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KGAP 96.7 FM-LP - Burbank, CA

K

Karl

I was scanning the dial the other night and heard some extraterrestrials. Last night I scanned again and figured out there is a low powered station operating in the vicinity.

Radio-Locator.com

Radio Station Search Engine
radio-locator.com radio-locator.com

Has anyone else heard them?
 
Karl said:
I was scanning the dial the other night and heard some extraterrestrials. Last night I scanned again and figured out there is a low powered station operating in the vicinity.

Radio-Locator.com

Radio Station Search Engine
radio-locator.com radio-locator.com

Has anyone else heard them?
Click to expand...

While I haven't heard the station live (I live 8 hours away), you can find out a little more about it (including its website) at

lpfmdatabase.weebly.com

Database - AL to DC

LPFM Database.com
lpfmdatabase.weebly.com

If I remember correctly, @Michi's LPFM site has some information on KGAP-LP as well.
 
It got its CP in 2016, then filed to change facilities in 2019, but before it could be licensed, went on a silent STA in April 2021, resumed July 2022 and was finally licensed.

Silent again May 2023, resumed March 2024, silent STA (yet again) July of last year, just resumed operations the 10th of this month.

No wonder we never heard of it before. It seems to have been off the air more than it's been on.

@Michi's fccdata.org (where I got the timeline) shows the transmitter at just northwest of downtown Burbank, with the maximum 100w ERP.
 
On a more serious note, it must not have taken a lot for the FCC to say this frequency was available for an LP FM station. I know that back in the 1980s during a break from LMU when my grandparents came to visit, we drove through the San Fernando Valley to Sunland using Interstate 5 and Interstate 210. They had their car radio tuned to 96.7 mHz during the entire time. And while we heard some interference from San Bernardino's KCAL coming over the mountains from Beverly Hills and some from the Santa Paula station on the same frequency going into Sunland, KWIZ could otherwise be heard quite well throughout the entire San Fernando Valley on the car radio.

Then again, I've always wondered about putting the Simi Valley LP station on 97.5 mHz and the three (that's right--it's a shared time) LP FM stations on 99.1 mHz...
 
ted chittenden said:
On a more serious note, it must not have taken a lot for the FCC to say this frequency was available for an LP FM station.
Click to expand...

The Media Bureau does not preassign frequencies for LPFM, Ted. When there is a filing window, applicants have to do the necessary engineering studies to show that use of the frequency being applied for will not cause impermissable interference to full power FMs. One factor that makes "shoehorning" a frequency in somewhere is that there is a waiver process in regards to second-adjacent stations (in the case of this station, that would be KXOL at 96.3 and KNX-FM at 97.1), but the applicant has to request same, and I believe the stations have the right to submit their own engineering studies in opposition.

@Michi (generally regarded as the expert on LPFM) and @fybush know a lot more about that than I do, though.

Then again, I've always wondered about putting the Simi Valley LP station on 97.5 mHz and the three (that's right--it's a shared time) LP FM stations on 99.1 mHz...
Click to expand...

Shared time situations result from mutually exclusive applications which cannot be resolved by the usual point system. Unless competing applicants decide to drop out, this is the process. The applicants have to agree among themselves what hours each gets to use the frequency, they file that schedule with the FCC, and the hours are then specified on each license.

In L.A., the number of frequencies that are usable for LPFM are very limited in number, so I'm not surprised at the three-way share time on the Hollywood station. Why were you wondering?
 
Karl said:
I was scanning the dial the other night and heard some extraterrestrials. Last night I scanned again and figured out there is a low powered station operating in the vicinity.

Radio-Locator.com

Radio Station Search Engine
radio-locator.com radio-locator.com

Has anyone else heard them?
Click to expand...
Well, I just happened to be in downtown Burbank this evening, (Olive and San Fernando; doesn't get more downtown than that) so I decided to tune into 96.7 to see what it is all about. But all I got was ranchera music from KWIZ 96.7 in Orange County mixed with a heavy dose of static. Nothing at all to indicate a local LPFM exists. Driving up towards DeBell golf course only made KWIZ come in clearer.

I don't think this KGAP exists even now. Or maybe they have limited broadcasting hours?
 
K.M. Richards said:
@Michi (generally regarded as the expert on LPFM) and @fybush know a lot more about that than I do, though.
Click to expand...
I want to emphasize that we have two of the country's greatest experts in special fields of broadcasting right here.

Many of us... self included... are generalists. We may have owned or run radio stations, but the best thing the successful ones in the bunch know how to do is hire or contract out people like Fybush and Michi who are exceptionally skilled in their fields.

Every successful station I have been part of has had a team of experts in each of the needed skills, from programming to sales to engineering to accounting to traffic and promotion.
 
K.M. Richards said:
The Media Bureau does not preassign frequencies for LPFM, Ted. When there is a filing window, applicants have to do the necessary engineering studies to show that use of the frequency being applied for will not cause impermissable interference to full power FMs. One factor that makes "shoehorning" a frequency in somewhere is that there is a waiver process in regards to second-adjacent stations (in the case of this station, that would be KXOL at 96.3 and KNX-FM at 97.1), but the applicant has to request same, and I believe the stations have the right to submit their own engineering studies in opposition.

@Michi (generally regarded as the expert on LPFM) and @fybush know a lot more about that than I do, though.



Shared time situations result from mutually exclusive applications which cannot be resolved by the usual point system. Unless competing applicants decide to drop out, this is the process. The applicants have to agree among themselves what hours each gets to use the frequency, they file that schedule with the FCC, and the hours are then specified on each license.

In L.A., the number of frequencies that are usable for LPFM are very limited in number, so I'm not surprised at the three-way share time on the Hollywood station. Why were you wondering?
Click to expand...

Actually, I was wondering *not* about the shared time arrangement but the possible interference to KGGI which, in younger days, could be heard in Hollywood. However, as you have pointed out above, the LPFM stations have to supply engineering studies to show they are not interfering with same or adjacent frequency stations.

And your right! The Los Angeles area does not have a whole lot of frequencies that can be used for LPFM stations, and all of the ones that can be used are two clicks away from the nearest full power FM station and not the three that is required under current U.S. law. I do remember reading somewhere online (I can't remember where now) quite a while back an interview with an LPFM station owner who said that the FCC told him that, because his station was only two frequencies away from the nearest full power stations on either side of him, he would have to make sure that his station's antenna was directed away from populated areas.
 
Just a quick reminder, a LPFM, does not have to be 24/7. I believe the minimum is 36 hours a week.

A footnote: When the LPFM in Patagonia, Arizona started they were on only when somebody came in to do a show.
 


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