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KIKK on at Night

kenglish said:
What's the point of running 50 KW, except to gain the extra audience? The little guys, like regionals, get clobbered even more...they need all the listeners they can get.
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Stations run 50 kw today to overcome the high and getting higher man-made noise on AM.

The European authorities now believe that 15 mV/m is the minimum field strength needed to overcome most interference today.

On many 50 kw stations, that contour does not even cover the full metro area.
 
That's sort of what was in the back of my mind as I posted the comment. If 50 KW has become almost a defacto minimum for covering a decent sized city, is there any hope at all for smaller stations (regionals and locals)? God forbid trying to reach an audience on nighttime flea power.
"Cheating" may do more harm than good, since it also increases the noise floor.
We broadcasters could do a lot more to inform the public about RFI issues. And, the government agencies could help by banning the import and sale of non-compliant things like switch-mode power supplies...they usually die in a few years, so if we stop importing the bad ones now, we might help the problem before radio and TV dies.
 
When I used to get most of the requests for reception help (mostly TV related) I helped lots of people. Some were direct, via phone and e-mail, many via local forums and AVSForums.
Now, the requests just go out to the engineering department in general.

I've often wished the local papers still had a TV and radio columnist, who could spread the info that way. Stations are not likely to produce and air something "technical" on their own, but might link something from the NAB/FCC/ARRL on YouTube or someplace.
I have about given up answering posts on ksl.com, since they are run by the internet folks, so most info concerning OTA reception doesn't get "printed".
Maybe, when some RFI wipes out cell phones across a wide area, the broadcast media will pick up on the story.

Edit: I forgot to mention...After the 2009 Analog Shut-off, we ran the "Night Light" presentation for a couple of weeks, on the analog channel. Many, many people thanked us, and said they would have liked to have seen it prior to the ASO.
 
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SomeRadioGuy said:
KMRI 1550 is forgetting to power down... KDYL is slightly off frequency and sounds like a low rumbling turd at night in southeast Wyoming clashing with others on the frequency.
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So THAT'S the low rumbling het on 1060 that I hear in the null of CKMX. I've heard them before, but the het has been going on for months. Absolutely unacceptable.
Also seems to be easier to get 1550 KMRI at night as well. In neighboring Idaho, 730 KDBI has been on day power for months. Knock knock - anyone home at La Gran D?

OK, back to the original topic...
 
The last one minute or two of a daytime-only station's broadcast day should be reserved to explain when the next broadcast day will begin - but more importantly, to guide listeners to other company assets that will continue into the night, but KIKK just disappears. Tell folks to tune to FM 95.7 HD-3 for continuing 24 hour CBS Radio Sports or tune to AM 610 for local and national sports coverage. KIKK and many other lazy daytime-only operations miss that brief closing opportunity to advertise alternative in-house services.
 
KOMW-680 Omak WA does that. They have a traditional sign off announcement, national anthem and off they go. They have to sign off to protect KNBR San Francisco. KOMW is adult standards albeit they break off for a few hours on weekdays for Dennis Prager's show.
 
ThatVoice22 said:
The last one minute or two of a daytime-only station's broadcast day should be reserved to explain when the next broadcast day will begin - but more importantly, to guide listeners to other company assets that will continue into the night, but KIKK just disappears. Tell folks to tune to FM 95.7 HD-3 for continuing 24 hour CBS Radio Sports or tune to AM 610 for local and national sports coverage. KIKK and many other lazy daytime-only operations miss that brief closing opportunity to advertise alternative in-house services.
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My favorite was a daytimer that used the Looney Tunes line "That's all, folks" and said that the station had to leave the air until the next morning to comply with government regulations and that they'd be back bright and early the next day, giving the exact sign on time.

All together, it took less than 30 seconds. They did not play the national anthem, they just cut the carrier. Of course, that was back in the early 60's when that cartoon series was highly popular and recognized, so the impact of the little recording was very high, quite cute and very memorable.
 
ThatVoice22 said:
The last one minute or two of a daytime-only station's broadcast day should be reserved to explain when the next broadcast day will begin - but more importantly, to guide listeners to other company assets that will continue into the night, but KIKK just disappears. Tell folks to tune to FM 95.7 HD-3 for continuing 24 hour CBS Radio Sports or tune to AM 610 for local and national sports coverage. KIKK and many other lazy daytime-only operations miss that brief closing opportunity to advertise alternative in-house services.
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SportsRadio 650 frequently promotes the FM HD-3, so regular listeners should be aware of it. The AM used to run a signoff directing listeners to the HD-3 or online stream, but I haven't heard them using that in recent times.
 
Someone probably knows why KIKK is stuck at 0.25 KW when its nearest daytime signal is WSM, the 50 KW clear channel in Nashville. Other co-channels are farther away in Minnesota, Wyoming, Utah, California, Massachusetts, and Hawaii -- Most of those are in the 10 to 25 KW range. Seemingly, KIKK could easily be 5 to 10 KW to adequately cover the huge Houston market when there's no nearby competition. Adjacent channels are AM 660 KSKY Dallas -- and on AM 640, KWPN Oklahoma and KTIB New Orleans.
 
I haven't done any research but I'll bet that the reason for their limited power is stations on adjacent channels, 640kHz and 660kHz.
 
Schroedingers Cat said:
Houston is within the 0.5 mV/m 50% Skywave of WSM, a Class I-A/A station. KIKK cannot stay on at Night, even with 1 watt.
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My comment was about KIKK's "daytime" operation at a light bulb intensity of 250 watts, with the nearest co-channel signal in Nashville and the nearest adjacent channel signals in Dallas, OKC, and New Orleans. A boost to 1 or 2 KW wouldn't interfere with anything except a few dust bunnies blowing thru Conroe.
 
stan said:
Except nobody in Houston gives a damn about WSM.
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That does not matter. The rules are based on physics, not politics or listenership.

At some point, all the rules of night protection might be changed but for now they stand.

And, in any case the protected area is not just Houston... it takes into account that even a small signal might might interfere well within the WSM coverage area.
 
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WSM as a Class I-A/A is protected to the 0.1 mV/m ground wave contour from the 0.005 mV/m ground wave contour of KIKK. This may be the limit on KIKK. There also could be a CH issue. Perhaps they could be more power with a DA, but it would probably limit reception in the Houston area, and send power into the Gulf of Mexico. I don't know if Rich has software that would show KIKK's 0.005 mV/m and WSM's 0.1 mV/m. Don't feel bad if you didn't know about these details. Even software manufacturers and programmers with genius level IQs didn't know this when they wrote early versions that wouldn't calculate the 0.005 mV/m contour. And the Ivy League EEs who wrote the Radio Locator Software didn't realize at first that geographical azimuths go clockwise, and are not like the mathematical trigonometric coordinates that go counterclockwise.

BTW, many of us could easily afford to buy an FI meter. But most people that know much about AM intricacies are above their Social Security full retirement age, and have to make their retirement funds last.

If the ground conductivity was 8 mS/m, the 0.005 mV/m of KIKK would go out about 250 miles.
 
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Mediafrog+ said:
Looks like listeners in Nashville feel the same way, as WSM doesn't even show up in the ratings (perhaps not subscribed?)
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It's not subscribed. Stations that are not subscribed will not be shown in the public 6+ or 12+ data released by Nielsen.
 
Schroedingers Cat said:
BTW, many of us could easily afford to buy an FI meter. But most people that know much about AM intricacies are above their Social Security full retirement age, and have to make their retirement funds last.
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I bought a Delta operating impedance bridge back around 1969, and within a couple of weeks had paid for it by measuring impedance of other broadcaster's towers. I'd take the bridge myself, measure, let the station engineer adjust the tuning unit, measure again. I did not usually touch other peoples towers as I owned a dozen stations myself at the time and did not want to be "blamed" for doing something for a competitor.

In the long run, it made me lots of friends who found that having the owner of another group take time to help a competitor to be a professional courtesy and kindness.

I had the only operating impedance bridge in the country at the time. It's starting to look like that might soon be the case in the US soon.
 
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