Well it was too good to last. ESPN on FM in Central Texas. It has flipped to "The Beat", a hip hop/R&B format. ESPN Central Texas is still on the AM,1600 or something like that. Glad that Waco/Temple and Killeen has more R&B choices.
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104.9/106.9 FM ESPN Central Texas has flipped to "The Beat"
- Thread starter longhorn2004
- Start date
To sort things out, KHLE 106.9 Kempner (Killeen area) dropped their simulcast of KRZI 1660 Waco, replacing it with a simulcast of KWBT 104.9 Mexia, which is known as "The Beat." KRZI's programming is still being carried in Temple on a translator at 100.9.
Waco's (Mexia's) "Beat" has been on the air a little over two years.
Waco's (Mexia's) "Beat" has been on the air a little over two years.
A
Anonymouse
Guest
Too bad a new hip-hop station hasn't started up in Austin. *yawns.*
Oh Fred, Fred, Fred, you are so caught up in the old school market labels 
. If you look at the coverage area map of 106.9
http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=KHLE&service=FM&status=C&hours=U you'll notice that a significant portion of the Austin listening area is included.
To me where this topic lives isn't that big a deal, I do agree that they could have dropped off the 104.9, but there's a lot of folks who listened to 106.9 for sports talk in the North who visit this topic area consistently.
. If you look at the coverage area map of 106.9 http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=KHLE&service=FM&status=C&hours=U you'll notice that a significant portion of the Austin listening area is included.
To me where this topic lives isn't that big a deal, I do agree that they could have dropped off the 104.9, but there's a lot of folks who listened to 106.9 for sports talk in the North who visit this topic area consistently.
jd said:
Thanks for the info JD. The Killeen/Ft.Hood area is huge sports market. Listen to how many CenTex listeners call the Bucky Morning Show on 1300AM. The fan base though, is splintered since the CenTex come from all over the USA.
The CenTex area is important to the Austin market. Though it may not show up in the numbers, there are alot of listeners from CenTex tuning in to Austin stations.
CTHank said:Oh Fred, Fred, Fred, you are so caught up in the old school market labels
http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=KHLE&service=FM&status=C&hours=U you'll notice that a significant portion of the Austin listening area is included.
IIRC-- 106.9 purposely moved from Burnet to Kempner to reduce interference with 107.1 in the Austin metro. There's no way 106.9 will ever reach a significant portion of the Austin listening area.
Now Fred on this one, I have to call you out - you see I used to work for 106.9 when they were based in Marble Falls and NO they did not move to avoid interference, they moved to Kempner to make more money out of the Ft Hood marketplace and they wanted to jack up the signal strength, to serve North Austin and Temple; because the owners were notorious for buying stations and flipping them as quickly as possible, and they knew that if they had a strong signal up there then they could make a killing and they did.
The had the original 104.9 back in the early 2000's jacked up the power and they sold it to (I think at the time Univision), and they never, ever cared about stepping on anyone else's toes with their signals.
And you're right they probably would have never achieved a dominant position in the marketplace, but that doesn't negate the FACT that they had a much better signal in the North part of the listening area. Now you can stick to your 'it's not in Austin metro' so it doesn't belong here way of thinking, but the reality is, in today's world, people travel, receivers are much better and stations have listeners all over the Central Texas area.
In my truck I have 10 pre-sets, 5 that I use for stations in Austin, Mason, Fredericksburg and 5 I use for SA stations. The old days are done and gone, lines have been blurred and old market concepts need to be rethought; hence the iHeart stuff and Dominque's web stations -
And if you really want to be a stickler, this particular forum should be broken into two separate forums, one for Austin and one for San Antonio, because they are not one in the same.
The had the original 104.9 back in the early 2000's jacked up the power and they sold it to (I think at the time Univision), and they never, ever cared about stepping on anyone else's toes with their signals.
And you're right they probably would have never achieved a dominant position in the marketplace, but that doesn't negate the FACT that they had a much better signal in the North part of the listening area. Now you can stick to your 'it's not in Austin metro' so it doesn't belong here way of thinking, but the reality is, in today's world, people travel, receivers are much better and stations have listeners all over the Central Texas area.
In my truck I have 10 pre-sets, 5 that I use for stations in Austin, Mason, Fredericksburg and 5 I use for SA stations. The old days are done and gone, lines have been blurred and old market concepts need to be rethought; hence the iHeart stuff and Dominque's web stations -
And if you really want to be a stickler, this particular forum should be broken into two separate forums, one for Austin and one for San Antonio, because they are not one in the same.
CTHank said:
I agree there is more ad revenue in Killeen-Temple than Burnet-Marble Falls albeit with many more competitors. But an upgrade of KHLE's signal to reach Austin is not possible. Check the rules.
http://transition.fcc.gov/mb/audio/spacing/index.html
As a class A, KHLE has to be a minimum of 65 miles tower-to-tower from class C2 KLZT which is where it sits. It cannnot upgrade without short-spacing KLZT.
The rules? Please there's so little concern for following the rules that it's laughable now days. Do you read the posts on this forum about this station or that station,this ownership group or that one not following the rules? Like I said, I was there and there was never even the slightest consideration of the rules, and it was never about ad revenue, the owners didn't care even a little bit about running the station.
It was all about positioning the station for resale, at first they called it the Pirate and that failed and then they switched the call letters from the original KHLB to KHLE and sent KHLB to 102.5 in Mason. And they had it for sale for 775,000 by itself with no studio and then the market tanked on them.
And as I'm sure you're aware a good engineer can tweak a signal and make it do miraculous things. Heck for awhile they were able to make 104.9 in Hamilton step all over Austin's 104.9 in Lampasas, Florence etc., until they were able to sell it. It's kind of like the old days when you could put sawdust into a transmission so you could sell it.
The rules? As I said, few have followed the rules for years and the FCC hasn't busted a whole lot of them.
It was all about positioning the station for resale, at first they called it the Pirate and that failed and then they switched the call letters from the original KHLB to KHLE and sent KHLB to 102.5 in Mason. And they had it for sale for 775,000 by itself with no studio and then the market tanked on them.
And as I'm sure you're aware a good engineer can tweak a signal and make it do miraculous things. Heck for awhile they were able to make 104.9 in Hamilton step all over Austin's 104.9 in Lampasas, Florence etc., until they were able to sell it. It's kind of like the old days when you could put sawdust into a transmission so you could sell it.
The rules? As I said, few have followed the rules for years and the FCC hasn't busted a whole lot of them.
CTHank said:
The difference is that most of these rules that are being violated don't have to have prior FCC approval. As an example, translators simply have to tell the FCC which station they're getting and, if they're at 92.1 or above, have to state they're getting the signal off-air. If they relay a different station or are getting the signal from a means other than over-the-air, the FCC is expected to get them after-the-fact. They can even change the station they repeat and notify the FCC a few days after the change. The only time they need to get commission approval in advance is if they're in an unserved area and require a waiver to the off-air rule. The translators that are presently airing static are in pretty much the same boat. Although the FCC says they have to also go off-air if the station they relay goes off-air, the FCC can only enforce that rule after-the-fact. Same for pirate stations.
If KHLE intends to move closer to Austin, it has to get permission from the FCC in advance. It can't get said permission unless the rules change. Now, I have heard of stations moving their transmitters without permission, but the FCC comes down on them pretty hard. After all, a big company, like Emmis, complaining will get the FCC's attention. There's a reason most of these pirates try to stay far away from everyone and don't usually go out and sell advertising. The FCC may ignore listener complaints, but they won't ignore a licensed broadcaster owned by a multimillion dollar company!
Didn't this station use to simulcast KITY/KOTY radio along with 102.7 a couple of years back?
CTHank said:
Ok, yeah it's been awhile since I been to their website. Since they are no longer on 102.7 since 2008. I got the 9 and the 1 crossed on that one. So their main station is 102.9, and 106.1 not 106.9 repeats it. So anotherwards at one time Burnet had COLs for 106.1 and 106.9.
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