K261CW Tyler (KERA Translator) Dead

[Deleted member 108832]

As noted previously, local NPR/Jazz affiliate KVUT was recently sold to Scott Rice's RCA Broadcasting, and resulted in the loss of one of Tyler's Public Radio outlets, once it was changed to Adult Hits as KFRO-FM. Now, the other wheel of the NPR express in ETX has apparently fallen off as K261CW, North Texas Public Broadcasting's Tyler translator at 100.1, is gone. Kaput. Dead as a doornail. Missing from the Tyler airwaves for the better part of the last week. That leaves Red River Radio from Jacksonville (Overton) serving as the lone station airing NPR programming, and KTYK 's signal in Tyler is a far cry from tolerably listenable inside the actual city limits.

Has NTPB given up on Tyler? Anyone in WIchita Falls or Sherman missing their own KERA translator, too, or is this one solely relegated to just us East Texan listeners? Correspondence to them directly has, so far, been met with silence.

I can hear a weak KERA with normal programming here, so the primary, itself, isn't the problem, for what it's worth.

 

[Jay S]

I remember when it was on 99.1 as K256AB. I hated how it would block out KTUX when going toward Tyler. It was a relief when they moved to accommodate the 99.3 move-in back in 2001. This made it possible to receive KTUX on the east side of Tyler.

Now if you want to hear KTUX in Tyler, just tune to 96.1–same exact programming minus the “highway-obsessive imaging.”

Also, I recall seeing that NTPB had an application for a translator for KERA-TV. I believe it was for channel 36 or somewhere around there. That never got built. So I guess NTPB is not as interested in East Texas.

The KERA-FM translator was owned by Heart of Tyler. That sounds like a third party local owner who worked to provide the programming. I don’t know if ownership changed over time. Given that NTPB didn’t build the translator for KERA-TV, they probably wouldn’t be interested in providing a translator for KERA-FM on their own.

I had wished that K261CW would’ve switched to a KKXT simulcast once KTYK signed on, but there probably isn’t enough support for that to justify it. If they couldn’t justify a translator for KERA-TV, then certainly a translator for an AAA station is justifiable as well.

By the way, if nobody is interested in doing a local public radio station, Red River Radio should just get a translator to simulcast KTYK (which I would guess would actually be considered a translator for KQHN.)

 

[ted chittenden]

I remember when it was on 99.1 as K256AB. I hated how it would block out KTUX when going toward Tyler. It was a relief when they moved to accommodate the 99.3 move-in back in 2001. This made it possible to receive KTUX on the east side of Tyler.

Now if you want to hear KTUX in Tyler, just tune to 96.1–same exact programming minus the “highway-obsessive imaging.”

Also, I recall seeing that NTPB had an application for a translator for KERA-TV. I believe it was for channel 36 or somewhere around there. That never got built. So I guess NTPB is not as interested in East Texas.

The KERA-FM translator was owned by Heart of Tyler. That sounds like a third party local owner who worked to provide the programming. I don’t know if ownership changed over time. Given that NTPB didn’t build the translator for KERA-TV, they probably wouldn’t be interested in providing a translator for KERA-FM on their own.

I had wished that K261CW would’ve switched to a KKXT simulcast once KTYK signed on, but there probably isn’t enough support for that to justify it. If they couldn’t justify a translator for KERA-TV, then certainly a translator for an AAA station is justifiable as well.

By the way, if nobody is interested in doing a local public radio station, Red River Radio should just get a translator to simulcast KTYK (which I would guess would actually be considered a translator for KQHN.)

It was noted in an earlier thread on KVUT-FM that there is a lot of opposition/antagonism towards public radio in that part of Texas. Couple that with the current Federal administration's efforts to 1) stop funding of CPB; 2) investigate the underriting practices of both NPR and local stations for public radio programs; and 3) the expected controversies when public radio outlets have to renew their licenses with the FCC, it is no wonder, even if KERA-FM owned the translator, that the station might want to focus its limited resources elsewhere.

 

[Deleted member 108832]

You'll be ecstatic to hear that K261CW is back among the choices available in Tyler-Longview radio.

I would hazard a guess that Red River Radio pulls up its East Texas stakes before NTPB ever does. As mentioned by Jay, KERA has had a presence here for eons. Regardless of how the translator is viewed by a healthy percentage of folks around here, it's still a vital asset to NTPB. They're not likely to just walk away from trying to provide the alternative viewpoint to what the majority of East Texans choose to believe.