I know, I know, I'm one of the few on this board who actually listens with any regularity to KRLA. But even I have to admit that the decrease in power from 50,000 watts down to 3000 (!!!) watts in the afternoon makes the station literally unlistenable. Can anyone shed any light on what's up with that?
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Another reason to hate KRLA
- Thread starter rosariorose9
- Start date
KRLA is on a clear channel where WWL in New Orleans is guaranteed extensive night protection. Until a few decades ago, no station on 870 in the "lower 48" was allowed to operate at night anywhere.
A certain relaxation of the rules, plus the move in frequency of a station in Honolulu permitted KRLA to begin limited night operation. But they have to give extreme protection to WWL as well as stations on adjacent frequencies at night.
It would seem that KRLA should get higher power since nobody is going to listen to WWL in this area, but the issue is about interference from KRLA to the east in the areas where WWL is "protected".
Thanks, David. Very much appreciate that info. The breadth of your knowledge on these issues is daunting, to say the least! In any event, WWL may get that night 'protection', but the result - here in Los Angeles, at least - is a melange of talk radio and Mexican music...
The Spanish language music is KLSQ in the Las Vegas market... another one of the reasons KRLA can not increase power at night.
I do not understand the protection standards. Isn't the 880 in Nebraska as much of an interferer with WCBS as KRLA would be with WWL? Or the 1030 in Wyoming with WBZ? Or for that matter KBOI with whatever WMAQ is now, or KDWN with WGN, etc. Can we say that the protection standards are variable, flexible, case by case? Is that accurate? KCBQ was tolerable at 5kw nights in San Diego but at 2.? you might as well be DXing France: to protect whatever KVOO is now.
While the details are quite complicated, here is the essence...
After the clear channel broadcasters group made up of essentially all of the 25 1-A clear channel stations in the US was turned down on its request for power increases in a final decision by the FCC, the Commission considered allowing an additional major operation on most of the clear channels. The decision against going to 500 kw or more came in, IIRC, 1968, and by the early 70s planning was going on to add stations that would serve underserved areas of the US... so-called gray areas.
The protection on the 1-A stations was set to, I believe, 750 miles on night skywave. All new stations had to be very directional so as not to step on the protected contours... thus you have KRVN which can not be heard 20 miles to the east at night, but which covers huge areas of central and western NE at night.
All the stations put on the clears had similar severe directionality. Kalispell, Boise, Eugene, Reno, Las Vegas, Window Rock, Grand Junction, Guymon, St George, Roswell, WY, all are heavily directional. The obstacle to these secondary stations on the main clear channels was the ongoing effort of the clear channel association to increase power by 10 to 15 times, which would have precluded those operations.
An interesting case was 1020 in Roswell, which had financial difficulties. Storer, a major broadcaster at the time, offered to finance and assist in the building of the 50 kw Roswell facility in exchange for the FCC allowing it to convert daytimer KGBS in LA to fulltime, accepting high levels of interference while still protecting both Roswell and Pittsburgh.
Since the "breakdown" of the clears was specifically intended by the FCC to cover gray areas, most were in much smaller cities. And since the eastern US had few gray areas, most were in the mountain west.
Thanks for that explanation, especially about 1020 which has always seemed strange. Even stranger, 1580 with 50 kw stations in LA, Phoenix, and Hermosillo. Long ago when 1100 San Francisco worked an agreement with the Cleveland clear channel for evening time the FCC declared that clear channel rights were not (I believe the term was) alienable, you couldn't sell them or bargain them away, but that seems to be not the case any more. Anyway, there is not much clear about clear channels any more.
Here's what six sticks and 50kw looks like at night for KMIK in Phoenix: http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=KMIK&service=AM&status=L&hours=N Just about one null for each stick! Non directional day, but it's Radio Disney and they don't care about ratings....or money (look at the haircut they got in Albany)!
But getting back to KRLA...that third tower isn't a tower after all. Professor Fybush 'splains it here: http://www.fybush.com/site-of-the-week-2312-krla-870-glendale-ca/ How would you paint something like that?!!
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Hermosillo is the "owner" of the Mexican clear channel assignment. Canada has secondary rights to 1580. As such, US stations were, in the past, limited to no power or low power at night (Lake Charles, Ft. Lauderdale) or very directional operations such as KDAY. When rules were changed so that KNIX (now the home of Mickey) could go to nights, it was only able to do so by protecting the entire Mexican border.
The "border protection" element applies for both Canadian and Mexican clears (and even the lone Bahamian one) by prohibiting intrusion anywhere along the border. Of course, this resulted in rather chaotic assignments outside the protected nation, as 1580 shows. Both stations there protect the Mexican border by shooting narrow beams out to sea.
Interestingly, although Canada has eliminated 60% or 70% of its AMs and Mexico is in the process of eliminating 85% of theirs, US stations will still have to protect the notified assignments, even if they are not on the air.
Every Sunday evening when KDKA would sign-off at midnight Eastern, 9PM Pacific, KGBS would fire up the 50 kw until KDKA signed-on Monday morning. Seemed to me they also came on after Pittsburgh sunrise as I listened to Hudson & Landry up in Boise.
Any chance this increasingly ridiculous situation will change? Or would relief on this front be too little, too late to save AM in the United States? And how long before our AMs start going dark at a rate approaching Canada's and Mexico's?
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