• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

1190 AM Flips to Classic Country

Entertainment Media Trust d/b/a Insane Broadcasting Co. has completed its purchase of KRFT 1190 AM DeSoto/St. Louis from Big League Broadcasting. On Saturday, the station flipped from Sports Talk programming to a Classic Country format with the new calls KQQZ, simulcasting sister station 1510 AM in Highland, IL, which has switched call letters from WXOZ to WQQW. 1190 has a huge 10kW Daytime signal that can heard 150+ Miles to the South and Southwest of St. Louis. They broadcast currently at flea power at night, however, they have a Construction Permit for 6.5kW from a seperate tower site, and a new City of License of University City. Online streaming is already available at kqqz1190am.com. Running jockless, with CNN News at :55 past the hour. The mix of music they are playing is very broad, with even a few currents mixed in.
 
Maybe I'm missing it, but there appears to be no legal id for 1510. They run the same id as 1190, but it may just be a temporary thing. Rumor has it that 1510 will go Spanish. No word on when or if it will happen.
 
The legal ID is coming at about :45 past or so - KQQZ University City - St. Louis; Simulcast on 1510 WQQW Highland -St Louis. I had heard the Spanish thing fell apart. Don't know what the future holds for 1510, although a major signal upgrade is in the works. I'm guessing the two will simulcast for a fair ammount of time to move any 1510 listeners over to 1190 before flipping.

Major work has been done on the 1190 signal - it is now loud and clear throughout St. Charles County, and pumping out a full 10,000 watts for perhaps the first time ever. That station has long been an afterthought to previous owners, so nobody spent the money and time to get the signal up to what it should've been in the first place with the directional array. Now, I'd say, over the immediate St. Louis metro, it is one of the strongest and listenable AM stations on the air. The audio quality sounds excellent for AM now, too. I think they might actually garner more listeners with 1190 than 1430 if they put some personality into the station. I've heard longtime Country jock and Maplewood Mayor Mark Langston is programming it.
 
The legal ID I have heard still listed KQQZ as De Soto-St. Louis. If it changed, it must have been recent.

I noticed 1190 was off the air this afternoon, and as of 10 PM this evening is still off.

In spite of the unorthodox ownership and questionable business model (i.e. no commercials to sustain it) of KQQZ/KZQZ, I enjoy these stations. It sure beats the usual suspects one finds on AM. One day they might be something else, but that day isn't today.

While the daytime signal is great, the nighttime signal could use a lot of work. Last Sunday, I did a drive along the new I-64 and crossed into the Metro-East to Edwardsville. The night signal is unlistenable to Hanley, readable at Hampton, and listenable at Vandeventer. The strong signal continues on I-55/70 and begins to drop at the I-255 interchange. From I-255 north the signal stayed readable and degraded further at the I-270/I-255 interchange. The change in the COL and power increase would definitely help.

Another thing I have noticed is that while 1510 closes their programming down at sunset, they do not power down at night, and have not done so since 2008. I suspect the owners do not have remote facilities to shut down the station at night, as required.

I had heard about a brokered Spanish format going to 1510. Had that happened, that would be two Highland, IL stations catering to a Hispanic market (WIJR 880 being the other). Which is funny, considering Highland is known for its Swiss heritage, and slow acceptance of newcomers. In the early 1900's, they had a newspaper that was printed in German, and had occasional ads in English.
 
mbatchelor said:
They broadcast currently at flea power at night, however, they have a Construction Permit for 6.5kW from a seperate tower site, and a new City of License of University City.

Listened to their audio stream this morning and they announced their COL as University City.

Do they even intend on building the new 6.5kW tower site for expanded nighttime coverage? The CP for their
new nighttime tower site runs out next October. Dull tower sites are very expensive to run and maintain. That
makes me wonder if they will bother building that new nighttime tower site.???

Here is the nighttime coverage area for their CP:

http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=KQQZ&service=AM&status=C&hours=N

Thanks for the update!
 
Im DX'ing in East Texas and KQQZ is coming in through some interference here at 2:29 AM. They must be on their new night array now or someone forgot the lower the power on the old one. ???
 
The last few nights, 1190 KQQZ comes booming into west county.

Did they build based on the CP, or have they forgotten to drop to 22 watts at night?
 
gabigley1 said:
mbatchelor said:
They broadcast currently at flea power at night, however, they have a Construction Permit for 6.5kW from a seperate tower site, and a new City of License of University City.

Listened to their audio stream this morning and they announced their COL as University City.

Do they even intend on building the new 6.5kW tower site for expanded nighttime coverage? The CP for their
new nighttime tower site runs out next October. Dull tower sites are very expensive to run and maintain. That
makes me wonder if they will bother building that new nighttime tower site.???

Here is the nighttime coverage area for their CP:

http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=KQQZ&service=AM&status=C&hours=N

Thanks for the update!

1190 is supposed to add night service by building a separate Night time tower site... Anyone know the status of that new tower site?
Since their CP. for the new site expires in less then three months, they should be building it by now.
 
gabigley1 said:
gabigley1 said:
mbatchelor said:
They broadcast currently at flea power at night, however, they have a Construction Permit for 6.5kW from a seperate tower site, and a new City of License of University City.

Listened to their audio stream this morning and they announced their COL as University City.

Do they even intend on building the new 6.5kW tower site for expanded nighttime coverage? The CP for their
new nighttime tower site runs out next October. Dull tower sites are very expensive to run and maintain. That
makes me wonder if they will bother building that new nighttime tower site.???

Here is the nighttime coverage area for their CP:

http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=KQQZ&service=AM&status=C&hours=N

Thanks for the update!

1190 is supposed to add night service by building a separate Night time tower site... Anyone know the status of that new tower site?
Since their CP. for the new site expires in less then three months, they should be building it by now.

1190 has decided not to build the separate 6.5KW tower site but instead they have applied for much lower night power from their current daytime site. Separate daytime/nighttime transmitter sites can be very expensive to operate and maintain so this makes sense. The trade off is they
are only able to have much lower nighttime power at night.
 
They have applied for 650 Watts Nightime, and a new COL of Fairview Heights, IL which would receive 24-7 coverage from the upgraded night facility. It is Bob R.'s intention to make 1190 a hometown station for the Metro East - something that it has been lacking for years since all of the East Side AMs went to religious or ethnic operators, and 1260 went Radio Disney, and FMs like the old 104.9 WCBW moved into St.L leaving the east side without a voice. Hope it works out for him. Don't believe all you hear, he's not a bad guy at all.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom