iHeart surrenders KVET 1300 license

[Mediafrog+]

KVET License Restored - RadioInsight

In another instance of the land underneath the station being worth more than the station itself, iHeartMedia has surrendered the license of Sports “1300 The Zone” KVET Austin TX. KVET’s four tower array is located on Metric Blvd. in a residential neighborhood in North Austin. The property is...

radioinsight.com

Station had been on the air since 1946. Was once a very popular Country station (1970s) and block programmed prior to that. Assume iHeart tried to sell but no serious offers. Signal no longer adequately covered the ever increasing Austin sprawl.

 

[AnyHuman]

Is the land being redeveloped? Or sold to someone else who doesn't want a radio station on it? Seems strange to just cancel the license unless something is about to happen to that land.
That station, I thought, was a big AM player.

 

[TheBigA]

Is the land being redeveloped? Or sold to someone else who doesn't want a radio station on it? Seems strange to just cancel the license unless something is about to happen to that land.
That station, I thought, was a big AM player.

Things change. The article says they don't own the tower land. But yes I'd bet it will be turned into expensive homes soon.

They turn in the license so they don't have the expense any more.

 

[Ryan Williams]

The article says the land is owned by KVET's former owner not iHeart. I guess they can't or don't think it is worth it to move a mediocre, high-band directional AM station to another location.

 

[Mediafrog+]

Is the land being redeveloped? Or sold to someone else who doesn't want a radio station on it? Seems strange to just cancel the license unless something is about to happen to that land.

The land will almost certainly be redeveloped. It is nestled in the middle of urban sprawl. I recall in the early 1960s it was well out in the country surrounded by farmland.
Also wanted to note that the station kept the same call during its entire 75 year existence.

That station, I thought, was a big AM player.

Those days are long, long gone. Only relevant AM in the market is KLBJ.

 

[Mediafrog+]

The article says the land is owned by KVET's former owner not iHeart. I guess they can't or don't think it is worth it to move a mediocre, high-band directional AM station to another location.

There was a plan about a decade or so ago to sell the existing site. A new daytime array would have been built southeast of Austin along Highway 71, while a night array would have been built in the Pflugerville area. IIRC day power would have stayed at 5kw and beaming to the NW while nights would have been 700 watts directional to the SW. Nothing ever came of that.

 

[Ryan Williams]

Those days are long, long gone. Only relevant AM in the market is KLBJ.

1300 is better than almost all of the other marginal AMs in Austin, but 590 is definitely better by a substantial margin. That said, and one of the reasons i've hoped Waterloo would give KLBJ a full-power home on FM, the market has even outgrown 590. It's not good at all at night in a significant chunk of Williamson County, including Georgetown and parts of Round Rock.

 

[Ryan Williams]

There was a plan about a decade or so ago to sell the existing site. A new daytime array would have been built southeast of Austin along Highway 71, while a night array would have been built in the Pflugerville area. IIRC day power would have stayed at 5kw and beaming to the NW while nights would have been 700 watts directional to the SW. Nothing ever came of that.

I had forgotten about that. Just looked and sure enough you are correct.

Here is the link with what was proposed back in 2002...

CDBS Print

 

[Mediafrog+]

1300 is better than almost all of the other marginal AMs in Austin, but 590 is definitely better by a substantial margin.

The 590 5kw non-directional signal at the low end of the band is very nice, covering from the Red River to the Sabine River to the Rio Grande and well out into the Hill Country. Night signal is another matter...

That said, and one of the reasons i've hoped Waterloo would give KLBJ a full-power home on FM, the market has even outgrown 590. It's not good at all at night in a significant chunk of Williamson County, including Georgetown and parts of Round Rock.

I've wondered if Waterloo might finally stop constantly spinning the format wheel on KGSR 93.3 and turn it into an AM simulcast, while doing something else with the 99.7 translator.

That raises a branding issue, as you would have two stations very close together (93.3 and 93.7) both using the KLBJ call letters. While call letters have generally become irrelevant, both stations use them prominently. Perhaps a call change on either 590/93.3 or 93.7 might allow some marketing clarity.

The nighttime 1kw directional signal on 590 is quite challenged these days, given Austin's sprawl in recent decades. It was adequate 50-60 years ago during the KTBC era, though at the time I could often hear stations in Omaha and Atlanta underneath, and for a number of years a high-powered Cuban station gave them some nighttime grief.

 

[Ryan Williams]

Despite the strong connection to the area, I’m not sure the letters “LBJ” should be anywhere near a (primarily) conservative talker.

 

[Gregg.]

KVET 1300 is 5,000 watts days, 1,000 watts nights. It runs Fox Sports (as do most iHeart Sports stations since iHeart has an investment in the Fox Sports Radio Network). It has an FM translator on 103.1. But even if iHeart loses the AM station, it can still feed the FM translator via one of the iHeart FM stations' HD2 or HD3 subchannels.

Audacy did something similar in Charlotte recently. It took AM 1600 silent (call letters were WBCN for a while, then WJBX). It was a CBS Sports Radio outlet with an FM translator on 94.7. The land where the AM tower had stood is now being redeveloped. And CBS Sports Charlotte continues, fed by an FM station's HD2 signal.

Translators really have helped keep some AM stations alive. But if they can also be fed by an HD2 or HD3 signal off a co-owned FM station, maybe you don't need the AM station's expenses anymore. Or have to tie up valuable real estate with a tower site.

 

[Mediafrog+]

Despite the strong connection to the area, I’m not sure the letters “LBJ” should be anywhere near a (primarily) conservative talker.

Interestingly, even though Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson once owned 590 and 93.7 (as well as KTBC/7) the switch to the KLBJ call came after the former president's death. The TV station was sold, and in what was a very unusual move for the time, kept its existing KTBC call letters while the same calls on the AM and FM (retained by the Johnson family) were changed.

BTW KVET is still on the air, at a current check on a Kiwi SDR in Austin.

 

[LloydEwing]

I wonder what might happen to that 1300 space on the AM radio dial. I suppose it will remain empty for a year or two until the FCC gets around to include it in an auction and sells it to a new owner. I would bet that someone will want invest the money for new tower(s) to get a station on the air.

It is interesting that iHeart chose to cancel the license instead of selling it. It probably was not generating enough income to justify the expense of new towers. I would assume that they did not think they would made enough money from selling it to justify the effort which that would have required from their highly paid executives. The fact that their metastasizing mega corporation cannot provide programming that is compelling enough to make a profit does not mean that a company with more locally-oriented programming would not succeed.

The land where the old towers are located is not likely to be developed into homes. The area is surrounded by attractive light industrial buildings and low-end apartment complexes.

 

[TheBigA]

It probably was not generating enough income to justify the expense of new towers. I would assume that they did not think they would made enough money from selling it to justify the effort which that would have required from their highly paid executives.

They don't just "think they would make enough money." They need to justify this decision to higher management, especially since they're currently recovering from bankruptcy. The lenders who own the station want to know about the disposition of all assets.
So that requires speaking to a station broker and doing a property assessment on what the value of the license would be, and what the responsibilities would be.

The fact that their metastasizing mega corporation cannot provide programming that is compelling enough to make a profit does not mean that a company with more locally-oriented programming would not succeed.

Not with a signal that has become obsolete in terms of reaching the population. iHeart is doing very well with its Austin music stations on FM. This isn't a programming problem. If the problem could be solved with better programming, there might be a viable buyer for the station. That's why they're turning in the license. This is not being done on a whim.

 

[LloydEwing]

This isn't a programming problem.

Let's wait and see what happens. In past auctions I have not noticed any channels without bidders in major metro areas.

 

[davideduardo]

Let's wait and see what happens. In past auctions I have not noticed any channels without bidders in major metro areas.

There have always been more fools with money than available good radio facilities.

That is why perpetually money losing day timers, operations in markets too small for a station, ultra-rimshots and the like fail, get sold, fail again, and continue being bought by someone who thinks that they have “the answer” for a station that a variety of radio pros would not touch.

A high on the AM dial low power station that is in a market whose population has outgrown it may find a religious or very special ethnic niche (such as Mandarin Chinese) but the chances that it will prosper with no translator are really minimal.

 

[TheBigA]

Let's wait and see what happens. In past auctions I have not noticed any channels without bidders in major metro areas.

On the plus side, the revenue from the auction of KVET will go to the budget of the FCC. Perhaps they can make good use of it.

 

[Ryan Williams]

1300 is still on the air, despite being deleted at the FCC. I heard it in the car this morning. Interestingly, no mention of the pending AM doom on their social channels. And actually, they are still using the old 1300 only logo on KVET's website. I don't even see a mention of 103.1. I know Lance said the sports programming would continue on HD and the translator, but maybe not?

 

[TheBigA]

1300 is still on the air, despite being deleted at the FCC.

RadioInsight has now revised it's story. The license was not surrendered to the FCC.

In what was described to us as being an inadvertent typo by the FCC, the license of KVET has been restored.

While nobody has gone on the record over what happened, we are told KVET’s FRN was misconstrued for another station which did surrender its license this week. It will likely be another day or two before the FCC’s database properly lists which station had done so.

 

[Ryan Williams]

On the plus side, the revenue from the auction of KVET will go to the budget of the FCC. Perhaps they can make good use of it.

I hope the doctrine going forward will be instead of saving these "allotments" for a future auction, that instead the government takes these licenses being turned in as an opportunity to thin the AM herd. Which possibly will even allow the remaining adjacent healthy AM stations to perhaps improve their own facilities.