• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

KBPA GOT A 4.5?

93-3TheSurge said:
That's where you and I will have to agree to disagree. KBPA is so close to being at the halfway point of San Antonio and Austin, so close to having 60 dBu coverage from the southside of SA to the northside of Austin. It would be foolish not to take advantage of both markets.

Have you been watching "Fringe" too much? That might be the case in a parallel universe, but I don't think Jeff or Rick or anyone else in Emmis would find this an attractive idea.
 
fredcantu said:
IIRC-- KBPA is where it is because it got its start as KRMH "Karma," an album rock station trying to serve the college crowds in both San Marcos and Austin. It was an early rimshot orginally on 103.7 licensed to San Marcos. It moved to 103.5 when 103.3 in Freeport upgraded to serve Houston which moved 103.3 in Sinton/Corpus Christi to 103.7 and San Marcos/Austin to 103.5. It was quite the domino effect.

What kinda sucks about KBPA is that its City of License is San Marcos.

San Marcos IS closer to Austin, however the city itself lies on rugged hilly terrain; downtown SM is kind of like in a valley.

Therefore, Austin stations that are based on the Hill don't come in clear on a small radio. The only LOS transmission of stations from the hill to San Marcos, would come in clear east of Wal-Mart on Highway 80, and north of Texas State campus at the top of the hill (North LBJ, North of Sessom)

KBPA is kind of stuck where it is. When I was in San Marcos, I only got one FM station clear on my alarm clock, KBPA, and one TV station with my indoor rabbit ear antenna, KTBC. ... Its sad if you live in SM.
 
DavidEduardo said:
Have you been watching "Fringe" too much? That might be the case in a parallel universe, but I don't think Jeff or Rick or anyone else in Emmis would find this an attractive idea.

No, I have never seen Fringe. I prefer Lie To Me.

Just because I disagree with you, that means I live in a parallel universe? I would hate to know how your wife feels...

You feel like people wouldn't listen in SA if KBPA moved its tower to Hunter, and I feel like they would. Until KBPA moves its tower, we will never know. You have your opinions, and I have mine. Let's just leave it at that.
 
93-3TheSurge said:
You feel like people wouldn't listen in SA if KBPA moved its tower to Hunter, and I feel like they would. Until KBPA moves its tower, we will never know. You have your opinions, and I have mine. Let's just leave it at that.

The stations you think should move can't move due to protection requirements. THis is not opinion. It is in the FCC rules.

The stations you think should move won't because the owners do not want to. This is fact. Try calling the managers or CEOs and asking them.

Any Austin station that moves to your fictional site would lose complete coverage of the Austin market. Any SA station that moves that to the site would lose much of SA. This is fact based on the math of FM coverage.

A couple of million listening incidents prove that mainstream commercial stations get 5% or less of listening outside the 64 dbu (and much of that is probably due to ascription, too). So losing 64 dbu coverage in-market is something no station would want to do. This is fact based on a huge amount of data in many markets (including Austin) over an extensive period of time.
 
fredcantu said:
Yeah, give it up DE. 93-3 isn't interested in our facts.

;D

There is always a silver lining to this kind of discussion. JD's table of clasesse and distances has been saved for quick reference, I made the online acquaintance of Krash Kelly and I was nudged to look at the effective signal vs. diary returns for the market again... all making the salvage value of the thread quite significant.

I'm gonna' go and have my claws sharpened...
 
fredcantu said:
IIRC-- KBPA is where it is because it got its start as KRMH "Karma," an album rock station trying to serve the college crowds in both San Marcos and Austin. It was an early rimshot orginally on 103.7 licensed to San Marcos. It moved to 103.5 when 103.3 in Freeport upgraded to serve Houston which moved 103.3 in Sinton/Corpus Christi to 103.7 and San Marcos/Austin to 103.5. It was quite the domino effect.

I remember listening to KRMH on its first day of broadcasting back in 1971 (in fact, I caught the transmitter tests before that.) It was a direct cometitor to the part-time Progressive Rock format on the old KHFI-FM. A year later, KHFI went back to its Beautiful Music format after trying PR fulltime.

IIRC KRMH's original studio and (shorter) tower was east of I-35 near Buda, off the Neiderwald exit. Although they moved to the current tall tower in 1983 (as part of the frequency change/upgrade) I think the old stick was still there a few years ago. Couldn't see it on my last couple of trips to that area, anyone know if it was taken down?

"Karma" was a good station for a couple of years, but the flip of KLBJ-FM to Album Rock was a fatal blow. Karma became increasingly directionless, and at the end was a complete mess before the sale and flip to KCSW in 1976.
 
Back then KLBJ and KRMH were true album rock stations playing vinyl only. I recall hearing that KRMH's turntables were set into granite blocks to minimize turntable rumble. When was the last time anyone outside of a nightclub actually cued up a record?
 
Well, now that we're almost completely off topic ;D, I'd like to say that I really miss KRMH! I remember being the first person over at McCallum High to hear them, what was it, the end of May 72?
 
Fred; the KRMH turntables were set in limestone blocks. It sounds like a good idea, but the quadraphonic speakers in the control room induced resonant feedback into the limestone if you cranked up the monitor. The tower and metal building were still there last time I drove through. The frequency was created for Hays County, but it was always dual-city, San Marcos-Austin. There was a San Marcos sales office and news studio (of sorts). Up until it became KCSW, all broadcasts originated from 'Mount Buda', across I-35 from Downtown Buda. In those days, you could see the state Capitol from the back door.
 
DavidEduardo said:
Any Austin station that moves to your fictional site would lose complete coverage of the Austin market. Any SA station that moves that to the site would lose much of SA. This is fact based on the math of FM coverage.

It's worth noting that a number of the larger stations in San Antonio and Austin are not operating with anywhere near "maximum" facilities and some recent developments would complicate any proposed upgrades. A number of new stations have shown up in the outlying areas, some of them on first or second-adjacent channels. In the case of KBPA, there's a new Class A station in the works west of Uvalde and it's a co-channel!

KBPA is not maxed out for its class (C0), running 96KW at 383 meters versus 100kW at 450 meters, but I plugged them into a Longley-Rice study at a full Class C with 100kW at 600 meters. From the study location near Hunter they would deliver a city-grade signal into northeastern San Antonio and the southern part of Austin, but much of both cities fell into the 60 to 69dBu range. A good portion of Williamson County and part of western San Antonio were well below that, in the neighborhood of 50dBu or less. It wasn't pretty, and in fact for some of the heavily populated areas it was downright ugly.

Unfortunately I can't provide a link to the map that was generated (copyright concerns), but it graphically shows how much terrain figures into the equation. It was based on the notion that KBPA (in a best case scenario, max Class C) could be moved to a halfway point. But with current separation rules it can't, and as mentioned previously that would probably apply to most, if not all, of the larger stations in San Antonio and Austin.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom