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How did K217GJ get approved in Austin on 91.3?
- Thread starter jras20
- Start date
A
AnyHuman
Guest
What is the new translator playing? K217GJ is owned by the same people that are trying to move 96.7 into San Antonio, they also have 90.5 in San Antonio with no originating station that I can tell.
M
MRD
Guest
KNCT is not in the Austin radio market; it is in the Temple/Killeen radio market, therefore they can't complain about K217GJ. The fact that KNCT can be heard in parts of the Austin radio market does not make it an "Austin" station - it is not.
They were playing a Spanish format.
That’s a common misperception. While the FCC has started scrutinizing complaints more and now requires a minimum number before they become actionable, markets aren’t considered with respect to translator interference. I believe the FCC has also started requiring complaints to be within the full-power station's 45 dBu signal contour. Otherwise, a station can bring the issue up to the FCC if it gets a significant enough number of complaints. KNCT's 45 dBu signal contour extends past San Marcos.
The KNCT signal into Austin has been quite good for the past 50 years. I get solid reception on a Bose WaveRadio at my father's house, 45 miles from the transmitter. Also get an HD lock on the car radio at that location. Also can hear it with no problem on various portable radios.
KNCT is going to clobber the translator in much of the market, making reception of both stations a mess. The transmitters are too close.
This is another case of consulting engineers not really knowing what they are doing. Years ago, engineers were often ham radio operators or radio monitoring enthusiasts who had real world knowledge and experience in how well various radio signals propagate. Nowadays it all classroom learning involving theoretical contours and reception characteristics that often have little to do with reality.
In short, such engineers are book smart, street stupid. And the FM band continues to descend into chaos. In the early 1980's I recall reading a Broadcasting Magazine column warning about the "AM-ization of the FM band." We are there now.
The FCC has rules regarding protected contours.
Many station have signals that are hearable well outside the protected contour. But the rules allow stations in the non-protected zones. So someone asks an engineer to file an application, they show how the station fits per the rules. In general, it takes some work to protect a station well outside that contour.
Sorry, but in this case KNCT is not some fringe station that can only be heard by radio geeks on a sensitive radio with a really good antenna. KNCT is not just “hearable” but puts a pretty good signal over much of the Austin market. The translator is going to take a beating, and you will have a mess on 91.3 with both stations fighting it out.
You can claim all you want that the contours show KNCT doesn’t cover Austin, but real world listening on average radios shows otherwise; the signal is quite good. And real world beats the theoretical every time.
Last words of the captain of the Titanic: “In theory that iceberg wasn’t supposed to be there!”
The point is the FCC approved the station according to the Rules they created. Paper and reality are two different things. I know that. Consider, as well, the FM translator group may not have built to the specs of the CP or simply made an error in, say, mounting the antenna(s). I have seen some big mistakes made by the FCC (as rare as they are considering the workload). For example, a translator in Dilley, Texas claimed to be retransmitting a Houston radio station, claiming they are receiving 'off air' the AM station they are translating. There's a problem. The station they claim to be translating is blocked by another radio station on the same frequency. To see what I mean, pull up a map and locate Dilley and Cypress, Texas (Houston). There is a station on the same frequency in Stockdale. Nobody at the FCC looked. At any rate, there are procedures for an encroaching translator but no matter what, you're in for a fight and a good chunk of change to defend your claim. Then, if you're lucky, a year or so later, the problem is solved well after the damage has been done.
The FCC has always been a little more lax when it comes to licensing translators because they can be ordered off-air if they cause interference. The translator does, however, have to certify that it won’t cause interference to an existing full-power station, and part of that certification involves that certain signal contours of co-channel stations don’t touch. I believe that’s the 60 dBu signal contour in Class C regions of the country. In the case of this translator, the 60 dBu signals miss each other by what would appear to be about 3 miles at their closest points.
The translator is close enough to theoretically pass muster, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it generated enough interference complaints to be actionable if KNCT wants to pursue it.
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