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KABN concords 1480 am

The transmitter was high atop the Gateway Twin towers across from the Park and Shop on Williow Pass Rd. It was hooked up 24/7 to the weather report from Oakland.
 
travisl5678 said:
i know the station itself is gone, i want to know if the transmitter is still up
Click to expand...

What do you mean by "up"? Are you asking if the transmitter and antenna itself is still up on the Concord Gateway? (Answer: no.)

As far as being "up" and running, the transmitter hasn't been on the air for five years.

I believe that the transmitter ended up back in the hands of Chester Coleman, the noted radio station broker who owned KABN during its end stage. Chester passed away in 2006. (Len, did Joe Buerry inherit the transmitter after Chester died?)
 
just got off the phone with Joe Buerry and he indicated that when KABN shut down Bill Newborough (not sure of correct spelling), who owned the equipment took it back. So KABN long gone!
 
Great idea because now only station KKDV serves the Contra Costa area. KATD has moved on to bigger and better things (HAHA). If I remember correctly, Joe's biggest problem was a transmitter site. He was trying to lease property on Highway 4, near the Naval Weapons station, owned by Dean Lesher, then owner of the Contra Costa Times, but that never happened. The property has been developed into a business campus/park. The other problem with the property was it's proximity to Buchanan Field landing pattern.
 
Could you imagine trying to re-submit all the engineering docs in order to wedge that station back in on 1480, just to serve a handful of listeners? It might be easier to try to get a LPFM in there ... and I don't think that's going to happen.

(By the by, we have copies of ALL of the original KWUN engineering docs in our archives. It's a massive bunch of paper.)

On this subject, there's a nifty little KWUN Alumni group on Facebook now. Join at your own peril...
 
From our "Didja Know" file: in 1999, Immaculate Heart Radio tried to buy 1480 (which was then lettering as KKIS) from Chester Coleman and Joe Buerry. They had FCC approval to boost power to 5000 watts, although the station was still shootin' peas at 25 watts on an STA just to keep the license alive.

IHR offered up $1.2-million and the call letters were changed to KRHT ... but the sale didn't close.

Notes I have here in Museum World Headquarters state that the 25-watt blowtorch was located "north of State Route 4 adjacent to the Contra Costa Canal." Is that just a complicated way of saying "Gateway Towers," Len?
 
I remember that potential sales to IHR. The main reason it did not close was the failure to get the transmitter site. The "north of State Route 4 site" was the Lesher property on side of the hill as you climb up the Willow Pass grade to Pittsburg.
 
I believe they are cell towers or repeaters. I'm not an engineer so can't comment on whether 25w would cover the Diablo Valley area efficiently. As DJ has pointed out you'd spent mucho dollars to get the engineering studies done, let alone the FCC listening to you.
Again, you would have to find a transmitter site that is affordable.
 
Having worked years ago at a 250w 2 tower daytimer with 33 watts presunrise authority, I can tell you there's no way 25 w will cover the valley worth a damn. A few times, the morning guy forgot to change power, so we all got to test this out. No one much cared, as the am was attached to a 100Kw FM that covered the market quite nicely.
 
travisl5678 said:
would it be worth trying to re licence it
Click to expand...

Sadly, I agree with BossRadio DJ David and would have to say no...

Along with the technical nightmare of htrying to replicate that signal, you'd still have
interference issues with the 1480s in Merced and Eureka. I even heard KYOS in
Merced coming in on the Benicia-Martinez Bridge back in the 80s when dialing 1480.

Just too expensive a project now, especially in the economy... :-\
--jay
 
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