's the hills east of Sanger and Reedley and up 180, The Fox and soon to be The Blaze is on a hill above Highway 168 at before 168 splits from Toll House Road with a height of 2100 ft above Sea Level, so the further East on 198 east of 99 the worse the shadowing gets.
 
DanielBoone said:
Then WHY are they moving to a different site? Usually, there are two reasons: interference with a nearby station/frequency; Or just wanting more power/coverage to serve a larger area?
Click to expand...

The Blaze would rather have 6 times more power in the Fresno Market only, instead of covering a wider area with only 600 watts.
 
There is a trade-off for everything. Height and elevation, or lower elevation with more power. Personally, I think 600 watts is okay, which goes up to just north of Merced pretty well. Even if it is just for the Fresno area, it is fine too currently. So after the move is made, I will see how far, and the quality of the signal really is, at their lower elevation.
 
Tiger Cox said:
I'm surprised that John O. would let them on that stick, being that KKBZ is probably The Fox's closest competitor, over 50 percent of KKBZ's playlist is Classic Rock, unless Lotus is going to flip "La Buena" back to 105.1 and move the Blaze to 101.9. LOL
That station did need to move closer with more power, 600 watts off of Meadow Lakes is weak, the 70 dbu cuts through metro Fresno and is poor in office complexes, with 6 times more power and a closer stick that signal will penetrate them office buildings much better.
Click to expand...

I'm kind of surprised 93.7 KSKS and 105.9 KMJ doesn't swap frequencies. 93.7 is waaay more powerful but yet on the same site. I would think KMJ is more popular, and 93.7 gets out further than 105.9. But, that is just me.
 
DanielBoone said:
There is a trade-off for everything. Height and elevation, or lower elevation with more power. Personally, I think 600 watts is okay, which goes up to just north of Merced pretty well. Even if it is just for the Fresno area, it is fine too currently. So after the move is made, I will see how far, and the quality of the signal really is, at their lower elevation.
Click to expand...

I Agree, I never had a problem of KKBZ 105.1 having 600 watts at Meadow Lakes, works fine for me, back in the day there was a station known as Rock 96 FM KYNO-FM 95.5, tower with 50K Watts on the Del Webb Building DT Fresno, they went totally disco January 1979, and the only outlet of Rock was KBOS 94.9 "The Boss" which had only 720 watts from Blue Ridge Mt. 75 miles away and worked well with me and became famous in Fresno with sales, concert promos, Etc, then they moved to Eshom Point with 17K watts in Dec. 1981.
 
Last edited:
DanielBoone said:
There is a trade-off for everything. Height and elevation, or lower elevation with more power. Personally, I think 600 watts is okay, which goes up to just north of Merced pretty well. Even if it is just for the Fresno area, it is fine too currently. So after the move is made, I will see how far, and the quality of the signal really is, at their lower elevation.
Click to expand...

When I was working on KRCV (West Covina) in LA, it was about 700 watts at 900 feet, up on a foothill peak. It had a weak signal over a very big area. It contributed less than a 1 share to the KRCD/KRCV combo. We moved it down to 300 feet but raised power to 6 kw, and it popped up by more than double with no change in programming.
 
Tiger Cox said:
I Agree, I never had a problem of KKBZ 105.1 having 600 watts at Meadow Lakes, works fine for me, back in the day there was a station known as Rock 96 FM KYNO-FM 95.5, tower with 50K Watts on the Del Webb Building DT Fresno, they went totally disco January 1979, and the only outlet of Rock was KBOS 94.9 "The Boss" which had only 720 watts from Blue Ridge Mt. 75 miles away and worked well with me and became famous in Fresno with sales, concert promos, Etc, then they moved to Eshom Point with 17K watts in Dec. 1981.
Click to expand...

I remember the day they flipped to “96 Disco” with KC & the Sunshine Band ‘Do you wanna go party’...Also don’t forget about the black satin K-Boss jackets from Gottschalks
 
KKBZ is still at 600 watts, here is why the higher the better is not true, some say otherwise, it's the signal power intensity, even if it's lower than it was, on my Sony clock radio KKBZ Class B1 is very weak, but all other Meadow Lakes stations 2K and above are strong, all Class B stations and KJWL 105.5 Classic Hits 25kw at 500 ft 27 miles away perfect, I just had to make that point, stations like KZPO 103.3 should do the same.
 
KKBZ is now using their new 4.7kW transmitter (at 2,125 ft asl versus 4,593 ft before).

I want to say they switched a couple weeks ago when the Creek Fire cut power to many other high elevation stations in the mountains.

Here in Bakersfield not much has changed and it still cannot be reliably received this far south. In Rosedale, around sunset time, it comes in with static. Better than before.

Also with the old site, it could be received driving up the Grapevine until Lebec. Now, it is much worse.

I'm guessing the signal cut off is still around the McFarland area, like before.
 
derek20la said:
KKBZ is now using their new 4.7kW transmitter (at 2,125 ft asl versus 4,593 ft before).

I want to say they switched a couple weeks ago when the Creek Fire cut power to many other high elevation stations in the mountains.

Here in Bakersfield not much has changed and it still cannot be reliably received this far south. In Rosedale, around sunset time, it comes in with static. Better than before.

Also with the old site, it could be received driving up the Grapevine until Lebec. Now, it is much worse.

I'm guessing the signal cut off is still around the McFarland area, like before.
Click to expand...

I have noticed the stronger signal in Clovis with smaller devices like, yes, I still have a Sony Walkman, with a digital tuner, and on my clock radio.
 
KKBZ is now broadcasting in HD1. They also have HD2, 3, and 4 however no programming is on them at this time. I wonder what other formats they may add to the other HD sub- channels, if any. I heart is the only one with HD2 programming in Fresno otherwise.
 
HD

I see that the FCC just got a letter to authorize HD on 105.1:

Station Callsign: KKBZ
Station Type: Digital FM Station, 105.1 MHz
Facility ID: 38455
Community: AUBERRY, CA
Distance: 14km (8mi) File Number: BDNH-20201016AAE
App ID: 1822480
App Type: Digital Notification
App Status: ACCEPTED FOR FILING
 
HD

Actually KVPR is doing classical on HD2 and their main channel is moving to all news/talk during the day.
KSJV (Radio Bilingue) got a grant but never got it on the air but put KSJV HD on their RDS for a few years.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom