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Jack FM Lubbock - Stunting?

Yeah that's my guess too.

I think KLLL was rated much higher than KQBR. That seems like the logical station to hit in my opinion. Not only are KKCL and KFMX one of the higher rated stations in this market, they are the only stations in this market that carry an oldies and active rock format. As for country music stations, right now we have four country stations right now...so something would have to go.

And like you said, I don't see them blowing up the Z either.

If JACK was to hit the Lubbock airwaves again, would it be the JACK FM branding? Or do you think they'd try something different, such as "BOB" or "MIKE"? Are there any GAP stations that go with the BOB-FM branding?

As for when this happens or IF it happens? I have no clue.
 
Nah, they'd be JACK. If they use it Amarillo and Midland, why not do it here? They use one website template for the other two. However, I do think they would do JACK differently, probably better equipment, more local sweepers, maybe even a live morning show. Otherwise, they'd be wasting their time.

Than again...
 
So I guess this means no more Chuck Norris Updates and The Onion Radio News? ;D

I'll miss Jack, and hope it resurfaces.

Agree if GAP were to do it, it would have to be The Bear....but with country so big in this market, you would think GAP would want a country property.

I wonder how much longer Ramar wants to go head to head with The Beat and keep losing, or stick with Stars.
 
Garrett said:
...First, I need to correct DG on something (and this is the only time I will ever do this). Major League baseball in the form of the Texas Rangers has continued to be heard in Lubbock. After KFYO decided they no longer wanted the Rangers, Ramar took the broadcasts over. I have engineered the games at both KFYO and KXTQ/KJTV. (At KFYO I hit the "F-9" key, until Landon King taught me just to use the botton bars, which is what took with me when I went to 950). Those games have been on 950 ever since the early '00's. So other than that, I'm not sure what DG means, perhaps Astros, or general MLB? Right now 1340 has those.
Click to expand...

Please correct me anytime Garrett! I'm certainly not perfect and still have plenty of learnin' to do about the broadcast biz.

What I was referring to was possibly the Astros. I didn't know they were already being carried on 1340. Not sure what the final deal will be, just what I've overheard from others.

Back in my KFYO days, when the station was still out in SW Lubbock County, I had a very interesting and nerve-racking incident involving a Rangers broadcast. This was fairly early in my board-op career, but I was told to make the night-time power switch during a local break, or when the network paused for station ID.

Chuck Kenney (or whomever it was) had wired the power phasor to a rack panel there in the KFYO control room and switching from day to night power (or vice-versa) only involved 3 buttons. As I remember it, the buttons were labelled "Day", "Night", and I think the 3rd was "On" or something like that. To switch to night power, one pressed the "Night" button, waited for a few seconds, then pressed the "On" button. The audio would drop-out during those few seconds, and a power meter mounted nearby would drop to zero then indicate the new power setting. Once the audio came back up, a log entry was made noting the new power level and the time it was switched. Switching back to daytime power was done the same way, only then the "Day" button was pressed, then the "On" with the same result- dropped audio for a few seconds then it came back at the new power setting. It was simple enough that even I, a complete idiot, could do it.

Well, we had a Rangers game on, and it was the bottom of the second inning as I recall, and I think a pop fly had been hit making it an easy out and an upcoming inning change. So I decided that when the network would go local, I'd lower the power like I was taught to do.

"Let's take a quick timeout and hear from our local stations, this is the Texas Rangers Radio Network" <BEEE-doo> (That was the audio cue for satellite automatoin in those days). I was at the ready and right on the outcue, hit the "Night" button, then the "On" button. I saw the meter drop to zero, then come up to the low-power setting, the audio went away as expected but.........it didn't come back! Where the heck is the audio?! I've single-handedly destroyed the AM station! My career is over and it hasn't even begun! What am I to do?!

Well, we were trained to throw on the emergency cart in case of dead air, which had something like 10 minutes of random music on it while one called the engineer or the manager or whatever. Since the problem was a local one (so I thought), I didn't even bother to grab it and throw it on- the station was off-air, the cart would be too right? So I grabbed the phone list and tried calling Chuck- the engineer, and no answer. I tried calling the PD, Austin I think his name was, and no answer there either. Oh crap, I've got to call the GM next?! Oh boy! My job is over now.

After about 4 to 5 minutes of dead air my only option was to then call the GM. So I dialed the number and as fate would have it, as soon as he answered, I hear through the studio monitors "This is the Texas State Network, we're experiencing technical difficulties, please stand by...." <shudder>

So I quickly explained to the GM that I thought I had a problem but didn't really and that it was all a false alarm, my mistake, sorry to disturb, etc, etc.

At the precise moment I switched the power, TSN lost their satellite feed. I had no idea until they got something back on the air. I hadn't broken anything, just incorrectly assumed the problem was on my end.

Needless to say, when I have an outage now, the first thing I check is to see if I'm still on the air or if it's the network's problem.

Sometimes I do miss those days at KFYO. :)
 
Oops, here's what I meant:
1340 has MLB games, but there's no station exclusively playng the Astros right now, and I'm not sure they are in demand either.

DG, I had the same stuff happen to me when I was doing the Ranger games over at the old KXTQ studios at Yellowhouse Canyon! We were still called "Newsradio 950," and 950's control room was in a cramped little closet. That little old house was a roach infested tinderbox that had the transmitter in "the kitchen" of all places! It was waiting to go up in flames and eventually, I guess it did.

Anway, some of the trouble we had was from TSN, and some of it was from us. The Magic guys (or so I'm told) had somehow driven into and damaged the Satellite dish so that it didn't stay in place. It was at the side of the building and had a hand crank for pointing. Everytime we had a windy day, the feed would cut out in the middle of the game, and I had to throw on an ISDN feed (usually through the phone), go out and re-point the dish.

Just like DG, I had the responsibility of setting the phasor at sunset. I knew that thing was going to blow one day when I hit the button pattern and smelled smoke, but the engineers said they couldn't find anything wrong.

In the afternoons, and also during the Dixon Platt show, we were taking TSN 10 minutes before the hour for updates. Back then, (2000-2001) it was a requirement for playing Rangers games that we took the feed from TSN. During the rest of the day we picked up the feed from AP Network News (there was no Fox News or Fox News Talk network to pick up shows from). So 10 minutes before the hour would come.... and NOTHING! At first Kay Boren, Mike Stevens and I were scrambling around and consorting the engineers to find out why our block wasn't working. We were using ]automation computer software and we thought that the blocks weren't engineered properly.

This went on for two weeks before we got a fax from TSN. I turned out that TSN (run by CBS's O & O KRLD) was using an automated cart rack, and the cartridge TSN was using for the updates was failing. You'd have thought that somebody would notice, as this happened over and over again! So it was TSN, not us!

It explains why when I asked Scott Parsons why they were no longer carrying Rangers games on KFYO, he said "TSN was pain and wasn't worth it." He was right!
 
I have to chime in on this... as for the two stations... THE BEAR and Z... there is no love for Z in that building. Now, things might have changed in the past months. However, I can tell you that when I was there... there wasn't much support for Z. Yet, on the other hand, there was a ton of support for THE BEAR. So, as far as the idea of one of them possibly flipping... IF and I stress IF one was to flip... I would think it would be Z. It simply has to do with the insane decision making of the GAP corporate office in Dallas and the history of no support for Z for whatever reason by most in the building. Not all... let me make that clear... but by most. I am not saying that Z is a better station then THE BEAR or visa versa. Personally, I can not stand the Z format. However, facts are facts and no matter how hard past or current staff of Z work... there just has never been the support for the station as there is for other stations. However, this might have changed in the past few months and I hope it has. But what the hell do I know.
 
From the rumors I've heard, the DJ for their Texas Country show is going to do a daily drive show, too. I've got some friends who are friends of Dave Walker and apparently the drive show is going to be local and the DJ, who, from what I understand, is Dave Walker's son, is going to heavily mix Texas Country in with the older stuff.

I think they can compete with KQBR, especially. KQBR tries to copy KLLL WAY too much if you ask me, and I don't think they are as good as KLLL. I have never been a big listener of Paul Beane on KRBL, but I have listened to their music in the afternoon's some, and it is similar, but different than what I've heard on KJDL. I think KJDL will pick up nearly all of KRBL's listeners whenever the new Hispanic ownership takes over, and I think KJDL will also pick up quite a few of KQBR and KLLL's listeners who are tired of hearing every Taylor Swift song stacked one after another.

If this local drive show is for real, I'd be happy to listen and get some Texas country mixed in with the older stuff.
 
There will be some changes soon aside from the ones already mentioned that will keep this thread alive for at least the near future. So keep an ear handy.

By the way. I don't listen to Triple L. There goes the copy issue. Triple L has heritage which is one thing that 99.5 will never have, although, 99.5 is the only country station that has ever put Triple L to bed. My advice to the True Country folks.... watch the amount of Texas/Red dirt music because it will bring your numbers down quickly. Unfortunately the folks that are left that do repsond to the rating system are pretty much mainstream music lovers. If you guys will notice, most country stations below the Lubbock Market (regionally) who play an intense amount of Texas/Red dirt very seldom do better than a 3 or 4 share. The station in Wichita Falls that was MOSTLY Texas/Red dirt died a slow horrible death. I can tell you this, 99.5 is now tied with Triple L in adult females and is one of the top billers in the market, and has been for two years now. Bring on the competition. All it does is bring over-all listening up which is good for everybody.
 
Speaking of KRBL,
I know David Eduardo already has the answer to this, but, why in the world would anybody think we need another Hispanic station in Lubbock? Talking about "Bangin on the door," is there some mass demand of Hispanic listeners who just have to have another station?
 
What will happen to 105.7 The Rebel? If KRBL dies, it had a better name/slogan than 'True Country 105.3'. Oh well. At least we're alive...
 
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