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560

KilowattKat said:
They will need to bring 560 back to life for at least a few days...right?
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Cumulus recently reactivated KPUR in Amarillo, one of the AM stations they had taken silent a year ago. It is one of four stations for which Cumulus is asking the bankruptcy court to cancel a tower lease.

KPUR is reportedly simulcasting one of the Cumulus FMs in Amarillo, but I haven’t heard if it has gone silent again.
 
KilowattKat said:
They will need to bring 560 back to life for at least a few days...right?
Click to expand...

Mediafrog+ said:
Cumulus recently reactivated KPUR in Amarillo, one of the AM stations they had taken silent a year ago. It is one of four stations for which Cumulus is asking the bankruptcy court to cancel a tower lease.

KPUR is reportedly simulcasting one of the Cumulus FMs in Amarillo, but I haven’t heard if it has gone silent again.
Click to expand...
I think Cumulus, to their credit, typically hasn't played the game of "on for a day (or so) and then off again".

Earlier this year, Cumulus turned on the Jefferson City, Mo. stations that it had turned off earlier. The FM was sold to K-Love, with the sale closing shortly after the station returned to the air; the AM is on a temporary antenna due to damage to its regular antenna.

With debtor-in-possession financing lined up, Cumulus may have more financial breathing room for its marginal operations, at least for a while. I've been through a corporate bankruptcy and can tell you that the worst days, when everything is tight and you might not even get coffee in the break room because it costs money, are just before the bankruptcy package is filed.
 
cc333 said:
Ooo, Post 1,270! (I have a local on that frequency: KXBX).

What are the ATC frequencies? Air Traffic Control?

c
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Bingo. Though I believe modern-day ATC got relocated up the dial some years ago to the VHF band where it would be tougher to screw with aviation communications.

You (and anyone else) might find this interesting. The NTIA's chart of frequency assignments. This is a PDF of the 2025 update. You can zoom in and see what's assigned where. (Just north of 1700 khz is designated as Mobile / Fixed / Radiolocation.) You can find all kinds of reasons to celebrate this thread reaching additional milestones.
 
The FCC has just given KZAC an additional six months to remain silent saying they went silent in August 2025.
Commission records reflect that the Station went silent on August 12, 2025.1 The previous STA was granted on September 26, 2025. Licensee requests extension of that STA.
Request to Extend Silent Special Temporary Authorization
Radio License Holdings LLC (“RLH”), licensee of Sta􀆟on KZAC(AM), San Francisco, California, respec􀆞ully requests an extension of its authorization to remain silent. RLH is in the midst of negotiations to sell this Station.
 
I learned a few hours ago that dismantling work has begun at the 560 transmitter site at Islais Creek and is expected to be complete in two weeks.

Items from the site, including the top beacon of the tower, are now in the care of the California Historical Radio Society in Alameda.

If there is a transfer rather than a surrender of the license, a new owner will have to arrange for a new transmitter location.
 
There were pictures of the towers condition on Facebook - very bad structural rust (not surprising after 80 years in salt air) and they would require extensive repairs if not replacement for Cumulus or someone else to continue operating the site.
 
in away, that's sad, but they are off the air . . . and the site now has a bunch of stuff around it now . . . BYE KSFO TOWERS!!!!
I saw these when I went up to San Francisco, day & night.

here ya good,

from the air, look carefully you can see the two towers , (tall) mid right and (short) lower left,
Google Maps

the two towers, from the ground,
Street View · Google Maps

base of the taller tower,
Street View · Google Maps

the smaller tower, (to the right is the taller tower, use your mouse to see it)
Street View · Google Maps

again . . . BYE KSFO TOWERS . . . BYE !!!
 
At least when the KCBS tower collapsed in 1988 it fell into the surrounding cow pasture. Having a tower collapse in a developed area is a whole different matter in terms of liability.

A lot of the towers around the Bay Bridge Toll Plaza are in similar condition and Caltrans is raising site rents there, too. They want to re-develop the area into a regional park.

Here's a picture of my collegue Dave Wigfield standing next to the downed KCBS tower. I believe this picture was taken by the Novato Advance newspaper and is from Dave's steampoweredradio.com site. What you can't see are the tower legs driven into the ground on either side of the underground power feed going into the site. Then the tower bridged across it without damaging the cable. You can see an access manhole just behind Dave, the cable runs parallel to the access road back to the levee..

badtower.jpg
 
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Lou Schneider said:
There were pictures of the towers condition on Facebook - very bad structural rust (not surprising after 80 years in salt air) and they would require extensive repairs if not replacement for Cumulus or someone else to continue operating the site.
Click to expand...
alok said:
base of the taller tower,
Street View · Google Maps

the smaller tower, (to the right is the taller tower, use your mouse to see it)
Street View · Google Maps
Click to expand...
When I look at those photos in combination with Lou's comments, the thought I get is, how does anyone ever repair or replace the radial system? It can't exactly be in great shape after 80 years either, but now you have all those industrial sites immediately next door, and they have their own infrastructure built over many of the radials. Getting access to them now would be near impossible.

So, stupid question: why couldn't 560 be diplexed with the KGO site by the Dumbarton, even if the station had to go nondirectional at a lower power? The 810 transmitter plant is there, it's co-owned, the towers are in place and probably decently maintained (understanding that This Is Cumulus...), wouldn't that be the path of least resistance if they really wanted to keep 560 alive? What am I missing?
 


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