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KVUT shuts down
- Thread starter Theater of My Mind
- Start date
Call sign request change to KFRO-FM was filed today, effective September 30.
Now this is a plot twist! Hopefully, they increase the ERP of KFRO-FM!
As with all license transfers, while a date must be submitted with the call change request, it will not take effect until closing of the sale which won't be until after FCC approval in November or December.
99.7 is pretty much locked in where it is. No way to upgrade.
KFRO-FM will be a full simulcast of KFRO in Longview with its Classic Hits format, although there will be some enhancements coming.
It might not be a bad idea to work out a deal to lease the 99.9 translator on the KYKX tower for a simulcast. I don’t think there’s really any overlap between 94.1 and 99.7. 99.7 and 99.9 have a little bit of overlap and the dial positions make switching convenient. Besides, I’m sure Alpha would welcome the cash!
D
Deleted member 108832
Guest
Until you come just a little further west and run into K-Moo. It also stops any ideas of upgrading or moving KVUT/KFRO-FM to better cover northern areas of Tyler and Smith County. Doesn't really matter though. South side of Tyler is where the money and the typical classic hits listener resides, and where 99.7's signal is superb.
Makes me wonder if KDOK can survive with a graveyard AM and a pipsqueak translator against KFRO on an FM here. I've obviously listened to both. K-DOK has gotten quite repetitive and stuck in neutral for awhile. Same playlist has been running for years. Same liners. Same clients buying ads, and those ad dollars aren't coming from Tyler. Everything is from Kilgore, Gladewater, and some smaller Longview businesses. Nothing has changed, since Chuck Conrad voiced the additional "K-DOK is also available on KYZS 1490 AM and 95.7 Tyler" when he first took control of them. Not that I'm trying to knock Chuck's product, but I think even he would admit allowing staleness to creep in. I'm sure a lot of it has to do with his time being heavily occupied by the museum, and perhaps that's the purpose of 1490, 1240, and their associated translators. To serve as the soundtrack for the ETX Broadcasting Museum. It sure has become a bit of a relic, and sounds a lot like KLUV, KONO, and KLDE from the early 2000's. Heavy 60s, and nothing later than 1984.
Once the typical listener finds out that the UT-Tyler station is suddenly back on the air and now playing familiar songs from the last 40 years of the 20th century, it may very well spell trouble for 1490/95.7. Scott Rice, in my opinion, has the superior presentation and song selection to what's offered by the established K-DOK.
Of course, they both exist in Longview and have since Rice moved 1370 from the Galaxy Moonbeam programming and launched the current format. Perhaps they can do the same here in Tyler, but a much needed refreshing at All Hit Radio K-DOK before the KFRO launch in Q4 2024/Q1 2025 would be my free consultation.
I would think that KFRO would need to have a strong local presence in Tyler to have a shot at success as Tyler people don’t tend to listen to Longview stations. I’d figure they would do alright as a hometown station in Longview.
I love how there are two owners who are passionate about radio over there. They both deserve full power signals. It would sure make it easier to listen to one frequency instead of having to change channels when driving around.
There’s not much that can be done to upgrade signals without a massive realignment of the dial and probably the termination some licenses. I was thinking that 99.9 would be a slight improvement over 94.1 for Longview and would barely make it to where you’d be able to tune to 99.7 and listen to KFRO there. The antenna height would certainly be an improvement.
You’re right rosecitymedia, it wouldn’t help much going west. I think 99.9 would also be better for the north side of Longview where you have more money and classic hits listeners.
I haven’t listened to KFRO enough to compare it to KDOK as both the AM and FM translator don’t make it very far west of Longview. It seems to me that KDOK plays more classic rock, but it’s been a while since I listened. I’d like to see KDOK shift closer to classic rock and give KKTX a run for their money.
I love how there are two owners who are passionate about radio over there. They both deserve full power signals. It would sure make it easier to listen to one frequency instead of having to change channels when driving around.
There’s not much that can be done to upgrade signals without a massive realignment of the dial and probably the termination some licenses. I was thinking that 99.9 would be a slight improvement over 94.1 for Longview and would barely make it to where you’d be able to tune to 99.7 and listen to KFRO there. The antenna height would certainly be an improvement.
You’re right rosecitymedia, it wouldn’t help much going west. I think 99.9 would also be better for the north side of Longview where you have more money and classic hits listeners.
I haven’t listened to KFRO enough to compare it to KDOK as both the AM and FM translator don’t make it very far west of Longview. It seems to me that KDOK plays more classic rock, but it’s been a while since I listened. I’d like to see KDOK shift closer to classic rock and give KKTX a run for their money.
D
Deleted member 108832
Guest
I don't know about that. KYKX is, and always has been, a Longview station. It has a pretty devoted following, y'know. 96X, while licensed to Kilgore, fares significantly better signal-wise in Longview than it does Tyler. Always has. Still, and granted it's the only rock game in town, it does find itself on several receivers here in the City of Roses.
No chance in that, as you know. Dudley Waller was a genius to get 106.5 dropped in as a full C early in the game. Tony Bridge was ahead of the game, too, when he bought KLTI-FM from LeTourneau and took what was being shelfed and unused, returned it to the air, and launched what became the country powerhouse of ETX, Kicks 106...uh, 105.7. Snack dab between DFW and SBC has left us cobbling signals together for the better part of 50 years. Unless the FCC allows for less protection amongst adjacent signals, like they've already done with KVUT/KMOO, and KALK/KTBB-FM prior to that, then having two simulcast signals covering both sides of the market is about the only thing that can be done.
I don't know Scott Rice at all, and have spoken to Chuck Conrad only a handful of times in passing, but from what I've seen and heard from each of them, there's no questioning the passion either gentleman possess for the medium. Chuck's heart is ETX. Go take a gander at the museum in Kilgore, if you haven't already. There's a man who truly oozes passion for broadcasting and this little slice of heaven we call ETX
Like KVUT, the Bott translator in Longview is pretty well stuck. Co-channel with the Mineola bovine, and 2nd adjacent to Chuck Conrad's QX-FM just down the road, and that doesn't even take in to account Sulphur Bluff or Atlanta on either side of 260CE.
K-DOK is mostly dinosaur rock. Lots of Moody Blues, 5th Dimension, Led Zeppelin fare. About as current as K-DOK gets is Genesis and Heart. Heart's "Alone" and Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer" are the latest singles I've ever heard spun on it. Both titles were released in 1986. KFRO, otoh, plays Britney Spears, Cristina Aguilera Timberlake, and... yikes, even Yazoo! That's mixed in with the classic hits "staples". Far wider musical selection coming from 1370 and 94 1.
K-DOK wouldn't benefit at all from trying to mirror 96.1, Jay. What might be a winning formula for 1490/95.7 is classic r&b and soul. Much like we had for years with the now defunct KZEY. Large black population here, only served by a pretty good r&b in KISX that drops back no further than the 90s, The Blaze with it's every other word edited out and turning most everybody under 35 off, and Gospel music on 104.9. The problem, of course, is that if Conrad actually entertained the idea and it was successful, there'd be Rick Reynolds or Townsquare, with far superior signals, swooping in and adjusting their own services to get a piece of that newfound action.
That’s true. An alternative station would be more likely, and that’s not saying much. lol.
At least they got 99.7 and 100.3. It would be great if more of the bigger signals were locally programmed. KOOI is fed off the bird. KTYL and KKTX might as well be. I’m not sure if KISX is locally programmed. They have syndication for sure.
KOOI may very well be the syndicated Jack program/music feed, but automated locally.
KISX appears to have a local afternoon dj, hes based there, and its from there, he appears to be on other stations.. a social media post had him doing a live FB video in longview.
KTYL might have one local talent, hard to tell with the afternoon guy
KKTX appears to have no local talenbt
KFRO (AM) has filed an application to increase its day power to 5kw from a two tower directional array. Nights remain at 100 watts.
Draft Copy « Licensing and Management System « FCC
Licensing and Management System
D
Deleted member 108832
Guest
Will be a marked improvement. 1370 is listenable in Tyler now, albeit a bit static-laden. Good plan for the AM, given its coverage area already far surpasses the rinky dink translator at 94.1. KFRO is likely one of those rare cases where the AM listening exceeds the FM, only because the AM is very well processed and the signal carries a lot further into the surrounding areas.KFRO (AM) has filed an application to increase its day power to 5kw from a two tower directional array. Nights remain at 100 watts.
Draft Copy « Licensing and Management System « FCC
Licensing and Management Systementerpriseefiling.fcc.gov
You have to give it to Scott Rice. I was quite skeptical of him at first. Watching what he did in Marshall, with not rebuilding KCUL after the tornado took down the TX site, and airing that coma inducing Galaxy Moonbeam programming, led me to believe that the end was looking like the best case scenario for the second oldest licensed AM in ETX. I am extremely pleased that I misread his intentions. The work he has done to 1370 already is something almost mind-blowing. The signal had degraded tremendously by the time RCA purchased it. A shell of it's once glorious self.
Now, well, let's just say that J.R. Curtis would be mighty proud of the turnaround. Someone's finally at the mansion again who actually gives a 💩 about what he's broadcasting over the air with the Voice of Longview. Thank you from an old East Texas hayseed, Mr. Scott Rice.
I had been listening to the station's Internet feed intermittently throughout its three years of existance. While it started out being a full NPR news/talk outlet with jazz overnights, by the end, it had dropped all of the network programming and was just doing jazz with (if memory serves) one local talk show. At the time I heard the all-jazz format (and confirmed it from the website schedule), I had assumed that the owners of KTYK-FM had objected to another NPR station in the market or that the Texas state legislature had decided to stop funding KVUT's NPR news programming since another station was already doing that in the market. (As it turned out, I was wrong on both assumptions).
I wish the owner of KFRO-Am the best of luck with their new FM frequency. It'll be a bear because it doesn't really have the capability (due to FCC interference rules) to move to many other places or frequencies or to increase its power.
I wish the owner of KFRO-Am the best of luck with their new FM frequency. It'll be a bear because it doesn't really have the capability (due to FCC interference rules) to move to many other places or frequencies or to increase its power.
Tragic.
D
Deleted member 108832
Guest
Not so much. Scott Rice's KFRO-FM will do something for that facility that KVUT never could.
Make money.
Sale of KVUT was approved by the FCC today.
D
Deleted member 108832
Guest
Still off air as of this posting. Just checked it about an hour ago.
Just because the FCC approved it, doesn't mean the sale has closed. Plus in this instance there will be some equipment upgrades and likely some testing before regular operations resume.
D
Deleted member 108832
Guest
Yes, I'm well aware of the process. We're still going to be watching it closely for the return to operations, considering its the next door neighbor to KMOO.
A great example: The sale of KROI in Houston to SBS was approved by the FCC on October 12, 2023. More than 13 months later, the sale still hasn’t closed.
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