AM application: how not to "get 'er done."

[jd]

KTON in Belton, which filed an application last year to move to Kaufman, is no more. They have lost their license and the call letters have been deleted.

The daytime-only station had filed an application for a healthy upgrade from 1,000 to 4,500 watts that would have provided coverage of Waco at one time, then filed for a move to Lancaster with an increase to a whopping 50,000 watts. Both were denied and their most application for Kaufman, with 600 watts day and 100 at night, has now been dismissed as moot since the station didn't make it back on the air by the March deadline in Belton. JLF Communications had pleaded that they had lost their transmitter site and wanted to use a temporary antenna from a site east of Belton but the Commission denied it.

Obviously, trying to move the station to the D/FW area didn't turn out to be such a great idea and the ownership made numerous mistakes along the way. They bought KTON in 2006 so they could upgrade it, took it silent almost immediately and it had been on the air only sporadically just to keep the license. According to FCC records KTON had been silent since December 2008; this time they dropped the ball and paid the price. It's a shame to see the death of a once legendary local station after almost 49 years.

 

[dfaulkner]

I used to listen to KTON when I was down that way occasionally. I think I applied for a job there at some point. Was going to ask if they were owned by Keystone Kops Broadcasting, but actually in the words of Ross Perot (or maybe it was more SNL spoofing Ross Perot) "that's just sad..."

 

[MikeShannon914]

I always thought it was pointless to shutter KKLF/KDSX-950 and move them to 1700 as part of the AM Dial Expansion Program, just to turn around and let someone do a DFW move-in at 940.

Pinto's right; KTON was just fine in Belton until Dan Frishberg came a-callin' with his sob story about how MRBI wouldn't cater to his demands with KMNY-1360. Frishberg was going to buy the station and move it from Belton to Lancaster (later Royse City) to put BizRadio back on the air. I believe that was around the time Frish fired the only "radio" person in his operation, and decided that beancounters and investors know best. Not factored in the mix were the cost of the tower, the endless FCC red tape of lobes and MAJOR engineering issues, and the studios (with a pricey link from the Sundance Square studios he was DETERMINED to have no matter what, all the way to Royse City.) It was cheaper to buy KJSA-1120. Hell, Frishberg reneged anyway, but I don't think he could have gotten KTON on the air here for the same $400K he spent (then lost) for KJSA.

 

[jd]

Frishberg was going to buy the station and move it from Belton to Lancaster (later Royse City) to put BizRadio back on the air.

That was a pretty typical move from him, too, asking for the moon when a modest facility would have had a better chance for approval (and a possible future upgrade). Oh, and one minor point, although it's now just a historical footnote: the COL for the 50kW upgrade was Lancaster for as long as that application was active, although the transmitter site was to have been located near Royse City.

But back to the original subject of JLF losing the license for KTON, there's much more to the story. First this from the FCC, chiding JLF for not notifying them that KTON was off the air: http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/getimportletter_exh.cgi?import_letter_id=17317

I don't know how I overlooked this until now; seems that former owner M&M Broadcasting not only took the towers down, they dismantled them, too. Here's a letter from M&M's counsel to the FCC [page 3], featuring a "C.Y.A." statement: http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/getimportletter_exh.cgi?import_letter_id=17324

Maybe this is why JLF filed applications to move the station, hoping to get them approved quickly, since the site was barren. But you'd think that if they could afford hiring an engineer to formulate an upgrade at whatever location, they could have found the money for rent. That way they could have kept KTON on the air at Belton so they could have kept their license. I said earlier that they had been on sporadically, as someone else reported and I thought that I had heard them as well. But maybe not.