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KVHS Concord at risk

R

RF101

This a big, well-written article.


www.mercurynews.com

The fate of Concord’s KVHS radio tower is up in the air. Here’s why the community wants to save it.

The station is part of a network of noncommercial educational radio stations throughout the Bay Area that regional officials have long depended on for getting information about community resources and news to the public — meaning…
www.mercurynews.com www.mercurynews.com

Typical story sadly...School board does not want the station and the favorable tower lease with American Tower is ending .

Another Contra Costa County station, KECG El Cerrito, also faces a similar fate.
 
Non-Renewal of License (Lease) Agreement with American Tower and Request for Approval to Sell KVHS License from the Federal Communications Commission ("FCC") for a Nominal Amount to a Governmental Agency or, in the Alternative, Surrender the FCC License to the Federal Government

 
Frequency1 said:
Non-Renewal of License (Lease) Agreement with American Tower and Request for Approval to Sell KVHS License from the Federal Communications Commission ("FCC") for a Nominal Amount to a Governmental Agency or, in the Alternative, Surrender the FCC License to the Federal Government

Click to expand...
They have a very good signal out there. They easily make it to Stockton (in a car radio) and have very good reception as you ascend the foothills in Amador/Calaveras.

I miss the 90.5 the Edge active rock format. That got jettisoned early last year (I think) and became a deep classic/progressive rock format just known as KVHS.

I’d be curious if KQED would still have interest in purchasing the signal?
 
A radio station license for $1? I'd be all over that if it weren't stipulated that the buyer must be another (I presume county-level) governmental agency.

Hopefully someone will find a way to keep it going. I hope they don't decide to make it Internet-only. To me that's almost like taking a historical neon sign, which should be preserved as is, and converting it to LEDs instead.

c
 
Frequency1 said:
Non-Renewal of License (Lease) Agreement with American Tower and Request for Approval to Sell KVHS License from the Federal Communications Commission ("FCC") for a Nominal Amount to a Governmental Agency or, in the Alternative, Surrender the FCC License to the Federal Government
Click to expand...
Thanks for finding this document. It shows that the lease was costing just under $25k a year, with the renewal price going up to just above $34k a year.

The document also reports that the school district's broadcasting program shut down 13 years ago. It makes me wonder what kept the station going. I've heard it only when I've been in the Walnut Creek-Pleasant Hill-Concord area and it seemed entirely automated to me.

seattlesarchiebunker said:
They have a very good signal out there. They easily make it to Stockton (in a car radio) and have very good reception as you ascend the foothills in Amador/Calaveras.
Click to expand...
That's not KVHS's primary coverage area, though. Predicted coverage indicates that about 50% of its reception area is either bay or swampland.

On 680, once you cross the Benicia Bridge, going north, and pass Benicia, there's not much until Cordelia Junction, just a couple of subdivisions. Otherwise it's very empty.

seattlesarchiebunker said:
I’d be curious if KQED would still have interest in purchasing the signal?
Click to expand...
KQED isn't a governmental entity. Never has been. So it doesn't qualify under the terms the school board laid out.

cc333 said:
A radio station license for $1? I'd be all over that if it weren't stipulated that the buyer must be another (I presume county-level) governmental agency.

Hopefully someone will find a way to keep it going. I hope they don't decide to make it Internet-only. To me that's almost like taking a historical neon sign, which should be preserved as is, and converting it to LEDs instead.
Click to expand...
You have to ask yourself, which costs less? A tower lease, transmitter power and upkeep, music licensing, someone to deal with compliance issues...or setting up a stream (albeit still with music licensing costs)?

First, KSMC, now KVHS. That should tell you something, too.
 
It was entirely automated. When it was the Edge, you’d hear several PSAs (all the same 3-4 voiced by younger folks) and about the same amount of liners/TOH IDs all voiced by high schoolers. Which means they were running for over a decade if the broadcast classes shut down in 2012 or so.

And while I agree that KQED is definitely not a governmental institution, I brought that up since there were rumblings of them purchasing the signal a decade or so ago. If the school board has pigeonholed itself to selling it to a governmental agency, that definitely leaves KQED out of it. However, KALW is indeed owned by a governmental entity and may want it.

I just can’t imagine many other local government agencies really wanting to mess with (or find funding for) siting a new broadcast location plus finding worthwhile content to broadcast.
 
seattlesarchiebunker said:
It was entirely automated. When it was the Edge, you’d hear several PSAs (all the same 3-4 voiced by younger folks) and about the same amount of liners/TOH IDs all voiced by high schoolers. Which means they were running for over a decade if the broadcast classes shut down in 2012 or so.
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That's one of the things I find slightly mystifying; maybe it was continued as a sort of extracurricular activity.

seattlesarchiebunker said:
And while I agree that KQED is definitely not a governmental institution, I brought that up since there were rumblings of them purchasing the signal a decade or so ago. If the school board has pigeonholed itself to selling it to a governmental agency, that definitely leaves KQED out of it.
Click to expand...
The board surely would have consulted their attorney before proceeding. Likely the board viewed this as a disposal of assets and there are legal requirements regarding such disposals.


seattlesarchiebunker said:
However, KALW is indeed owned by a governmental entity and may want it.
Click to expand...
Could KALW get enough listener support in that area to cover what would be at least $40k (if not more) in annual costs, assuming they picked up the lease on the existing tower? Moreover, SFUSD has its own financial problems, what with declining enrollment, etc. Taking on an additional ongoing expense would be hard to justify.

seattlesarchiebunker said:
I just can’t imagine many other local government agencies really wanting to mess with (or find funding for) siting a new broadcast location plus finding worthwhile content to broadcast.
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I can't imagine there would be any.
 
With the descriptions here of a low-budget, automated operation, and a call sign of KVHS, I have visions of this station playing audio from 1980's music videotapes 🤣
 
Street Novelist said:
They usually play an eclectic mix of modern rock. It's not bad.
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But looking at their website, that is apparently all that it is. One specialty program on Sunday nights, the school board meeting every other Wednesday, and then... just music. The picture in the newspaper had a guy with a beard behind the microphone. There is/was nothing there to grab the attention or interest of kids. No matter how good the music selection is, their intended(?) younger audience has that and more in their phone. This is only a small microcosm of the audio entertainment world, but if commercial free music and its possible closure does not have a protest from their intended audience, maybe it says a lot more about musicradio as a force going forward. I would bet if my high school had been lucky enough to have had an actual radio station broadcasting, even to a small piece of geography, my 50 year younger self would have been all over it, for a whole bunch of reasons.

I have posted on this before - if broadcast radio can't do something more than just spin records it has no future. The FCC will be standing guard over shortwaved FM spectrums. There may be lots of signals pumping out something, but the audience will be on the internet.
 
Oldie919 said:
You gotta LOVE true dedication!!
The "love of the game" has no price tag!!
Kudos to those who follow this "cut of the cloth"!!
Not everyone can be so dedicated.....
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Not everyone can afford to give up a day’s worth of paid work each week for two years, in one of the most expensive areas of the US, to record a radio show that airs on a high school station.
 
If I'm reading the website right (see entry for 6/26/2025), the station is being transferred to the county's education office. It appears the intent is to broadcast from a temporary site with limited coverage until a better site can be secured.

Keep a watch out for an application for a TC.
 
Mark Roberts said:
If I'm reading the website right (see entry for 6/26/2025), the station is being transferred to the county's education office. It appears the intent is to broadcast from a temporary site with limited coverage until a better site can be secured.

Keep a watch out for an application for a TC.
Click to expand...
They better not try to downgrade the actual licence - hopefully it's an STA. I don't know for certain because I don't have the expensive software, but they're almost assuredly short-spaced somewhere. At least to KALX. A lot of these 10-watt stations that upped their power in the '70s are grandfathered in with allocations that would not be allowed otherwise. Although it's not much on paper, 90.5 has fantastic coverage (well, it had fantastic coverage anyway). It's interference free throughout the foothills thanks to Capital Public Radio's powerhouse on Slide Mountain. It keeps other allocations away, but there's no appreciable signal from them because the transmitter is on the other side of the Sierra range. So you could get KVHS on 90.5 from Placerville to San Andreas on pretty much any radio. I got them in Grass Valley with a Tecsun portable. That kind of reception is valuable up here where cell service is still spotty. I never heard them doing membership drives, and I listened quite a bit. But I wonder if they would have received some meaningful support if they tried. That's a whole different scenario, of course, and requires some serious dedication on the part of a station employee to run membership. But it was a unique and interesting station.

Dave B.
 


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