KSRW Alt 92.5

[crainbebo]

...in Bishop and Mammoth Lakes, seems like they have quietly flipped to Classic Rock, and *extremely* broad-based just like the old Adult Contemporary format they had several years ago. Just played a live version of 'Death on Two Legs' by Queen, an album cut by Styx 'Jonas Psalter,' and 'What's the Frequency, Kenneth?' by REM is currently playing. This must be the new approach that Sierra Wave Media is taking, especially after the death of well-loved Bob Todd about a year ago.
Classic rock fans, rejoice in those 'oh wow' songs!

92.5 KSRW - Eastern Sierra Classic Rock

 

[michael hagerty]

...in Bishop and Mammoth Lakes, seems like they have quietly flipped to Classic Rock, and *extremely* broad-based just like the old Adult Contemporary format they had several years ago. Just played a live version of 'Death on Two Legs' by Queen, an album cut by Styx 'Jonas Psalter,' and 'What's the Frequency, Kenneth?' by REM is currently playing. This must be the new approach that Sierra Wave Media is taking, especially after the death of well-loved Bob Todd about a year ago.
Classic rock fans, rejoice in those 'oh wow' songs!

92.5 KSRW - Eastern Sierra Classic Rock

That puts them head to head against KRHV, Big Pine (studios in Mammoth, but they’re both on translators that cover 150 miles from Lone Pine to Bridgeport).

Might be the first time the market has seen a “format war” since 1975 when, for a few months, KNYO (600 AM, Independence, now dark), KIOQ (100.7 FM, Bishop, now KIBS) and KIBS (1230 AM, now KBOV) were all Adult Contmporary. KIBS went all-country that summer.

 

[michael hagerty]

Listening now---"ME 262" by Blue Oyster Cult on KSRW cold out of the 5:00 p.m. news, segued into John Lennon on an acoustic guitar doing a demo of "Strawberry Fields Forever" and then cold into CCR's "Tombstone Shadow" which ended abruptly and a conversation about rock-climbing, already in progress, interrupted.

Meantime KRHV's playing "Come On Eileen" by Save Ferris followed a live jock (Iggy Stardust) saying hi, backannouncing and forward promoting and asking for donations to keep streaming going. After that, Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" and then Chaka Khan's "Like Sugar".

Both these stations are seriously eclectic, neither fits the textbook definition of "Classic Rock" and I'm not even sure they really compete with each other. KSRW is more rock and KRHV more pop---but neither of them is banging out the big hits of the classic rock format.

And it looks like KMMT, which last I checked was doing CHR, is now a contemporary eclectic---"with roots planted in indie rock and pop". Wonder if they chased KSRW out of the Alt arena?

 

[crainbebo]

Maybe, with 92.5 targeting Mammoth as much as they are the Owens Valley. When I used to listen in their Adult Contemporary/NAC days, I would sometimes hear more ads for Mammoth Lakes businesses than for Bishop/Lone Pine/Independence, but it was usually about a 50/50 split. It's almost as if the randomness of album cuts and strange artists that they were noted for has returned, albeit rock-slanted.
Wonder which station is listened to the most in that region? I doubt KBOV, with their graveyard AM signal and *no* FM translator, is #1. And I doubt KIBS is on top anymore, since Inyo County is now purple politically and Mono is strongly Democratic.
Soon enough, I'll have those old airchecks sent up to Internet Archive...hopefully I can muffle out the Total Recorder static bursts. I had the free version back then.

 

[michael hagerty]

Maybe, with 92.5 targeting Mammoth as much as they are the Owens Valley. When I used to listen in their Adult Contemporary/NAC days, I would sometimes hear more ads for Mammoth Lakes businesses than for Bishop/Lone Pine/Independence, but it was usually about a 50/50 split. It's almost as if the randomness of album cuts and strange artists that they were noted for has returned, albeit rock-slanted.
Wonder which station is listened to the most in that region? I doubt KBOV, with their graveyard AM signal and *no* FM translator, is #1. And I doubt KIBS is on top anymore, since Inyo County is now purple politically and Mono is strongly Democratic.

We'll never know about listenership. Nobody's ever gonna do a rating survey there. KBOV hasn't been number one in decades. At least since the middle 80s when John Young bought 100.7 and made it KIBS.

No, the real game is advertising. I'd bet it's KIBS/KBOV as a combo, then KMMT/KRHV, then KSRW.

I wouldn't oversell Inyo's purple status---the Newsom recall won there with 54% of the vote. Even if Country listenership could be estimated based on political affiliation (it can't), that's enough of a base for a Country station.

In Mono County, the recall results were flipped--55.4% no, 44.4% yes---but in a supposedly "blue" county, that's a significant minority.
.
Get right down to it, KIBS is the only mainstream format in the area. CHR was tried and abandoned by KMMT. If I were going back in, I'd be thinking about a Classic Rock like the Eagle in Sacramento or an older-skewing AAA. Looks to me like too many stations trying to chase too few 25-34 year-olds. And I'm amazed they're still playing music on the AM. How has that escaped being conservative talk?

 

[crainbebo]

Satellite radio usage for news/talk? The only 'news' available is NPR via a translator of KUNR Reno, and whatever TOH newscasts the FMs use...KSRW was using NBC, then Westwood One before they ceased their service; I think KIBS (or KBOV) has TOH news from ABC. Radio-Locator shows a fringe signal of KMJ 580 making it into Bishop, but take R-L with a grain of salt and know that there are 14,000-foot peaks in between Bishop and the Central Valley.
Talk radio was never tried on the old 600 AM in Independence I assume. Are there any other locales like this that have nearly 30,000 people in two counties with no nearby news/talk station?

No matter what, I'm glad the eastern Sierra hasn't gone fully to the satellites like many small-town areas. It could be worse - nothing local. That's what I expected to find when I pulled up KSRW's stream for the first time several years ago. The advertising keeps it going, but to what extent they will recover post-pandemic, we'll see.

 

[CTListener]

Satellite radio usage for news/talk?

Is there any market in which satellite radio users constitute more than 5 to 10 percent of total listeners? After all, there are more than 300 million Americans, only 30+ million SiriusXM subscribers.

 

[michael hagerty]

Satellite radio usage for news/talk? The only 'news' available is NPR via a translator of KUNR Reno, and whatever TOH newscasts the FMs use...KSRW was using NBC, then Westwood One before they ceased their service; I think KIBS (or KBOV) has TOH news from ABC. Radio-Locator shows a fringe signal of KMJ 580 making it into Bishop, but take R-L with a grain of salt and know that there are 14,000-foot peaks in between Bishop and the Central Valley.
Talk radio was never tried on the old 600 AM in Independence I assume. Are there any other locales like this that have nearly 30,000 people in two counties with no nearby news/talk station?

No matter what, I'm glad the eastern Sierra hasn't gone fully to the satellites like many small-town areas. It could be worse - nothing local. That's what I expected to find when I pulled up KSRW's stream for the first time several years ago. The advertising keeps it going, but to what extent they will recover post-pandemic, we'll see.

Well, KIBS does local news. If they were to do a satellite N/T on KBOV, they could do network at the top and repurpose (or simulcast) a local newscast to follow in certain hours (there's just not enough happening on that side of the Sierra to justify hourly local news).

I vaguely recall Rush being cleared on KBOV in the early-mid 90s. There's been an ownership change since that. Maybe that's when the decision was made to stick with music on the AM.

Nobody's listening to KMJ in Bishop. Even before the noise floor got bad, daytime AM signals in the market were unlistenable through the static.

600 AM in Independence was an automated A/C, but it was owned by the late Bennett Kessler (who founded KSRW and the whole Sierra Wave radio-TV-online thing), so it had significant local news and I believe a TOH network. I don't know exactly how long it was on the air before it went dark, but I want to say it was gone before there was much satellite talk out there besides maybe Larry King in overnights on Mutual.

I'm not advocating KBOV go talk---the world doesn't need one more AM pumping out the same stuff---I just wonder how many people, even in Bishop, will listen to music on AM.

For those who haven't read my stuff before about this market, my family was there from 1920 to 1995, I lived there from 1965 to 1974 and for about six months from late 1975 to early 1976, started at what's now KBOV in 1971 as a jock, became music director and program director, and helped put what's now KIBS on the air from the original owner's garage in the fall of 1974. I did mornings and was PD there.

I imagine satellite is absolutely a factor. People in that area always bristled at the lack of choice. When it got around that you could get L.A. FM stations by putting your radio next to your TV if you had cable, you'd have thought water had just been invented. When KKDJ, Los Angeles (now KIIS-FM) went up on a not-sure-if-it-was-legal 10 watt translator in the early 70s, every kid at Bishop High figured out a way to put FM in their cars and altered their cruising routes to stay within the signal. Car dealers (there were a bunch in those days) ordered their inventory with FM or tape decks.

I haven't been to Bishop much in a long time. Eight years since my last visit, three since I last drove through, but I gotta think that the take rate for SiriusXM is probably really strong.

 

[Big D]

I’m surprised LA stations could be received by Bishop cable tv. My father lived in Mammoth back in the 70’s when cable came to town. He remembers watching Sacramento stations, presumably the cable provider’s receive antennas were on either Mammoth Mountain or Lincoln Peak. I think the path to Walnut Grove is only 120 miles or so.

Last time I stayed at a condo in town I noticed the home stereo was connected to the CATV coax. Was able to listen to Sacramento and Reno stations, quite clearly.

 

[crainbebo]

Long lines and microwave lines came to the Owens Valley in the *1950s*. And so did translators, relaying Los Angeles TV stations, some 250 miles SW of Bishop. There was one UHF translator above channel 70 (according to the TV Factbook on WorldRadioHistory) that did relay KOLO-8 in Reno, and another that relayed KLVX-10 in Las Vegas.
Two translators in Mammoth Lakes relayed KGO (ch 9) and KSBY (ch 11) probably through methods of knife-edge over the Sierras.
All translators in Independence and Lone Pine brought in L.A. TV.

 

[michael hagerty]

Long lines and microwave lines came to the Owens Valley in the *1950s*. And so did translators, relaying Los Angeles TV stations, some 250 miles SW of Bishop. There was one UHF translator above channel 70 (according to the TV Factbook on WorldRadioHistory) that did relay KOLO-8 in Reno, and another that relayed KLVX-10 in Las Vegas.
Two translators in Mammoth Lakes relayed KGO (ch 9) and KSBY (ch 11) probably through methods of knife-edge over the Sierras.
All translators in Independence and Lone Pine brought in L.A. TV.

The long lines project actually began immediately after World War II, in late 1945. My dad was part of the crew that ran the first cable up the Owens Valley. That's how he met my mom in 1946.

In the early days, that cable carried all the signals on Mt. Wilson. There were four translator relays in Bishop, which brought channels 2, 4 and 7 from Los Angeles and 8 from Reno, were how most people watched until the 60s, when color made the weak, snowy signals intolerable for a lot of people.

My grandmother (who had color) got cable, we (who had black and white) stayed with the translator and would watch "special" shows at grandma's house. Even then, the cable (exorbitant at something like $6.00 a month---$53.55 in today's money), had way more static and snow than you'd ever tolerate today.

I'm surprised to hear about Channel 10 in Vegas, though that might make sense for Lone Pine.

 

[crainbebo]

Here's a list of TV translators that I have from the TV Factbook, circa early 1990s:

Bishop
K70AA (KCBS-2)
K76BH (KOLO-8)
K79AT (KABC-7) - operated by Mono County TV Service Area #5

Chalfant Valley
K55FD (KSBW-8)
K61EJ (KOLO-8)
K64CY (KXTV-10) - all of these were operated by Mono County TV Service District #2

Independence
K06LB (KCBS-2)
K10MC (KNBC-4)
K12MZ (KABC-7) all operated by Mono County TV

Lone Pine - All but ch 52 were operated by Lone Pine Television Inc. Ch 52 was operated by the Inyo County Superintendent of Schools, probably because KCET wasn't possible up there.
K50AR (KCBS-2)
K52AL (KLVX-10)
K54AZ (KNBC-4)
K56AO (KTLA-5)
K58CH (KABC-7)

Mammoth Lakes
K09JW (KGO-7)
K11KD (KSBY-6)
K12IQ (KVIE-6) - Mammoth Electric ran the first two, the School District ran ch 12. All of those had to be brought in through knife-edge methods over the Sierras. Nowadays, Mammoth runs an entire cable lineup of Reno TV.

Bridgeport and June Lake translators relayed a mix of KOLO-8, and various SF/Sacramento TV stations.

 

[michael hagerty]

Here's a list of TV translators that I have from the TV Factbook, circa early 1990s:

Bishop
K70AA (KCBS-2)
K76BH (KOLO-8)
K79AT (KABC-7) - operated by Mono County TV Service Area #5

Chalfant Valley
K55FD (KSBW-8)
K61EJ (KOLO-8)
K64CY (KXTV-10) - all of these were operated by Mono County TV Service District #2

Independence
K06LB (KCBS-2)
K10MC (KNBC-4)
K12MZ (KABC-7) all operated by Mono County TV

Lone Pine - All but ch 52 were operated by Lone Pine Television Inc. Ch 52 was operated by the Inyo County Superintendent of Schools, probably because KCET wasn't possible up there.
K50AR (KCBS-2)
K52AL (KLVX-10)
K54AZ (KNBC-4)
K56AO (KTLA-5)
K58CH (KABC-7)

Mammoth Lakes
K09JW (KGO-7)
K11KD (KSBY-6)
K12IQ (KVIE-6) - Mammoth Electric ran the first two, the School District ran ch 12. All of those had to be brought in through knife-edge methods over the Sierras. Nowadays, Mammoth runs an entire cable lineup of Reno TV.

Bridgeport and June Lake translators relayed a mix of KOLO-8, and various SF/Sacramento TV stations.

Hmm. I wonder when the KNBC translator for Bishop went away. We finally popped for cable in 1967. By high school (I graduated in '73) I didn't know anyone still using the translators.

And the Chalfant Valley thing is wild---14 miles outside Bishop and because it's in Mono County, you got Sacramento and Monterey-Salinas instead of L.A. Meantime, further north into Mono County in Mammoth, you got San Luis Obispo instead of Monterey-Salinas.

I wasn't aware of any of that when I was growing up there in the 60s and 70s. What I remember is L.A. and KOLO for Bishop, San Francisco and KOLO for Mammoth, June and Bridgeport.

 

[michael hagerty]

Okay, so I went looking in the TV Factbook for 1967, when the translators still had significant use. It jogged some memories.

R.A. Shelton was the guy who owned them in Bishop. I remember Mr. Shelton. We paid him a buck or two a month to rent a set-top UHF converter (a lot of sets in use were still VHS only). He'd come out to the house to hook it up or to fix anything that went wrong. He rented space inside Downey TV, the local Zenith dealer. Mr. Downey was one of the original owners of KIBS. Working with Mr. Shelton was a natural for him, because if people could get TV, especially for a third the cost of cable, they'd buy TV sets.

TV Factbook shows Mr. Shelton with four translators, but five stations, KABC, KNBC, KNXT, KOLO and KSBW. The four is right, the five is wrong. We never saw KSBW in Bishop. In 1967 Chalfant Valley did not have its own translator service and Big Pine's was listed as "under construction" with another owner. Mr. Shelton's translators probably reached most of the way down.

Mammoth had one translator---KGO, San Francisco. June and Bridgeport were without translator service at the time.

Looking at the cable section of the factbook, it turns out Mr. Shelton was partners in Eastern Sierra Cable, as well, along with Don Tatum, who some said was the richest man in town. The book shows 800 subscribers out of a potential 2,500, so in '67, cable was still a luxury. $10 installation fee, $6.50 a month. I'm surprised mom went for it that year.

There are some errors. It shows KSBW on the cable, too. I promise you it never was. I was a geek the first few years we had cable. I'd have been freaking out over seeing Monterey. It lists KNXT, KNBC, KTLA, KABC, KHJ and KSBW. In reality, it was KNXT, KNBC, KTLA, KABC, KOLO, KHJ, KTTV and KCOP.

Big Pine had its own cable system, owned by a guy named Drummond. It shows as only carrying KNXT, KNBC and KABC. Mammoth, June and Bridgeport aren't listed as having cable in '67.

 

[michael hagerty]

By the 1972 TV Factbook, Tatum and Shelton had sold the cable company to Continental. Subscribers were up to 2,100 out of a potential 2,500, so after that, translators really didn't count, which squares with what I remember from the time. They were also still charging $10 installation and $6.50 a month. The channel lineup is now accurate, except it still lists KSBW, and it really, honest-to-God wasn't there---KOLO was.

Independence shows up as having its own cable system since 1959---just KNXT, KNBC and KABC. Same deal in Lone Pine, except theirs had been in business since 1956. Still nothing listed in '72 for Mammoth, June or Bridgeport.

 

[michael hagerty]

Had the chance to go through the 1962-63 TV Factbook---and it doesn't list a cable system for Bishop. Independence is the only one shown, with a start date of 1959 and---one channel. KERO-TV in Bakersfield.

As I think back on it, we moved to Bishop in August of '65 and grandma got her color set a couple of months later---because that year, virtually all the prime time shows were going to color. And she had the cable installed at the same time. So it may have been a new thing.

I had been passing over the 1966 Factbook because there was no image---but the book is there. And for this edition, Eastern Sierra Cable is listed for both Bishop and Big Pine. Very likely the information was collected in mid-late '65. I see why the take rate early on was so low---they were charging $21.95 for installation plus the $6.95 monthly. That's $195.91 installation and $62.03 a month in today's money.

Cable installation fees are all over the map in this book. In Escondido, there was no fee---you just paid the monthly. Independence was charging a $100 installation fee---that's $892.53 in today's money. Five bucks a month after that, just so you could get the three L.A. network affiliates.

The '66 Factbook listing has the channels right for Bishop and Big Pine (KNXT, KNBC, KTLA, KABC, KHJ, KTTV, KCOP). It doesn't mention KOLO, but I'm having a dim memory of people making a fuss that they'd lose KOLO if they went cable---and the cable company adding it to the lineup.

We moved from our first place after two years, so fall of '67---that's when we went with cable instead of translator. By that point, it was KOLO. And it was the summer of '68 that I set my graduation present, an AM/FM portable radio, on top of the TV and found you could get L.A. FMs bleeding from the cable.

 

[michael hagerty]

Math is hard. I graduated Jr. High in 1969, not ‘68, so that’s when the FM/cable discovery happened.

 

[crainbebo]

I notice in the 1982 Broadcasting Yearbook (where cable companies are listed), the Bishop cable didn't change except for a time-temperature channel and HBO. It remained L.A. TV + KOLO Reno as a bonus. No KCET...I guess Bishop missed out on PBS for many years, since I'm sure the Mammoth and Lone Pine PBS translators were too weak to receive in Bishop.
Independence and Lone Pine cable still had 2/4/7 Los Angeles and nothing else. Even for early '80s standards...atrocious, knowing most cable systems at least had channels 2 through 13 filled. There wasn't a way to pipe in KTLA, KTTV, KHJ, etc. via microwave or lines?
There was no cable system listed in Mammoth Lakes.

 

[michael hagerty]

I notice in the 1982 Broadcasting Yearbook (where cable companies are listed), the Bishop cable didn't change except for a time-temperature channel and HBO. It remained L.A. TV + KOLO Reno as a bonus. No KCET...I guess Bishop missed out on PBS for many years, since I'm sure the Mammoth and Lone Pine PBS translators were too weak to receive in Bishop.
Independence and Lone Pine cable still had 2/4/7 Los Angeles and nothing else. Even for early '80s standards...atrocious, knowing most cable systems at least had channels 2 through 13 filled. There wasn't a way to pipe in KTLA, KTTV, KHJ, etc. via microwave or lines?
There was no cable system listed in Mammoth Lakes.

True. We never had PBS. When the Monty Python record albums started showing up as promo copies at KIBS around 1972, I had no idea there was a TV show that went with them. I thought they were the British version of the Firesign Theater---an audio-only conceptual comedy troupe.

Local kids never got to see Sesame Street, either. Not sure when PBS finally got on Bishop cable---or if it did. People started moving to satellite there in pretty substantial numbers in the mid-late 80s.

For years, the time-temperature channel on Bishop cable was a round piece of plywood that had a round thermometer, a round barometer, a round wind gauge and a round rain gauge mounted on it and a camera aimed at it. It would rotate the next item into place, stay in position for 10-15 seconds and then move to the next. There was also a piece of paper in one of the positions that gave the phone number to call for the exact time.

And there was a "community bulletin board" channel---another one of those wheels with hand-printed announcements: "FFA Bake Sale Saturday 10-2 in front of Pinion Books", "BUHS Drama Presents "Oklahoma" March 3-5--Tickets at Door"---stuff like that.

Independence and Lone Pine are and were just too small. X number of subscribers paying ten bucks a month won't pay for a lot of equipment. Keeping it to three channels is probably what it took to make a profit, and not much of one at that. If it hadn't been for Big Pine only being 14 miles from Bishop and able to share the same cable system, they'd have been dealing with a lot less, too.

It occurs to me that I have never spent a night at Mammoth, June or Bridgeport---and so have no idea what was on their TV systems back in the day. We had dinner in June when we drove over to check out the fall colors in late September/early October. The restaurant's bar had TV, but it was satellite.

 

[crainbebo]

If anything, it may have taken until KRMA Denver was put onto satellite around 1988 or so. PBS had feeds on C-Band several years prior, but they were raw feeds just like the networks, feeding shows with color bars in between. KRMA was carried on cable in several small towns in OR, CA, and MT during their satellite days.