KFNX Horror Story #183

[DrAkbar]

We realize it's AM. And we realize it's KFNX. But Nurse Jeff and I wonder how many more weeks will roll by before they remove the distortion from their audio chain. We're surprised the sponsor of Colonblow hasn't complained yet!

 

[KMGX]

We realize it's AM. And we realize it's KFNX. But Nurse Jeff and I wonder how many more weeks will roll by before they remove the distortion from their audio chain. We're surprised the sponsor of Colonblow hasn't complained yet!

Those radio shack mixing boards only last so long. Might not be the best idea to build a radio studio from parts you've collected at garage sales. Then again, I guess that's what KFNX is all about, Charles Goyette is an old part from the garage sale of Phoenix talk radio--not all that useful, but for some reason people keep buying it at a really low price in the hopes that maybe you can fix it up a bit.

 

[Legend City]

Does this mean I must buy more gold and green tea?


KFNX is such a sad little waste of signal. Goyette is so far off the deep end these days, John Dayl is somehow still alive, and the Patriot Trading group sounds like they go out and lynch folk after their shows.

But, colon health is important, that is why so much time is spent on 1100 talking about it.

 

[pberger]

Speaking of colon health infomercials, does no one in management realize that these infomercials for colon cleansers, prostrate formulas, super purity products, only drives listeners AWAY from their station?

Do they pay that well that you would take a chance on losing 90% of your listeners at that hour?

I'd rather hear some re-runs from the previous week. Pick the best morning show of the week, and re-run it Saturday a.m.

Or maybe dead air would get you more listeners. (I think of the times I have listened to dead air to see how long they are off the air, or if they will have any explanation when they return.)

 

[KeithE4]

Speaking of colon health infomercials, does no one in management realize that these infomercials for colon cleansers, prostrate formulas, super purity products, only drives listeners AWAY from their station?

Do they pay that well that you would take a chance on losing 90% of your listeners at that hour?

I'd rather hear some re-runs from the previous week. Pick the best morning show of the week, and re-run it Saturday a.m.

Or maybe dead air would get you more listeners. (I think of the times I have listened to dead air to see how long they are off the air, or if they will have any explanation when they return.)

They pay the bills. If nobody listens, that's not KFNX's problem - that's the advertiser's problem. It ain't about ratings; it's about the Benjaminz.

It's just like Channels 10, 45, and 51 filling their weekend-daytime schedules with informercials. They pay for time when few are watching anyway. Infomercials pay. Reruns of The Beverly Hillbillies or Star Trek don't. Those stations could go off the air during that time and few would notice, but they do get some revenue during that dead-time.

 

[callofthewild]

with savage gone -they have very little going for them...maybe we can raise money and by Dr Akbar a time slot?

 

[ajhenderson]

Speaking of colon health infomercials, does no one in management realize that these infomercials for colon cleansers, prostrate formulas, super purity products, only drives listeners AWAY from their station?

Do they pay that well that you would take a chance on losing 90% of your listeners at that hour?

They pay the bills. If nobody listens, that's not KFNX's problem - that's the advertiser's problem. It ain't about ratings; it's about the Benjaminz.

It's just like Channels 10, 45, and 51 filling their weekend-daytime schedules with informercials. They pay for time when few are watching anyway. Infomercials pay. Reruns of The Beverly Hillbillies or Star Trek don't. Those stations could go off the air during that time and few would notice, but they do get some revenue during that dead-time.

Good point. Nobody complains about Pax, er, um, "i"... oops, now "ion", running 23 hours of crap a day. As to the OP, while it's tempting to think you're smarter than the multi-billion dollar DR companies, you're probably not... they buy infomercial time because it works, whether you admit to listening or not. And, of course, KFYI and KTAR run them as well, just not in prime time. In SoCal's Inland Empire, K-FROG, owned by CBS and the #1 station 12+, runs three or four hours of such programs on the weekend.

 

[RL]

AM1100 Distortion

Their Nautel-50 has a few blown power modules.
I have an appointment to meet with ops/mgr Jason tomorrow.
Every Nautel I've serviced uses space-saver caps, they run about 7-years then trouble starts.
The fidelity will return pending their parts and labor budget.

 

[j henry waugh]

Speaking of colon health infomercials, does no one in management realize that these infomercials for colon cleansers, prostrate formulas, super purity products, only drives listeners AWAY from their station?

Do they pay that well that you would take a chance on losing 90% of your listeners at that hour?

I'd rather hear some re-runs from the previous week. Pick the best morning show of the week, and re-run it Saturday a.m.

Or maybe dead air would get you more listeners. (I think of the times I have listened to dead air to see how long they are off the air, or if they will have any explanation when they return.)

They pay the bills. If nobody listens, that's not KFNX's problem - that's the advertiser's problem. It ain't about ratings; it's about the Benjaminz.

It's just like Channels 10, 45, and 51 filling their weekend-daytime schedules with informercials. They pay for time when few are watching anyway. Infomercials pay. Reruns of The Beverly Hillbillies or Star Trek don't. Those stations could go off the air during that time and few would notice, but they do get some revenue during that dead-time.

And they should have their license revoked for blatant disregard of the public interest.

If nobody listens, it's a waste of radio frequency and should be allotted to somebody else to server the public interest.

 

[DrAkbar]

Their Nautel-50 has a few blown power modules.
Every Nautel I've serviced uses space-saver caps, they run about 7-years then trouble starts. The fidelity will return pending their parts and labor budget.

Nurse Jeff and I wanna know if a Nautel 50 is made by K-Tel? Sure sounds it! And using the world "Fidelity" when describing AM radio sounds very suspicious to us.

 

[KeithE4]

And they should have their license revoked for blatant disregard of the public interest.

There are plenty of reasons to yank KFNX's license (excessive nighttime power, neo-Nazi propaganda, post-midnight F-bombs, and the like), but selling time to the Colon-Blow Corporation isn't one of them.

If nobody listens, it's a waste of radio frequency and should be allotted to somebody else to server the public interest.

Any suggestions? I doubt much of anything can be done with probably 17 of the 21 AM stations in the valley, let alone KFNX. Only KFYI, KTAR, XTRA, and maybe KOY are even close to viable anymore.

 

[j henry waugh]

And they should have their license revoked for blatant disregard of the public interest.

There are plenty of reasons to yank KFNX's license (excessive nighttime power, neo-Nazi propaganda, post-midnight F-bombs, and the like), but selling time to the Colon-Blow Corporation isn't one of them.

Baloney.

Filling the frequency with 24x7 infomercials is a blatant abuse of the public interest and a sorry use for the radio frequency.

Once there was a time when the FCC did its chartered job, to ensure that broadcasters serve the public interest, as the airwaves belong to the public. Infomercials for diet supplements and sucker investment schemes do not fit the bill.

Nor does continous non-stop running of promos for the content on another station (860 AM).

 

[KeithE4]

Baloney.

Filling the frequency with 24x7 infomercials is a blatant abuse of the public interest and a sorry use for the radio frequency.

A business is mandated by federal (in the case of publicly-traded corporations) or state corporate law to make money for its owners, FCC regulations notwithstanding. If the business is privately-held, then the owners can pretty much do as they please so long as they don't violate the law. Even if the business is owned by one person (which KFNX is, I believe), if it doesn't make money, it goes out of business once the working capital runs out (which, in the case of KFNX, would be no loss whatsoever. ;D ). Nobody goes into business to lose money.

Program-length commercials (aka "infomercials") have been authorized by the FCC since 1984, with some exceptions such as children's programming. They may stink on ice, but they are not illegal and are not an abuse of the public interest since they violate no FCC rule or other federal regulation, and they make money for the station's owners. I don't like 'em either but that's just the way it goes.

Once there was a time when the FCC did its chartered job, to ensure that broadcasters serve the public interest, as the airwaves belong to the public. Infomercials for diet supplements and sucker investment schemes do not fit the bill.

Define "public interest."

And, for all intents and purposes, the airwaves belong to the gummint since We The People require their permission to operate a transmitter on the broadcast or amateur-radio bands. Licenses (aka "permission from the Federal Government") have been required to operate radio transmitters in the United States since 1912.

Nor does continous non-stop running of promos for the content on another station (860 AM).

That's called "stunting" and stations do it all the time. TMISU apparently don't know what to do with 860 yet, but they can't just turn off the transmitter if they want to keep the license.

 

[EricStein]

Nurse Jeff and I wanna know if a Nautel 50 is made by K-Tel? Sure sounds it! And using the world "Fidelity" when describing AM radio sounds very suspicious to us.

HA!

Nautel is supposed to be the Cadillac of broadcast transmitters. Ray Cox must have wanted the best equipment when he built KCCF ten years ago. Too bad he built his new station when full-service live-and-local AM music radio was as good as buried.

 

[RL]

I'm just a tech Akbar.
Nautel is king.

 

[oldiesfan6479]

Nautel is supposed to be the Cadillac of broadcast transmitters.

Well from what we've heard about the KFNX-mitter, it must be
a Cadillac Cimarron.

Now for a something along the lines of a Caddy Fleetwood,
you can't beat the classic Continental 317C.

 

[EricStein]

Well from what we've heard about the KFNX-mitter, it must be
a Cadillac Cimarron.

Now for a something along the lines of a Caddy Fleetwood,
you can't beat the classic Continental 317C.

Let's just say that KFNX's Nautel is like a Cadillac that was taken care of by its original owner, receipts and all, but when it was sold, the new owner forgot to change the oil regularly. Continental got out of the sub-100kW AM business some time ago, so the Fleetwood name (which isn't used by Cadillac anymore) would apply well for them.

As for the '76 Gremlin of transmitters, could that be installed at 1060? ;D

 

[j henry waugh]

Baloney.

Filling the frequency with 24x7 infomercials is a blatant abuse of the public interest and a sorry use for the radio frequency.

A business is mandated by federal (in the case of publicly-traded corporations) or state corporate law to make money for its owners, FCC regulations notwithstanding. If the business is privately-held, then the owners can pretty much do as they please so long as they don't violate the law. Even if the business is owned by one person (which KFNX is, I believe), if it doesn't make money, it goes out of business once the working capital runs out (which, in the case of KFNX, would be no loss whatsoever. ;D ). Nobody goes into business to lose money.

Program-length commercials (aka "infomercials") have been authorized by the FCC since 1984, with some exceptions such as children's programming. They may stink on ice, but they are not illegal and are not an abuse of the public interest since they violate no FCC rule or other federal regulation, and they make money for the station's owners. I don't like 'em either but that's just the way it goes.

Once there was a time when the FCC did its chartered job, to ensure that broadcasters serve the public interest, as the airwaves belong to the public. Infomercials for diet supplements and sucker investment schemes do not fit the bill.

Define "public interest."

And, for all intents and purposes, the airwaves belong to the gummint since We The People require their permission to operate a transmitter on the broadcast or amateur-radio bands. Licenses (aka "permission from the Federal Government") have been required to operate radio transmitters in the United States since 1912.

Again, they [infomercials] should be illegal (at least programming that is predominately comprised of such fare) and your citing of recent history just illustrates how the FCC has abdicated their duty and is abusing the public interest.

The "public interest" means that the public is served with information and resources. The airwaves belong to the public… …again, if that trust is abused (as it is by running informercials and promotionals 24x7), then the license should be revoked and granted to a party that will meet public interest obligations as was originally chartered.

Because it is so, doesn't mean it's right.

 

[KMGX]

Again, they [infomercials] should be illegal (at least programming that is predominately comprised of such fare) and your citing of recent history just illustrates how the FCC has abdicated their duty and is abusing the public interest.

I don't understand what the fundamental difference is between "infomercials" and "commercials" would be then. Sure, a commercial is 10, 15, 30 or 60 seconds, versus a 30 or 60 minute presentation, but generally speaking the difference ends there. I don't see how "commercials" would serve the "public interest" in your view either. While I am not a fan of brokered talk radio and don't listen to it, I'm sure there are people that buy those products, just like there are people that buy Coke, Pepsi, cars, etc.

"Information" isn't the exclusive purpose for radio or the public interest. Radio exists to entertain, inform and advertise businesses--and yes, it is a sad reality but making money for other businesses as well as the radio station IS the goal behind the process.

The FCC exists now to be a champion for imaginary causes like "indecency" on the airwaves and to be the bully to the little guy. If you really believe the FCC has the "public" in mind, look at the evolution (or lack there of) of LPFMs.

 

[j henry waugh]

The FCC exists now to be a champion for imaginary causes like "indecency" on the airwaves and to be the bully to the little guy. If you really believe the FCC has the "public" in mind, look at the evolution (or lack there of) of LPFMs.

Indeed, the FCC has abdicated its original charter and does the bidding of corporate interests over the public (with the exception of the disallowed "seven words" list…)… …I am suggesting nothing more than a return to the original intent and that they simply "do the job they were chartered for", which is all about upholding the public interest by holding licensees to a "public interest" criteria…

Running commercials interspersed through programming is not the equivalent of near 24x7 infomercial programming (or a majority of programming time, as in the case of KFNX).

Again, they've violated the "public interest", and public outcry should dictate that their license revoked.

Of course, most of the public has moved on to iPods, satellite radio, podcasts, etc.… …and forget about the radio frequencies until disaster strikes, and then they experience first hand how ill served they are, when the only communications option is a battery powered radio…