So since I was home this weekend and not on central coast,I was able to listen to the OTA broadcast of the FS/Oregon game. I was driving from Kingsburg to Home Depot in Selma listening to 1130,sound was great nice, deep and robust,decided to turn to 1340 and complete opposite,now I’m not talking signal strength as both came in good,the 1340 broadcast sounded like I was watching a PSA or old news reel from the 40’s,the only thing missing was John Cameron Swayze doing the PXP. I decided to drive further and ended up at the McDonald’s drive thru @ Jensen/99 and no charge in quality of sound.Any ideas ? Also as I had posted earlier,lot of holes in the iHeart valley network,did they completely forget about SLO and Monterey/Salinas? Lots of fans and alumni live on central coast and fans who drove over for the day that were SOL in SLO.
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KCBL 1340 vs KRDU 1130
- Thread starter VOL559
- Start date
I listened on 1340 and didn't think the sound was bad at all. I didn't think to try KRDU. And, about the iHeart FSU football station lineup- I'm still scratching' my head. KRDU? LOL. Kinda puts the FSU Bulldog's Football broadcast presence on the level of Reedley College, Reedley Pirates, Selma Bears and Dinuba Emperors. Gotta wonder about the "sports media heads" at FSU. And kinda have to wonder why it'a now iHeart that contracts FSU sports p-b-p?
The format they have now has little overhead to produce and makes decent enough money
Going from 5kw to 10kw day wont make a big difference. 50KW wpuld be expensive to study, file for, build out/impliment.. and sports is way way more complicated to program... all kinds of feeds, things can go wrong, etc......... KRDU is doing what its doing because those who work there have decided this is probably the best money maker for the signal
Actually KRDUs night signal pattern is very directional, it points West towards Hanford-Lemoore, and doesn't go near as far North or South as their daytime signal which go as far South as Kern County and Madera to the North, the nighttime pattern only goes from Visalia to Part of Fresno, the problem with Bulldogs Football on KRDU is that 90 percent of the games will be at night. I still think iHeart should put the games on one of their FMs.
sports on a music fm will often driveaway listeners, in droves
Daytime: 5kw 2 towers directing west
Nightime: 6.5kw 4 towers same directional as day but tighter pattern with 2 extra towers reducing the signal to the North and South and slightly enhanced to the (less populated) West.
I would ask: Could KRDU simply forgo the night 6.5kw 4 towers- and stay with the day 5kw 2 tower facility unlimited time? The higher power nighttime pattern actually serves less population than the lower power day pattern.
I suppose KSDO and CKWX are limiting factors. Maybe 4kw at night w/ the 2 towers? Might be better than than losing Fresno with the 4 towers array as they do now.
Nightime: 6.5kw 4 towers same directional as day but tighter pattern with 2 extra towers reducing the signal to the North and South and slightly enhanced to the (less populated) West.
I would ask: Could KRDU simply forgo the night 6.5kw 4 towers- and stay with the day 5kw 2 tower facility unlimited time? The higher power nighttime pattern actually serves less population than the lower power day pattern.
I suppose KSDO and CKWX are limiting factors. Maybe 4kw at night w/ the 2 towers? Might be better than than losing Fresno with the 4 towers array as they do now.
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I was more thinking of Power Talk KALZ 96.7.
Monday night 10PM. I am in Clovis and tuned to 1130. I'm hearing a real mess of a pile up of signals. An "all-news" in English and a Spanish Christian music station are alternating on which one will briefly rise to the top. Rarely I hear what "might be" KRDU waay under. But that is doubtful. This is much worse than I had thought I remembered. I'm even wondering if maybe KRDU might be off the air tonight. It's safe to say that KRDU has NO SIGNAL in Clovis at night.
Back years ago when they were 1kw with a 3 tower system that was 5-10 miles closer to Fresno I'm pretty sure they were semi local to Fresno at night.
Back years ago when they were 1kw with a 3 tower system that was 5-10 miles closer to Fresno I'm pretty sure they were semi local to Fresno at night.
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YES! This makes a whole lot more sense than the KRDU/KCBL setup.
I see another problem for KCBL, they have a contract with the LA Dodgers and they may go to post season as a wild card or division winner, I wonder what they will do if they play the same time as the Bulldogs, no delay in radio, yes should be on 96.7, and stay on KRDU or move to 1400.
Im in Clovis also not far from you. This week I am surprised that KRDU is on top of 1130 whereas last week it was such a no show that I suspected it may be off the air. I'm not saying it was a good signal, it really isn't. Last week CKWX and KSDO were dominating teeter totter style with no sign of KRDU. Last week 1340, only, what, 10-12 miles away was solid, this week there is a bit of graveyard hash background trying to creep in.
KRDU's audio is trailing 1340 by a good 30 seconds. Audio on both is sure not comparable to what Learfield FSU games used to be. Weird atmospheric effects on the 1340 signal, unless it is just weird weak audio. At 10 or 12 miles I would not expect atmospherics affects.
1340 had that howling noise, and KRDU very weak with static, Fresno state should have stayed with John O stations even 790 would have been better, a 1000 watts station KCBL weak, no wonder KYNO in the late 60s took over the top 40 format, 1340 the weakest of Fresno Radio, even 900 and 980 sounds better.
Dave Hofer's priority at the time was covering the core audience and not adding coverage to all of Fresno. We'd looked at a 10kw option and the added power wasn't worth the cost. Dave was worried about Bott coming into Visalia (and of course they did reach south on FM). We'd never considered KIRV or KBIF competition. I'd thought the move to be very short-sighted. Now, decades later, what might have served its purpose for the day now clearly puts a cap on the value of KRDU.
I grew up about 3 miles N/E of the 3 Orange Cove KRDU towers. The 3 towers were perfectly aligned in respect to our 2nd floor windows. each of the 3 towers had a blinking red light on top. Lights halfway up were steady on. Those top lights seemed to blink at radom. never did all three blink off at the same time. From our upstairs, those lights were aligned so perfectly in line that the top appeared to be one steady light that never blinked off. There was no indication that there were three towers- it looked like only one. LOL. useless info lol
There is really no reason NOT to at least put the football games on Powertalk, just doesn't make any sense! Only thing I can figure is that boosting listening of KCBL/KRDU is important to them because of declining value of AM stations? Does Iheart even own any stations on the Central Coast? I'm going to miss listening to games while I'm camping.
Oh well, we're just going to have to get used to it. My smart phone is the best transistor radio I have!
Oh well, we're just going to have to get used to it. My smart phone is the best transistor radio I have!
And that's a shame. There are a ton of good quality portable radios to be had out there. Many of them with Bluetooth to use with your phone when you just can't find something you want to hear over the air.
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