• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

KGOW NOW 24 HOURS ??

O

OldChicago

I noticed around 1:15 Tuesday morning that KGOW was on the air. Does this mean they have now been granted permission to operate at night, or did someone forget to shut off the XMTR last night?

Old Chicago
 
Word has it that they just received program test authority for their 100-watt facility a few blocks west of the Bellaire city limits. This is a special authorization that KGOW asked for and somehow received, since they argued that their current 1,000 watt construction permit near Bear Creek is wrapped up in red tape and the FCC is still mulling over a modification of that CP from a different site with 19kW. As mentioned before, the 100-watt rig ain't much but at least it's some sort of an all-night signal. They'd be wise to continue the 1480 simulcast, such as it is, because a real nighttime signal is at least a couple of years down the road. Then again, it may never happen.
 
I'll be on the road from the west side around 2:40AM. I will tune it in and see how far I can get it before getting to Savoy St. (Hillcroft & the SW Freeway) Of course, I'm counting on that they may be testing.
 
At Boone Rd and Alief Clodine at 2:38AM, the signal was coming loud and clear. The audio was was terrible. It was like listening to a sattelite feed that was dropping in and out. However, the carrier was very strong. I don't think 100 watts could have that much of an impact that far west. However, keep in mind that experimental period is from Midnight to 5 or 6AM (I don't remember which.) You can operate and test during that period. I remember years ago ('79 or '80) KIKK-650 was on the air around 2 or 3 in the morning. It was about 20 minutes of KIKK-FM on KIKK 650. All of that is speculation, of course.
 
A couple of things here: the 100-watt temporary fix for nighttime isn't licensed yet, but KGOW does have a current STA to operate outside their designated parameters. That's for the daytime 50,000-watt transmitter, and operating at reduced power could be necessary while they work on getting the pattern into line. So tweaking it with full power during the authorized midnight to 6 test period (like Chuck mentioned) is the time to do it.

And a question for anybody who was listening this evening: what time did 1560 power down? I heard them on the daytime rig around 5:30, but couldn't check back for a couple of hours. Just for the record they should be flipping the switch at 5:15 in December.
 
Last month I caught KGOW here in Kilgore testing with a soccer news program around 3AM, no station ID.

I was in Mount Pleasant last week and KGOW was all over tiny 1K KNGR in Daingerfield (about 25 miles away) around 4:45 pm. It's strange to hear all these poor local reception reports, 1560 a monster when the skywave skips.
 
billyg said:
It's strange to hear all these poor local reception reports, 1560 [is] a monster when the skywave skips.
Click to expand...

You're right, billy. KGOW really gets out around sunrise and sunset, but their groundwave into East Texas is pretty effective, too. Northward from their site, in places like Athens, Tyler and Jacksonville they can be heard all day long. The distance involved is anywhere from 175 to 200 miles from 1560's towers near Rosharon (the Daingerfield station is 257 miles). No wonder KNGR complained when KGOW was doing their original tests with 50,000 watts last year!
 
On my way to KNTH this morning, it was loud and clear at the locations and times in my previous post. In fact, it sounded really good. The local sunset rules depend on 1560 in Bakersfield, California. The late Mike O and I had a lively post about this subject a year ago. I'm not sure of all of the details.
 
jd said:
No wonder KNGR complained when KGOW was doing their original tests with 50,000 watts last year!
Click to expand...

KNGR has always had a weak signal from a poor tower site. I worked for a couple weeks there when it was KEGG in 1991. I'm surprised its not dark with all the problems and bad ownership it's had.

I remember my car stereo landing on KILE foreign langage during the day driving through Tyler...how many watts were they then? And the old 1590 used to have a good skywave in the afternoon years before Disney bought it.

I'm curious to see if local Sports Talk can gain an audience and make money on what's a right now a daytimer. Unless it's Astros talk theres not many up here who'll listen to KGOW.
 

Re: KILE news
« Reply #24 on: June 07, 2007, 07:34:30 pm »
Reply with quoteQuote
Ah yes, it was almost like yesterday when the late Mike O and I had a healthy exchange about KILE and its sign-off times.........(from last year)


Re: KILE
« Reply #3 on: April 16, 2006, 02:15:32 pm » Quote

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>(Mike_O: KILE is a DAYTIME ONLY station....

Yes, it is. However, I must point out that KILE operates in according to local sunset in Bakersfield, California the home of KNZR radio. In the summertime, when it is 8:30PM in Bakersfield, its 10:30PM in Houston. Thus, the reason for KILE's late sign-off.
This means that in the winter it would be 7:15PM our time, which of course is 5:15PM at KNZR.

 
What are you doing Chuck Tiller?
Yes KGOW is testing at night with 100 watts.
Call me sometime .
Dade Moore
 
Chuck Tiller said:
The local sunset rules depend on 1560 in Bakersfield, California.
Click to expand...

Chuck, Mike_O was right on the money with his comments. At local sunset KGOW is required to shut down the big rig but they can operate for two hours (sunset in Bakersfield) under their post-sunset authorization before they have to sign off. The PSSA is at greatly reduced power, like a maximum of 33 watts last I checked but the authorization is for the daytime transmitter site. Of course, they won't have to worry about that once they get the license for 100 watts next to Bellaire.

My point was they were running late on making the switch to PSSA power and they might want to be a little more careful, especially since they have a modified nighttime application pending with the FCC.
 
What approximately are the power up/down hours?

I remember listening to a late season LSU game that stretched way past sundown and didn't notice any change in signal.
 
Yeah, they are 24 hours now. They have PTA to transmit overnight now. While it is not much wattage, their night tower is in Bellaire and, from that location, they cover the market pretty well.

Their daytime signal seems to be performing well also. Maybe they finally got things figured out?
 
This past Thursday (12-27-07), shortly after 5:00 PM, I heard KGOW here in Rockford, IL.

Last week, I drove down to Texas to visit family for the holidays, and heard KGOW while driving along I-55 near the Missouri-Arkansas state line. This was on Thursday 12-20-07, sometime around 6:00 PM. Also heard it just north of Springfield, IL on the way back on 12-26 (caught the top-of-hour ID plain as day at 5PM.)

While in Texas, I could hear KGOW as far north as Nacogdoches during the day.
 
Mr. Head said:
This past Thursday (12-27-07), shortly after 5:00 PM, I heard KGOW here in Rockford, IL. Last week, I drove down to Texas to visit family for the holidays, and heard KGOW while driving along I-55 near the Missouri-Arkansas state line. This was on Thursday 12-20-07, sometime around 6:00 PM. Also heard it just north of Springfield, IL on the way back on 12-26 (caught the top-of-hour ID plain as day at 5PM.)
Click to expand...

During the station's initial 50kw tests in 2005 (when it was still KILE) there were numerous reports of it being heard in Illinois and Wisconsin. KGOW's tight NNE pattern sure seems to throw a lot of signal towards Lake Michigan during critical hours. Wonder if co-channel WPAD in Paducah, KY is getting some serious interference during early evening hours, as well as WBYS in Canton, IL ?
 
Hello - testing - testing - Hello can you hear me - This is KGOW Bellaire - Hello Alief can you hear me?

Bottom line: KGOW STILL A ZERO SHARE IN ARBITRON - No one listens and no one cares and no need to encode.
 
I live in Alief and KGOW comes in very good. Actually, I'm surprised that 100 watts can do that good. Since it has officially been on the air only a few months, it's really to early to tell how successful it will be. I am of the belief it takes time to build the audience. There seems to be the mentality that if a station doesn't make it in the 1st book, it's dead. Change the format, many insist! When I started at KHJZ The Wave, I heard the same thing. Of course, it did show up. After all, 100,000 watts, city grade signal on the FM will show up. KGOW launched with massive signal problems. That phase is over.

If the investors have the patience and the pockets to make it work, so be it. Time will tell. I hope it works for them. However, I maintain that over 2 sports stations in Houston is way too many.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom