PG&E Planned Power Outage - Who's off the air?

[crainbebo]

I am hearing that KFPR 88.9 and KNCQ 97.3 are off the air in Redding due to PG&E's planned outage. Looking around, not seeing much else, but will continue to look. Anyone in northern or central California noting locals off?

 

[davideduardo]

I am hearing that KFPR 88.9 and KNCQ 97.3 are off the air in Redding due to PG&E's planned outage. Looking around, not seeing much else, but will continue to look. Anyone in northern or central California noting locals off?

I am really surprised that stations like those don't have generators.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

I am really surprised that stations like those don't have generators.

I'm surprised too, especially since A.) KNCQ is such a huge signal B.) It is the #1 signal in the market by a nice margin

 

[PTBoardOp94]

I would bet a lot of smaller stations may be equipped to run for a handful of hours on generator power are not equipped to run for days on generator power.

However, KNCQ has a mountaintop site which I assume is not regularly accessible in the winter. Surely they don't go off the air for days or weeks at a time if utility power fails in January.

 

[davideduardo]

I would bet a lot of smaller stations may be equipped to run for a handful of hours on generator power are not equipped to run for days on generator power.

However, KNCQ has a mountaintop site which I assume is not regularly accessible in the winter. Surely they don't go off the air for days or weeks at a time if utility power fails in January.

When a station puts in a generator, they do it to avoid loss of business. That generally means having the ability to run 5 to 7 days without refueling.

Generators are not that expensive these days and they can be fueled via propane storage tanks that can run them for many days. I put one in my home that can run the AC in the summer when it is 120° out and is, thus, able to run a solid state transmitter easily... for around $12 k with all the auto transfer switches and circuits to cut off power from things like kitchen appliances and two of the central AC units. I can run it in an emergency off propane tanks that I can get at the convenience store if the main supply runs out.

 

[davideduardo]

What surprises me is that more is not being said about having a portable radio with batteries available. This is one case where radio is uniquely able to give information to "the people" when the power is out, the wifi in the home is dead and the cell towers either run out of battery power or are overloaded.

Where is PG&E, city mayors, Gavin Newsom and the state legislators? This is time for radio to shine!

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

I would bet a lot of smaller stations may be equipped to run for a handful of hours on generator power are not equipped to run for days on generator power.

However, KNCQ has a mountaintop site which I assume is not regularly accessible in the winter. Surely they don't go off the air for days or weeks at a time if utility power fails in January.

Apparently, KNCQ has an auxiliary transmitter site on South Fork Mountain, so either thats lost power to, they cant physically get up there and turn it on or they cant turn it on remotely

 

[DaveBayArea]

I am hearing that KFPR 88.9 and KNCQ 97.3 are off the air in Redding due to PG&E's planned outage. Looking around, not seeing much else, but will continue to look. Anyone in northern or central California noting locals off?

Well, I've been pretty busy lately for obvious reasons so not reading this board. But KVMR in Nevada City stayed on for the whole time except for about 70 minutes. We think that was due to a loss of natural gas pressure (our studio generator runs on PG&E natural gas - we could not get a permit for a propane tank downtown & it wouldn't have been practical to fill it anyway). But David is right. A standby generator infrastructure is not that difficult these days, especially for an FM. For AM's, where current draw varies with modulation, maybe not so easy - especially if it's high power.

KNCO's AM station in Grass Valley was off the air for the duration. But they appear to be back on today with a weak signal on 830 and somewhat distorted audio. Not sure if it's a transmitter set to low power or what, but they're back on.

Power is back on in the downtown areas here and they're doing line inspection in the outlying areas. KVMR's transmitter is still on generator, and we're hoping for restoration at the transmitter site by Saturday.

Dave B.

 

[seattlesarchiebunker]

Forgot to add stuff from the Gold Country:

KGRB was off the air for two days. It’s translator stablemate on Mt Zion, KVGC on 96.5 remained on the air somehow. 1340 AM in Jackson was unaffected.

It also appeared KQBM was off the air as well.

Lots of folks grumbling/complaining about this 2-3 day outage.

 

[crainbebo]

Bumped up - a new power outage is going into effect in Northern California with PG&E warning they will cut power to 2,500,000 people (800000+ households) in northern and central California. Large parts of the Bay Area (including Berkeley, Castro Valley, Pacifica and San Mateo) will go out, along with large parts of the Sonoma Valley, the entire city of Eureka and Arcata (affecting the entire market + local TV unless they have generators), areas east of Sacramento, Santa Cruz, and large parts of the Redding area.
Californians may notice many FMs and AMs off the air during this sequence. Sutro Tower in SF should NOT be affected by an outage.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...biggest-blackout-ever-as-windstorm-approaches

 

[davideduardo]

Bumped up - a new power outage is going into effect in Northern California with PG&E warning they will cut power to 2,500,000 people (800000+ households) in northern and central California. Large parts of the Bay Area (including Berkeley, Castro Valley, Pacifica and San Mateo) will go out, along with large parts of the Sonoma Valley, the entire city of Eureka and Arcata (affecting the entire market + local TV unless they have generators), areas east of Sacramento, Santa Cruz, and large parts of the Redding area.
Californians may notice many FMs and AMs off the air during this sequence. Sutro Tower in SF should NOT be affected by an outage.

Even most small stations have generators today; generally the only reason not to have one is if zoning prohibits it. But even in that case, many stations have mobile generators they can bring in for an “emergency” situation.

Everybody on Sutro has a genny set. And most any station in CA that did not have a generator a month ago has bought one by now.

 

[davideduardo]

Well, I've been pretty busy lately for obvious reasons so not reading this board. But KVMR in Nevada City stayed on for the whole time except for about 70 minutes. We think that was due to a loss of natural gas pressure (our studio generator runs on PG&E natural gas - we could not get a permit for a propane tank downtown & it wouldn't have been practical to fill it anyway). But David is right. A standby generator infrastructure is not that difficult these days, especially for an FM. For AM's, where current draw varies with modulation, maybe not so easy - especially if it's high power.

A lot of stations have dual fuel generators that can run on natural gas or on propane. In the case of a failure of the gas service, which is likely in an earthquake, one can run off of barbecue grill propane tanks. All you have to do is keep a bunch of them offsite or in a permitted location, and have a two tank valve that allows removing one while the other one is fueling the genny.

If you have a natural gas only generator, almost all can be retrofitted for dual fuel use.

Solid state AM transmitters are not a real problem for generators as long as the capacity is greater than peak envelope power; they can handle the variable load well.

 

[landtuna]

Bear in mind there are two major threats to a station remaining on-air while in the vicinity of a fire:

One is, of course, availability of power and that has been covered well in this thread.

The other is mandatory evacuation of the studio and/or the transmitter site. Many of these are located on mountain tops and susceptible to wind driven flash fires going uphill. Phone and signal cables and microwave sites are also at risk when wild fires are wind driven in all directions.

 

[crainbebo]

KFPR 88.9 Redding (NPR) off the air due to this new PG&E outage, according to the North State Public Radio website.
96.7 KNOB (Bob FM) Healdsburg/Santa Rosa and 100.9 KSXY 'The 101' were reported off the air on Oct 24th. No new update. 95.9 KRSH on same tower reported off 10/24, back on 10/25.

 

[davideduardo]

Bear in mind there are two major threats to a station remaining on-air while in the vicinity of a fire:

One is, of course, availability of power and that has been covered well in this thread.

The other is mandatory evacuation of the studio and/or the transmitter site. Many of these are located on mountain tops and susceptible to wind driven flash fires going uphill. Phone and signal cables and microwave sites are also at risk when wild fires are wind driven in all directions.

Transmitter sites for radio are seldom staffed today.

So a site that is not actually in a burn zone and has adequate fuel reserves can stay on the air.

The issue is whether there is studio-to-transmitter connectivity. In many cases, a station with a studio location that is not viable can feed the site from another location. In TV, it is now the standard that small and medium market master control operations are done at centralized sites, but radio does less of this.

With satellite, the studio can be anywhere as long as the transmitter is operational.

And a lot of FMs now have auxiliary sites, particularly when the main site can become inaccessible due to weather or events like this. Following the Station Fire in LA a decade ago, FMs that did not have auxiliary sites rapidly moved to build them. In all cases, they were geographically separated from the main sites.

 

[seattlesarchiebunker]

KGRB was off the air for the first day of this most recent PSPS. They appeared to be back on air about 6 hours later with a much lower powered transmitter (I could pick up KPFA quite well up here in the foothills) and a very low bitrate stream of Radio Lazer. Their backup is licensed for a much easier to deal with 800 watts (over their main B1 at 4kW) on Mt. Zion -- so I doubt the sixfold power decrease changed Sacramento listenership very much.

KQBM was off as well as their sister LPFM in West Point.

We will be losing power again this afternoon. We shall see what stations conk out due to it again.

 

[jammerdave]

KGRB was off the air for the first day of this most recent PSPS. They appeared to be back on air about 6 hours later with a much lower powered transmitter (I could pick up KPFA quite well up here in the foothills) and a very low bitrate stream of Radio Lazer. Their backup is licensed for a much easier to deal with 800 watts (over their main B1 at 4kW) on Mt. Zion -- so I doubt the sixfold power decrease changed Sacramento listenership very much.

KQBM was off as well as their sister LPFM in West Point.

We will be losing power again this afternoon. We shall see what stations conk out due to it again.

I was with Salem when we owned what is now KGRB. The main site has no generator, although it was planned, along with transfer switches. There was a big dispute between the site owners (a residence on Zion) and Univision Radio (before Salem), so the genset never happened. The backup site is on Jackson Butte, which I think still requires that a portable genset be hauled up there is power is down.

 

[seattlesarchiebunker]

I was with Salem when we owned what is now KGRB. The main site has no generator, although it was planned, along with transfer switches. There was a big dispute between the site owners (a residence on Zion) and Univision Radio (before Salem), so the genset never happened. The backup site is on Jackson Butte, which I think still requires that a portable genset be hauled up there is power is down.

OK. That makes a ton of sense as I was in Jackson proper and noticed it was overpowering KPFA during the outage. That sounds like the old KNGT primary site, so unless there at the top of that old KOVR-TV tower on the Butte, I doubt good Sacramento suburban coverage (like on Zion).

Oddly enough, KVGC-AM and their FM translator on Zion were completely unaffected. I'm not sure if they have a small solar setup to keep the xlator going or if they're at a different site (like the fire tower) that allows them backup power.

Anyway, KGRB went back to the Zion site about an hour after power was restored.

None of the other stations in the lower Gold Country that I could hear were off the air, save for KQBM-LP (the full power 90.7 in San Andreas remained on-air).

I have heard this most recent shutoff *should* be the last one for this season. Let's hope so!

 

[jammerdave]

Yeah, the KGRB aux site *is* the old KNGT main site. KVGC & it's translator were installed by me for the owner, Jim Guidi, who was with the old KNGT owners going way back. Both the AM and the FM sites have backup generators.

OK. That makes a ton of sense as I was in Jackson proper and noticed it was overpowering KPFA during the outage. That sounds like the old KNGT primary site, so unless there at the top of that old KOVR-TV tower on the Butte, I doubt good Sacramento suburban coverage (like on Zion).

Oddly enough, KVGC-AM and their FM translator on Zion were completely unaffected. I'm not sure if they have a small solar setup to keep the xlator going or if they're at a different site (like the fire tower) that allows them backup power.

Anyway, KGRB went back to the Zion site about an hour after power was restored.

None of the other stations in the lower Gold Country that I could hear were off the air, save for KQBM-LP (the full power 90.7 in San Andreas remained on-air).

I have heard this most recent shutoff *should* be the last one for this season. Let's hope so!

 

[crainbebo]

Bumping up because here we go again....
https://www.sfchronicle.com/busines...California-rolling-blackouts-are-15489717.php

A lot of these will be in Northern California, I know it's paywalled. Wonder how many FMs and AMs will go off this time around?