KGY flips to Oldies, adds FM translator

[Grounded Grid]

Probably not too much. 8 watts horizontal, from the tower they're going to be on shouldn't butcher much up at all. From my place, out near the Bremerton airport, I don't get KGY... and I'll be impressed if I hear much from this new LP, too.

Looks like they'll cover Bremerton well enough though, which is a decent enough chunk of population, and maybe reasonably well enough out in Silverdale and Port Orchard.

 

[fordranger797]

Probably not too much. 8 watts horizontal, from the tower they're going to be on shouldn't butcher much up at all. From my place, out near the Bremerton airport, I don't get KGY... and I'll be impressed if I hear much from this new LP, too.

Looks like they'll cover Bremerton well enough though, which is a decent enough chunk of population, and maybe reasonably well enough out in Silverdale and Port Orchard.

I still don't like the sound of that.. Lets see.. We've got KXXK on 95.3, KGY, and now this station. Seems a little overloaded.

Think about the principle of all of this. If they can stuff so many LP's onto one frequency, what will they do with other frequencies?

 

[fordranger797]

By the way.. Radio Locator reports that the KGY translator has a CP to upgrade to 145 watts (up from 100). They are taking this translator pretty seriously..

 

[crainbebo]

Wonder how much damage they would have with 250 watts? If stations like KACS' waste of a translator on 102.3 in Chehalis can go up 40-50 miles the Hood Canal, then KGY's 95.3 would probably cause Kix damage with even that power.

-crainbebo

 

[fordranger797]

Wonder how much damage they would have with 250 watts? If stations like KACS' waste of a translator on 102.3 in Chehalis can go up 40-50 miles the Hood Canal, then KGY's 95.3 would probably cause Kix damage with even that power.

-crainbebo

Enough damage. At-least this low power FM'er is a useful signal. Unlike the 96.9 FM signal going up in Tulalip. The KXXK folks will not be pleased though. They can only hope it doesn't have the juice to get over that rugged terrain near Capital Peak.

 

[bobdavcav]

This won't be as crowded as 94.5 though. From north to south CFBT, K233BU, KRXY, KLYK, KMGE, plus KATS in Yakima and KHTQ in Spokane.

 

[fordranger797]

Another comment on translators:

I happened to be driving through Seattle the other day. The KGHO 101.1 translator was begging to overtake a weak CFMI signal as soon as I was heading towards Sea-Tac International Airport. I don't know what you guys think, but that seems WAYYYY too strong. That translator should not be heard outside of Thurston County.

 

[Bongwater]

Good gravy! I remember "All News KYXI" too. And Oldies KSGO. And their flip to "Rock 40" (a Z-Rock type hair metal format) as "1520 The X" (KFXX), which I listened to often. Before KKXA, they had an amazing nighttime signal all over Puget Sound.

 

[crainbebo]

I remember 1520, "Sunny 1520, KZNY"! Adult standards which sounded like KKAD/KKOV up at 1550. Then it flipped to Mexican. Which speaking of that, the Portland market is pretty saturated with Spanish stations. 93.1, then 93.5, then 94.3, and 1520, and religious SS on 1230, and 880 KWIP which is a pest at night and always screwed up KIXI up in the north sound after dark!

-crainbebo

 

[fordranger797]

I remember 1520, "Sunny 1520, KZNY"! Adult standards which sounded like KKAD/KKOV up at 1550. Then it flipped to Mexican. Which speaking of that, the Portland market is pretty saturated with Spanish stations. 93.1, then 93.5, then 94.3, and 1520, and religious SS on 1230, and 880 KWIP which is a pest at night and always screwed up KIXI up in the north sound after dark!

-crainbebo

They also have their fair share of Russian stations.

 

[Bongwater]

I was just in Portland yesterday and I caught 1010, the former Z-Rock KZRC, now KOOR and it's Russian format. It's still owned by Bustos.

 

[fordranger797]

On a side note.. the KMAS translator on 104.1 was booming in on my Grundig S450DLX radio over the KAFE signal on Mount Constitution. I don't know why a 250 watt signal all of the way in Shelton is having this large of an impact a 60 kilowatt blowtorch. Granted, I live in the Tacoma area where the KAFE signal is not theoretically supposed to reach. Before the translator hit the air, KAFE was easily listenable.

 

[bossbill]

To get back on track... Translators must rebroadcast the host station 24/7. Fill-in translators may be (and usually are) owned by the originating station. Non-fill-in translators must be owned by an outside unrelated entity. Translators for AM stations may broadcast 24/7 even if the AM is a daytimer, and the translator contour cannot exceed the daytime contour of the AM station. Translators for HD-2 signals contour cannot exceed the contour of the host station. If an AM station is simulcasting on an HD-2 channel, the FM translator can use the HD-2 as originating station and therefore likely have a larger contour than if identified with the AM station. And since the HD-2 is now the originating station, the programming can be entirely different from the AM station.

The only part of this I'm not sure about is whether the HD-2 can in fact simulcast the AM station 24/7, or if it falls in the 15 hours a week limitation.

 

[bossbill]

KMO licensee Jim Baine was convinced that KOMO in Seattle was stealing his numbers. So he changed his call letters. Turns out it was the other way around, he was getting credit for KOMO listeners. So he asked for KMO back, but had to settle for KKMO.

After South Sound gave up KAYO calls, they were picked up by an LPFM. Morris Communications was concerned that I might pick the calls up for one of my stations, so they bought them for the Wasilla station.

Call letters used to be a big deal when there were fewer stations and good calls available. Anymore, they are often mild annoyances that get wedged in between slogans and positioning statements.