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AM 1520 kicks off classic country with Charlie Daniels' Simple Man

i remember the charlie daniels talent show on TNN quite a few years ago and he had guests on connected with the country music business.he asked one what he did and the guy said he managed a radio station.charlie asked what kind and the guy said country and charlie said "what other kind is there?"

i guess charlie forgot it was the rock stations that gave him his fame.
 
I wish they had gone all-news with their format, but you have to admire anyone who still believes in AM radio.

So, though I'm not a huge country fan, I'll listen, and patronize their advertisers.
 
NICE! we been waitin' for this.

a very smart move andy skotdal! please stick with it, and give it several years to work with a well thought out game plan. please have an internet broadcast ASAP, that way you can have national, and international listenership to show case this format. please take the time to assemble a well versed and musically educated air staff. yes, there are actually a few people left out here who know this music, and format. in house programming?

oh, and startin' off with "simple man" by CDB. you couldn't do better! the song says it all!!!!!

request: any chance of rotatin' the new hank jr song "keep the change", every hour, on the hour. who else is gonna? the FM behemoths? reckon not. also, new music from dolly parton, gene watson, merle haggard, george jones, loretta lynn is still coming out. and lots of it is damn good! its criminal no one is touching it on radio. maybe if KXA plays them, we could see these legends come to town for everett concert and station promotion. hey buddy, loretta started out her music career right here in the NW, just north of everett town.

it is of vital importance this classic country format survives deep into the future. 99.9% of this 70's, 80's, 90's music has been deleted from the playlists across this country, by design. in favor of the mostly new/current, slick sounding, candy coated, nashville countrypolitan jive.

THANKYOU SIR!
 
A big thank you to Andy! Before, CKMX or XM was your only way out of the ass-clown new currents. Bad news is KGDD roars in at night and hammers KKXA, will Bustos Media file a complaint w/ the FCC soon?

-crainbebo
 
I'm glad to hear news of a classic country radio going on the air.We need one in Connecticut.but it probably wont catch any numbers in the books.Unless its formatted right with a good mix of currents with classics.
 
WPPCProductions said:
I'm glad to hear news of a classic country radio going on the air.We need one in Connecticut.but it probably wont catch any numbers in the books.Unless its formatted right with a good mix of currents with classics.
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In places like the northeast where that kind of music isn't the norm, it might be worth trying to pitch such a format to AM daytime powerhouses. I might suggest with such a station that a hybrid income model (relying on donations, income from promotions and other sources as well as advertisement) might be the way to go to keep such a program on the air.
 
crainbebo said:
A big thank you to Andy! Before, CKMX or XM was your only way out of the ass-clown new currents. Bad news is KGDD roars in at night and hammers KKXA, will Bustos Media file a complaint w/ the FCC soon?

-crainbebo
Click to expand...

Crainbebo, Amador Bustos is someone whom I consider a friend. We actually discussed simulcasting KGDD and KKXA. I wish I knew how to speak, read, and write Spanish! He's a terrific broadcaster, and a great person to spend time with. And I'm glad at least the first page of responses here is positive. I was waiting to get flamed. KIXI has hit on some good positioning with their 'retro radio' presentation. The AM band has been sold down the river by larger companies who have researched themselves out of the AM band (when there are some well run AM stations still in smaller markets). When you take away the content and the outside promotion from the AM band, where are people going to go? I have to admit my pleasant surprise tonight at how good the analog AM signal sounded and we have some room for more adjustments. Even the coverage is better than the old KRKO at night, so far. There is something to be said for phase rotating the transmitter to match it to the transmission system and to ensure all the components of the AM transmission system are broadbanded. Uncompressed .wav files make a difference, too. A great deal of engineering effort and detail went into this 50kW diplex system (not to mention all the supporters, consultants, listeners, and my family), and I appreciate and recognize all of the individual contributions that helped to make this happen. Streaming is on the agenda, but we need to work out the rights agreements and install the gear still. And, we still have some issues we are chasing at the studio and transmitter site. Thank you for supporting us.
 
Signal was the best I've heard it at around 4:20 PM today (10-11), but not for long. When is approval expected for the full-power AM signal?
 
The station is a critical hours station, so we change pattern two hours after sunrise and two pre-sunset. When we go directional, we go to 50,000 Watts. The 20,000 Watt omni directional signal gets to air out each day for about four total hours in December and it won't be 50,000 Watts until sometime next year. We have a little more loudness we can get out of the signal which will increase perceived coverage a bit. Streaming will become important for this station.
 
I like classic country. Even though I grew up with rock music. Probably because back in the 70's Top 40 radio would play a few country songs next to Alice Cooper and Al Green.
I'll try to pick the station up today in Renton. There are a couple classic country stations on HD. KMPS HD2 and KNBQ HD2. But maybe in the car I can listen to KXA.
 
Last night around 10PM in Aldergrove, B.C. KKXA dominanted 1520, no sign of KGDD, however there was some pretty deep fading on KKXA. At the moment at 7:45AM it's basically an even mix between KKXA and KGDD.
 
Dan, thank you for the reception report. We now have at least four listeners in B.C. JakeMott, our HD configuration is all messed up, so if your radio starts swinging from analog to digital and back, you will hear a one second offset between the two signals. We had to swap audio processing gear at the last minute and haven't had time to set it all up, yet. You may just want to set your radio to forced analog when you're on 1520 for now.
 
Congratulations! Good format choice too. KKXA's signal is loud and proud in most of Snohomish and Northern King Counties. But still fairly weak up in the north end, but it is improving.

I'm no engineer (I'm like Beaver Cleaver at Fukushima when it comes to transmitter problems.) But do you think maybe if you just killed the HD, there might be some small further improvement?
 
Andrew Skotdal said:
JakeMott, our HD configuration is all messed up, so if your radio starts swinging from analog to digital and back, you will hear a one second offset between the two signals.
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I noticed that 1 second difference during blending today, other than that the HD sounded incredible (way better than KKDZ).

Andrew Skotdal said:
Streaming will become important for this station.
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I think you are in the perfect position to promote your digital outlets with this new station, while maintaining the nostalgic AM sound on the analog. OTA HD signals can be very appealing to your main audience listening in the car, and perhaps a mobile app for listening at the office which might have florescent lighting.

Congratulations on the launch of your new station!
 
Bongwater said:
But do you think maybe if you just killed the HD, there might be some small further improvement?
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Bongwater, we are going to conduct some experiments before the end of the month. Except for the eventual upgrade to the daytime signal, and possible tweaks we can make to our loudness in the audio processing (we're not as loud as KIXI or KJR, for example), you will hear improvement, though I doubt there will be much additional difference from dropping the HD carriers. Many opinions exist about whether or not HD carriers impact the signal, but much of the opinionated discussion ignores whether the mechanical transmission networks that match the antenna to the transmitter are "flat" and "rotated" to match each other. Stations that haven't paid attention to these aspects have all kinds of problems (and their analog audio probably doesn't sound so good with or without HD). Nevertheless, we'll try three different combinations and let you know.

JakeMott - the difference between AM analog and AM HD is truly incredible, despite our system still not being right, yet.

For everyone else, I'm still trying to get a grip on the nighttime signal coverage, so if you can point out where you get a good signal after 7:30 pm (or before 6:30 am) please send me an email at andrew <<dot>> skotdal *at* krko [dot] com. The criteria are "clean," "starting to get a little interference," "I'd listen if it was the World Series and you were the only outlet, but it's pretty bad" and "unlistenable." That anecdotal information is helpful in addition to letting me know if you're in your car or at your home or office.
 
Andrew Skotdal said:
Bongwater said:
But do you think maybe if you just killed the HD, there might be some small further improvement?
Click to expand...

Bongwater, we are going to conduct some experiments before the end of the month. Except for the eventual upgrade to the daytime signal, and possible tweaks we can make to our loudness in the audio processing (we're not as loud as KIXI or KJR, for example), you will hear improvement, though I doubt there will be much additional difference from dropping the HD carriers. Many opinions exist about whether or not HD carriers impact the signal, but much of the opinionated discussion ignores whether the mechanical transmission networks that match the antenna to the transmitter are "flat" and "rotated" to match each other. Stations that haven't paid attention to these aspects have all kinds of problems (and their analog audio probably doesn't sound so good with or without HD). Nevertheless, we'll try three different combinations and let you know.
Click to expand...

Actually, KJR-AM is PLENTY LOUD, KIXI, not quite as much. But KKXA's loudness isn't the problem, even on the AM section of a lousy Hyundai car radio, it sounded pretty good. Still have to hear what 1520 kHz sounds like YET in my trusty old '65 Ford F-100 with it's BEAUTIFUL factory built ORIGINAL '65 AM radio.) But when I do the long haul of drywall and supplies to Ellensburg early this Saturday morning with just this truck and it's AM radio, I'll let you know (sorry KWLE. I'll come back next Saturday....Promise...)
 
This afternoon, KXA was apparently on nighttime pattern & power for several hours before 4:15 p.m. In the morning, they had been operating non-directional. Perhaps doing some measurements on the pattern?
 
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