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How to contact KUVM about Retro TV?
- Thread starter yragha
- Start date
I assume it's channel 34 you're looking at, according to RabbitEars.info...
I think you're going to be disappointed. They're broadcasting with 15 kW of power, which is the most an LPTV digital UHF station is allowed to put out, and at 975', which is not trivial. The transmit location is the Missouri City antenna farm, so Humble, Spring, and points north are out of luck, as are Baytown and points east. Texas City and Galveston probably don't get the station either.
Here is the station's contact information, although I don't have a contact person for you:
Mako Communications, LLC
518 Peoples Street
Corpus Christi, Texas 78401
(361) 883-1763
Mako doesn't seem to maintain any website.
I think you're going to be disappointed. They're broadcasting with 15 kW of power, which is the most an LPTV digital UHF station is allowed to put out, and at 975', which is not trivial. The transmit location is the Missouri City antenna farm, so Humble, Spring, and points north are out of luck, as are Baytown and points east. Texas City and Galveston probably don't get the station either.
Here is the station's contact information, although I don't have a contact person for you:
Mako Communications, LLC
518 Peoples Street
Corpus Christi, Texas 78401
(361) 883-1763
Mako doesn't seem to maintain any website.
Actually, they do have a website, which is sometimes advertised on 34.2:
http://www.hottvchannel.com
And they have a facebook page, which is more specific to Houston:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/TV-342-Houston/127228313991640
http://www.hottvchannel.com
And they have a facebook page, which is more specific to Houston:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/TV-342-Houston/127228313991640
someperson said:
MAKO does not actually program the stations they own and that's not their website. They simply lease time on the facilities for whomever or whatever is willing to pay.
Yea, I seen the HOT 34.2 this past weekend. Wonder if they are gonna change formats soon to HOT TV rather than RTV. Two different websites ya know. RTV is "used" to be the best of the 60-80's. HOT advertises 1940's (? really ?) thru the 60's. I want RTV, but I'll pass on HOT.
Thanks for the contact information.
BTW, can't a low power upgrade to full power or that's just not how it works?
Thanks for the contact information.
BTW, can't a low power upgrade to full power or that's just not how it works?
yragha said:
That's just not how it works.
There are "full power" Television Broadcast Stations, licensed under Part 73 Subpart E of the FCC Regulations -- and there are Low Power TV, TV Translator, and TV Booster (and Class A TV) stations, licensed under Part 74 Subpart G. From a regulatory standpoint, the two services are as different as FM radio and ham radio - there is no path for converting a license between the two.
There is nothing to prevent a low-power licensee from also taking out a full-power license in the same market. (indeed, one company has LPTV-FPTV combos in Milwaukee and Chicago, and I'm certain it's not the only such operation.) However, as the FCC isn't taking applications for new full-power TV stations right now, the LPTV operator would need to buy an existing full-power station.
Another possibility would be for Mako or someone else to build (if/when the FCC allows it) another LP station to cover the area NE of Houston. (Unfortunately there's nothing in that area to buy, aside from a religious station broadcasting from way out east on RF 4, which is a pretty undesirable channel.) But they'd have to be convinced there was demand first.
So while we're on the subject 
...
Whatever became of KO5HU, TV5 from the 80's that showed music vids. I know it's no longer there but where did it go and why?
Lived in Jersey Village at the time and it was very difficult to get a clear picture, but of course with analog got a picture nonetheless.
Thank you
...Whatever became of KO5HU, TV5 from the 80's that showed music vids. I know it's no longer there but where did it go and why?
Lived in Jersey Village at the time and it was very difficult to get a clear picture, but of course with analog got a picture nonetheless.
Thank you
K05HU is now KJIB-LP. It has had its share of bad luck over the past few years.
Its old facilities were destroyed by Rita, before it could build out its digital facilities.
It was bumped from channel 5 by KPXB's interim digital assignment.
They were originally assigned channel 29 as their digital channel, but they were displaced from 29 by KYLE-TV in College Station (KYLE was planning to remain on 29 after the digital transition, but later decided to go back to its old analog channel, 28.)
So finally, KJIB-LP was assigned channel 31, and that is where its construction permit is today.
Its old facilities were destroyed by Rita, before it could build out its digital facilities.
It was bumped from channel 5 by KPXB's interim digital assignment.
They were originally assigned channel 29 as their digital channel, but they were displaced from 29 by KYLE-TV in College Station (KYLE was planning to remain on 29 after the digital transition, but later decided to go back to its old analog channel, 28.)
So finally, KJIB-LP was assigned channel 31, and that is where its construction permit is today.
w9wi said:
Didn't KXLN Rosenberg start out as an LPTV in 1984? By '87, they had "upgraded" to full-power. It may not have been a true conversion in that they may have taken the LPTV dark first and then turned on the full power station under a completely different license. Another possibility is that the original low power channel 45 was never an LPTV at all, but just a "low power" full power station, much like the old KIDZ in Wichita Falls, which retransmitted KERA in the 1970's. KIDZ was a 2.82 kW full power station on channel 24.
Greg Branch said:
You're correct in that they were two separate stations. A permit for K45AK Rosenberg was first sought in 1979 and granted in 1982. The station became operational in 1984 as a translator via satellite of KWEX 41San Antonio, but wasn't officially licensed until April 1987. It went dark in Sept. or Oct. 1987, when KXLN apparently signed on as a full-power station. The KXLN initial application wasn't filed until 1985; I don't know when channel 45 was originally allocated to Rosenberg. It looks like the programming didn't change, so I suspect that the same people ran both stations. The average person on the street would perceive that the station "upgraded", when in truth, it did not.
It's not uncommon to see an LPTV station operating on an unused full-power channel assignment, then having to move or go dark when a full-power station is ready to sign on. I can think of three examples of that happening in Phoenix with channels 39, 51 and 61.
Gridlock Joe said:
You are confusing two different Channel 5 LPTV's.
In the mid to late 80's, the Houston area had two Channel 5's: K05HU, which broadcast from downtown, and K05IL, which was in the Clear Lake area. KJIB is a descendant of K05IL, not K05HU.
K05HU vanished in the late 80's. IIRC, it illegally was running 1,000 watts instead of its licensed 100 watts. Was busted by the FCC, and had to throttle back to the lower power. That killed whatever audience it had. Of course the music video format was up against the MTV monster, which didn't help things.
Never actually saw K05IL, so I have no idea of what kind of programming it aired.
Mediafrog+ said:
Thanks for the clarification!
dhett said:
There were a number of applications for the Channel 45 Rosenberg allocation, going back to the early 80's (and perhaps late 70's.)
K45AK, and stations like it, were often referred to as "satellators" as they pretty much broadcast a generic national feed of a particular network, in this case, the old SIN. I don't recall ever seeing any KWEX identification on Channel 45 during the low power days. Austin had a similar SIN operation on Channel 42, which was moved to Channel 30 when the old KBVO signed on.
K45AK actually had a pretty good signal for a LPTV. No trouble picking it up in the Cy-Fair area of NW Harris County.
I believe that K05HU was the flagship station for Houston-based Hit Video USA. Around 1986-87 Austin had a LPTV HVUSA affiliate on channel 13 or maybe 11. Even the cable system in my hometown dumped MTV due to parental complaints and replaced it with HVUSA until the network went dark sometime in the early 90's.
dhett said:
And actually there's a reason for that in many cases. At one time, UHF LPTVs were limited to 100 watts of transmitter output power - enough to make 5kw or so ERP. *Unless*... they operated on a channel allotted for full power use in their community, in which case 1,000 watts transmitter output was permissible.
That's why there were three commercial UHF channels allotted to Lowry, South Dakota, 2010 population 6...
Some of the early SIN (now Univision) translators were experimental. I know they had an experimental one in Washington, and I want to say Houston and Phoenix also had them. Experimental in the sense of being satellite-fed, at a time when that wasn't normally permissible for translators.
Mediafrog+ said:
It was in the original application.
http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws...lication_id=12304&File_number=BPTT-19790730IH
Mediafrog+ said:
Very much like what TBN does today with the LPTV stations that the own/owned, which continue to run their programming.
Mediafrog+ said:
It could be for the reason Doug cited above. The transmitter is listed at 1000 Watts. I'm not certain, but I want to say that's TPO, because usually, the application will say if it's ERP.
dhett said:
Note that the primary station listed there is NOT KWEX-TV. It's "DOMESTIC SATELLITE EARTH STATION LICENSED TO KWEX-TV"...
(I am very curious what "SEXY" means in the Legal Action Information on that application!)
I have a VAGUE recollection that these things were relaying a network feed, not the station itself. Don't hold me to that though, and I'm having difficulty finding contemporary articles on David Eduardo's site.
The ERP was 12.5kw. (the technical data for that station is still in the CDBS under facility id 53848) The TPO is indeed listed as 1kw.
The way I read that comment in the FCC records, is that the Emcee TTU-1000C transmitter is rated at 1,000 watts.
dhett said:
I recall that at the top of each hour the station would key "K45AK Rosenberg" (in what appeared to be a very old Vidifont) underneath the network SIN logo.
The spots that ran were either national commercials, or network promos. Towards the end of its life K45AK would insert some local spots, probably in the same breaks made available for sale on local cable systems.
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