KGBC Drops China Radio International

[purpledevil]

Guess this was part of the package involving Hum Tum moving off of KLVL as KGBC in now airing Hum Tum City in simulcast with K291CE. This leaves KYND all alone with the English language CRI programming, with KULF representing the Mandarin language version.

KLVL continues to loop, in case you're interested.

 

[johndavis]

My money is on Ben Hall moving to KLVL. He's keeping Cooper and the rest of the staff in the fold, but the people buying blocks from him aren't going to pay for just the webstream forever.

 

[purpledevil]

My money is on Ben Hall moving to KLVL. He's keeping Cooper and the rest of the staff in the fold, but the people buying blocks from him aren't going to pay for just the webstream forever.

Agreed. Seems the logical choice. However, if they were unhappy with 1230's signal, I'm not sure what they'll find that's so much better about KLVL's, John. At night, it struggles just to get out of Pasadena. The northside of Houston wouldn't stand a chance.

Wonder what Jesse Dunn's thoughts are on this latest development in the KCOH saga? Looks like he got out when the getting was good. The hatchet has obviously been buried between him & Michael Harris. After all, Harris & Don Sam are both working with Dr. Dunn down at 880 since its relaunch.

 

[Mediafrog+]

Agreed. Seems the logical choice. However, if they were unhappy with 1230's signal, I'm not sure what they'll find that's so much better about KLVL's, John. At night, it struggles just to get out of Pasadena. The northside of Houston wouldn't stand a chance.

The 500 watt KLVL night signal is decent as far west as downtown Houston, and is spotty between downtown and the West Loop. Further west it is lost in the co-channel pileup on 1480.

KLVL's day signal is actually quite good since the upgrade to 5kw.

Meanwhile the KCOH Facebook page is fielding listener questions about the disappearance, but with vague replies about "fixing a frequency issue" and that they will be back on the air "soon" or "tomorrow." Nothing about a frequency change. Perhaps they are scraping together the money to pay the Liberman lease.

As for CRI, the TOH ID on KYND was still announcing both stations a few days ago, so either that ID hasn't been updated or the change on KGBC just happened. CRI and its subsidiaries might be happy with the KYND market coverage since the upgrade to 25kw. Of course there is no night service, but the night signal of KGBC is useless outside of Galveston County, so it didn't fill the gap. On my morning commute I haven't been able to hear KGBC recently due to residual skywave after dawn, and my evening commute is well after December sunset.

I do notice that KYND runs The Beijing Hour at 8am, but on a three hour delay from the live broadcast inside China. Probably fed that way by CRI; the evening edition on shortwave is a two hour delay from the original broadcast.

 

[purpledevil]

KLVL is about the same northward. Clears downtown pretty well at night, but get up past The Heights very much and it's a goner. You are correct in KLVL's day signal. It covers well past IAH on the day power. That would be the best that KCOH has had in many a moon, even though 1430 was/is the same 5kW as 1480. Deterioration had usurped so much of the coverage that 1430 had in its later years, which became very apparent when La Promesa repaired the facilities and you hear what 1430 can do nowadays.

Fixing a frequency issue, huh? Wonder how much it'll cost Hall to fix a call issue, because those now belong to a Liberman owned Regional Mexican station. Could even lead to Liberman sending a ceast & desist order his way, couldn't it? He's still utilizng the KCOH branding, but the programming is no longer reflective of what 1230 KCOH is sending out OTA.

 

[Mediafrog+]

Wonder how much it'll cost Hall to fix a call issue, because those now belong to a Liberman owned Regional Mexican station. Could even lead to Liberman sending a ceast & desist order his way, couldn't it? He's still utilizng the KCOH branding, but the programming is no longer reflective of what 1230 KCOH is sending out OTA.

Interesting point. Broadcasters really don't "own" the call letters, but it would be a can or worms if Hall was to try to use the call "unofficially" on another station. Perhaps there is some language in the (now broken) lease contract with Liberman that deals with such a situation?

 

[KeithE4]

Interesting point. Broadcasters really don't "own" the call letters, but it would be a can or worms if Hall was to try to use the call "unofficially" on another station. Perhaps there is some language in the (now broken) lease contract with Liberman that deals with such a situation?

I thought some companies registered call letters as trademarks. Disney I think owns trademarks on the call letters WABC, KABC, KGO, and WLS, and either rents or loans them out to Cumulus for their radio stations. Or is it the other way around? Neither? I remember reading something about that when the radio stations were spun off.

 

[ContinuousWave]

nope....Disney does not own the calls...Cumeless got them in the buy from Citadel.....ABC Radio WAS licensed to C but that has expired

 

[KeithE4]

nope....Disney does not own the calls...Cumeless got them in the buy from Citadel.....ABC Radio WAS licensed to C but that has expired

So Disney pays Cumulus for the rights to use those call letters then? I wasn't 100% sure, but I still remember some kind of trademark issue on the call letters when the stations were split up. Otherwise, Channel 7 in Chicago would have to be WMVP-TV instead of WLS-TV.