K259BG Chehalis sold to Bustos, for KZGI channel move and power boost.

[fordranger797]

It's the latest thing in teen pop. For those tired of Taylor Swift Everything, K-Pop is over. Hyperpop doesn't move them and Gamer Music is just too wussy, you need something brand new. This is it.

As for 105.7 KZGI, you can't pick it up that well in most of Mount Vernon unless you're on the hills (CBU-FM still dominates the flats.) Only when you get on top and over the hill on Riverside (by the G&M Market and north) does it start to come in. It's really a crummy frequency for anything beyond. But so is 96.9. And I don't think 1,150 watts is going to do much for improvement on that frequency either. And honestly, you have to at least cover Mount Vernon completely if you want to advertise locally.

I think 104.7 (currently occupied by Religious KTFJ-LP Burlington) might be a slightly better frequency than either 105.7 or 96.9. But I'm not the engineer guy here.

I don’t see how it’s possible that no one at least scoped out the area to hear what these frequencies sound like for themselves. If you’re driving around in Skagit Valley listening to a station coming out of Vancouver or Victoria, it will often sound like you’re listening IN Vancouver or Victoria. I just don’t see how this could possibly work from an engineering standpoint.

 

[Bongwater]

I don’t see how it’s possible that no one at least scoped out the area to hear what these frequencies sound like for themselves. If you’re driving around in Skagit Valley listening to a station coming out of Vancouver or Victoria, it will often sound like you’re listening IN Vancouver or Victoria. I just don’t see how this could possibly work from an engineering standpoint.

You do need a bit more power than most might think to override the Canadian signals in the valley, that's for sure. But Canadian signals aren't really a priority south of the border and wherever the FCC can squeeze in something, they'll do it (did you know there's a CP for 101.1 on Whidbey Island?) Ironically, KWPA-LP 96.9 couldn't make a go of it because their signal was really hemmed in by CJAX (JACK-FM Vancouver) Their 100 watts might as well have been 10 watts.

But with the mush all over the FM dial out here, it's really not practical to put a new FM station on the air out here anymore. I understand the why, I just don't see the place.

 

[fordranger797]

You do need a bit more power than most might think to override the Canadian signals in the valley, that's for sure. But Canadian signals aren't really a priority south of the border and wherever the FCC can squeeze in something, they'll do it (did you know there's a CP for 101.1 on Whidbey Island?) Ironically, KWPA-LP 96.9 couldn't make a go of it because their signal was really hemmed in by CJAX (JACK-FM Vancouver) Their 100 watts might as well have been 10 watts.

But with the mush all over the FM dial out here, it's really not practical to put a new FM station on the air out here anymore. I understand the why, I just don't see the place.

From a legal standpoint, it can definitely be done. However, it would take an awful lot of effort to override a blowtorch signal. Not to mention, if you’re still not hitting a critical coverage area that well (Mount Vernon), it will be hard to make much progress.

 

[crainbebo]

It's been a mush of FM signals above Everett for the last twenty years or more. Between the HD sidebands, the Canadian stations and the translators - not worth it.
Anybody with a car radio and an S-meter would see that JACK dominates 96.9 from La Conner north (actually, make that Marysville). That eliminates any chance of KZGI being able to serve the community on that channel, unless it's 3-4 miles from the transmitter. 105.7 is useless as well. Victoria channels are even worse. They might as well be the local stations in Mount Vernon...yes, that includes the little French station on 99.7.

 

[Kelly A]

Anybody with a car radio and an S-meter would see that JACK dominates 96.9 from La Conner north (actually, make that Marysville). That eliminates any chance of KZGI being able to serve the community on that channel, unless it's 3-4 miles from the transmitter. 105.7 is useless as well. Victoria channels are even worse. They might as well be the local stations in Mount Vernon...yes, that includes the little French station on 99.7.

No average consumer, let alone have one, would pay attention to an S-meter on a car stereo. That's not really a thing.

 

[fybush]

You do need a bit more power than most might think to override the Canadian signals in the valley, that's for sure. But Canadian signals aren't really a priority south of the border and wherever the FCC can squeeze in something, they'll do it (did you know there's a CP for 101.1 on Whidbey Island?)

It's very important to clarify who's doing what here.

"The FCC" isn't doing any squeezing. There's nobody in an office in Washington looking at contours and saying "hey, you can put a signal on 96.9 or 105.7 at this location."

It's entirely broadcasters and consulting engineers doing this. For full-power commercial allocations, would-be broadcasters go to the FCC and propose an addition to the table of allocations. If it fits under international treaty and domestic mileage separations, it's added to the table and made available at auction eventually.

For everything else - translators, LPFM, noncomm full power - if there's a filing window, broadcasters put in their applications and if they fit under the rules, they're granted.

But it's always broadcasters, not the FCC, seeking out these holes. And it's the broadcasters who have to live with their choices. They know (or should) what sort of incoming interference they'll receive, and it's up to them to decide if it's worth it to get some limited coverage.

 

[bobdavcav]

Scott or really anyone with knowledge of the subject, please explain how some of these are approved. According to the link I'll post below, it looks like any co-channel class A must be separated by about 140 miles. In the case of the station we're talking about here, it's roughly half that distance. It looks to me like if these were domestic allocations exclusively, you'd have co-channel class A signals as close as southern Lewis County, and we don't see that at all. I don't see domestic spacing that tight at all, except for the very old allocations mainly in the east that were made before the rules went into effect. 47 CFR § 73.807 - Minimum distance separation between stations.

 

[bossbill]

I can't find the word "about" in the rules. And the appropriate link for Class A to Class A is Section 73.207.
Class A to A minimum spacing is 115 miles, less with "short-spacing". As I understand, the Commission considers new facilities to be a more efficient use of the RF spectrum. The minimum-spacing rules have been around for a while.
And newer vehicles have better FM receivers. My 2004 Highlander isn't as selective as my wife's 2021 vehicle, and she doesn't have the same problem going through Shelton as I do, with a nearby FM translator on 101.9 clobbering my station on 102.1. My 2000 vintage F-150 fares even worse.

 

[bossbill]

No average consumer, let alone have one, would pay attention to an S-meter on a car stereo. That's not really a thing.

Geez Kelly, I thought I could depend on the S-meters on radio-locator.com! Burst my bubble...

 

[fybush]

It's all about the loopholes, and there are many of them. The current iteration of the Canada-US rules doesn't give any cross-border protection to either country's signals. They're only protected on their own soil.

The spacings in 73.207 only apply on US soil. US stations can choose to accept interference from existing Canadian stations right up to the border. What US stations can't do is create interference to Canadian stations on Canadian soil - but there are ratios that can be applied there to determine whether interference exists, so in this case, whatever signal the US 105.7 delivers at the border is easily 40 dB below CBU, and so it's not deemed to cause any interference in Canada.

(It's even easier to do these over on my side of the country, where any interference falls in the middle of a Great Lake and thus doesn't count.)

 

[bobdavcav]

That makes even less sense to me than it did yesterday. The ratios have been explained before, but if that's all that needs to be taken into account, then what are the spacing rules set out in the table I linked to yesterday there fore? In my mind, the spacing distances in table one on that page are for U.S. to U.S. stations, the spacing rules in table two are minimums between U.S. and Mexico, and the rules in table three are for U.S. and Canada. Is this not the case?

 

[fybush]

You linked to 73.807, which applies only to LPFMs. 73.207 is the rule that governs full-power FM.

 

[bossbill]

That makes even less sense to me than it did yesterday. The ratios have been explained before, but if that's all that needs to be taken into account, then what are the spacing rules set out in the table I linked to yesterday there fore? In my mind, the spacing distances in table one on that page are for U.S. to U.S. stations, the spacing rules in table two are minimums between U.S. and Mexico, and the rules in table three are for U.S. and Canada. Is this not the case?

You were looking at 73.807, not 73.207.

 

[bobdavcav]

Oops. I had both pulled up and dropped the wrong link here. Here's the correct one. 47 CFR § 73.207 - Minimum distance separation between stations.

 

[RF101]

We now know what Bustos is doing with 99.7 Chehalis. It is "La Ranchera 99.7". The logo and stream now appear at Bustos' laradiodeportland.com website. The feed IDs as well as KZTM HD2 (McKenna).

 

[RF101]

Not sure why 99.7 Chehalis landed under the LaRadioDePortland.com and not LaRadioDeSeattle.com. To me the Twin-Cities always have been Seattle-centric for TV and radio.

The audio stream is this : https://ice41.securenetsystems.net/BMOR1