KDFC

[Weiserguy]

their satellite, KOSC, licensed to angwin.. is on 89.9 as has been mentioned here before and I heard it in Wyoming

Maybe I could have been clearer, Paul. Yes, KDFC's 89.9 satellite, KOSC, is in Angwin. As I wrote further up the page.

KXJZ is in Sacramento, Capital Public Radio's music station. It has a handful of satellite stations and translators in NorCal. KXJZ, the "mothership", is on 88.9. One of its satellites might be on 89.9 somewhere (e.g. Tahoe, Placerville, Truckee).

 

[K6JHU]

Their web site (Capradio.org) shows nothing on 89.9

 

[Lou_S]

KDFC has five transmitters around the bay area. One of them is HD. What is the rationale?

I don't have any official information, but this scenario was basically confirmed by someone in the know when USC bought KUSF (90.3) and the Angwin 89.9.

The educational band is laid out by co-channel and adjacent-channel signal contours, not distances between stations as in the commercial band. In the Bay Area, except for KQED-FM, the non-com band is an interlocking patchwork of low powered stations. There isn't any way to add a full power station without doing a bit of frequency shuffling to open up a hole for it.

The original plan was for USC to buy KUSF, a Class A station on 90.3 with it's antenna on the USF campus in western San Francisco and Angwin's 89.9, a full power Class B on Mt. St. Helena north of Calistoga. Angwin would move to another frequency (the educational band isn't as crowded up there) and KUSF would swap 90.3 for KZSU's 90.1 frequency. KZSU would keep their existing coverage on 90.3 and there would be room for a full power Class B signal on 90.1 from Mt Beacon.

However, due to long standing rivalries between Stanford and USC, Stanford rejected the frequency swap. So USC wound up with 89.9 and the Class A 90.3.

104.9 and the others were added later when they became available.

 

[radio11]

I did not intend to ask why KDFC has several stations around the bay area. I am asking why one, and only one, of them is HD and whether that is likely to change.

 

[Weiserguy]

KXJZ is in Sacramento, Capital Public Radio's music station. It has a handful of satellite stations and translators in NorCal. KXJZ, the "mothership", is on 88.9.

I just glanced at what I wrote the other day and need to correct my own error. Cap Radio's Sacto music station is KXPR, 88.9 (plus the various satellites & translators). KXJZ is the news/information/NPR station where Michael Hagerty hangs his hat. Surprised he didn't check me on that error.

 

[Weiserguy]

I did not intend to ask why KDFC has several stations around the bay area. I am asking why one, and only one, of them is HD and whether that is likely to change.

104.9 is in the commercial band, where there's usually 400 khz between channel allocations within a particular area. HD technology takes advantage of that extra bandwidth to shoehorn in the "channels between the channels". And KCNL already had the HD technology when it was acquired by USC/KDFC, so in that case there was no incremental cost.

Many of the low-power stations in the sub-92 "educational" part of the band don't have that extra bandwidth available. To be more specific, while KQED on 88.5 has no other adjacents on 88.3 or 88.7, a little up the dial there's KFJC on 88.7, KOSC on 89.9, Stanford's KZSU at 90.1, KDFC (the former KUSF) at 90.3, and KSJS at 90.5, and probably a few other stations in sections of the SFBA I'm not familiar with.. HD is going to throw off interference to the immediate adjacents. If all those stations added HD to their transmitters, it would be a form of mutually assured destruction.

 

[DavidKaye]

I cant believe classical KDFC is doing so well it's at a 3.3 share which amazes me. Is it a corporate station or owned by 1 of the colleges? I bet it doesnt get alot of advertisers because it's for a older demographic 55 plus.

KDFC is owned by Univ of Southern California along with KUSC but programmed separately. Actually a 3.3 share isn't all that great. Back when SF had two commercial classical stations, the old KDFC 102.1 and KKHI 95.7, combined they pulled about a 3.5 to a 3.9 consistently.

 

[semoochie]

KDFC is owned by Univ of Southern California along with KUSC but programmed separately. Actually a 3.3 share isn't all that great. Back when SF had two commercial classical stations, the old KDFC 102.1 and KKHI 95.7, combined they pulled about a 3.5 to a 3.9 consistently.

That's when we still had people around who remembered the songs as currents.

 

[NoMoreLurking]

KDFC is owned by Univ of Southern California along with KUSC but programmed separately.

Actually KDFC and KUSC are not programmed separately most of a given week. They might as well be simulcast were it not for the need to fundraise separately. Their combined staff continues to shrink and there's much more shared programming over the last 12-24 months. They're trying to rebrand the duo as "Classical California" these days. But the two stations still separate when it's time to do their own membership drives.

 

[RadioJunkieMike]

Anyone else noticing signal problems with KDFC in SF this week? They're coming in really weak and crappy where I am (Mission/Noe Valley area), which is not normally the case. No mention of it on their website or social media. I reached out to them via Facebook a week ago but no response.

 

[michael hagerty]

I just glanced at what I wrote the other day and need to correct my own error. Cap Radio's Sacto music station is KXPR, 88.9 (plus the various satellites & translators). KXJZ is the news/information/NPR station where Michael Hagerty hangs his hat. Surprised he didn't check me on that error.

Horrible confession to make: It blew right by me. The call letters get said once an hour and never by me. Even though I've been there for three years, I don't really think of KXJZ and KXPR but "CapRadio News" and "CapRadio Music".

 

[radio11]

Michael,
During fundraising a day or two ago, the DJ at KXPR mentioned that the station had a project to improve its signal. Do you know what that's about?

 

[michael hagerty]

Michael,
During fundraising a day or two ago, the DJ at KXPR mentioned that the station had a project to improve its signal. Do you know what that's about?

Yes. New transmitter site for 88.9. Here's a page explaining (it's the third item):

CapRadio Reimagined

 

[radio11]

Thanks Michael. The current signal could hardly be better for me in Livermore. I hope the change doesn't make it worse.

 

[Mark Roberts]

The map of the new coverage is here: https://licensing.fcc.gov/cdbs/CDBS...?appn=101810026&qnum=5150&copynum=1&exhcnum=1

The comparison generated at fccdata.org indicates that the station's coverage will shift northward and eastward, giving better coverage to the sprawling eastern suburbs of Sacramento. I suspect coverage in Livermore will suffer.

 

[RadioJunkieMike]

Thought this was interesting, re: London's #1 Classical station. Think I commented a while back in a ratings thread about how KDFC was adding a little too much movie soundtrack and video game music to their mix for my taste. They might want to take note:

MSN

 

[luperm]

Thought this was interesting, re: London's #1 Classical station. Think I commented a while back in a ratings thread about how KDFC was adding a little too much movie soundtrack and video game music to their mix for my taste. They might want to take note:

MSN

Or maybe KDFC has a good sense of who actually contributes (or is most likely to contribute) to the station and tries to appeal to them.