97.7 Lubbock

[JamzUSA]

Radio Locator stated that 97.7 is a simulcast of rock KUFO. Does this station actually exist? I think KUFO is in Portland.

 

[enjoythenoise]

> Radio Locator stated that 97.7 is a simulcast of rock KUFO.
> Does this station actually exist? I think KUFO is in
> Portland.
>
Radio Locator is incorrect. KUFO/Portland is not simulcast in Lubbock.

 

[Garrett]

> > Radio Locator stated that 97.7 is a simulcast of rock
> KUFO.
> > Does this station actually exist? I think KUFO is in
> > Portland.
> >
> Radio Locator is incorrect. KUFO/Portland is not simulcast
> in Lubbock.
>

(I think this was actually brought up before a long time ago).
If I recall, it turend out that at one point, Infinity owned a CP to put up a 97.7 in Lubbock as a repeater station, but never acted on it, and I think it was long expired. There may still be a 97.7 allocation officially, but in reality, it's silent. And besides, there'd probably be interference between 97.3 and 98.1 if there was.

So no, sorry, there's no 97.7 in Lubbock, not one that I'm aware of anyway...

 

[BigVoiceGuy]

97.7 at one time was a translator channel. Very low power with virtually no coverage unless you were sitting underneath the transmitter at the Bank of America building downtown. The only reason I remember it at all was because when I worked in Floydada, a guy convinced the station owner to flip the station to Big Band-Easy Listening and lease the thing.

 

[Kent]

> 97.7 at one time was a translator channel. Very low power
> with virtually no coverage unless you were sitting
> underneath the transmitter at the Bank of America building
> downtown. The only reason I remember it at all was because
> when I worked in Floydada, a guy convinced the station owner
> to flip the station to Big Band-Easy Listening and lease the
> thing.

The translator listing is pretty old. As I recall, it actually translated either 100.3 or 104.7, which had the calls of KUFO. 100.3 became KIOL and 104.7 became KLSC, or something of the like, in either '89 or '90. Shortly after Lamesa let them go, the KUFO calls went to KYTE in Portland.

 

[EasyPeazy]

> > 97.7 at one time was a translator channel. Very low power
>
> > with virtually no coverage unless you were sitting
> > underneath the transmitter at the Bank of America building
>
> > downtown. The only reason I remember it at all was
> because
> > when I worked in Floydada, a guy convinced the station
> owner
> > to flip the station to Big Band-Easy Listening and lease
> the
> > thing.
>
> The translator listing is pretty old. As I recall, it
> actually translated either 100.3 or 104.7, which had the
> calls of KUFO. 100.3 became KIOL and 104.7 became KLSC, or
> something of the like, in either '89 or '90. Shortly after
> Lamesa let them go, the KUFO calls went to KYTE in Portland.
>

This same discussion pops up occasionally. I can either resolve it once and for all, or add a lot of new questions.

The listing on Radio Locator is incorrect as far as the licensee goes - the current KUFO is licensed to Infinity, so I guess Radio Locator assumes the translator is licensed to the same.

According to the FCC's website, the translator is licensed to "J&J Broadcasting." Apparently at one time, this J&J outfit used to go into towns about the size of Lubbock and try to extort money from station owners. They would secure a translator license and then go to the station owners in town requesting a monthly payment to keep their particular format off it.

In Lubbock, I'm guessing FMX was the station they leaned on that wouldn't pay up because KUFO was a rock station in Midland-Odessa from 1979 to 1985.

http://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/.../call_hist.pl?Facility_id=48435&Callsign=KODM

That station is now KODM, and it's one of mine. In the transmitter building, there's a retired McMartin transmitter from the late 70's that has a nameplate on it that says "Built exclusively for KUFO Odessa." That's how I first learned KUFO hasn't always been in Portland.

What's interesting about this though is KODM (formerly KUFO) is on 97.9. That would have been a real hard catch next to a translator on 97.7 and especially difficult with 98.1 in Lorenzo at the time. It was surrounded with first-adjacents.

It probably sounded terrible - but not because of its power. 270 watts at close to 300' would actually cover a good chunk of Lubbock. But pulling in the parent station would have been really hard.

That's if it ever rebroadcast KUFO Odessa at all. I guess it would depend on when the translator was actually on the air. A quick call letter history search of KMMX Tahoka reveals that its call letters were also once KUFO.

http://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/...rod/call_hist.pl?Facility_id=86&Callsign=KMMX

They apparently picked the calls up when KUFO 97.9 dropped them and had them for a few years. I'd guess it's a safe bet that their format was also rock, and at that time they were targeting Midland with a tower in Lamesa. They probably didn't have much impact though, because country formatted KBAT 93.3 flipped to rock about a month after KUFO 97.9 went AC as KODM. KUFO on 100.3 would have been a much easier catch from the translator site in Lubbock, so that makes sense. It all depends on time.

Is that clear as mud?

Fortunately, the FCC changed the translator rules some time after this and made this type of extortion illegal and unprofitable, so J&J Broadcasting simply abandoned K249CD.

I guess nobody ever bothered to tell the FCC.