KAAY presently off air

[radiosaur]

Little known fact: Right before the sale to Beasley, I tried to convince the owners of KZOU / KOKY (being the CE at the time) NOT to build out the 1250 transmitter upgrade over off Frazier Pike, but to instead invest that money plus a little into buying KAAY, possibly for a urban oldies format or to swap the KOKY format. I wonder what would have happened had I been successful.

Was this prior to Power 92's debut in December 1987?

Oh, yeah. Any thought of KOKY on 1250 being viable vanished after the first Power92 book.

But if KOKY had 50 KW and "hear it in your fillings" signal strength in urban Little Rock day and night? Who knows.

WDIA is still viable over here although PPM has hurt them a lot.

 

[rgseark2009]

Little known fact: Right before the sale to Beasley, I tried to convince the owners of KZOU / KOKY (being the CE at the time) NOT to build out the 1250 transmitter upgrade over off Frazier Pike, but to instead invest that money plus a little into buying KAAY, possibly for a urban oldies format or to swap the KOKY format. I wonder what would have happened had I been successful.

Was this prior to Power 92's debut in December 1987?

Oh, yeah. Any thought of KOKY on 1250 being viable vanished after the first Power92 book.

But if KOKY had 50 KW and "hear it in your fillings" signal strength in urban Little Rock day and night? Who knows.

WDIA is still viable over here although PPM has hurt them a lot.

Down in Pine Bluff, since KOKY (1250) couldn't be heard here, KCAT 1340 had a huge audience including closeted ones from white kids wanting to hear Urban music that never made the playlists of most FM stations at the time. Back in the early 1980's if we wanted to hear Funk/Soul/proto-Rap we had to tune into KCAT, the late WOKJ 1550 Jackson MS at night, the very *weak* (at least here) KWTD 106.3 (after 1983), or hope for tropo from WHRK 97.1 Memphis. KLAZ 98.5 back in the fall of 1982 and sometime after tried to fill the void at night but it was just a strict daypart. After 92.3 flipped to Urban/Hip Hop KCAT went for an older audience and became more soul oldies/blues oriented until their sale to the owners of KJIW/WJIW and went 24/7 religion. One more KCAT bit, and this got some media attention, back around 1986 the owner of KCAT dropped the weekday mid-morning religious block on the station only face protests and listener complaints. The religious music and preaching soon returned to mid mornings.

 

[K4WRF]

KAAY's sale from SBC of Ark to Beasley closed 6-22-1987, it was a memorable good day....
It sold at that time at a premium based on revenue it was generating. It would be ironic I guess if KAAY went the way of KLRA 1010. The KLRA license was purchased and surrendered by Westinghouse in a complex deal that would impact WINS NYC and CFRB Toronto CA operations by lowering their nighttime interference levels significantly and directional pattern restrictions. Today, there may be no interest as AM is circling the drain and the other inhabitants of 1090 might not have any interest in improving their NIF's. Any on-channel NIF is now vastly overtaken by man-made noise consisting of power grids and other "Part-15" NON-compliant devices.

TOO much noisy spectrum, not enough sustainable revenue....

 

[wpiv926]

Heard KAAY back on the air in Pine Bluff Monday. I doubt seriously they are running at full power though.

 

[skippertthomas]

We should have taken those PART 15 statements on the back of electrical things SERIOUSLY! But, Watt is right one about those things spewing out RF interference...

 

[wpiv926]

From FCC.GOV A STA filed 2-8-2013.---EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH WARRANT TEMPORARY OPERATIONS

AS RADIO LICENSE HOLDING CBC, LLC, ('RLH-CBC') EXPLAINED IN ITS NOTIFICATION OF SUSPENSION OF OPERATIONS FILED WITH THE FCC ON JANUARY 17, 2013, THE KAAY(AM) MAIN TRANSMITTER SUFFERED A MAJOR POWER SUPPLY FAILURE AND THE AUXILIARY TRANSMITTER WAS FATALLY DAMAGED BY WATER. RLH-CBC ENGINEERS HAVE DETERMINED THAT A TRANSMITTER IS AVAILABLE FOR USE BY KAAY FROM ONE OF ITS OTHER MARKETS. REPAIR PARTS HAVE BEEN ORDERED FOR ITS MAIN TRANSMITTER.

ACCORDINGLY, RLH-CBC RESPECTFULLY REQUESTS SPECIAL TEMPORARY AUTHORITY, PURSUANT TO SECTION 73.1635 OF THE RULES, TO OPERATE STATION KAAY AT REDUCED POWER OF APPROXIMATELY FIVE KILOWATTS (5 KW) IN THE NON-DIRECTIONAL MODE USING A BORROWED TRANSMITTER UNTIL ITS MAIN TRANSMITER IS REPAIRED.

 

[billyg]

So that's why I've been able to hear KAAY fairly strong here in Kilgore TX.. usually East Texas is out of the pattern.

It's just sad to see this once-legendary 50k powerhouse get treated like a 250w coffeepot. Maybe the rain causing these "extraordinary circumstances" is God's revenge?

 

[rgseark2009]

So that's why I've been able to hear KAAY fairly strong here in Kilgore TX.. usually East Texas is out of the pattern.

It's just sad to see this once-legendary 50k powerhouse get treated like a 250w coffeepot. Maybe the rain causing these "extraordinary circumstances" is God's revenge?

Surprised you're able to hear KAAY with the IBOC from KRLD next door.

But KAAY could have gone a different direction, but circumstances and a lack of vision by the station's former owners was much a part of the demise of KAAY as FM Radio. Hate to say this, but if KAAY had gone talk radio right at the time or just before KARN's adoption of the format in the early 1980's, that KAAY would not be running 5KW from a leaky transmitter building. Granted, KAAY would likely have become another Limbaugh/Hannity/Beck affiliate or a sportstalk station. The days of music on AM Radio were numbered when I was in high school 30 years ago, and those of us that did listen to AM radio in cars w/o FM radios listened to WLS (nighttime), WOKJ (nightime), or KCAT (daytime)

 

[smedge2006]

Surprised you're able to hear KAAY with the IBOC from KRLD next door.

But KAAY could have gone a different direction, but circumstances and a lack of vision by the station's former owners was much a part of the demise of KAAY as FM Radio. Hate to say this, but if KAAY had gone talk radio right at the time or just before KARN's adoption of the format in the early 1980's, that KAAY would not be running 5KW from a leaky transmitter building. Granted, KAAY would likely have become another Limbaugh/Hannity/Beck affiliate or a sportstalk station.

KAAY had at least some talk radio in its final glory years. There was a show at night in the early 80's hosted by Dick Price called "The Singing Pig."

 

[billyg]

Surprised you're able to hear KAAY with the IBOC from KRLD next door.

But KAAY could have gone a different direction, but circumstances and a lack of vision by the station's former owners was much a part of the demise of KAAY as FM Radio. Hate to say this, but if KAAY had gone talk radio right at the time or just before KARN's adoption of the format in the early 1980's, that KAAY would not be running 5KW from a leaky transmitter building. Granted, KAAY would likely have become another Limbaugh/Hannity/Beck affiliate or a sportstalk station. The days of music on AM Radio were numbered when I was in high school 30 years ago, and those of us that did listen to AM radio in cars w/o FM radios listened to WLS (nighttime), WOKJ (nightime), or KCAT (daytime)

So true, It's a shoulda-coulda thing.. if KAAY had wound up in the hands to re-invent it as a news-talker it might have been where KARN is now. And if it wasn't for Preachers paying full dollar for 50K airtime I bet KAAY would have been the talker or swapped dial positions with KARN.

A lot of former stations went religious during the 80's. It was a heartbreak when KAKC in Tulsa (now KCFO) flipped to christian talk and southern gospel. I grew up in Bartlesville OK and I remember listening to WLS a lot, KAAY running AC or oldies and WOKJ even into the late 80s when they were playing Heavy Metal. And in 1983-5 KELi in Tulsa was revived for a few years as CHR "14-K/92-K"

I believe KRLD has shut off their IBOC for good or on my Realistic DX-440 that I use for DX'ing AM I cant hear it.

BTW when I stayed in Van Buren about 2 years ago I caught KISR being simulcast on KSFA 950. That was last time I heard CHR on AM. What are they running now?

 

[wpiv926]

When the same owner who had KARN at the time bought KAAY, I thought they were going to put the news/talk over on 1090, and completely revamp the KAAY ground system and transmitter and really get it back to the blowtorch days as far as signal. And also put the gospel over on 920. I couldn't have been more wrong. They put the NT on 102.9, let KAAY go to pot and basically ignored (until recently with the new owner), KARN-920 AM. The FCC needs to start cracking down on these deadbeat owners. If they file for an STA to get something fixed in 6 months, then it needs to be fixed in that time frame with no excuses except for poor weather. And if the owner is unable (or unwilling) to keep facilities at licensed operating parameters, they should be downgraded by the FCC, instead of receiving endless extensions. No excuses.

 

[rgseark2009]

When the same owner who had KARN at the time bought KAAY, I thought they were going to put the news/talk over on 1090, and completely revamp the KAAY ground system and transmitter and really get it back to the blowtorch days as far as signal. And also put the gospel over on 920. I couldn't have been more wrong. They put the NT on 102.9, let KAAY go to pot and basically ignored (until recently with the new owner), KARN-920 AM. The FCC needs to start cracking down on these deadbeat owners. If they file for an STA to get something fixed in 6 months, then it needs to be fixed in that time frame with no excuses except for poor weather. And if the owner is unable (or unwilling) to keep facilities at licensed operating parameters, they should be downgraded by the FCC, instead of receiving endless extensions. No excuses.

I knew KARN-FM (102.9) was on low power for a few months some years ago. Also there were issues with KIPR 92.3 before that that were not resolved. Citadel was in many respects *worse* than Clear Channel, at least on the technical end of things.

 

[wpiv926]

I knew KARN-FM (102.9) was on low power for a few months some years ago. Also there were issues with KIPR 92.3 before that that were not resolved. Citadel was in many respects *worse* than Clear Channel, at least on the technical end of things.
[/quote]


It's a shame when Clear Channel looks like a model broadcaster. But Citadel really sucked their stations dry, much like small town operator Jay Bunyard does.

 

[Kent]

When Citadel went bankrupt after the economy crashed and effectively choking on the ABC deal, they cut back on unnecessary expenses. FM's and non-directional AM's under 10,000 watts don't require an engineer on the payroll. So, you can follow the dollar to its logical destination! In the case of clusters like Little Rock, they simply kept extending the engineer(s) they had on the payroll to cover outlying clusters. As you might imagine, facilities can deteriorate when that happens, especially AM stations that require a lot more TLC. It's not that big of a deal for FM's because there's less that can fail, and there are plenty of contract engineers they can call in a pinch. I'm sure they also considered AM's continuing decline into irrelevance when making that decision.

I can't imagine it's getting much better under Cumulus since they held the philosophy of stretching the engineers on their payroll long before Citadel bought into the idea. The engineer at the Cumulus cluster I used to work for was considered the main engineer for a cluster nearly 4 hours away in addition to several others.

 

[wpiv926]

Had the chance to go by KAAY in Wrightsville 2 weeks ago. It was off the air then, but came back on later. Didn't look like a lot of work was going on.