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KBRT APPLICATION FOR 50KW

J

jonbruce

KBRT has applied to go 50kw days and 190 watts nights from the former KPLS 830 site near Corona. City of License remains Avalon.
 
I thought they had to protect KCBS, which was the reason they sign-off at night...
 
musicman3355 said:
I thought they had to protect KCBS, which was the reason they sign-off at night...
Click to expand...

Currently at night KBRT-740 uses 113 watts, but here in west OC I still hear KCBS. If
KBRT moves to Chino but is licensed to Avalon, that 190 watts will have to be
really focused toward Catalina to maintain reception in their city of license. I
read in another posting that KSPA-1510 in Ontario wants a power increase and
a move to the same tower sight as KLAA-830 and possibly KBRT-740. That will
be a busy facility if both applications are approved.
 
XBanderRadio said:
Currently at night KBRT-740 uses 113 watts, but here in west OC I still hear KCBS. If
KBRT moves to Chino but is licensed to Avalon, that 190 watts will have to be
really focused toward Catalina to maintain reception in their city of license. I
read in another posting that KSPA-1510 in Ontario wants a power increase and
a move to the same tower sight as KLAA-830 and possibly KBRT-740. That will
be a busy facility if both applications are approved.
Click to expand...

KBRT is authorized to use 113 watts at night. It does not utilize that authorization, since those 113 watts would be completely drowned out by KCBS anywhere on the mainland.

Class D stations such as KBRT have no city-of-license coverage requirements at night, since their nighttime coverage is entirely unprotected and is considered "secondary service." So from its new mainland site, KBRT won't likely be audible on Catalina, and won't have to be.

And the site to which KBRT is moving is not that of KLAA-830. It's the former site of 830 in its KPLS days, but 830 has since moved to a different location.
 
Scott Fybush said:
XBanderRadio said:
Currently at night KBRT-740 uses 113 watts, but here in west OC I still hear KCBS. If
KBRT moves to Chino but is licensed to Avalon, that 190 watts will have to be
really focused toward Catalina to maintain reception in their city of license. I
read in another posting that KSPA-1510 in Ontario wants a power increase and
a move to the same tower sight as KLAA-830 and possibly KBRT-740. That will
be a busy facility if both applications are approved.
Click to expand...

KBRT is authorized to use 113 watts at night. It does not utilize that authorization, since those 113 watts would be completely drowned out by KCBS anywhere on the mainland.

Class D stations such as KBRT have no city-of-license coverage requirements at night, since their nighttime coverage is entirely unprotected and is considered "secondary service." So from its new mainland site, KBRT won't likely be audible on Catalina, and won't have to be.

And the site to which KBRT is moving is not that of KLAA-830. It's the former site of 830 in its KPLS days, but 830 has since moved to a different location.
Click to expand...

Scott are you saying that it's the site in east Orange County near Santiago Canyon Road? If so, are the towers still there or are they erecting new ones?
 
That's the one, right on the OC/Riverside county line. I don't believe the old KPLS towers are still standing; they'd have had to reconfigure them anyway for the KBRT array.
 
They should have found a way to make what they have work. That site sucked when 830 had it. Instead of a nice salt water path into the metro, they'll be sending their signal over rock.
 
LA_Guy said:
They should have found a way to make what they have work. That site sucked when 830 had it. Instead of a nice salt water path into the metro, they'll be sending their signal over rock.
Click to expand...

I think the issue... and some of it has been covered in Crawford's very nice engineering newsletter... is that the infrastructure on Catalina is making it difficult to operate from there. Besides the "persona non grata" image that KBRT acquired due to the fire caused by a contractor, the power system is increasingly fragile and unstable. With heightened environmmental concerns, running a fulltime genny set and fueling it would possibly not get approval, and getting fuel there would be very costly. Then there is the issue of accessability... unless someone lives there fulltime and never leaves, a significant site problem could take a day or more to fix.

The old 830 site was used for a relatively low power operation when Danny Villanueva operated 830. As a 50 kw daytimer, the low dial position and ability to shoot the power over LA should make the operation less complex (speking of complexity, decades ago one of the engineering magazines like BM/E featured the diversity reception system on the STL to compensate for inversion over the salt water).

I really love the ads the station ran in its early years where it called itself "the Catalina Station" and had a mermaid as part of the logo.
 
DavidEduardo said:
I really love the ads the station ran in its early years where it called itself "the Catalina Station" and had a mermaid as part of the logo.
Click to expand...

Do you have any pictures of this one, David?
 
Domingo said:
You can see one of the ads by going to the Oct 25, 1954 issue of Broadcasting Magazine, page 68.
Click to expand...

Try searching the 50's only on KBIG and Catalina... A bunch will come up.
 
I fondly remember, back in my teenage years, when KBIG/740 embraced Catalina and Catalina embraced the station. Carl Bailey used to do a live weekend remote from the old SS Catalina (the "Great White Steamer)" on its way to Avalon with throngs of KBIG listeners in addition to regular passengers. Music was quite pop for the day, especially since the steamer specialized in big band music.

The ship came to an ignominious end, spending her final days in Ensenda before she was cut up for srap early in 2009..

While the current 740 may serve its specialized listeners, it does not serve the general audience and certainly does nothing for Catalina.

One more travesty of our more-recent, NAB- and industry-controlled, feckless FCC.
 
observer8057 said:
While the current 740 may serve its specialized listeners, it does not serve the general audience and certainly does nothing for Catalina.

One more travesty of our more-recent, NAB- and industry-controlled, feckless FCC.
Click to expand...

From the moment the station went on the air, all promotion was directed at the LA / Coastal SC area, and sales efforts stressed the coverage from San Diego to Santa Barbara... there was no mention of anything "of Catalina" except the Mermaid logo.

The FCC rules, since the 40's, have required service to the "community of license" and not the city of license. The definition of "community" has filled tens of thousands of license renewals and various FCC rulings, hearings, etc. The idea that Catalina could sustain a radio station goes beyond credibility.
 
Scott Fybush said:
Well, a commercial signal, anyway...there is a little noncomm out on the island now, 88.7 KISL.
Click to expand...

IIRC, there was one or more applications for a Class IV (I still like the old classes) at Avalon on, maybe, 1450 with less than the full kilowatt of power.
 
DavidEduardo said:
LA_Guy said:
They should have found a way to make what they have work. That site sucked when 830 had it. Instead of a nice salt water path into the metro, they'll be sending their signal over rock.
Click to expand...

I think the issue... and some of it has been covered in Crawford's very nice engineering newsletter... is that the infrastructure on Catalina is making it difficult to operate from there. Besides the "persona non grata" image that KBRT acquired due to the fire caused by a contractor, the power system is increasingly fragile and unstable. With heightened environmmental concerns, running a fulltime genny set and fueling it would possibly not get approval, and getting fuel there would be very costly. Then there is the issue of accessability... unless someone lives there fulltime and never leaves, a significant site problem could take a day or more to fix.

The old 830 site was used for a relatively low power operation when Danny Villanueva operated 830. As a 50 kw daytimer, the low dial position and ability to shoot the power over LA should make the operation less complex (speking of complexity, decades ago one of the engineering magazines like BM/E featured the diversity reception system on the STL to compensate for inversion over the salt water).

I really love the ads the station ran in its early years where it called itself "the Catalina Station" and had a mermaid as part of the logo.
Click to expand...

KBIG was one of my very favorites when John Poole ran it
 
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