I noticed that there is a CP for a new full service station in a very rural area of Brooks county north of the RGV in Encino Tx with call sign of KTPM. The owner of the CP is Texas Public Radio which owns NPR member station KSTX in San Antonio which also has some rebroadcasts in the Hill Country. I am curious why they would be building a new station that only covers a very small area of very rural Brooks county with a small 0.3 KW? Could this be an attempt to return NPR to the RGV via translators?
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Possible return of NPR to the Rio Grande Valley?
- Thread starter radiodog2
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You have to start somewhere. As has been discussed, the RGV is the largest market without NPR service. The local group, Grassroots Public Radio, tried to make a deal with a station in Mexico a couple years ago:
Copyright rules stopping NPR from being broadcast in RGV via Mexican station
MCALLEN, Texas – Copyright laws are stopping the Rio Grande Valley from accessing National Public Radio programming via a Mexican radio station. The nonprofit Grassroots Public Radio-RGV recently met with radio executives from Radiorama in Reynosa. A tentative deal was struck that would have...
riograndeguardian.com
So perhaps this is the start of something.
That sounds great but isn't KEDT closer? Could've KEDT done it instead? I mean, they've had an online RGV-focused feed for quite some time now.
They could have but didn't. KUSC in LA owns a classical station outside of San Franscisco. Is KQED closer? Yes.
It would be interesting to see how an NPR affiliate does there. The market is around 93% Hispanic, and a lot of the NPR programming is pretty "East Coast White Guy" based.
As one Hispanic person told me in a research project: "I sometimes listen to them for the news coverage, but what the heck does Lake Wobegon have to do with my culture and background?"
In El Paso, very similar to the LRGV, the NPR affiliate is the lowest rated FM in the market. It is 14th overall, but much lower in 25-54 of course, and it is almost entirely non-Hispanic in a market that is about 85% Hispanic.
The good news is Prairie Home Companion is gone. So not an issue any more.
Running this as a satellite of KSTX will keep the costs low. It makes the programming available for those who want it.
Texas Public Radio
That was an example. Much of the programming is not even relative to me.
But that signal comes nowhere near McAllen, Brownsville, Weslaco, Harlingen and the rest of the metro. That market is just under 1.5 million, and that signal will cover just a few thousand.
As you can see in the map in post #8, Texas Public Radio owns 3 other stations in the area that sort of ring the metro, although primarily on the west side. It appears that they're picking up CPs as they become available. Better them than another religious operator.
Agreed... but the areas that are more distant from the river valley are very lightly populated.
Is it possible that TPR could use translators to rebroadcast those distant signals to the more populated areas of the RGV? I believe that the RGV itself does not have many spaces for a new full service FM due to it’s proximity to Mexico.
And, although I don't know the rules specifically, the areas near the border with Mexico are very restricted for translators.
The McAllen - Brownsville market has 12 translators, only 4 over 250 feet HAAT and many at well under 250 watts. The Houston metro has 36, and Dallas-Ft Worth, Austin and San Antonio all have 24 to 26 in the MSA.
Another comparison: border market El Paso has just 10 translators, while smaller Amarillo has over 20.
So, my question for the experts is whether there seem to be any translator opportunities available in the market (Cameron and Hidalgo counties) or is the band "full" under the joint agreements in force with Mexico?
KRNF has some potential, since Starr County is considered a part of the Rio Grande Valley metro at last check, and it rimshots into Roma (pop. 11,000+). The signal may not be great, but the truth is every English-language signal going into Roma is terrible (94.5, 96.9, 107.9 -- heck, might as well add the music on 106.9 Monterrey to the list) and this one can't be worse than the others.
Wasn't the 95.3 South Padre Island license in the process of being deleted? Once that goes back to auction, there's Texas Public Radio's way to reach some people in the RGV.
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