KSUR (KIDD) 630 Monterey

[crainbebo]

Apparently turned in the license to the FCC on 4/30, per the IRCA groups.io board - [email protected] | Licenses cancelled

Had been K-SURF, an oldies format, relayed on 106.7 K294CA. Before, it was classical, before that it was adult standards for a long, long time.

Is 106.7 still going out there - anyone confirm?

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

Apparently turned in the license to the FCC on 4/30, per the IRCA groups.io board - [email protected] | Licenses cancelled

Had been K-SURF, an oldies format, relayed on 106.7 K294CA. Before, it was classical, before that it was adult standards for a long, long time.

Is 106.7 still going out there - anyone confirm?

106.7 cant legally keep going,. unless they moved it to an HD sub channel somewhere

 

[lanceventa]

106.7 cant legally keep going,. unless they moved it to an HD sub channel somewhere

K294CA filed a Silent STA when KSUR turned in its license.

 

[pclover]

Apparently turned in the license to the FCC on 4/30, per the IRCA groups.io board - [email protected] | Licenses cancelled

Had been K-SURF, an oldies format, relayed on 106.7 K294CA. Before, it was classical, before that it was adult standards for a long, long time.

Is 106.7 still going out there - anyone confirm?

106.7 is dead just doubled checked. Was quite loud here despite only 250w. Gain from a 4 element FM yagi is probably why.

As a bonus i get 106.7 back for this upcoming Es season. Still annoyed with the noise on 93.3 that doesn't seem be resolving.

 

[HighStandards]

Are things financially that bad with Mt. Wilson? Sad to learn this - any reason given? Even with an FM translator hard to believe they had no listeners/ advertisers.

 

[davideduardo]

Are things financially that bad with Mt. Wilson? Sad to learn this - any reason given? Even with an FM translator hard to believe they had no listeners/ advertisers.

Mt. Wilson is likely in better shape than 95% of US radio stations. Sole owner, no debt, nice billing, good profit.

Monterey-Salinas-Santa Cruz is a geographically large area. The AM did not cover it all as it was directional., and the translator did even less. The AM 10 mV/m covered about 280,000 persons in a market of 730,000. The translator covered just under 60,000 persons.

IIRC, the AM lost or had to rebuild its transmitter site and the cost to rebuild an AM in California with so many regulations and NIMBY neighbors made a rebuild impossible.

And the market is not known as a good radio market, either. It is ranked 97th in population, but below 130th in radio revenue nationally.

 

[boiseengineer]

630 KFXD Boise (ex KIDO) is putt-putting away at night with 38 watts now.
Only leaves 4 signals in the West U.S. now

 

[pclover]

Mt. Wilson is likely in better shape than 95% of US radio stations. Sole owner, no debt, nice billing, good profit.

It does seem like they want to get out of broadcasting. It seems like over the years they've sold their stations. They only have two stations left in Los Angles now.

Monterey-Salinas-Santa Cruz is a geographically large area. The AM did not cover it all as it was directional., and the translator did even less. The AM 10 mV/m covered about 280,000 persons in a market of 730,000. The translator covered just under 60,000 persons.

And the market is not known as a good radio market, either. It is ranked 97th in population, but below 130th in radio revenue nationally.

Probably why it seems like the broadcast stations here are in bad shape. Low revenue so they don't see the need to maintain them.

Speaking of translators form the location K294CA is the FCC coverage maps seem inaccurate to me. It put up a pretty decent signal here despite being 30 miles away. Even K290CJ makes it in here with a decent stereo signal and rds despite being only 8 watts. Perhaps gain from yagi at around 20 feet and a good receiver is helping here.

Perhaps line of sight over the ocean is helping there.

With that said

I guess the only stations people care about here are probably 96.9 KWAV and 102.5 KDON due them both being a grandfathered Class B and having the widest coverage area with good signal. Both air probably the most popular radio formats.

I wonder if they have any ratings or if Nielsen PPM is even used in this market?

 

[davideduardo]

I guess the only stations people care about here are probably 96.9 KWAV and 102.5 KDON due them both being a grandfathered Class B and having the widest coverage area with good signal. Both air probably the most popular radio formats.

The five stations that bill over $1 million a year are KPIG, Radio Lazer (KXZM), Tricolor (KLOK), KDON and KWAV. You get a prize for your analysis. But the two Regional Mexican station bill almost as much.

I wonder if they have any ratings or if Nielsen PPM is even used in this market?

PPM is not in anything but a Top 50 market (a couple are just out of the 50 now... but were "in" in 1989 when the PPM rolled out nationally. Monterrey / Salinas / Santa Cruz is a diary market.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

It does seem like they want to get out of broadcasting. It seems like over the years they've sold their stations. They only have two stations left in Los Angles now.

Certainly possible, but they only had three stations for a brief period, acquiring 630 Monterrey as a distressed property with no antenna site.

 

[HighStandards]

Mt. Wilson is likely in better shape than 95% of US radio stations. Sole owner, no debt, nice billing, good profit.

Monterey-Salinas-Santa Cruz is a geographically large area. The AM did not cover it all as it was directional., and the translator did even less. The AM 10 mV/m covered about 280,000 persons in a market of 730,000. The translator covered just under 60,000 persons.

IIRC, the AM lost or had to rebuild its transmitter site and the cost to rebuild an AM in California with so many regulations and NIMBY neighbors made a rebuild impossible.

And the market is not known as a good radio market, either. It is ranked 97th in population, but below 130th in radio revenue nationally.

Thank you for the response. That makes a lot of sense. It basically was not worth the ROI at this point, which I can’t blame them for.

 

[michael hagerty]

It does seem like they want to get out of broadcasting. It seems like over the years they've sold their stations. They only have two stations left in Los Angles now.

I wouldn't read too much into that. From 1959 until 1984, Saul only owned one station---105.1 FM in L.A.

He put 540 AM Costa Mesa on the air in 1984 and bought 1260 AM in L.A. from Buckley Broadcasting in '93.

When Mexico put a station on 540 in Tijuana in 1991, Saul cut a deal (through a Mexican concessionaire) to provide programming for it and simulcast on the two 540s The FCC granted permission for five years of that, after which the U.S. 540 could either move to 1650 or turn in its license. It moved to the expanded band in 1998.

It was never a success. Saul sold 1650 to a Korean broadcaster in 2001 and relinquished control of 540 Tijuana in 2010.

The Monterey stations were recent and fairly short-term things. Immaculate Heart Radio sold 1240 to Saul in 2013 and Saul bought 97.9 with the idea of putting classical on the FM and standards on the AM. Saul was able to pick up 630 AM for $50,000 because it was just a license. They had, as David mentions, lost their tower site.

But as David also said, it's not a great radio market, it wasn't successful, and so Saul sold 97.9 to EMF for Air1, took 630 back off the air and turned in the license and (after two tries) donated 1240 to a non-profit.

All of those are rational moves (if you don't question the rationality of getting those signals in the first place), and there's nothing there to suggest that Saul is looking to unload the two L.A. stations.

 

[powers]

When I worked at KDON and KWAV (1985-1989), Monterey- Salinas- Santa Cruz was market #75. I believe Santa Cruz was officially moved to another market (San Jose?) and the ranking dropped significantly. The stations went to multiple ownership and iHeart and the creativity really dropped from the market (I was visiting my folks there about three weeks ago). Actually, KMBY/1240, donated by Levine, is the better sounding station there, run mostly locally and with a fun Classic Hits format. While KWAV and KDON still have some local jocks, they are pretty formula radio, owing to more conglomerate owners. Even KSPB, the high school station that was awesome when I was a kid, runs BBC World Service for more than 90% of their schedule. It's a disappointing market now.

 

[Michael Rivers Kramer]

When I worked at KDON and KWAV (1985-1989), Monterey- Salinas- Santa Cruz was market #75. I believe Santa Cruz was officially moved to another market (San Jose?) and the ranking dropped significantly. The stations went to multiple ownership and iHeart and the creativity really dropped from the market (I was visiting my folks there about three weeks ago). Actually, KMBY/1240, donated by Levine, is the better sounding station there, run mostly locally and with a fun Classic Hits format. While KWAV and KDON still have some local jocks, they are pretty formula radio, owing to more conglomerate owners. Even KSPB, the high school station that was awesome when I was a kid, runs BBC World Service for more than 90% of their schedule. It's a disappointing market now.

Santa Cruz is still part of the Monterey Salinas Santa Cruz radio market per Nielsen.

 

[davideduardo]

It was never a success. Saul sold 1650 to a Korean broadcaster in 2001 and relinquished control of 540 Tijuana in 2010.

And he sold it for $30 million... almost as much as a Mt Wilson FM is going for today. He made at least $25 million on that deal and still looks amazingly smart for the whole process.

The Monterey stations were recent and fairly short-term things. Immaculate Heart Radio sold 1240 to Saul in 2013 and Saul bought 97.9 with the idea of putting classical on the FM and standards on the AM. Saul was able to pick up 630 AM for $50,000 because it was just a license. They had, as David mentions, lost their tower site.

I had heard that Saul liked Monterey as an "LA escape" and likely he thought he could do something nice in the market with some pocket change.

But as David also said, it's not a great radio market, it wasn't successful, and so Saul sold 97.9 to EMF for Air1, took 630 back off the air and turned in the license and (after two tries) donated 1240 to a non-profit.

And, again, the exposure and the loss were chump change to him.

All of those are rational moves (if you don't question the rationality of getting those signals in the first place), and there's nothing there to suggest that Saul is looking to unload the two L.A. stations.

His Hawaiian experience, also, was not operationally successful but he really did not risk much considering his overall investment.

 

[radiofan2023]

When I worked at KDON and KWAV (1985-1989), Monterey- Salinas- Santa Cruz was market #75. I believe Santa Cruz was officially moved to another market (San Jose?) and the ranking dropped significantly. The stations went to multiple ownership and iHeart and the creativity really dropped from the market (I was visiting my folks there about three weeks ago). Actually, KMBY/1240, donated by Levine, is the better sounding station there, run mostly locally and with a fun Classic Hits format. While KWAV and KDON still have some local jocks, they are pretty formula radio, owing to more conglomerate owners. Even KSPB, the high school station that was awesome when I was a kid, runs BBC World Service for more than 90% of their schedule. It's a disappointing market now.

Did you ever listen to KSCO back then?

 

[boiseengineer]

Could be KSPB is on their summer break schedule. Filling with BBC until the fall school year starts.

 

[pclover]

Could be KSPB is on their summer break schedule. Filling with BBC until the fall school year starts.

Maybe could be this. I have herd local content on the station recently.