is the KGO sign still on the xmtr building?

[DaveBayArea]

What is that eggcrate-looking panel for?

Early versions of high-output solar panels. They had a servomotor arrangement that followed the sun and focused its energy on the solar cells.

I can't find it now, but I remember a newspaper article (or possibly a KGO press release) talking about it.

Dave B.

 

[michael hagerty]

What is that eggcrate-looking panel for?

I had to do a Google image search, but they are apparently called concentrator photovoltaic cells:

Solar panel of concentrator photovoltaic cells - efficient alternative solar energy technology Stock Photo - Alamy

Download this stock image: Solar panel of concentrator photovoltaic cells - efficient alternative solar energy technology - AE5ARX from Alamy's library of millions of high resolution stock photos, illustrations and vectors.

www.alamy.com

And here's the best one-stop I can find on what that means:

5.1. What are concentrating photovoltaics? | EME 812: Utility Solar Power and Concentration

 

[Yabadabado1]

I just happen to be in the neighborhood:

View attachment 9622

Maybe KGO could stand for Keeps Getting Out
And sort of a side question......why do so many broadcaster's transmitter sites look like something from a third world ghetto? And not just recently, I can go back to the early/mid 70s and some places were horrendous. You'd think they'd have some pride in keeping anything associated with the station looking decent. I've been by a few spots that were immaculate and well landscaped and buildings look like they are washed at least yearly but vast majority I've been by look like a campground for homeless people or a scrapyard. Maybe they think that if it's out in the boondocks no ones going to notice.

 

[Yabadabado1]

They burned Lew Dickey in effigy.

Didn't the EPA come and make them put it out because of the toxic fumes it was spewing?

 

[michael hagerty]

Maybe KGO could stand for Keeps Getting Out
And sort of a side question......why do so many broadcaster's transmitter sites look like something from a third world ghetto? And not just recently, I can go back to the early/mid 70s and some places were horrendous. You'd think they'd have some pride in keeping anything associated with the station looking decent. I've been by a few spots that were immaculate and well landscaped and buildings look like they are washed at least yearly but vast majority I've been by look like a campground for homeless people or a scrapyard. Maybe they think that if it's out in the boondocks no ones going to notice.

The vast majority are unattended most of the time. It makes them an easy target for vandals and taggers. Frankly, by Bay Area standards, I think the KGO transmitter building is....presentable. Probably all that barbed wire, and the fact that you're risking your life getting back onto the Dumbarton Bridge after stopping there.

This is what the KRE (now KVTO) transmitter building in Berkeley looked like in the 1990s, and the work the California Radio Historical Society did to clean it up for its museum (since moved):

KRE Transmitter Building - Berkeley (1999)

KRE Transmitter Building Berkeley Aquatic Park 1999 The KRE Building in Berkeley during the late 1990s,

bayarearadio.org

 

[Weiserguy]

Maybe KGO could stand for Keeps Getting Out
And sort of a side question......why do so many broadcaster's transmitter sites look like something from a third world ghetto? And not just recently, I can go back to the early/mid 70s and some places were horrendous. You'd think they'd have some pride in keeping anything associated with the station looking decent. I've been by a few spots that were immaculate and well landscaped and buildings look like they are washed at least yearly but vast majority I've been by look like a campground for homeless people or a scrapyard. Maybe they think that if it's out in the boondocks no ones going to notice.

I was out there for a site visit around 2008. It was staffed, if not 24-7, at least during daytime shift. And back then it was in much better shape, kept neat and clean. The building probably got repainted every few years. It does get a lot of eyeballs driving by the site every day, and ABC (my visit wasn't too long before Disney spun off the ABC radio stations to Citadel) still considered KGO one of its prime assets. By now it's been owned by Cumulus long enough to have fallen into disrepair.

I can see both the KGO towers and the KNBR stick from my house. I'm occasionally in Redwood Shores (where KNBR is), and the first time I was there, when KNBR was still owned by NBC, their transmitter facility was also immaculate. That was also true during the Susquehanna years. But the last time I took the detour to look at the site, it looked like a Newark (NJ) derelict. Maybe the problem is their common owner.

 

[michael hagerty]

I was out there for a site visit around 2008. It was staffed, if not 24-7, at least during daytime shift. And back then it was in much better shape, kept neat and clean. The building probably got repainted every few years. It does get a lot of eyeballs driving by the site every day, and ABC (my visit wasn't too long before Disney spun off the ABC stations to Citadel) still considered KGO one of its prime assets.

I was there at 10:15 on a Thursday morning and unless someone was parked inside one of those garage bays (or got dropped off to work), the place was unattended.

 

[Weiserguy]

I was there at 10:15 on a Thursday morning and unless someone was parked inside one of those garage bays (or got dropped off to work), the place was unattended.

I believe you. IIRC, Art Lieberman retired, more than a few years ago, and I doubt they ever assigned anyone else to be the on-site transmitter supervisor.

There's probably one guy who's now responsible for all four AM transmitters in the cluster, and I wouldn't be surprised if most of his time these days is spent disassembling 560's facility and posting equipment listings on eBay.