Emperor Gene Nelson 1260 KSFO/KYA

[michael hagerty]

As long as the ground wires are intact, you can put concrete, asphalt or even buildings on top of a ground system. In fact, pavement over the ground prevents damage and theft of the copper... a popular salvage commodity among thieves today.

I've always wanted to ask someone who knows this, David---yes to the above, but doesn't it inhibit moisture, which then inhibits ground conductivity?

 

[cc333]

I was living in Ukiah a little less than 30 years ahead of you (1976 and 1977). Things were different.

If you strip out the town and just look at the natural surroundings, it's not much different from the upper Napa Valley---St. Helena, for example.

But when the area developed, its proximity to lumber was what stood out. Masonite was the town's largest employer when I was there. So it grew up on labor, not leisure.

Yes! I've heard lots about Masonite. Apparently as recently as the 90s (when, exactly, did they shut down? I've never found out), they were a big deal, and people often wished they were still in business because of the economic void their absence created.

The population, as I'm sure you know, is still only about 15-20,000, so it hasn't grown much over 50 years, and the surroundings are still beautiful (when they're not burning, anyway).

The strongest San Francisco AMs (KSFO, KFRC, KNBR, KCBS, KGO) came in like locals in Ukiah, because the noise floor was lower. Interference from electronic devices and fluorescent lights pretty well ate the AM band between the time I was there and the time you were.

Yeah, more recently (2004-present), KSFO and KNBR are often rather weak and noisy, especially at night, but KGO, KFRC and KCBS are among the strongest, and they sound better than most of the local stations (most notably, they tend to be louder, so they can cut through the noise better).

And, as for KXBX, it's a 500-watt station at 1270. It was KBLC when I was there, and a daytimer. They now have night power of 97 watts. The reason it sounded like KABL was that KABL's morning man from 1960-1993, Bill Moen, retired to Lakeport, where he had a second home and helped them create that sound there.

I did know about Bill Moen at KXBX! I never listened to him much (I think his show was called Moen in the Morning, or some variation thereof), but no so much from a lack of interest but for the fact that I'm not much of a morning person, and I was rarely up early enough to tune in to it. It took me a few years to realize the KABL connection, basically because I tuned in for the music, and would turn the radio down whenever there was talk other than when the DJs were announcing song titles (such as promos or commercials).

500 watts was actually good enough that I could sometimes hear 1270 as far south as the Calistoga side of Mt. Saint Helena or the US101 corridor from Cloverdale to Hopland. At night, however, I was lucky if I could hear it clearly as close as downtown Lakeport!

And is it me, or has KXBX AM always been a bit on the quiet side? I've also noticed that sometimes, when playing a stereo song, one of the channels would be dropped.

As I think I mentioned above, I go back occasionally, having married a Ukiah girl. Masonite closed decades ago, there's more winegrowing, less local business, and a much bigger divide between rich and poor.

Yeah, lots of wine, but it's slowly being displaced by marijuana nowadays, both legal and otherwise (a combination of the wide rich-poor divide and hippy-ness from Berkeley, perhaps?) The Clear Lake area wasn't much better until fairly recently; over there, winegrowing has actually been somewhat of a good thing economically, of course until they started soaking up what little was left of the water up in the hills....

c

 

[michael hagerty]

Yes! I've heard lots about Masonite. Apparently as recently as the 90s (when, exactly, did they shut down? I've never found out), they were a big deal, and people often wished they were still in business because of the economic void their absence created.

The population, as I'm sure you know, is still only about 15-20,000, so it hasn't grown much over 50 years, and the surroundings are still beautiful (when they're not burning, anyway).


Yeah, more recently (2004-present), KSFO and KNBR are often rather weak and noisy, especially at night, but KGO, KFRC and KCBS are among the strongest, and they sound better than most of the local stations (most notably, they tend to be louder, so they can cut through the noise better).


I did know about Bill Moen at KXBX! I never listened to him much (I think his show was called Moen in the Morning, or some variation thereof), but no so much from a lack of interest but for the fact that I'm not much of a morning person, and I was rarely up early enough to tune in to it. It took me a few years to realize the KABL connection, basically because I tuned in for the music, and would turn the radio down whenever there was talk other than when the DJs were announcing song titles (such as promos or commercials).

500 watts was actually good enough that I could sometimes hear 1270 as far south as the Calistoga side of Mt. Saint Helena or the US101 corridor from Cloverdale to Hopland. At night, however, I was lucky if I could hear it clearly as close as downtown Lakeport!

And is it me, or has KXBX AM always been a bit on the quiet side? I've also noticed that sometimes, when playing a stereo song, one of the channels would be dropped.


Yeah, lots of wine, but it's slowly being displaced by marijuana nowadays, both legal and otherwise (a combination of the wide rich-poor divide and hippy-ness from Berkeley, perhaps?) The Clear Lake area wasn't much better until fairly recently; over there, winegrowing has actually been somewhat of a good thing economically, of course until they started soaking up what little was left of the water up in the hills....

c

I had to go looking. Masonite closed in 2001, with 281 jobs lost. It had employed as many as 500 in the 1960s and 70s. The plant opened in 1948. The reason they gave for closing was a lack of demand for hardboard siding.

In raw numbers, Ukiah's not a lot bigger now than it was in the mid-late 70s, certainly not in the way Santa Rosa has grown in the same period, but it's a doubling of the population.

The San Francisco stations were so strong that when I came to town we (KUKI-AM) got serious. Presentation, production and music needed to stand against KSFO, KFRC and KNBR, or at least not be embarrassingly short of those standards. Our 20-year-old whiz kid chief engineer, David Williams, arranged for a loan for long term testing of one of Mike Durrough's first six-band processing units, and we used it to make ourselves as loud on the dial as the other guys.

I didn't hear KBLC enough when I lived there to really get an impression. Again, it was a daytimer. Once David had the Durrough in the rack, we were getting calls from Lakeport, though.

 

[cc333]

I didn't hear KBLC enough when I lived there to really get an impression. Again, it was a daytimer. Once David had the Durrough in the rack, we were getting calls from Lakeport, though.

Ah, yes. I had read that KXBX was KBLC back then (LC for Lake County, maybe?). Long before my time, though.

I had to go looking. Masonite closed in 2001, with 281 jobs lost. It had employed as many as 500 in the 1960s and 70s. The plant opened in 1948. The reason they gave for closing was a lack of demand for hardboard siding.

Interesting, we moved there in 2004, and started venturing to Ukiah for shopping a year or two later (nowadays, Ukiah is to Lakeport as Santa Rosa was to Ukiah back during your time there). That could explain why the community there seemed so depressed and run down at the time (it has since picked up considerably, as I'm sure you've noticed).

c

 

[michael hagerty]

Ah, yes. I had read that KXBX was KBLC back then (LC for Lake County, maybe?). Long before my time, though.


Interesting, we moved there in 2004, and started venturing to Ukiah for shopping a year or two later (nowadays, Ukiah is to Lakeport as Santa Rosa was to Ukiah back during your time there). That could explain why the community there seemed so depressed and run down at the time (it has since picked up considerably, as I'm sure you've noticed).

c

The original licensee for KBLC was Lake County Broadcasting---I'm guessing maybe KLCB was already taken, so they flipped it.

As for Ukiah, yeah---I'm fairly stunned that Costco and In-N-Out, both of which have meticulous population targets that have to be hit to get a store, are there, but---hey, it works. And In-N-Out is doing way better business than Fjord's Smorgateria, which was probably just an abandoned shell when you were there.

 

[cc333]

Yeah, Fjords was long gone by the time I was there, but the empty building and big sign were still standing, abandoned. They were eventually torn down to make way for In-N-Out sometime in the past 5 or so years. I almost wish they had kept the sign at least, as it almost seemed like a historic landmark of Ukiah's past, but... progress!

Costco was being built a little bit more recently, I think about 4 years ago (I know it was being built during the summer of 2018, because they completely redid and expanded the south-bound 101 off ramp to Talmage road, and completely rebuilt Airport Park Boulevard, presumably to handle the anticipated substantial traffic increase.

I have to say that both have been wildly successful.

Lakeport, on the other hand, seems to be dying. It lost K-Mart, the only general-purpose department store for miles in any direction, in December 2019, and while there's three supermarkets (Safeway, Bruno's Shopsmart, and Grocery Outlet), there's no place to get normal household stuff like clothes, electronics and small appliances except at the local hardware stores (both of which charge nearly double what K-Mart did for the same items, pretty much).

Of course, they've had it a lot harder than Ukiah: the entirety of northern and western Lake County was evacuated in August 2018, during peak tourism season, which severely damaged the local economy. And then COVID shut down most of what was left. It still hasn't recovered, and unless something big happens, I think it's in a permanent decline at this point. This is one of the reasons (albeit a minor one) why I left, actually.

Anyway, let's get back to radio for a moment!

Have you heard of KPFZ? KMEC?? If you've been there anytime in the past 15 years, I'm sure you have, but I'll ask anyway....

c

 

[michael hagerty]

Yeah, Fjords was long gone by the time I was there, but the empty building and big sign were still standing, abandoned. They were eventually torn down to make way for In-N-Out sometime in the past 5 or so years. I almost wish they had kept the sign at least, as it almost seemed like a historic landmark of Ukiah's past, but... progress!

Costco was being built a little bit more recently, I think about 4 years ago (I know it was being built during the summer of 2018, because they completely redid and expanded the south-bound 101 off ramp to Talmage road, and completely rebuilt Airport Park Boulevard, presumably to handle the anticipated substantial traffic increase.

I have to say that both have been wildly successful.

Lakeport, on the other hand, seems to be dying. It lost K-Mart, the only general-purpose department store for miles in any direction, in December 2019, and while there's three supermarkets (Safeway, Bruno's Shopsmart, and Grocery Outlet), there's no place to get normal household stuff like clothes, electronics and small appliances except at the local hardware stores (both of which charge nearly double what K-Mart did for the same items, pretty much).

Of course, they've had it a lot harder than Ukiah: the entirety of northern and western Lake County was evacuated in August 2018, during peak tourism season, which severely damaged the local economy. And then COVID shut down most of what was left. It still hasn't recovered, and unless something big happens, I think it's in a permanent decline at this point. This is one of the reasons (albeit a minor one) why I left, actually.

Anyway, let's get back to radio for a moment!

Have you heard of KPFZ? KMEC?? If you've been there anytime in the past 15 years, I'm sure you have, but I'll ask anyway....

c

They actually promised to keep the sign---and then just kept the posts that put the sign high up above 101.

I have been over there in the past 15 years, but didn't do a lot of listening---checked out KUKI just for old times sake (I was the PD for a couple of years). Most of my listening goes to KOZT.

 

[Lou_S]

Oh, wow. I lived and worked in Ukiah (programmed KUKI in 1976 and '77) and married a Ukiah girl.

You're right---610 came in like a local.

The biggest difference in the KSFO and KFRC signals (besides RKO's obsession with technical excellence) was that the 610 stick is on very damp ground next to the Berkeley Marina while KSFO's is at Islais Creek, south of Pier 80.

I worked in Santa Rosa for John Detz, the owner of Visionary Radio (KVRE and KQTE) about that time. John "retired" there when stress related health problems forced him to leave Century Broadcasting (KWST) in Los Angeles. His idea of stress reduction was to buy and run a low pressure AM/FM combo in bucolic Santa Rosa. He was the first broadcaster to recognize the Santa Rosa trading area extended to Ft. Bragg, Ukiah and Lake County. Within a year we built KOZT in Ft. Bragg and added translators to cover Willits and Ukiah. Budgets were tight but we wanted to have a strong community presence. KOZT had live and local programming and we built the station in a ground level storefront in an old Victorian building across the highway from the Skunk Train depot so people could walk by and see the DJ live on the air. The building had two bay windows flanking the entry door. One window showcased the air studio and record library, the other opened into the station manager's office. There was also a very small production studio in back. Both of the other stations in the market signed off at midnight, John decided to go 24 hours when he found he could hire an overnight jock for less than paying a security guard to watch over that storefront studio.

But all of the back office functions were handled by the staff in the Santa Rosa office and in addition to the local sales both KOZT and later KBLC were offered in a package deal with KVRE to Santa Rosa advertisers. Since this was pre-Internet the Ft Bragg salesperson would phone in orders to Santa Rosa, where the next day's program log was generated. Then it and any other paperwork (paychecks, etc.) would be loaded into a courier bag and placed on the daily Greyhound bus going to Ft. Bragg. The staff up there would return the program log and any other paperwork to Santa Rosa the next morning on the returning bus.

John also acquired KBLC (1270 Lakeport) about that same time in a bankruptcy sale. Since the FCC at that time did not allow people to own AMs with overlapping signals, I ran several field intensity radials on both KBLC and KQTE and proved to the FCC's satisfaction that the Mayacamas Mountains between Sonoma and Lake Counties provided enough of a break in ground conductivity so there was no overlap between the stations. You could faintly hear both stations in the opposite towns but there was no prohibited 0.5 mv/m signal overlap. We did something similar to KOZT at KBLC, but since there wasn't a similar Greyhound service going from Santa Rosa to Lakeport he kept more of a local staff there. We also built KXBX-FM (98.3) a bit later, easy enough to do since there was extra room in the KBLC building. About that same time the FCC granted daytimer AMs the right to stay on the air 2 hour post-sunset. I modified both the KBLC and KQTE transmitters to run at those powers using a handful of power resistors to drop the final B+ voltage to produce the appropriate outputs, 97 watts for KBLC and 400 watts for KQTE.

All of these stations were profitable and John successfully ran them until his health problems re-surfaced. His doctor told him at age 40 to retire or he'd die. So he sold the stations and spent a year recuperating on the beach in Maui. During that time he listened to local radio and said to himself, "I can do better than that". When the FCC relaxed the local ownership rules he bought several of the local stations and has been successfully running them ever since.

One final note. A few years previous to the above I was a student at San Mateo College and wrangled an engineering internship with Art Lebermann at KRE (1400 Berkeley). KRE's studios were at the base of the tower it shared with KFRC. One day I answered a call from an irate engineer at KUKI. He'd gone out to lunch and received a page that the station was off the air. He turned on his car radio, heard music on 1400 and proceeded to leisurely finish his lunch. When he got back to KUKI he found it was indeed off the air and called us in a huff, accusing us of operating illegally.

I told him he was welcome to come and see for himself, you couldn't miss our 5/8 wavelength, 450 ft. tower next to I-80 in the salt marsh next to the bay. Because of the sharp difference in ground conductivity between the Santa Rosa plain vs. the mountains around Ukiah there was little overlap between the two stations as you drove north on US 101. KFRC made sure the tower's ground system stayed up to snuff and KRE would come in strong until you entered the mountains north of Cloverdale, KUKI wouldn't appear until a few miles further north.

 

[michael hagerty]

I worked in Santa Rosa for John Detz, the owner of Visionary Radio (KVRE and KQTE) about that time. John "retired" there when stress related health problems forced him to leave Century Broadcasting (KWST) in Los Angeles. His idea of stress reduction was to buy and run a low pressure AM/FM combo in bucolic Santa Rosa. He was the first broadcaster to recognize the Santa Rosa trading area extended to Ft. Bragg, Ukiah and Lake County. Within a year we built KOZT in Ft. Bragg and added translators to cover Willits and Ukiah. Budgets were tight but we wanted to have a strong community presence. KOZT had live and local programming and we built the station in a ground level storefront in an old Victorian building across the highway from the Skunk Train depot so people could walk by and see the DJ live on the air. The building had two bay windows flanking the entry door. One window showcased the air studio and record library, the other opened into the station manager's office. There was also a very small production studio in back. Both of the other stations in the market signed off at midnight, John decided to go 24 hours when he found he could hire an overnight jock for less than paying a security guard to watch over that storefront studio.

But all of the back office functions were handled by the staff in the Santa Rosa office and in addition to the local sales both KOZT and later KBLC were offered in a package deal with KVRE to Santa Rosa advertisers. Since this was pre-Internet the Ft Bragg salesperson would phone in orders to Santa Rosa, where the next day's program log was generated. Then it and any other paperwork (paychecks, etc.) would be loaded into a courier bag and placed on the daily Greyhound bus going to Ft. Bragg. The staff up there would return the program log and any other paperwork to Santa Rosa the next morning on the returning bus.

John also acquired KBLC (1270 Lakeport) about that same time in a bankruptcy sale. Since the FCC at that time did not allow people to own AMs with overlapping signals, I ran several field intensity radials on both KBLC and KQTE and proved to the FCC's satisfaction that the Mayacamas Mountains between Sonoma and Lake Counties provided enough of a break in ground conductivity so there was no overlap between the stations. You could faintly hear both stations in the opposite towns but there was no prohibited 0.5 mv/m signal overlap. We did something similar to KOZT at KBLC, but since there wasn't a similar Greyhound service going from Santa Rosa to Lakeport he kept more of a local staff there. We also built KXBX-FM (98.3) a bit later, easy enough to do since there was extra room in the KBLC building. About that same time the FCC granted daytimer AMs the right to stay on the air 2 hour post-sunset. I modified both the KBLC and KQTE transmitters to run at those powers using a handful of power resistors to drop the final B+ voltage to produce the appropriate outputs, 97 watts for KBLC and 400 watts for KQTE.

All of these stations were profitable and John successfully ran them until his health problems re-surfaced. His doctor told him at age 40 to retire or he'd die. So he sold the stations and spent a year recuperating on the beach in Maui. During that time he listened to local radio and said to himself, "I can do better than that". When the FCC relaxed the local ownership rules he bought several of the local stations and has been successfully running them ever since.

One final note. A few years previous to the above I was a student at San Mateo College and wrangled an engineering internship with Art Lebermann at KRE (1400 Berkeley). KRE's studios were at the base of the tower it shared with KFRC. One day I answered a call from an irate engineer at KUKI. He'd gone out to lunch and received a page that the station was off the air. He turned on his car radio, heard music on 1400 and proceeded to leisurely finish his lunch. When he got back to KUKI he found it was indeed off the air and called us in a huff, accusing us of operating illegally.

I told him he was welcome to come and see for himself, you couldn't miss our 5/8 wavelength, 450 ft. tower next to I-80 in the salt marsh next to the bay. Because of the sharp difference in ground conductivity between the Santa Rosa plain vs. the mountains around Ukiah there was little overlap between the two stations as you drove north on US 101. KFRC made sure the tower's ground system stayed up to snuff and KRE would come in strong until you entered the mountains north of Cloverdale, KUKI wouldn't appear until a few miles further north.

Interesting history. I had no idea Detz was that young. I remember when he was GM at KWST, and he'd been running WABX in Detroit before that, so for him to retire at 40 after building KOZT, he had to have been a GM in his 20s.

You might know David Williams, who retired a couple of years ago as Chief Engineer for the iHeart cluster in San Francisco. Before that, he was chief at KSJO, and before that KLOK-AM. He and I both left KUKI within a few weeks of each other in the fall of '77. I'm guessing the phone call was from whomever took David's place at KUKI.

 

[davideduardo]

I've always wanted to ask someone who knows this, David---yes to the above, but doesn't it inhibit moisture, which then inhibits ground conductivity?

I always laughed at stations that let a hose run at the base of the tower in the summer.

Conductivity is not really dependent on the little bit of land the tower is on. It depends on the soil and subsoil in the surrounding area and the market as a whole. While a few engineers believe there is a difference in very dry seasons, I never saw moistening a few square meters around the tower base as making any improvement. Even watering the whole site does not change things in my experience.

 

[michael hagerty]

I always laughed at stations that let a hose run at the base of the tower in the summer.

Conductivity is not really dependent on the little bit of land the tower is on. It depends on the soil and subsoil in the surrounding area and the market as a whole. While a few engineers believe there is a difference in very dry seasons, I never saw moistening a few square meters around the tower base as making any improvement. Even watering the whole site does not change things in my experience.

Thanks. That's something that I never was completely clear on.

 

[Lou_S]

Interesting history. I had no idea Detz was that young. I remember when he was GM at KWST, and he'd been running WABX in Detroit before that, so for him to retire at 40 after building KOZT, he had to have been a GM in his 20s.

He was, but I may have been a few years off in his age. I was in my mid-20s and John was by no means old when he retired for the second time. He was the Century executive who came to SF and took KFRC-FM off the air until they could build the KMEL studios (all they got in the sale was the transmitter and the automation system). KVRE happened shortly after that.