KFRC-AM 1550 KYCY 1550 K-YOU radio is dead!

[davideduardo]

they have to be using their groundwave , because AM band is groundwave during daytime hours, traveling the surface of the ground. Especially at 1000 WATTS.

Coverage of the local market, day and night, is always groundwave. There is no local skywave... skywave comes down 60, 70 or more miles from a transmitter site, and depends on the electrical height of the tower and a number of other factors.

 

[Starbucks]

So are you stating that WABC or WLSare only groundwave at night?

 

[davideduardo]

So are you stating that WABC or WLS are groundwave at night?

Within the metro they serve, there is nothing but groundwave.... and skywave likely does not set down for about 100 miles or more with half wave or 5/8 wave towers on those frequencies. Reception that is not possible in the daytime due to distance that is possible at night is skywave. Wherever you can hear it daytime and you can also hear it at night, you are hearing it by groundwave.

 

[Starbucks]

Correct...but when your listening to a fade in fade out signal....especially when your located more then 60 miles from it at night....that's the characteristics of a sky wave. If your in the metro area at night within 60 miles of a clear 50,000 watter.....then it's mostly groundwave. But there is no skywave in the daytime unless it's AM shortwave at 15 MHZ or so.

 

[RadioStarOne]

So is KFRC now on 1550 with the real oldies?

 

[mikecroaro]

So is KFRC now on 1550 with the real oldies?

I have been listining most of the day today and am very dissapointed in the station. The music is mostly late 60's and 70's. There is almost no "true oldies" being played (songs from the late 50's and early 60's).

This is contrary to what is indicated on Scott Shannon's webiste for his syndication company "The True Oldies Channel".

Mike

 

[RadioStarOne]

What does the imaging sound like?

 

[RadioJunkieMike]

So is KFRC now on 1550 with the real oldies?

I have been listining most of the day today and am very dissapointed in the station. The music is mostly late 60's and 70's. There is almost no "true oldies" being played (songs from the late 50's and early 60's).

This is contrary to what is indicated on Scott Shannon's webiste for his syndication company "The True Oldies Channel".

Mike

I tuned in last nite (they started earlier than planned, apparently) and within five minutes I heard "Brown Eyed Girl" -- not a good omen. But FWIW, the press release did say this was being customized by Shannon for KFRC; that may mean less '50s and more '70s. I also heard both an ABC Network newsbrief and a local newsbrief from the CBS-5 newsroom.

 

[newsperson]

Newsperson responds:

Again the ground system of KOMY 1340 and KSCO 1080 are the same. Therefore there must be some other problem in the installation and diplexing of 1340. Unless KSCO has the same problem which no one has said.

In regard to ground wave I used to pick up WABC in Miami during the day - which had some distortion.

During the Wolf Man Jack days I used to pick up the mighty 1090 XERB in L.A. during the day with distortion of fade in an out.

KVTO 1400 at Berkely is an excellant signal and it has a good ground system. In fact it is diplexed with a lesser known station on 610 KHz. Has anyone heard of KFRC?

The way I remember the story is that the property is owned by KVTO and KFRC later diplexed with them. At this site neither station suffers because the engineering was done right.

Back to KOMY, the bottom line is that it is not the ground system or the frequency of 1340, it is the way it was installed and the equipment utlized. These other stations have got it right so at KOMY all I can say is that the installation job sucks!

The new format on 1550 is expected to dissapoint us all. If we think about the KFRC changes since Labor Day 2005 what have they done? Everthing has been cleaned, sanatised and controlled for our listening pleasure.

I will look for your replies.

Newsperson

 

[Madmansam]

And I'd like to add that the KYOU 1550 website is up, like nothing had happened to them.

 

[RadioStarOne]

Could it be that the KYOU format is going to move to 106.9 HD-2 now that KFRC has moved to 1550 AM.

One of the great things about the PPM is that it won't take long to see how bad it really does!

I remember back in the late 70's 610 KFRC had a really whiz of an engineer that really knew how to push the
wattage out of that stick, until the FCC got wise and made him cut it back. Who was that engineer?

Once upon a time KFRC 610 had its tower located in another place ( I don't know where) and when it was there its signal in the Sacramento area was much stronger than it is now since they moved it behind the hills shading the Sacramento market!

Newsperson: How is the construction of your friends station in Reno coming? Will it be on the air in 2009?
What about the Woodland move in from the north country? 101.?

 

[djj]

And I'd like to add that the KYOU 1550 website is up, like nothing had happened to them.

Sam's right: the website < http://www.kyouradio.com > still says 1550 AM San Francisco,
as of 11:25 p.m. PST 1/1/2009...

Yet there's this site, claiming to be 1550 AM in San Francisco:
< http://www.kfrc.com >
...with a note saying: "Additionally, the Classic hits format will continue streaming on www.kfrc.com
as well as broadcasting on KFRC HD-2 in the Bay Area."
...and a bonus link within: "Listen Live To KCBS Online."

Good grief!

Once upon a time KFRC 610 had its tower located in another place ( I don't know where) and when it was there its signal in the Sacramento area was much stronger than it is now since they moved it behind the hills shading the Sacramento market!

Bill Earl's 1989 book, "When Radio Was Boss," can tell you where the previous xmtr site location
was before moving to the KRE (now KVTO), Berkeley, tower. I cannot 'member the original
location off the top of my noggin, however, and my copy of the book is in storage...
--jay

 

[semoochie]

I thought they were still near the east end of the Bay Bridge and had no idea they'd moved! That was a great signal, solid into Sacramento, not bad in Stockton and Modesto and listenable nearly to the Nevada line! I could also pick it up a few miles further than KNBR into the Coast Range.

 

[BossRadioDJ]

I remember back in the late 70's 610 KFRC had a really whiz of an engineer that really knew how to push the
wattage out of that stick, until the FCC got wise and made him cut it back. Who was that engineer?

Once upon a time KFRC 610 had its tower located in another place ( I don't know where) and when it was there its signal in the Sacramento area was much stronger than it is now since they moved it behind the hills shading the Sacramento market!

I think you're talking about the mighty Phil Lerza, the engineering whiz who was largely responsible for creating KFRC's "Amazing AM" sound on 610.

Having listened to KFRC/1550 for a good chunk of time on Thursday, I'm thinking that Phil (and perhaps George Zema) played around with the sound on 1550 to make it more "KFRC-sounding" -- the audio quality was very good (on a high-end car audio system).

As to transmitter location, the 610 signal has been broadcast from Berkeley (sharing the stick with 1400 AM) for forty years -- since December 1968. For the ten years before that (1958-1968), KFRC shared with KSFO at the transmitter plant behind Royal Tallow in the city.

One of the reasons RKO General moved 610's transmitter from San Francisco to Berkeley was because they could get a superior signal from the single tower on Ashby Avenue on the edge of Aquatic Park -- a stone's throw from the Bay. If you remember that KFRC had a better signal from 1958 to 1968 than it did after the move to Berkeley, then you've got a pretty good memory.

Keep in mind that the reason CBS had to sell the 610 facility in 2005 was because the station's signal was TOO GOOD into Sacramento.

 

[LKellerIII]

I remember back in the late 70's 610 KFRC had a really whiz of an engineer that really knew how to push the
wattage out of that stick, until the FCC got wise and made him cut it back. Who was that engineer?

Once upon a time KFRC 610 had its tower located in another place ( I don't know where) and when it was there its signal in the Sacramento area was much stronger than it is now since they moved it behind the hills shading the Sacramento market!

I think you're talking about the mighty Phil Lerza, the engineering whiz who was largely responsible for creating KFRC's "Amazing AM" sound on 610.

Having listened to KFRC/1550 for a good chunk of time on Thursday, I'm thinking that Phil (and perhaps George Zema) played around with the sound on 1550 to make it more "KFRC-sounding" -- the audio quality was very good (on a high-end car audio system).

As to transmitter location, the 610 signal has been broadcast from Berkeley (sharing the stick with 1400 AM) for forty years -- since December 1968. For the ten years before that (1958-1968), KFRC shared with KSFO at the transmitter plant behind Royal Tallow in the city.

One of the reasons RKO General moved 610's transmitter from San Francisco to Berkeley was because they could get a superior signal from the single tower on Ashby Avenue on the edge of Aquatic Park -- a stone's throw from the Bay. If you remember that KFRC had a better signal from 1958 to 1968 than it did after the move to Berkeley, then you've got a pretty good memory.

Keep in mind that the reason CBS had to sell the 610 facility in 2005 was because the station's signal was TOO GOOD into Sacramento.

I thought the primary reason for selling 610 was the FCC ownership limits relative to the addition of 106.9. Not true?

Regarding 1550's sound - I remember that rich KFRC sound in the 60s and 70s, and how much fuller it sounded than KYA and the other competitors. But we've all gotten used to listening to music on FM (for 4 decades now). hate to sound like a broken record...but it's still AM. In my cynical view, CBS is making this move only because the automated Classic Hits format will be cheaper to run than the pod-cast format, and possibly net them slightly higher revenues from slightly improved ratings, since it's less of a niche format, and will attract a few more advertisers to the cluster.

 

[BossRadioDJ]

I thought the primary reason for selling 610 was the FCC ownership limits relative to the addition of 106.9. Not true?

Noop. CBS wanted to buy KOVR (Channel 13) in Sacramento, and KFRC's strong signal into Sac on 610 AM put them technically over the FCC ownership limit.

So CBS "sold" 610 to Harold Camping, then "bought" 106.9 from Harold Camping, and got a TV Station in Sacramento.

 

[LKellerIII]

I thought the primary reason for selling 610 was the FCC ownership limits relative to the addition of 106.9. Not true?

Noop. CBS wanted to buy KOVR (Channel 13) in Sacramento, and KFRC's strong signal into Sac on 610 AM put them technically over the FCC ownership limit.

So CBS "sold" 610 to Harold Camping, then "bought" 106.9 from Harold Camping, and got a TV Station in Sacramento.

Thanks for that clarification, DJ. Interesting...I guess I thought ownership limits were determined by market. In other words, since 610 was licensed to the SF market, it wouldn't effect what they could own in the Sacto market, even though their signal might be heard there.

 

[Michael Rivers Kramer]

I thought the primary reason for selling 610 was the FCC ownership limits relative to the addition of 106.9. Not true?

Noop. CBS wanted to buy KOVR (Channel 13) in Sacramento, and KFRC's strong signal into Sac on 610 AM put them technically over the FCC ownership limit.

So CBS "sold" 610 to Harold Camping, then "bought" 106.9 from Harold Camping, and got a TV Station in Sacramento.

Thanks for that clarification, DJ. Interesting...I guess I thought ownership limits were determined by market. In other words, since 610 was licensed to the SF market, it wouldn't effect what they could own in the Sacto market, even though their signal might be heard there.

Interesting point. However, the TV/Radio cross ownership rules are based on contours not market. To add insult, instead of the old 5 mv/m (AM) contour requirement they used for determining radio markets was changed for TV and Radio cross ownership. If an AM station puts 2 mv/m signal over a city, then that city is considered to locally served by that station for the purpose of TV/Radio cross ownership. It was pointed out, that KFRC put more than a 2 mv/m signal over Sacramento and and thus was counted in Sacramento's ownership limit. What's dumb about that rule is that now days, even a 5 mv/m signal is considered inadequate for at home and work listening. Essentially the 610 signal is worthless to most radio listeners (except for in car) in the Sacramento market due to interference from modern technology.

 

[dungboy]

I received this email from Ben-Fong Torres today:

Mike,
so sorry it ended so quickly.
** is saying he hopes to add local stuff soon, but in this economic climate, who knows what that might mean...
hope you had fun while it lasted. (Actually, I know you did!)
best,
ben
ps: if all goes well, you're mentioned again next column. Somewhere.

So, I guess I’ll get back into my spaceship and head back to my own planet. I am disappointed that my show was taken off the air but not surprised. This is why I left radio so many years ago.

There are many things I DO feel good about. I was able to walk into that studio and do my show, even after being off the air for ten years and still pull it off! and getting a chance to hear from people that liked my show. Thank you for your support. I guess I’ll be starting up the podcasts again! I’ll also edit down the airchecks of the live broadcast for download also. I still work for CBS (for now) Guess I'll hand around and see which way the wind blows, there is a chance I may return but I'm not going to hold my breath.

 

[semoochie]

Thank you for the clarification of the 610 signal. I didn't know they moved because they hadn't! I was unaware of the diplexing with 1400 and when I heard that, thought they had moved to the 1400 tower and lost their tremendous signal.