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FM Upgrade Possibilities Between Little Rock and Fort Smith

M

MN Maniac

Guest
There's some good local radio between The Rock and The Fort. However, all of the FMs have limited signal strength and range. Nearly all are Class A or Class C3. I was bored last night, so I played around with the numbers and tried to find upgrade possibilities.

What I found was that stations are packed in fairly tightly in this region. The full Class C sticks in Little Rock and Fort Smith cover a lot of ground between them and prevent upgrades on adjacent channels. Also, there are several Class A/C3s which are at or near minimum separation to each other. In all, it makes for a serious challenge where upgrading facilities is concerned.

Has anyone searched in this area and found where a Class A/C3 FM could successfully be upgraded to Class C/C0/C1, or at the very least, C2?
 
KCJC in Russellville had a construction permit circa 2002 to upgrade to 100,000 watts as a C1. However, the tower site was going to have to about nineteen miles north of Clarksville, so it wouldn't have penetrated the trade area any better than a C3 so they abandoned it. That's the only one that I know of.
 
We did let the CP expire for KCJC - it really wouldn't have made much of a difference and would have cost a lot to make the move. We're smack dab between Ft. Smith and Little Rock in an unrated area, and it wouldn't have helped to upgrade to 100K. I'd like to improve coverage of 99.3 in Russellville - but putting a booster at our studio location because our studio falls just outside the primary coverage area, thanks to Crow Mountain. 99.3 covers Yell, Conway, Faulkner counties pretty well, but is spotty as far as building penetration in Russellville. We're streaming it now, though.
 
My modest and somewhat short radio career began in Arkansas, and for a number of years I dreamed of returning, so I have watched the very geography you are talking about for a number of years.

My jaded observations is that today's broadcasters are sometimes more interested in playing the schoolyard game of King of the Hill more than being community oriented broadcasters.

What Arkansas community "between The Rock and The Fort" has a current FM station that is so technically crippled that it cannot reach its market place?

I finished out my broadcasting years in the Midwest where super-great ground conductivity limited the number of, and the reach of, the then dominant AM stations. That condition made for better broadcasting. Stations didn't angst over how to reach the people three counties over while neglecting their home turf.

I know. I'm getting old and crotchety. But even back when I was young and crotchety, I had misgivings about our industry trend toward wanting to serve EVERYBODY and ending up serving NOBODY.

My tenure included:

KBBA
KVRC
KWAK
KCCL
KBRI
 
Media Mogul said:
Goat Rodeo Cowboy said:
What Arkansas community "between The Rock and The Fort" has a current FM station that is so technically crippled that it cannot reach its market place?
Click to expand...

Conway.
Click to expand...

As a market, Conway reminds me of the community where I live.

Take a look at Cumming, GA. It sits under the shade of Atlanta. We are a county of almost 200,000 people and we have NO commercial radio station. (We have a religious NCE, well operated, but when it comes to being related to any identifiable community, it is agnostic. It was Atlanta's religious station until Salem established themselves with a strong signal.)

We had an A.M. but it didn't do well. It didn't die of natural causes, however. An Atlanta station on an adjacent frequency bought them in order to turn them off and get a power increase in Atlanta. I don't hurt for listenable signals.... technically listenable that is.... I could probably get a suntan just after midnight from all the flashing tower beacons.

If an FM frequency opened up here, would we have our own radio station? No. Someone would file sanctimonious papers claiming to do so, but once they got on the air, they would show the colors of being one more Atlanta station. From an economics point of view, that would be the only thing that makes sense.

(Cumming, GA is famous for two things. One I won't mention. The other one is: we were the hometown of Junior Samples of Hee Haw TV. We are a Russellville, a Danville... up to our belly-buttons in chicken houses.)

Now, back to Conway: Will Conway ever have a station, and does it have anything to do with frequency allocations? I recall a Conway with two A.M. stations, both of which are now gone. If there was any significant pent-up demand for local radio in Conway, one of those stations would still be alive.

Any argument that Conway needs and deserve a (better) allocation probably turns out for all practical purposes, to be an argument that The Rock needs one more channel.

I hope you can demonstrate that Conway actually does have a need. Maybe I can then plagiarize you logic and argue for Cumming, Ga. ;D
 
I am guessing we are talking about KCNY. I aways thought that was a strange move since now they only city grade Greenbriar which is much smaller than Conway. I guess when your the only game in town though you don't need a signal.

KASR is another Conway station that jumped ship. At least with that move they picked up Cabot and Jacksonville.
 
Pretty much the suburban areas don't have a Local Radio presence these days. Even Pine Bluff is down to a couple religious translators, UAPB's campus station (KUAP 89.7), and KTRN 104.5 (Licensed to nearby White Hall). Until just a few weeks ago, KCAT 1340 was the last AM'er left (although KCLA 1400 went back on, with Sporting News Radio off-the-bird and no IDS NOR LOCAL ADS).

Overall the quality of radio in the Valley compared to SEARK is excellent. But the mountains do limit the coverage. Also several stations aren't limited by the Fort and Rock big sticks but also from the Springfield MO and NWA areas.

Its been a land rush for the rimshots to get into the larger markets. Many of the LR stations don't have LR as their primary COL. Think of KARN-FM, KKHN 94.9 (at one time the freq for Pine Bluff's KADL-FM!), KIPR (ex KOTN-FM PB), and of course KMJX before the glory days of Magic 105 25-30 years ago was just another local Conway FM station.
 
I did not mean that Conway wasn't being served by an FM... Y107 is doing a great job in serving that community.

He asked which market between Fort Smith and Little Rock had a FM station that was so technically crippled that it did not reach it's entire marketplace. Conway definitely has one of those considering that one can sit in West Conway many days and listen to KLYR out of Clarksville just fine on that frequency.
 
It pains me to no end that my hometown is without any local - commercial station. Though, Magic 105 is licensed to Conway; it hasn't been here since 1982.

If the FCC opens another window for AM, that the former 1230 AM frequency can be reborn. Maybe, not to the glory that KCON attained. But, Conway deserves local radio.

But, KASR 92.7 has deserted its humble beginnings to become a C3 and create 1st service for Vilonia.

You would think that the mind trusts at Crain could devise a way of moving KCNY to Conway and move one of their other rimshotters to Greenbrier.

What about one of the FM's in Russellville toward Conway? Or, one of the Batesville area stations?

Just a thought.
 
Conway *does* have a local station. KUCA/91.3 is live and local most of the time and has a solid signal across all of Conway. They do a great job for a campus station. But yes, it would be nice to have at least ONE commercial station here. Conway is growing. We're over 50,000 hardy souls, right on a major interstate. We even have bars...um, I mean "private clubs"...in our town now!

KCNY/107.1 and KASR/92.7 both have signal problems in parts of town, as others have mentioned. It's hard for Y107 to compete here since both Little Rock country FMs have stronger signals.

KVOM/101.7 makes it in here pretty well, but they (wisely) concentrate on being a local Morrilton station which they do very well.

KMJX/105.1 is of course a "Conway" station in city-of-license only.

KVLD/99.3 is fine in the car but too far away to penetrate the buildings effectively. It cannot be moved closer, due to KDIS/99.5.

As far as a new FM allocation, I don't see anywhere one would fit. The last chance went to 96.9/Maumelle which targets Little Rock with K-Love programming.
 
I have debated for a while on whether to jump in on this topic..in fact, a couple of you have encouraged me.

I started working in Conway radio in 1978 while I was in college. I continued through 1998 when I closed KCON-AM. Currently managing the student station at UCA.

Some of the statements I will be making will sound bitter and I promise you that is not the case, at all. Most of my statements come from experience. I promise you that in all of my years in operating one of the stations in Conway, I made plenty of mistakes. With all of that here are a few of my conclusions.

Gentlemen, it is my opinion that Conway, Arkansas does not need a commerical service, nor does it deserve one. This community does a below average job of supporting what stations it has now. Yes, we have a growing and thriving community, but the bottom line is it doesn't support radio very well. A VERY large majority of the residents of Conway work in Pulaski County. They essentially sleep in Conway, but live (work) in Little Rock. I can honestly say that I do not know one person that listens to one of the commerical stations in Conway on a regular basis. I have asked people here in town, what stations do you listen to? I would say that the vast majority are in Little Rock...a few are in Morrilton...the Fairfield Bay station is mentioned occasionally. I will respond with, what about Y-107 or KASR ? Most don't know they exist, nor do they care.

During my years at KCON, I would like to think that we did a pretty good job of covering local events. Local news, local weather, local sports, we covered alot, however, when it came to selling it, it was darn near impossible. Yes, it was on an AM station, but when your station was essentially the only show in town that covered the local city council, school boards, weather warnings along with local high school and college sports, it was pretty sad that one could not generate some revenue.

Election night coverage was a huge event. We put in HUGE hours of preparation, but very little revenue was ever generated.

Technically, we had a pretty good signal for a 1000 watt non-directional AM. Like most, it had its issues, but when the weather sirens went off , we would turn her mast into the wind and throw out an all out assault of information for our listeners.

I must tell you all that if I had the cash on hand today, there is no way in this world that I would invest in a radio broadcasting facility in Conway, Arkansas. I just don't think it would be a wise investment.

Finally, I must tell you all that I absolutely adore radio. I loved what it stood for when I was growing up. I do not like a lot of what I hear today. I hope some day a new generation will get her turned around.

It was not my intent to cause any ill will or hurt feelings by my statements.

If any of you have questions, comments, complaints, etc. , just let me know...would love to visit with you.

Monty Rowell
 
You're probably right, Monty. You've "been there", so you certainly know more about it than I do.

I have noticed something interesting, though. The Little Rock FMs are starting to sell and even doing remotes in Conway. Makes me think there's at least a few local clients who are willing to spend some money. I'm sure it's not cheap to get a jock, van, engineer, etc., to make the drive up I-40 and back.
 
MN Maniac said:
You're probably right, Monty. You've "been there", so you certainly know more about it than I do.

I have noticed something interesting, though. The Little Rock FMs are starting to sell and even doing remotes in Conway. Makes me think there's at least a few local clients who are willing to spend some money. I'm sure it's not cheap to get a jock, van, engineer, etc., to make the drive up I-40 and back.
Click to expand...

Your right...this tends to go in waves.

This has actually been happening for years here in Conway, however, your right, there is alot of it happening right now.
Those locals are willing to spend money, but they just want to send it somewhere else.
It is not cheap and I am certain the return on investment is not being met.
 
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