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IS KYET IN WILLIAMS STILL OFF THE AIR?

J

Jay Walker

Many years ago I was in next in line to buy the place back in the 90's, but the primary buyer came through at the last minute with a check that cleared...

Otherwise...

Who knows what might have happened. I always thought there was lot of potential even with the crappy night-time signal. I was amazed at the 10,000 watt day-time coverage. I was hearing them from the eastern border and it was a great signal.

If I recall the tower was located at the Williams city yard. The gentleman who owned it at the time ran the local Mercedes repair garage. Nice guy. It would have been a fun project especially with that 10,000 ND signal. The 250 watts at night was a letdown. Never did check to see if there was a chance to add a tower or two to bump nights up to at least 1,000 watts or better.

Jay Walker
 
Grand Canyon Gateway Broadcasting still holds the valid license for 10 KW / 0.25 KW-N in Williams, and the station is on the current FCC silent list, having operated in some form in the past 12 months. Word has been for years that the original transmitter site at the old Williams fairgrounds was lost.

A CP was granted several years ago to move the station to Golden Valley, near Kingman, with 6 KW / 0.001 KW-N (1 Watt!), which apparently was operable, but no license to cover was applied for. Instead, in April, the licensee sent this to the FCC:

"Exhibit 3
Description: RESUMPTION OF OPERATION

KYET HOLDS A CONSTRUCTION PERMIT TO MODIFY THE STATION'S FACILITIES TO OPERATE NONDIRECTIONALLY FROM A NEW TRANSMITTER SITE WITH A NOMINAL POWER OF 6 KW DURING DAYTIME HOURS AND ONE WATT DURING NIGHTTIME HOURS (BP-20090202AVS). CONSTRUCTION OF THE MODIFIED FACILITIES WAS NEARING COMPLETION WHEN A SIGNIFICANT PORTION OF THE STATION'S ANTENNA WAS STOLEN FROM THE TRANSMITTER SITE. A REPLACEMENT ANTENNA HAS NOT YET BEEN SECURED.

ACCORDINGLY, PURSUANT TO SECTION 73.1615 (A) (2) OF THE COMMISSION'S RULES, KYET IS NOW OPERATING WITH TEMPORARY FACILITIES. SPECIFICALLY, USING A LONG WIRE ANTENNA, THE STATION IS OPERATING WITH A POWER OF 1 KW DURING DAYTIME HOURS. IF IT APPEARS THAT OPERATION WITH THESE TEMPORARY FACILITIES WILL NEED TO CONTINUE FOR MORE THAN 30 DAYS, KYET'S LICENSEE WILL FILE A REQUEST, PURSUANT TO SECTION 73.1615 (C) (1) OF THE RULES, FOR SPECIAL TEMPORARY AUTHORITY."

Several days later, a Silent Notification notice was filed. It's weird! ;)

More than a few people would like to see it back in Williams, how about it?
 
Too bad they dropped night-tome power to 1 watt. It looks like a mess paperwork wise now. Something to look at though...
Thanks for the update
Jay Walker
 
I had a shot at buying it in the 1980's from Dr. Soho who had moved it from 1240 to 1180 but got outbid. The cp for it's move to Golden also has a freq. change to 1170. In the early 90's I picked it up clearly in Palm Desert when they left the 10kw on one night.
 
I last drove by the Williams fairgrounds site in July 2011. There was no signal on 1180, and the old KYET tower was long gone. (No signal on 1170 over toward Kingman, either.)
 
I have slept since then so I'm foggy in my recollections, I was also actively pursuing AM properties as a first time owner/operator at the time, and I looked at a lot of "fixer uppers" back then... Still looking

I drove out from Dallas and met with a Mr. Solosio (?) who was at the time the owner. He had a potential buyer who was rapidly approaching, weeks away, the end of his option so I took a chance and drove out to check on it. The station had incredible coverage, I was coming in from Dallas on US-40 and was hearing them solid in Gallup NM.

The Williams studio was nothing to speak of but I had that covered with many options. When I made the visit the night-time was off the air. If I recall correctly the Nighttime transmitter (maybe a McMartin ?) had a shorted modulation transformer and the reactor was toast as well. Not a big deal since with a 250w/1K rig parts are always around or if not there's always an old Gates hidden away within driving distance looking for a second chance to play the hits. Both Day and Night transmitters were co-located and fed with an 8k telco loop.

I think the day-time transmitter was a Collins late 50's 21E (?) running at 10K. There wasn't much in the way of a transmitter building, just bare bones to keep the rain/snow out with no A/C or Swamp Cooler seen. The tower looked like a 90 degree planted in a gravel covered area. I was told at the time it was the Williams city yard, as I was concerned about the lease. However it was mentioned on this thread that it was the Williams Fairgrounds...

The price was real right for the time and he was willing to do a lease purchase with the right amount of down. That was the attractive point for me since I was a "dreamer" who thought I could make it work.

I did just enough due diligence to determine that the 250w night time was basically worthless as a Flagstaff signal but the 10K seemed to have the potential to make a decent amount of money. If I'd pursued the deal further I'd have definitely looked into going directional at night to bump up that 250 to see if I could get into Flag at night. But like I said the primary buyer managed to come up with a check in the "11th hour" and the deal went away...

I think the buyer who came through actually got the station up and on the air for a while. Good for them...

In glancing over the filings, it looks like the focus is keeping the allocation alive as I see another station has ended up on the former frequency.

Thank you ironbear, JON BRUCE and you Mr. Fybush (and for your incredible Tower website as well) , for the update. As the song says "I was running down a dream".

Best regards
Jay Walker
 
Was listening to Country Music station on 1170, at 4:30 PST heard " This is KYET AM Stereo "

After having their antenna system ( copper) carted away, they are finally on air.

--Fred, Los Angeles.
 
MrKBBQ said:
Article in the local paper on KYET:

http://www.mohavedailynews.com/articles/2012/11/15/news/local/doc50a4ac43beb11772382773.txt
Click to expand...

Interesting article, great to see he has night-time power (250w) above the originally posted "flashlight" power level, however Radio-Locator and the FCC AM Query site still lists the night power as ONE Watt.
Modulating the top beacon light would probably get out further than one watt of RF on 1170 ;D

If he is indeed licensed for 250w at night that is a decent start, and I notice he's thinking about going directional day to bump the power up as well.
Best of luck to the operator!!

Jay Walker
 
That is a misprint, the previous night time power when the city of license was Williams was 250w. Night time power currently is only 1 watt.
 
Last week, while attending the NAB thing in Las Vegas, I noticed country oldies on 1170. The game plan obviously was to move from Williams to Las Vegas.

Makes me wonder if someone might be able to try 1180 in the Flagstaff area now
 
It was interesting to see that the FCC History Cards for this station doesn't include any history BEFORE 1977. The history of the early days of 1240 kHz in Williams was ignored or forgotten. How sad.
 
Mike said:
It was interesting to see that the FCC History Cards for this station doesn't include any history BEFORE 1977. The history of the early days of 1240 kHz in Williams was ignored or forgotten. How sad.
Click to expand...
I noticed that, too. Perhaps the oldest records didn't survive the various ownership changes and bankruptcies.

It dropped off my resume 35 years ago, but I worked for KCYN, the original station, which hit air about 1968. KCYN had a Schafer 800 automation system and IGM Hitsound (AC) tape syndication, followed by a live traditional C&W format and then a locally automated mellow progressive rock experiment, aimed at NAU and Flagstaff, which I had a hand in. The station had long off-air periods before it was finally purchased out of bankruptcy by KDKB's Eric Haunstein and Dwight Tindle (Natural Broadcasting System) who programmed Bonneville beautiful music on newer automation. They did the original engineering for the upgrade to 10kW/.25kW on 1180, but sold it upon the FCC CP upgrade grant.

I'll point out the obvious and state that Flagstaff is 28 mi. away, and that the class IV 1kW/.25kW signal into Flagstaff wasn't great. With little support from Williams or Tusayan/Grand Canyon merchants for any of the formats, and limited interest in Flagstaff, KCYN wasn't viable. The 10 kW seemingly had good potential, however.
 
The low night time power was the major reason I never pushed hard to buy the facility. My business plan depended on a large amount of local high-school PBP sports coverage for what I call "the guilt buy" and Williams by itself would not "pay the bills". The 250 watt night-time signal was pretty useless for any Flagstaff coverage.

Since there was potential contract signed for the station with another prospective owner, I never really pursed the technical feasibility of a possible facility upgrade by adding a night-time directional array. If I could have raised the night-time power up to around 2.5 to 5kw aimed straight down the highway into Flagstaff, then the facility would have been a viable purchase even if it took a number of years to build to that power level.

BUT that 10kw daytime signal covered a heck of a lot of area... It was indeed "The Daylight Voice" of the Grand Canyon region.
 
ironbear said:
Mike said:
It was interesting to see that the FCC History Cards for this station doesn't include any history BEFORE 1977. The history of the early days of 1240 kHz in Williams was ignored or forgotten. How sad.
Click to expand...
I noticed that, too. Perhaps the oldest records didn't survive the various ownership changes and bankruptcies.
Click to expand...

Nothing in the FCC database precedes 1977.
 
Dave, do you mean no station has a history prior to 1977? I've only looked at one or two heritage stations, but I think there was an extensive history to them. Even showed the stuff that was typed on an old style manual typewriter.
 
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