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610 KILT Downgrades

Another thread bump: Audacy has now filed an amendment to the proposed KILT diplex with KNTH. They are now requesting 2.7kw daytime power, down from the 4kw in the original application. Night power will still be 2.5kw.

Had been wondering when we might see some FCC action on this move, as the original application was filed more than eight months ago. Perhaps there were issues with the proposed 4kw power level.

Not good news for the viability of the 610 signal with the power cut in half, as well as being moved six miles to the north. Yet again I will beat the drum for Audacy purchasing KROI to be the new FM home for their Houston SportsTalker, before iHeart (790) or Gow (97.5) beat them to it.
 
Mediafrog+ said:
Another thread bump: Audacy has now filed an amendment to the proposed KILT diplex with KNTH. They are now requesting 2.7kw daytime power, down from the 4kw in the original application. Night power will still be 2.5kw.

Had been wondering when we might see some FCC action on this move, as the original application was filed more than eight months ago. Perhaps there were issues with the proposed 4kw power level.
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Likely the Commission staff had been reviewing it and determined the proposed station wasn't compatible with their internal models and reached back out to Audacy for an amendment.

Mediafrog+ said:
Not good news for the viability of the 610 signal with the power cut in half, as well as being moved six miles to the north. Yet again I will beat the drum for Audacy purchasing KROI to be the new FM home for their Houston SportsTalker, before iHeart (790) or Gow (97.5) beat them to it.
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Yeah.... AM is already in such bad shape in urban areas unless you are very high powered. Even 50,000 watt KTRH can have some issues under certain transmission lines and inside some structures in the market. 610 is nice and low on the band, but 2700 watts is not going to be enough to get the job done.

Maybe they think just have a presence on AM is enough (more a less a billboard) and the ones who can't get a good strong single will use their bad smartphone app?
 
Back to KILT-AM. Interesting that both Houston and Philly had sports talkers on 610 at the same time, once upon a time,

What was KILT's power in it's top 40 glory days under McLendon? Could it be heard well in say, Galveston?
 
ixnay said:
Back to KILT-AM. Interesting that both Houston and Philly had sports talkers on 610 at the same time, once upon a time
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Audacy has another SportsTalker on 610, KCSP in Kansas City. They are branded as “610 Sports Radio”. You can often hear them underneath KILT at night, which will be more apparent after the downgrade.
ixnay said:
What was KILT's power in it's top 40 glory days under McLendon? Could it be heard well in say, Galveston?
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Same power as today, 5kw day and night. The low frequency helped it put a good signal up and down the Texas Gulf coast region.
 
I was looking at KILT's coverage area and it looks like they're basically decreasing the signal into the gulf and maintaining it in the populated area. This looks like a good move to me, better in some places and worse in others. You have to quadruple power to double a signal so cutting the power in half isn't all that much of a change and I think that focusing it within the populated area will make up for most of it.
 
Mediafrog+ said:
Not good news for the viability of the 610 signal with the power cut in half, as well as being moved six miles to the north. Yet again I will beat the drum for Audacy purchasing KROI to be the new FM home for their Houston SportsTalker, before iHeart (790) or Gow (97.5) beat them to it.
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It doesn't make sense. Radio One's heart certainly doesn't seem to be all in on Praise and yet there it sits quarter after quarter. I agree that Praise appears to be a placeholder, but maybe that is not correct.

I don't know about a purchase, but there has to be some way to work out a trade between Audacy and Radio One. Maybe KROI goes to Audacy in exchange for a cluster or partial cluster in Memphis, Greensboro, or Norfolk going to Radio One?

Speaking of trades, how is standalone KRBE still in the Cumulus portfolio. Perhaps it is important to them to have a presence in a certain number of top 10 markets.
 
Ryan Williams said:
It doesn't make sense. Radio One's heart certainly doesn't seem to be all in on Praise and yet there it sits quarter after quarter. I agree that Praise appears to be a placeholder, but maybe that is not correct.
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I have noticed that KROI has 30 minute infomercials scattered around its weekend schedule, which is never a good sign for a music oriented FM. It would appear that Radio One has completely thrown in the towel on the station, and is squeezing it for whatever revenue it can get. It might be little more than a zombie format at this point.
Ryan Williams said:
I don't know about a purchase, but there has to be some way to work out a trade between Audacy and Radio One. Maybe KROI goes to Audacy in exchange for a cluster or partial cluster in Memphis, Greensboro, or Norfolk going to Radio One?
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I will be very surprised if Radio One still owns KROI a year from now, and absolutely dumbfounded if the Praise format is still in place, infomercials and all. Turning it into a SportsTalker just makes too much sense, which is why I’d like to see Audacy grab the station. It would save the current KILT format from a downgraded signal on a dying AM band, and would probably drive a stake through the heart of KFNC, which I suspect is a money loser as a stand-alone FM with a bad signal. It would also leave the SportsTalk format of 790 stranded on AM.
 
Kelly A said:
Duplexing with another station is always a compromise at least one way vs. a single site.
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Unless your stations are non-directional and pretty far apart on the dial.

I built my first diplexed AM operation in 1966 in 1966 with an AM on 570 and another on 805. They were far enough apart that we could reject each other without having narrow bandwidth on each frequency. We saved a lot of money on having one fulltime watchman for two stations, one generator, one fuel delivery, one voltage regulation system and just one full set of parts for two identical transmitters.

570 had been "solo" on the tower for about 18 months before the second station was added, so we had lots of experience on coverage, audio and the like and noted no deterioration from the diplexing.

Stations #3 and #4 in the market were on 590 and 660, so we had to build separate sites for each of those, unfortunately.
 
Ryan Williams said:
I'm not sure if that is necessarily the case here with KILT. It is more like can we have our cake and eat it too.
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it is not only the value of the property, where the value of the real estate is worth more than any revenue they will lose by moving and or downgrading, it is the cost of the real estate taxes and maintaining the towers.... so if you decide to take a little less money in advertising, but cut your operating expenses quite a bit, and put some cash in your pocket while doing it it is something you give serious consideration to.
 
Update: The amended application for KILT to diplex with KNTH was approved by the FCC today. Will run 2.7kw with five towers during the day and 2.5kw with six towers at night.
 
MRBIboredop said:
it is not only the value of the property, where the value of the real estate is worth more than any revenue they will lose by moving and or downgrading, it is the cost of the real estate taxes and maintaining the towers.... so if you decide to take a little less money in advertising, but cut your operating expenses quite a bit, and put some cash in your pocket while doing it it is something you give serious consideration to.
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Also consider that may "heritage" sites were built before WW II, and were based on serving a population area that may have radically changed since then. What may seem like a downgrade may actually better cover where people actually live.
 
DavidEduardo said:
Also consider that may "heritage" sites were built before WW II, and were based on serving a population area that may have radically changed since then.
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I believe the current KILT site is the original from 1948.
DavidEduardo said:
What may seem like a downgrade may actually better cover where people actually live.
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In some cases that might be true, but the new KILT site will be six miles north of the old site (farther for most listeners) and the power is cut in half. Might improve reception a bit in the high-growth areas of far north Harris County and the southern part of Montgomery County, but for most of the sprawling Houston metro area (and most of its high-growth areas) this will definitely result in a degraded signal. Again, Audacy should go after KROI and get the format on FM.
 
Mediafrog+ said:
Not good news for the viability of the 610 signal with the power cut in half, as well as being moved six miles to the north. Yet again I will beat the drum for Audacy purchasing KROI to be the new FM home for their Houston SportsTalker, before iHeart (790) or Gow (97.5) beat them to it.
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I don't think anyone has any idea what Radio One is thinking at this point. But what could Audacy be thinking at this point? Surely, there's a first-mover advantage to getting a high-quality sports product on a high-quality signal. And if anyone knows that, it's them! -- having moved stations in Boston, Philadelphia, New York, Detroit, and Memphis under similar circumstances.

With the newly weaker signal for 610, and 92.1 living the gospel/infomercials life, I'd think at some point Audacy would start looking elsewhere. All of their own FMs seem to be performing just fine. Could they make a move for one of Univision or Estrella's FMs? Or could they trade Cumulus in another market to get KRBE, merge the best of KRBE and Mix, and go sports on 96.5?
 
JustinT said:
With the newly weaker signal for 610, and 92.1 living the gospel/infomercials life, I'd think at some point Audacy would start looking elsewhere. All of their own FMs seem to be performing just fine. Could they make a move for one of Univision or Estrella's FMs? Or could they trade Cumulus in another market to get KRBE, merge the best of KRBE and Mix, and go sports on 96.5?
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Nothing is going to happen to the formats of KRBE or Mix.

The Estrella signals are all rimshots and 98.5 is doing very well considering that fact.

Perhaps Univision would part with 93.3, but that is a another rimshot is not going to be sufficient for 610's audience and why would Audacy want to max out their local ownership with that marginal signal?
 
Mediafrog+ said:
I believe the current KILT site is the original from 1948.

In some cases that might be true, but the new KILT site will be six miles north of the old site (farther for most listeners) and the power is cut in half. Might improve reception a bit in the high-growth areas of far north Harris County and the southern part of Montgomery County, but for most of the sprawling Houston metro area (and most of its high-growth areas) this will definitely result in a degraded signal. Again, Audacy should go after KROI and get the format on FM.
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Given that 610 was 5 kW with a four tower inline array and the new site is 2.7 kW with either five or six towers, I don't think it's going to suffer that much. The rule of inverse law says you have to cut your power by a quarter to lose 6 DB which in most radio vernacular is an "S unit". Hardly noticeable on any AM radio. Considering that Montgomery County to the north is growing like gangbusters, any improvement up there can't hurt
 
ContinuousWave said:
Given that 610 was 5 kW with a four tower inline array and the new site is 2.7 kW with either five or six towers, I don't think it's going to suffer that much. The rule of inverse law says you have to cut your power by a quarter to lose 6 DB which in most radio vernacular is an "S unit". Hardly noticeable on any AM radio. Considering that Montgomery County to the north is growing like gangbusters, any improvement up there can't hurt
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In a noisy world, I argue that 6dB could be a significant real world loss.
 
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