I am picking up a very weak signal here in the San Leandro hills that I heard ID as KLIV. The tunes that I heard playing were Petula Clark's "Downtown", Roy Orbison's "Pretty Woman" and now Steve Miller Band's "Fly Like an Eagle". Not bad for a 500 Watt signal from a residential area.
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KLIV going dark
- Thread starter michael hagerty
- Start date
In the mid 70's, I had a delivery job in Marin County, and the buttons on my AM only radio were set to KFRC, KNEW (then Oldies), KYA, and KLIV. "Rock 16" as it was called in those days, came in clearly north of the Bay Bridge - at least during the day time - but that was on an old-time (better than today) AM car radio, and from what I've been told, there was much less interference on the AM band in those days.
As jocks, I seem to remember a guy named Bob Ray, and Sean O'Callahan, who later did annoying radio ads for Western Appliance.
lol This is only temporary.. the music is there to modulate the signal and keep the license alive. The buyers are a vietnamese company, 1590 will be going vietnamese
You mean an American company owned by Vietnamese-Americans.
Thats what i meant to imply.. likely KLIV will have some kind of vietnamese programming on the air
KLIV has gone dark again
Since the last post, here are some of the latest developments in the KLIV saga as shown in the FCC's application list.
Also, here are some more insights about how KLIV got here and what could be next.
Yet San Jose already has five radio stations with Vietnamese programming (KVVN, 1120 KZSJ, 1290 KAZA, 1500 KSJX, and on a part time basis 96.1 KSQQ). Considering that, it's likely that Pham will move its Vietnamese programming from the 1 kW KVVN to KLIV (which is applying for a 6.2 kW day/5 kW night construction permit) so that KVVN could bring KVTO's Cantonese programming to places south of CA-237 that can't really pick up KVTO.
Since the last post, here are some of the latest developments in the KLIV saga as shown in the FCC's application list.
- April 24: FCC approves assignment of license from Empire Broadcasting to Pham Radio Communications.
- May 24: Bob Kieve, owner of KLIV since 1967, passes away at age 98.
- July 28: FCC grants Special Temporary Authority for KLIV to remain silent. The STA expires at 12:01 a.m. on July 16, 2021, after which KLIV's license will automatically expire if KLIV doesn't sign on again before this time. As happened in January 2019, KLIV signed off for financial reasons (more below).
Also, here are some more insights about how KLIV got here and what could be next.
- The peak of KLIV's success was in the 1960s as a top-40 station. In the 1970s, KLIV changed its playlist to whatever was the flavor of the era, flipping to rock (1970-72), middle-of-the-road (1972-79), disco (Mar-Oct 79), and rock again.
- But come 1980, listeners of contemporary popular music had largely switched to FM, so in May 1981, KLIV changed to pop standards, targeting an older audience who was used to listening to music on the AM dial.
- When the decade flipped from the 80s to 90s, music on AM had become even more antiquated, so KLIV switched to an all-news format in 1991 that sought to contrast with San Francisco's KCBS by focusing its local news/traffic/weather in the part of the Bay Area south of the Dumbarton Bridge (CA-84).
- For nearly 15 years, KLIV got its national news content from the audio of the old CNN Headline News (now HLN) cable channel. But when CNN Headline News transformed from a generic "just the news every hour" channel into a general infotainment channel, KLIV limited the CNN-HLN simulcast to overnights and weekends beginning in early '07. I think by this point, KLIV's operating expenses became more expensive, to pay for more original news reporting to make up for the loss of the CNN-HLN audio feed, in addition to weekend syndicated shows. And of course, the Great Recession was barely a year away; I'm sure that old timers here have seen the effects that it had on radio ad revenue.
- In early 2016, Kieve revealed that KLIV had never made a profit as a news station. Kieve's FM country music station KRTY "had been carrying KLIV financially for years." So by the summer, KLIV changed to a cheaper "classic country" format. But not even changing to music was enough to keep KLIV from finally going under in January 2019, to the point that Kieve had to sell the office and transmitter. This year with COVID-19 hitting radio ad revenue hard, not even KLIV's current "automated music with a few hundred watts" operation was affordable (keep in mind that KLIV hasn't actually been sold yet, so KRTY probably isn't making enough money at this time to support the "zombie" KLIV.)
Yet San Jose already has five radio stations with Vietnamese programming (KVVN, 1120 KZSJ, 1290 KAZA, 1500 KSJX, and on a part time basis 96.1 KSQQ). Considering that, it's likely that Pham will move its Vietnamese programming from the 1 kW KVVN to KLIV (which is applying for a 6.2 kW day/5 kW night construction permit) so that KVVN could bring KVTO's Cantonese programming to places south of CA-237 that can't really pick up KVTO.
The automated music was an ipod connected to an armstrong x1000b transmitter loaded into a shorter tower in the engineers home backyard .. it was meant to just keep the license alive, nothing more nothing less
Yes the FCC has approved the sale of KLIV but the sale has yet to be consummated by both parties. KLIV is also waiting for the FCC to approve a site change that was filed on 5/13/2020.
Aah, I see. But wouldn't Empire Broadcasting still need to pay music royalties/licensing fees?
I have no idea the legalities behind that in a situation like that
Yes, but with no revenues the fees are very low.
New construction permit from September
I only learned about it today. KLIV's new construction permit has a 6.2 kW nondirectional daytime signal and 5 kW directional nighttime signal. Link: http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/getimportletter_exh.cgi?import_letter_id=95931
I only learned about it today. KLIV's new construction permit has a 6.2 kW nondirectional daytime signal and 5 kW directional nighttime signal. Link: http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/getimportletter_exh.cgi?import_letter_id=95931
Diplexing with co-owned KVVN, Santa Clara. Smart move... coverage similar to what KLIV had, and daytime much better than KVVN's.
On December 29, Pham Radio filed a request to extend STA - that is, allowing KLIV to remain silent for another six months beyond July 2021 - due to "need[ing] additional time to complete construction of the facilities authorized in the construction permit."
In the early 60's I had a motor newspaper delivery route in Marin. San Anselmo and Fairfax. KYA came in great during the day but was difficult to receive overnight. We used to say "KYA by day and KEWB by night".
In 1976, when I arrived in Ukiah, 122 miles north of the KYA tower, it was a listenable signal daytime. KSFO, KFRC, KNBR, KCBS and KGO were clearly stronger, but it wasn't bad. I think you could listen in Monterey, then, too. They fell off the dial at night.
On March 3, the FCC officially extended KLIV's STA to remain silent through July 16.
That's surprising about KYA being listenable in Ukiah. Because when I lived in Marin in the 1970s, it was very weak in towns like Mill Valley and Larkspur-- but fine close to the Bay. My theory was that the Golden Gate Bridge (tons of metal) and the Marin Headlands (tons of rock) plus several mountains were all in a direct line between Mill Valley and the KYA tower-- which really hurt the signal in that specific direction.
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