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

[LKellerIII]

Re: TRUE Oldies on KFRC-AM - MY Perspective...

(WCBSFM in New York being a FINE example of the RIGHT way to do it...

But isn't WCBS format really CLASSIC HITS of 60's and 70's? They don't play the True Type Of Oldies (Late 50's/Early 60's). You know, The Doo Wop Kind.

stations like WCBSFM and the OLD KFRC (FM) have shown and continue to show the entire radio community that personality radio DOES WORK!!

When you refer to the "old KFRC FM," I assume you're talking about the 99.7 version in the 90s and early this decade...given that the 106.9 version was hardly "personality" radio, and it most certainly did not work.

It has to be 99.7. Can't be the old KFRC-FM on 106.1 that RKO stupidly sold in 1977. Ironically, 9 years later, that station on 106.1, KMEL, killed off the Original Top 40 KFRC-610.

Well obviously it wasn't 106.1 that Andrea was talking about. We've discussed this subject a number of times on this board, specifically RKO General's lack of vision in selling 106.1. The often told story was that the suits at RKO believed (despite all evidence to the contrary by the early 1970s) that AM radio would remain dominant and FM would continue to be an also-ran. Then there are the "if onlys"...if only RKO had held onto 106.1, and moved the format to FM, a great station may have remained dominant over weaker contenders like KYUU, etc. There certainly wouldn't have been a KMEL...at least not on 106.1.

But we should give credit to RKO General for bringing us high quality top 40 radio during the Bill Drake era, but especially after Drake on 610/KFRC, when it was often named station of the year.

I guess radio history should allow RKO General one clunker decision - no matter how big it turned out to be.

 

[theradiokid]

I’ve been away from this board for a while. So, San Francisco has oldies/Classic Hits back on the radio again? Great! Now, just wondering, did the brilliant people at CBS take down the KYOU website yet? Haha.

Seriously, though, I think it’s a shame that CBS killed “K-You.” Prediction: Within 2 years, you will see radio companies adopting the podcasting format on AM radio stations nationwide in a last ditch attempt to keep AM radio from dying.

--The Radio Kid
(AKA Oswego Jeremy, as nicknamed by George of the Radio Racket.)
My email: [email protected].

 

[djj]

I’ve been away from this board for a while. So, San Francisco has oldies/Classic Hits back on the radio again? Great! Now, just wondering, did the brilliant people at CBS take down the KYOU website yet? Haha.

At least the K-YOU website is still up and running:
http://www.kyouradio.com/

Prediction: Within 2 years, you will see radio companies adopting the podcasting format on AM radio stations nationwide in a last ditch attempt to keep AM radio from dying.
--The Radio Kid

Either that, or the AM band will be taken over by the Government and redistributed elsewhere,
but let's not go there...
--jay

 

[DavidKaye]

It is difficult to believe that 610 KHz. and 560 KHz. were ever diplexed at the same site. If you ask any engineer about doing that today he would say it's impossible.

KFRC was indeed diplexed on the KSFO site.

In my opinion the Berkley site is far superior for Sacramento coverage than any site in the City including 560 and 1260. In fact the lower frequency of 560 KHz. KSFO was always weeker in Sacramento than KFRC.

KSFO's transmitter is surrounded by pavement and industrial buildings. The old KYA's (1260) is on a solid rock hill. Neither one has the solid grounding that the Berkeley site has. I mean the thing is right IN the water!

I'm curious if anybody here is old enough to know KFRC 610 per-KSFO, when they were using the horizontal wire antenna on the roof of 1000 Van Ness, and how that compared for signal.

 

[sloux]

Seriously, though, I think it’s a shame that CBS killed “K-You.” Prediction: Within 2 years, you will see radio companies adopting the podcasting format on AM radio stations nationwide in a last ditch attempt to keep AM radio from dying.

--The Radio Kid
(AKA Oswego Jeremy, as nicknamed by George of the Radio Racket.)
My email: [email protected].

Wow, eleven pages on this thread before someone mourns the loss of KYCY/K-You programming content. Isn't that remarkable? I know most of the references to this signal's recent programming have been to address its podcasting format, but interestingly, most of its M-F daytime programming was a financial advice block format. The Dave Ramsey show in particular was interesting for the stories (much in the same way as Len Tillem's show is interesting.) Some of the other shows were of varying degrees useful and interesting. Rob Black's show was smarmy, crass and annoying, yet providing a compelling viewpoint nonetheless.

 

[W6WLS]

Good Evenig All, just joined this and already enjoy the postings.

As for KFRC, it will never be the same station it once was, a gost of a staion at best! (no matter what
frequency it lands on). I live in Scotts Valley, and the 1550 signal is just no good, and from what I read,
chances it will never be.

I have a thought, and perhaps some one could share there thoughts on this, several years ago AM 1540
in Aptos went dark, the towers and equiptment are still up, the old call was KMBY, and befor that it was
KKAP, but that was a very long time ago. What would the folks at KFRC-1550 (CBS) think of rebroadcasting
the KFRC 1550 signal with 1540? Dont know much on the old station, but it would truely give there coverage
a big boost! If I recall, 1540 was set with 15,000 day, directional, and 5000 night at one time. The crazy
thing is CBS radio has no stations down in the Monterey Bay Area.

It would put the "pinch" on 1340 KOMY if that worked, but MZ is having a bad go at it, and seems
it might be getting the best of his station, (sadly)

Thanks for the great info from every one.
Mike~

 

[BossRadioDJ]

It would put the "pinch" on 1340 KOMY if that worked, but MZ is having a bad go at it, and seems
it might be getting the best of his station, (sadly)

Hello Mike, and welcome!

Don't be surprised if MZ puts True Oldies on KOMY/1340. On the other hand, don't be surprised if he doesn't.

KSCO/1080 is no longer for sale, and KOMY is getting *some* repairs (new xmtr, at least) ... but is still up for sale, lease, brokering, etc.

Heck of a view from the W6WLS "Boss Of The Bay" tower site, by the way!

 

[djj]

Good Evenig All, just joined this and already enjoy the postings...

...I have a thought, and perhaps some one could share there thoughts on this, several years ago AM 1540
in Aptos went dark, the towers and equiptment are still up, the old call was KMBY, and befor that it was
KKAP, but that was a very long time ago. What would the folks at KFRC-1550 (CBS) think of rebroadcasting
the KFRC 1550 signal with 1540? Dont know much on the old station, but it would truely give there coverage
a big boost! If I recall, 1540 was set with 15,000 day, directional, and 5000 night at one time. The crazy
thing is CBS radio has no stations down in the Monterey Bay Area.

Mike~

Hi, Mike, and I also welcome you aboard to da craziness that only R-I could offer...

It is my understanding that the property owner where those KNZS/KMBY/KLAU/KKAP towers sit is selling the
property to a developer, and that those towers were coming down shortly...
(Sidebar: KLAU stood for the Phoenix-based "Kool Gold" satellite service, with the KL for "Kool" and the AU
for "Gold" - in scientific jargon)...

I was able to walk onto the property to take pictures of the tower site in June 2007, as I heard those towers
would be coming down eventually, and most of the contents inside the abandoned "doghouses" at each tower
had been removed...

I believe that 1540 was a 10,000-watt station day and night, with two seperate directional patterns (DA-2)...

Someone correct me if I'm wrong - wasn't CBS, or Westinghouse, or whatever it was known as then, planning to
buy 1540 just to shut it down so they could possibly expand 1550 during the KPIX-AM 1550/FM 95.7 years in
the mid-1990s? If not, then why did 1540 croak to begin with?
--jay

 

[sloux]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong - wasn't CBS, or Westinghouse, or whatever it was known as then, planning to
buy 1540 just to shut it down so they could possibly expand 1550 during the KPIX-AM 1550/FM 95.7 years in
the mid-1990s?

Enlighten me...can Ownership get away with purchasing a station with the intent of making it go dark in order to leverage another station? How is that proper stewardship of the public airwaves? Doesn't the FCC care about ANYTHING anymore?

 

[djj]

Enlighten me...can Ownership get away with purchasing a station with the intent of making it go dark in order to leverage another station? How is that proper stewardship of the public airwaves? Doesn't the FCC care about ANYTHING anymore?

Apparently, the FCC doesn't care, because m-o-n-e-y talks...

One such scenario happened in the mid-1990s when KOFY 1050 purchased KPAY Chico, AM 1060,
for the purpose of shutting off KPAY's 10,000-watt day/night signal (with seperate directional
patterns), thus expanding KOFY (now KTCT, aka KNBR 1050) to its present 50,000 watt
day/10,000 watt night signal...

KPAY is now on 1290 KC in Chico, the former KHSL. KPAY's 5-kilowatt signal, now running off the old KPAY
1060's three-tower array in South Chico instead of the previous KHSL two-tower array, can't compare to the
defuct 1060's signal, which went out like a blow torch in the Valley at night, even well past Lodi!...

Look halfway down the right-hand column in this link for the story from Jim Gabbert, who owned KOFY
at the time until selling in 1997 to Susquehanna. it took a great deal of doing to do what he did:
http://www.firststrategy.com/claudehall34.htm

And now, hopefully, we can return to our regularly-scheduled thread, as we are now heading toward
Chico after visiting Aptos and who knows where else...
;D
--jay

 

[LKellerIII]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong - wasn't CBS, or Westinghouse, or whatever it was known as then, planning to
buy 1540 just to shut it down so they could possibly expand 1550 during the KPIX-AM 1550/FM 95.7 years in
the mid-1990s?

Enlighten me...can Ownership get away with purchasing a station with the intent of making it go dark in order to leverage another station? How is that proper stewardship of the public airwaves? Doesn't the FCC care about ANYTHING anymore?

Oh yes! The FCC cares very much about protecting the innocent unsuspecting public from:

1. Body parts that belong to living people, such as Janet Jackson's bare breasts. NOTE: body parts such as internal organs and severed limbs are now OK to look at as long as a they are pretend, and a "mature audience" warning is broadcast. These warnings make children turn off the TV immediately.

2. Sexual content they determine to be prurient, not educational. NOTE: Violence is OK to show as long as a "mature" audience warning is broadcast. See item #1.

3. "Dirty" words. NOTE: these the same words we hear on the street dozens of times every day.

I hope I have enlightened you, sioux.

 

[W6WLS]

Thank you and others for the nice welcome.
As you can see from my web site (www.w6wls.com) I have a HAM Radio Repeater System with "WLS" in my call, guess I can't seem to get away from the "Cruzen Radio Days" (stuck in the 70's)
Now I'm just waiten for the real WLS Radio to bark about the "jingles" on my site, Oh well... ;D

Ok, let me throw these questions out....

1: KCBS-740 AM call letters, (San Francisco) KCBS-93.1 FM call letters (Los Angeles) ?? (and KCBS-TV2)
I thought you couldn't s-p-r-e-a-d your call letters all over the state..

2: KFRC-106.9 FM (aka KCBS) with that in place, what will the true call letters be on 1550? or will it have
KFRC AM 1550, and 106.9 would be?? KCBS-FM ??

I'm must be getting to old, this I dont get... (take me back....please!!, ??? )

Thanks again
Mike~

 

[LKellerIII]

Thank you and others for the nice welcome.
As you can see from my web site (www.w6wls.com) I have a HAM Radio Repeater System with "WLS" in my call, guess I can't seem to get away from the "Cruzen Radio Days" (stuck in the 70's)
Now I'm just waiten for the real WLS Radio to bark about the "jingles" on my site, Oh well... ;D

Ok, let me throw these questions out....

1: KCBS-740 AM call letters, (San Francisco) KCBS-93.1 FM call letters (Los Angeles) ?? (and KCBS-TV2)
I thought you couldn't s-p-r-e-a-d your call letters all over the state..

2: KFRC-106.9 FM (aka KCBS) with that in place, what will the true call letters be on 1550? or will it have
KFRC AM 1550, and 106.9 would be?? KCBS-FM ??

I'm must be getting to old, this I dont get... (take me back....please!!, ??? )

Thanks again
Mike~

It is confusing...

1. From what I understand, the FCC has recently allowed call letters to be used in different cities, hence KCBS-TV and FM in Los Angeles, and KCBS-AM San Francisco. This didn't used to be true. Back in the early 60s, it's why KNBC-AM and FM in San Francisco had to become KNBR when NBC decided to change the call letters of Channel 4 Los Angeles from KRCA (RCA was the corporate owner) to KNBC.

But you couldn't have 2 KCBS-FMs, so KCBS-FM Los Angeles would have to change call letters in order for 106.9 here to become KCBS-FM.

But they are allowed to "brand" the AM and FM combo as "KCBS" as long as they ID "KFRC-FM" for the legal top-of-the-hour ID. The same principle applies here to sports-talk station "KNBR 1050" which is really KTCT. "KNBR 680" is actually KNBR, legally speaking.

2. 1550 AM will be KFRC-AM, and 106.9 can remain KFRC-FM.

I hope that's clear (as mud, perhaps).

 

[fybush]

I hope that's clear (as mud, perhaps).

Indeed it is, with one small addendum: the calls on 1550 will presumably be simply "KFRC." AM stations don't take a suffix - they're just "KGO" or "KNBR" or "KCBS." The suffix goes on the FM or TV to differentiate (KGO-TV, KCBS-FM).

So the correct roster of calls would be: KCBS 740 SF, KCBS-FM 93.1 LA, KCBS-TV 2 LA, KFRC 1550 SF, KFRC-FM 106.9 SF (but using the "KCBS" identity outside of the legal ID.)

And it's not all that "recently" that the FCC changed the rules to allow the use of the same base call on different services in different cities - that goes back to 1984, when KNXT became KCBS-TV in LA!

 

[Madmansam]

I hope that's clear (as mud, perhaps).

And it's not all that "recently" that the FCC changed the rules to allow the use of the same base call on different services in different cities - that goes back to 1984, when KNXT became KCBS-TV in LA!

And 93.1 changed to KCBS-FM on JULY 12, 1991

 

[LKellerIII]

I hope that's clear (as mud, perhaps).

And it's not all that "recently" that the FCC changed the rules to allow the use of the same base call on different services in different cities - that goes back to 1984, when KNXT became KCBS-TV in LA!

I was 32 years old in 1984, and I'd like to think that was "recently." Please don't ruin my illusions...

 

[sloux]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong - wasn't CBS, or Westinghouse, or whatever it was known as then, planning to
buy 1540 just to shut it down so they could possibly expand 1550 during the KPIX-AM 1550/FM 95.7 years in
the mid-1990s?

Enlighten me...can Ownership get away with purchasing a station with the intent of making it go dark in order to leverage another station? How is that proper stewardship of the public airwaves? Doesn't the FCC care about ANYTHING anymore?

Oh yes! The FCC cares very much about protecting the innocent unsuspecting public from:

1. Body parts that belong to living people, such as Janet Jackson's bare breasts. NOTE: body parts such as internal organs and severed limbs are now OK to look at as long as a they are pretend, and a "mature audience" warning is broadcast. These warnings make children turn off the TV immediately.

2. Sexual content they determine to be prurient, not educational. NOTE: Violence is OK to show as long as a "mature" audience warning is broadcast. See item #1.

3. "Dirty" words. NOTE: these the same words we hear on the street dozens of times every day.

I hope I have enlightened you, sioux.

I'm not quite sure what to make of the sarcasm, lkeller. The FCC's pursuit of certain content now spans a couple of generations and many presidencies both Democrat and Republican since the infamous Pacifica case. I still find the "intrusiveness of broadcasting" argument valid, although I'm sure most participating on the boards would not. I don't believe there is a proven Safe Harbor, and the lunacy of disclaimers being effective is apparent to everyone except the FCC. If your subtext is that the FCC talks out of both sides of its collective mouth on this issue, I tend to agree, and feel they have lost their way. Certainly the agency has completely lost focus of the primary mandate to ensure a multiplicty of local voices over a spectrum characterized by some degree of scarcity, a spectrum which belongs to the PEOPLE of the United States who have appointed Congress and in turn the FCC to act as Trustee. It cannot be in the best interest of the people when owners are allowed to buy and sell stations like pork bellies to manipulate the spectrum to their own self-interest. Broadcasting is a business first, in the mind of most license holders, and I do not disagree with that (and the FCC has always recognized stations must be economically viable). But beyond economic viability, the FCC's role is in fact to make sure the self-interst of a few does not infringe on the public interest of all.

Last fall was all about the nebulous "change" so many were seeking from our political leadership. With a decided Democrat majority in Congress and now a President-elect from the same party capable of appointing a new chairman, it's time for some change in the FCC, don't you think??

Okay, I'll get off my soapbox.

 

[BossRadioDJ]

Enlighten me...can Ownership get away with purchasing a station with the intent of making it go dark in order to leverage another station?

This is a great thread within a thread within a thread...

Unless it's been noted in this thread already, keep in mind that Mapleton bought longtime Pacific Northwest blowtorch KGA/Spokane (1510 AM) in order to reduce its power, yet still provide solid coverage over Greater Metropolitan Spokane ... in order to increase the power, coverage and strength of the former San Rafael pipsqueak KTIM (also 1510 AM), now known as Mapleton's KPIG (of ritzy Piedmont).

Kill one station so another can grow.

Meanwhile, I think that the other residents of 1480 kc around these parts would pay good money to make sure that nobody comes along and tries to squeeeeeze a station back in where poor old KWUN/Concord once resided on the AM dial.

 

[BossRadioDJ]

Indeed it is, with one small addendum: the calls on 1550 will presumably be simply "KFRC." AM stations don't take a suffix - they're just "KGO" or "KNBR" or "KCBS." The suffix goes on the FM or TV to differentiate (KGO-TV, KCBS-FM).

And don't forget that the Internet radio directory, Reciva.com, which is the brains behind most standalone Internet receivers (just got one for Christmas, and love it to death), uses "-IR" to identify Internet-only audio streams -- for example, KABL-IR -- which are assigned through IRUC.

 

[DavidKaye]

Unless it's been noted in this thread already, keep in mind that Mapleton bought longtime Pacific Northwest blowtorch KGA/Spokane (1510 AM) in order to reduce its power, yet still provide solid coverage over Greater Metropolitan Spokane ... in order to increase the power, coverage and strength of the former San Rafael pipsqueak KTIM (also 1510 AM), now known as Mapleton's KPIG (of ritzy Piedmont).

Kill one station so another can grow.

I used to have a problem with things like that (also the reduction of WOWO so that WLIB could thrive, and the elimination of the original KPAY so that KOFY/KTCT could grow). But in each case it's the sacrifice of a station too big for its market (KGA 50kw, WOWO 50kw, and KPAY 10kw) so that the other station in the larger market could compete in its market. A 5kw in Spokane would do just fine, but a 5kw in SF might not (KSFO aside).

Meanwhile, I think that the other residents of 1480 kc around these parts would pay good money to make sure that nobody comes along and tries to squeeeeeze a station back in where poor old KWUN/Concord once resided on the AM dial.

To call Concord's 1480 a substandard assignment would be generous. As several engineers told me over the years, that stations should never have been built. However, at least one operator, maybe two, made at least a little money on it.

Now with the relaxing of rules it wouldn't have been necessary to apply to put 1480 on the air. There would have been other, better, channels, at least before 710 and 770 went on.