• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

History KWWA 106.9 Format dates help.

AAllen said:
I have airchecks from KWWA from the CHR loop days--maybe. I recorded it on a low-quality K-Mart tape, and I haven't checked it in a while. I kept listening to the loop wondering when it began and ended. Whoever did this sure liked .38 Special's Tour de Force album.

I discovered KWWA when my dad car radio auto-scanned the FM dial. I had an empty preset in the wake of KYYX ending, so I filled it. And when they switched to KHIT, Stephen Raybow showed up, so it must be fate. (Then when he left, I filled in C-89, and he showed up there.) Also, Gold Mountain KHIT was the only Seattle station available at Paradise, Mt. Rainier. You could also get all the Portland FMs from there.
Click to expand...

You probably didn't lose much by recording it on cheap tape -- my recollection of the incarnations of KWWA that I heard (beautiful music, soft AC, and Top 40) is that the sound quality was muffled and really awful. There was also dead air between every song, and I don't recall ever hearing a paid advertisement.
 
TexasTom said:
You probably didn't lose much by recording it on cheap tape -- my recollection of the incarnations of KWWA that I heard (beautiful music, soft AC, and Top 40) is that the sound quality was muffled and really awful. There was also dead air between every song, and I don't recall ever hearing a paid advertisement.
Click to expand...

I don't think KWWA used ANY audio processing - what you heard came straight off the board. And there were those dirty carts that never got fully bulk erased going wuh-wuh-wuh-wuh....
 
I took a little side trip out to Bremerton today and figured i'd drop by Forest Ridge Park. Interestingly, I didn't see any indication of a radio tower being located anywhere around the park. Does it still exist, or has it long been removed?
 
Last edited:
Bongwater said:
I don't think KWWA used ANY audio processing - what you heard came straight off the board. And there were those dirty carts that never got fully bulk erased going wuh-wuh-wuh-wuh....
Click to expand...
You can't run straight audio out of the board without over-modulation, plus one would need some form of stereo generator. It's been a while, but I believe they ran one of the original Orban Optimods, the 8000.
 
The KBRO tower is still there. Its un painted so it is dark gray metal that blends well with the trees and it is short. The tower is on the west side of the two water tanks, in the clearing to the west f the tanks if looking with Google earth. If you look hard you can see the tower shadow on the trees to the west. Radio locator puts the dot on some tennis courts about 600 feet to the east of the actual tower location. I'm not sure if it is lighted at night any more. I think it was when I did my KBRO stint in the 80's.
 
xmtrland said:
The KBRO tower is still there. Its un painted so it is dark gray metal that blends well with the trees and it is short. The tower is on the west side of the two water tanks, in the clearing to the west f the tanks if looking with Google earth. If you look hard you can see the tower shadow on the trees to the west. Radio locator puts the dot on some tennis courts about 600 feet to the east of the actual tower location. I'm not sure if it is lighted at night any more. I think it was when I did my KBRO stint in the 80's.
Click to expand...

Strange location for an AM transmitter site. You'd think that the engineers would've tried for a location near Puget Sound
 
It's also where the original FM antenna was mounted for KBRO-FM since it went on the air un-till they moved to Gold mountain in 83? I think it was.
 
fordranger797 said:
I'll have to check it out! For a local Bremerton station, it would probably be a great site.
Click to expand...

Er...No. Not for KWWA. They ran 30,000 watts off that site and for all intent and purpose, it may as well have been 30 watts. It was a bad place for FM. They covered Bremerton proper and some parts of Kitsap County fine. But beyond that? FORGET IT. The station was incredibly noisy in Lynnwood and the Eastside couldn't get them at all.
 
Kelly A said:
You can't run straight audio out of the board without over-modulation, plus one would need some form of stereo generator. It's been a while, but I believe they ran one of the original Orban Optimods, the 8000.
Click to expand...

They sounded...How should I put it? Incredibly FLAT and quiet. No compression or exciter. The C. Crane FMT has more kick than whatever it was at KWWA.
 
That is interesting. Were they only able to obtain a FCC license to use Forest Ridge at its modest HAAT, or was it more an issue of under-planning? I am assuming that there was some sort of protection in place keeping them low.
 
Last edited:
I think the main reason they put it there was a close cheap place that had 3 phase power and they could have both the am and fm transmitter there. It worked for what KBRO wanted back then. There was a 1KW I want to say gates BC 1t and the 5KW gates. They later moved the gates to Gold mountain.
 
AAllen said:
The current KBRO tower looks a lot like it could have been an existing microwave communication tower for the water department, and it was simply repurposed for commercial AM. KBRO's tower used to be right on the Bremerton waterfront, according to old USGS maps. I wonder why they moved it. http://msrmaps.com/image.aspx?T=2&S=12&Z=10&X=660&Y=6584&W=1&qs=|bremerton|wa|
Click to expand...

Judging by what i've heard about ground conductivity, Forest Ridge Park doesn't exactly seem like the ideal site.
 
Last edited:
They may have lost the lease for the water front location and when KBRO-FM came into the picture Forest ridge looked like a good place to co-locate the two signals. KBRO-am while losing the water front transmitter site moved to a location more centrally located in the service area for the 1kw am that serves Bremerton.
 
Bongwater said:
Er...No. Not for KWWA. They ran 30,000 watts off that site and for all intent and purpose, it may as well have been 30 watts. It was a bad place for FM. They covered Bremerton proper and some parts of Kitsap County fine. But beyond that? FORGET IT. The station was incredibly noisy in Lynnwood and the Eastside couldn't get them at all.
Click to expand...

They did come in reasonably well in Lakewood -- being close to the Sound probably helped quite a bit.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom