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KILE

Am receiving KILE at 9:05 PM, in Orange County. Are they now unlimited hrs or just "forgot" to sign off? Had a commercial for a fish market & cafe and gave phone# 832-???-3970.
 
> Am receiving KILE at 9:05 PM, in Orange County. Are they
> now unlimited hrs or just "forgot" to sign off? Had a
> commercial for a fish market & cafe and gave phone#
> 832-???-3970.
>
KILE is a DAYTIME ONLY station that has operated until midnight for over a year now and until ten pm for years before that. I guess you could say they "forgot" to sign off that night, just like they have for years now. I can't believe the FCC hasn't nailed them yet. Then again if the FCC ever checked how many stations go to daytime power and pattern around 5:30am every morning year round, they would have a nice sum in fines. Of course if these stations had nighttime patterns that covered more than The Gulf, they wouldn't be forced to cheat and make sure their signal is heard by the few people that still listen to AM in the morning.

Since you just put 9:05 PM, I will assume that you are from Orange County, Texas and you may be hearing the signal since KILE was granted Program Test Authority for 4,800 watts back on December 20, 2005 that expired on February 22, 2006. KILE was probably running 4800 watts on an expired PTA when you heard them. Although their 800 non-directional signal gets out very well. I have heard them many times in Richardson {Dallas} at sunset skip.

Hopefully the FCC will get around to KILE's latest attempt at a nighttime license so they are legal. Both the daytime application for 50kW with Augmentations and the nighttime for 1kW from near Bear Creek Park are near the top of the Unblocked list released on April 1st. Bob Morrow is the Technical Director for RAFTT and he does an excellent job and his applications are extremely well done. I don't know why the FCC keeps denying them. I know ABC, the owners of KMIC have filed some objections to the nighttime patterns, but on paper they do not cross the 25mV/m signal of KMIC and Bob Morrow has a very impresssive graph he did of KMIC's signal strength on the 175 degree bearing.

Bob Morrow if you ever hear this, WKAT 1360 North Miami is filing for an upgrade to 50kW and they had their application tossed back because the daytime signal sent too much power towards a 10kW non-directional station in Cuba that had to have signed on years after WKAT and is undoubtly causing interference to WKAT in their own backyard. At the worst WKAT was just trying to regain some lost ground to this station and the WKAT pattern put a nice 5mV/m signal over the City of Miami. The revised application has hardly any City Grade service over Miami now and will still receive unwanted interference from Cuba. I know one of the KILE applications was denied because it sent too much power over Cuba, BFD. Cuba has never recognized the NARBA Treaty and never will, in fact no one except the US recognizes the useless document. I can't believe the FCC does not allow any station that is adversely affected by a Cuban station(s) be allowed any power necessary to protect their primary service area. As far as the US is concerned, Cuba should be treated like a body of water. It should be the duty of the FCC to protect American stations or at least give them the power to serve their region with a clear clean signal, regardless of the power the station has to operate with, be it 250kW. If the pattern falls over Cuba so what? It is only recently that the FCC has authorized stations on frequencies where there are Canadian stations present in the US. Canada has not recognized any US signal in Canada for years and has routinely assigned stations on top of US signals. At least Canada employs directional antennas to keep the signal from entering the US. South of the US most stations are non-directional and are not concerned about how much power they send north. There is no land mass north of Mexico and Central America. Sigh. Even 50kW KTRH gets overrun by Spanish language radio from undetermined countries only ninety miles from their transmitter in Dayton in the main lobe. I have heard it many nights.

To answer your question yes that would have been KILE, the 832 area code is a Houston city area code. KILE has been widely reported by NRC club members in Illinois and Wisconsin. If KILE followed their Authorization they were only sending 4800 watts to the north. If the FCC approves the 50kW signal, which they should, KILE will be a regular far into Canada. The pattern is so tight though that only a small path will hear KILE.

Mike O
 
Great info, Mike -- Just curious about this: Since KILE gets away with running at night (even though they're a daytimer)and the FCC keeps looking the other way, can the owner of any 500-watt small-town daytimer simply "forget to sign off" every night, too?
 
> 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.

Other Texas stations on 1560:

KHBR Hillsboro 250 watts day
KNGR Daingerfield 1500 watts 60 watts night
KTXZ West Lake Hills 2500 watts day & night (Austin & Round Rock, very tight pattern)
KZQQ Abilene 500 watts day
 
> Great info, Mike -- Just curious about this: Since KILE gets
> away with running at night (even though they're a
> daytimer)and the FCC keeps looking the other way, can the
> owner of any 500-watt small-town daytimer simply "forget to
> sign off" every night, too?
>
That's one of those "do so at your own risk" kind of situations. The FCC has neither the time nor the manpower to make the inspections they need to, but if one ever got caught.......


Texas Tuner
 
> Great info, Mike -- Just curious about this: Since KILE gets
> away with running at night (even though they're a
> daytimer)and the FCC keeps looking the other way, can the
> owner of any 500-watt small-town daytimer simply "forget to
> sign off" every night, too?
>
Chuck, the record for KILE states DAYTIME ONLY; and is a station that is to the east of Class A, WQEW New York. Per the FCC Regulations a station must sign off no later than local sunset or local sunset of the Class A station, if to the west of the Class A station, which ever is later. Since WQEW is to the east of KILE, they should be off the air at Houston sunset. There is nothing in the FCC database to indicate otherwise. Even if KILE had Post Sunset Authority this does not give KILE the right to run to 10:30pm year round, only a few months. Now they sign off at midnight. WQEW running daytime parameters until Bakersfield sunset has no bearing on KILE or any other station.


Dualux, actually stations, especially in the south and southwest have been running what is jokingly refered to as "Sports STA" and many daytime stations or stations with say 5000 watts daytime, but only 65 watts at night will operate with the daytime 5000 watts for sports broadcast at night, football in particular. This has been going on for years and I don't remember ever hearing of any station getting busted for doing this.

I would say that a station with low power at night could probably run 24/7 with a daytime license for years and not have to worry, unless a competitor in town turned them in to the FCC. If KILE can get away with doing this on a "Clear Channel" with two Class A stations that need to be protected and have not been hit by the FCC in at least five years that they have run until 10pm and then 12am, I would think you are fairly safe. If your station is on a Regional Channel, unless someone turned you in, I don't think you would ever get caught.

The FCC is still too busy studying Janet Jacksons nipple from the Super Bowl to do anything else. That and try and find some way of justifing running Ibiquity's AM IBOC at night, when it should not even be run on AM during the day. The "expense" money that Ibiquity is probably sending the Commissioners direction is burning a hole in their pockets. Until or if Ibiquity can make AM High Def Radio what they call it, In Band On Channel, it is a complete failure. If I owned an AM station the last thing I would spend money on is Ibiquity's HD Radio, it does not work as promised or even come close. The FCC should be looking at DRM as a possibility for AM or even at what Leonard Kahn has for AM HD Radio. Except Kahn may be a genius at what he does, he is a nut case and will not devulge any technical aspects of his system. It is suppose to work well with in the 10kHz channel and even boosts the stations range. CW or Stan could say much more about the success of Kahn's system as two Golden Triangle stations run Kahn's HD 24/7, KOLE 1340 and KRCM 1380. Until the AM HD radio problem is solved I don't expect the auto manufacturers to jump on installing Ibiquity's system as standard equipment.

My personal opinion is that webcasting will become a standard in vehicles long before Ibiquity's HD radio. It will not be long before you will be able to turn to an internet station and listen for miles as transmitters are installed on the same towers as cell phone transmitters are today. Web radio already has a higher percentage of listeners than AM/FM or Satellite today and will be the choice by a wide margin in five years or less. I know there is one boom box on the market that you could use anyplace that broadband internet service is available, like all of Austin and most of Houston inside The Loop.

Mike O
 
> Chuck, the record for KILE states DAYTIME ONLY; and is a
> station that is to the east of Class A, WQEW New York. Per
> the FCC Regulations a station must sign off no later than
> local sunset or local sunset of the Class A station, if to
> the west of the Class A station, which ever is later. Since
> WQEW is to the east of KILE, they should be off the air at
> Houston sunset. There is nothing in the FCC database to
> indicate otherwise. Even if KILE had Post Sunset Authority
> this does not give KILE the right to run to 10:30pm year
> round, only a few months. Now they sign off at midnight.
> WQEW running daytime parameters until Bakersfield sunset has
> no bearing on KILE or any other station.
>
Mike.....You really don't need to dictate daytime regulations to me. I've worked at quite a few in my 35 years in radio. I understand all of that. It's almost like my son telling me how to drive a car. There are special considerations at certain stations. While at KTLW, we had to sign-off 15 minutes earleir than the other daytime stations in the Houston area. It was contingent on 920 KARK's(later KARN) sunset in Little Rock. That information was NOT indicated on the license. Cheif engineer Luke Stripling told me about it.

I have no idea, if KILE has any of those or how up-to-date is the undermanned, overworked ,beauracratic FCC's database. AND, I don't care. I'm not going to spend my time combing through the database to find out about an irrelevant AM radio station on the upper end of the AM band.

>It will not be long before you will be able to turn to an internet station and listen for miles as transmitters are installed on the same towers as cell phone transmitters are today.

I agree with you. In fact there are some radios already availble, expensive, but available. I was discussing this with Roger Bateman and Bill Moffet recently about the changes and how quickly will it happen.

Relax! It's only radio.
 
> While at KTLW, we had to
> sign-off 15 minutes earleir than the other daytime stations
> in the Houston area.

Texas City is just enough to the east (longitude) of Houston that it would effect some sign-on/sign off times (or power/pattern change times.) If you check the FCC database info on sunrise/sunset time, you find that during several months there is a 15 minute difference between Texas City and Houston for reckoning day vs. night.

In DFW there is a similar difference between AM's licensed to Fort Worth as opposed to those in Dallas. I recall in June and July the FW daytimers got to stay on until 8:45p while the Dallas stations were off at 8:30.
 
Chuck you say don't dictate regulations to you, you've been in the business for years, yet you made the statement that KILE could sign off at Bakersfield, CA sunset. I was merely pointing out this is not necessarily true. I agree with you on the point that it is not important! Personally I don't care care what parameters KILE operates with, they are doing me no harm. Thank you for the info about KTLW in Texas City when they were a 1kW daytimer and signed off 15 minutes earilier, I never knew that, as there are MANY facts about Houston area radio I do not know, but would love to learn. Maybe someday if your schedule permits we can meet for lunch or early/late dinner and you can fill me in on some of your vast knowledge, I would enjoy the education, if you have the time to spare and think you wouldn't mind talking shop with me. My email is [email protected] if you are interested.

I do have a question about KTLW 920 when they were in Houston, at least the studios and offices, I beleive the transmitter was in Texas City and was a daytimer that had a large Country following in Houston until KENR 1070 signed on with Country 24/7 and KTLW went back to being a Galveston County station. Did KTLW operate with more than 1kW daytime back then, as the article states that KTLW had a powerful signal into Houston and the old KTLW with 1kW ND did not have a strong signal into Houston, at least north of NASA/Clear Lake area?

The only way to know what KILE is licensed for is to go to the station and request to see their licenses and the Open Records File. I may just stop by the station the next time I am in the area that KILE has their offices and request that information. The license and Files should be at the site.

Chuck I am not trying to start a war of semantics or posting to just be contrary, only that until I see what KILE is really licensed for either one of us could be correct or both wrong.

Also Air Talents as yourself generally have very little knowledge of the parameters that the station they work operate with, much less any other stations. You are one of the few that has a great knowledge of Houston area radio and how things are and were.

You may not have seen the post I did about the Phase II ratings and I was dead wrong about KHJZ "The Wave", the ratings were at an all time high! You were totally correct about the staying power of 95.7, which is good news all the way around. Congradulations to all at The Wave, hopefully the format will have a long run. It is a bright spot on the Houston dial and is a well orchestrated station. I know that these are 12+ ratings and you feel that they are meaningless, but you don't have a rating of as close 3.0 as you can get without having a sizeable listening base. Being tied at # 14 in a field of over 90 stations is not an easy job.

Truce!

Mike O
 
> Chuck you say don't dictate regulations to you, you've been
> in the business for years, yet you made the statement that
> KILE could sign off at Bakersfield, CA sunset.

Yes, I did say that in that particular post. In the same post, I should have added that I do not know for sure. However, that information came to me on this board some time back. Only, I don't remember who said it or when. It seemed like it came from soneone else who has pretty reliable authority on what hat the deal is.

>Thank you for the info about KTLW in Texas City
> when they were a 1kW daytimer and signed off 15 minutes
> earilier, I never knew that, as there are MANY facts about
> Houston area radio I do not know, but would love to learn.

For a long time "The Gulf Coast Country Giant," "Katie-Lou," was the only place you could get country music in this town, until KIKK 650 became a reality in Pasadena.

> I do have a question about KTLW 920 when they were in
> Houston, at least the studios and offices, I beleive the
> transmitter was in Texas City and was a daytimer that had a
> large Country following in Houston until KENR 1070 signed on
> with Country 24/7 and KTLW went back to being a Galveston
> County station.

KENR signed on in late 1967 as a 5KW daytimer. In 1972, it went 24 hours. 10KW day 5KW night.

> Did KTLW operate with more than 1kW daytime
> back then, as the article states that KTLW had a powerful
> signal into Houston and the old KTLW with 1kW ND did not
> have a strong signal into Houston, at least north of
> NASA/Clear Lake area?

1KW, ND-Day, KTLW's tower was on the edge of Taylor Lake. Its ground wave was down in the water. The signal magnified from deep in south Louisiana all the way to Corpus Christi. it was very clear in Beuamont, Lake Charles, Vidor, Buna, Silsbee, Jasper, Liberty/Dayton, Cleveland, Conroe,Spring, etc.

When I got there in 1972, it was on the side of the Showboat Theatre, downtown Texas City. The equipment which had been state of the art on the old Montague Hotel in downtown Houston in ity's heyday, had made its way to Texas City. By that time it was wore out and it sounded that way on the air. I will be telling the story soon on my website, which is in the process of changes as I write this post. Ron Samueals has been very busy rebuilding it. I am meeting with him this weekend about the website's future.

> The only way to know what KILE is licensed for is to go to
> the station and request to see their licenses and the Open
> Records File. I may just stop by the station the next time
> I am in the area that KILE has their offices and request
> that information. The license and Files should be at the
> site.
>
That sounds like a good idea. See if they will let you see it. Bring some reading glasses. It seems like the last one I looked at, had a lot of small print.
 
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