Translator is #1*

[Deleted member 108832]

498 feet, 4.35 inches, according to my trusty conversion app.

 

[amos1001]

"... works best as close to at least a quarter wave antenna height. "

david, does that mean that a minimum 1/4 wave is preferred? is a full wave the best radiator if it were feasible? on the example i gave earlier, the FM was class A 3000 w @ 300 feet, so we had a 300 ft tower. the AM was at 1400, so a full wave would be 702 feet. a half wave wouldn't fit @ 351 feet. a 1/4 wave would be 263.25 feet, i THINK that's what our folded unipole antenna was. or would something like a 3/8 wave been better @ 263.25 feet? Or would you try to make the AM radiator as close to the full 300 feet as possible, and tune it to the am frequency?

i've never known about a station had such a tall AM tower than the power was reduced like KTAM. almost sounds like an FM's ERP. Obviously it's not the same thing, though. where else has that happened?

 

[Mark Roberts]

KTAM's history cards show that it did upgrade to 1 kW daytime in 1964, when the FCC granted near-blanket authority to class IV stations to go to 1000 watts day.

The current 380 watt day/night operation (which appears to date to 1986)

I was in B-CS several times in 1983 and 1984, with a relationship that had turned into a long-range thing. I definitely remember that KTAM was still 1,000 watts daytime then. It was a pretty solid, locally oriented full-service station at the time. I've tried to trace the date of the current operation but I haven't been successful. The Vance family sold KTAM and KORA(FM) to what was Clear Channel in 1987.

A couple of KTAM news folks went to KTRH when I was still there. I hope they survived the managerial reign of terror that predominated in the KTRH newsroom back then, but I don't know since I've lost touch with most KTRH people of my time.

is almost certainly a reflection of the extremely tall electrical height of the tower (226 degrees), which makes it much more efficient than a standard 90-degree tower. 380 watts into that tower produces roughly the same field strength that a 1000-watt signal would produce into a normal quarter-wave tower, and is thus the most the FCC would allow KTAM to use.

I know of a couple of other instances when the FCC required a station to ratchet down its power due to height, including one case where the tower had had a high electrical height for a long time. This was a station on 1230; I wonder if the station on 1240 that was about 60 miles away pointed out the issue to the FCC.

180° is a half wave and 90° is a a quarter wave. Frequencies are measured metrically, but there are tables that convert them into American measurements.

That's reminding me of the CRC Standard Mathematical Tables. My dad had a copy; it got me through high-school science classes! I still have it.

Anyway, multiplying a measurement in meters by 3.28 will give you a result in feet that's good enough for most uses, using a number that's easy to remember. Even multiplying by 13/4 (3 1/4) will get you in the ballpark.

 

[Holstead]

KTAM has *great* coverage in that region.

 

[BamaTX]

I was not trying to be misleading. KTAM is a 380 watt coffee pot AM that is jammed into an FM tower. I'm sure there is accidental listeners on 1240, but it isn't a great signal and doesn't sound very good either. I would guess its share of the audience is a rounding error. Effectively all the listening is on K261EY, which is quite good.

Long before it was paired with KZTR-FM (now KBXT), K272FK-FM, or K261EY-FM, Radio Alegria would consistently land in the top 5 as a standalone AM station. There was a brief period when KVJM took some audience away with the La Preciosa and 'Mía' formats. But they seem to be a staple in the community ever since KBMA-FM was sold to Clear Channel. Honestly, you'd be surprised at the number of people probably still using 1240 AM.

The real head scratcher is der untergang of KORA-FM. That station held the #1 title for such a long time. KORA hitting the low 2s would've seemed impossible back in the old days.

 

[BamaTX]

A translator could cover Bryan/College Staion proper with a listenable signal. Bryan Brodcasting would likely snuff them out. These guys have dominated in the market since I was there in the 1980s.

I'm not sure about College Station proper anymore (especially for the Bryan Broadcasting translators that broadcast from the KNDE tower). CS has annexed a lot of southern sprawl. I would think that the WTAW and KZNE translators (94.5 and 93.7) get clobbered by KTBZ and KQBT in the southern edge of the CS.

 

[Ryan Williams]

I'm not sure about College Station proper anymore (especially for the Bryan Broadcasting translators that broadcast from the KNDE tower). CS has annexed a lot of southern sprawl. I would think that the WTAW and KZNE translators (94.5 and 93.7) get clobbered by KTBZ and KQBT in the southern edge of the CS.

They absolutely do get clobbered. They have issues regularly way before Fitch or Southern Pointe.... even outside of the WTAW studios on Highway 6 and Harvey Mitchell by Cooper's.

 

[Mediafrog+]

OT, but has anyone in B/CS heard the new KAGZ-LP on 106.7? It is a continuation of the “KANM” Part 15 (carrier current?) station on 1580 on the A&M campus. The LPFM recently was granted its License to Cover.

KANM Student Radio

The College Station of College Station

kanm.tamu.edu

 

[Ryan Williams]

Long before it was paired with KZTR-FM (now KBXT), K272FK-FM, or K261EY-FM, Radio Alegria would consistently land in the top 5 as a standalone AM station. There was a brief period when KVJM took some audience away with the La Preciosa and 'Mía' formats. But they seem to be a staple in the community ever since KBMA-FM was sold to Clear Channel. Honestly, you'd be surprised at the number of people probably still using 1240 AM.

I suspect the people in 2026 primarily listening on 1240 are very low, however based on your comment, I did just look back prior to KTAM being on FM and the AM alone was regularly in the 5s and 6s and sometimes 7s. In fact spring of 2009 shows a market-leading 9.0 for KTAM! that was before 102.3 and way before 100.1.