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KITS 105.3 Stunting... Return of Live 105?

KNBR-FM and KGMZ have nearly identical footprints, both are non-grandfathered class B’s. One on Mt. Sutro and the other on San Bruno Mtn. Plus, KNBR has a powerful AM that reaches places neither FM reach.
Respectfully there’s no way this is the case, KGMZ has a crystal clear signal in my daily driving area of South San Francisco to Sunnyvale. KNBR-FM struggles significantly harder, constantly going to a very very staticy signal. KNBR-FM’s tower is either on the fritz or there’s something going on. I’ve tuned in for almost 100 hours on both stations by now in the last 5 years, KNBR has a horrible signal.
 
Audacy has officially announced some changes in Rock Programming VPs, related to this format change at KITS. As mentioned earlier, John Allers is overseeing KITS. But there are now some other changes:

Malovetz seems to be assigned the throwaway stations:
-an HD2 in NYC with tiny listenership,
-a small market station (Richmond),
-station in Detroit that probably is little more than a placeholder until WWJ needs an FM home
 
KNBR-FM and KGMZ have nearly identical footprints, both are non-grandfathered class B’s. One on Mt. Sutro and the other on San Bruno Mtn. Plus, KNBR has a powerful AM that reaches places neither FM reach.
KNBR-FM is grandfather 7,100watts/459m instead of 4,600watts. You probably got confused with KOSF 103.7 which lost their grandfather power when they move from Mt. Sutro to San Bruno Mountain.
 
Malovetz seems to be assigned the throwaway stations:
-an HD2 in NYC with tiny listenership,
-a small market station (Richmond),
-station in Detroit that probably is little more than a placeholder until WWJ needs an FM home

Maybe. Her main base is the HD2, and she takes over a station that had been run by Matt Malone, who left.
 
Just checked out their website, it's great that Bebop is available there. We live at the North base of the Santa Monica Mts. and can not get a reliable HD signal from KKJZ, too bad an FM booster has not been established for the SFV. It certainly could be engineered to fit...As I understand it the normal FM translator/booster rules do not apply to 88.1 to 91.9 non comms...

KNBR-FM is grandfather 7,100watts/459m instead of 4,600watts. You probably got confused with KOSF 103.7 which lost their grandfather power when they move from Mt. Sutro to San Bruno Mountain.
No confusion here. They are equivalent in the sense they are both Class B's and max power, the only thing KNBR-FM has a disadvantage would be the Mid Peninsula where there's is significant shadowing. This would explain the drive from SSF to Sunnyvale showing KGMZ stronger than the other.

KNBR-FM L-R RabbitEars.Info

KGMZ L-R RabbitEars.Info

KGMZ has a slightly stronger signal in SJ, probably due to San Bruno Mtn being a few miles closer.

KGMZ doesn't have a 50KW AM to aid it in the difficult spots.
 
No confusion here. They are equivalent in the sense they are both Class B's and max power, the only thing KNBR-FM has a disadvantage would be the Mid Peninsula where there's is significant shadowing. This would explain the drive from SSF to Sunnyvale showing KGMZ stronger than the other.

KNBR-FM L-R RabbitEars.Info

KGMZ L-R RabbitEars.Info

KGMZ has a slightly stronger signal in SJ, probably due to San Bruno Mtn being a few miles closer.

KGMZ doesn't have a 50KW AM to aid it in the difficult spots.

Ah, okay. The shadowing explains a lot, though I still have to wonder if Cumulus is skimping on the maintenance on the FM side, The Longley-Rice for KNBR doesn’t match my experience around Redwood City/San Mateo. Granted I’m not going to hedge too hard on that because that’s just my experience as one person.

Thanks for your insight, Michael!
 
Ah, okay. The shadowing explains a lot, though I still have to wonder if Cumulus is skimping on the maintenance on the FM side, The Longley-Rice for KNBR doesn’t match my experience around Redwood City/San Mateo. Granted I’m not going to hedge too hard on that because that’s just my experience as one person.

Thanks for your insight, Michael!
KNBR also has a Booster.


It provides similar dBu into San Mateo.
 
Audacy has officially announced some changes in Rock Programming VPs,
If I say "rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic" I think I covered the whole affair.
 
Ah, okay. The shadowing explains a lot, though I still have to wonder if Cumulus is skimping on the maintenance on the FM side, The Longley-Rice for KNBR doesn’t match my experience around Redwood City/San Mateo. Granted I’m not going to hedge too hard on that because that’s just my experience as one person.

Thanks for your insight, Michael!
I can testify to the accuracy of what you're saying. I'm in the hills, just east of I-280 near Woodside, and both stations experience shadowing up here, but especially KNBR-FM. It's actually shocking to see how red the Longley-Rice map is in this area, effectively showing 40dBu or less. A mile or so east and the map's solid green. (But they put very serviceable signals over the Farallons for the egrets to enjoy!)

Back when 104.5 and 97.7 were KFOG/KFFG, one of them (can't recall which) was having some audio chain problem and I tried calling the station to alert them. It was a few minutes after 5pm and my call got routed to some engineer in Dallas. I started explaining the issue, and when I got done, maybe 30 seconds later, I realized the guy had hung up on me. So would it be any surprise if Cumulus was (continuing to) skimp on maintenance?
 
There's no site in the Bay Area that isn't going to have some shadowing somewhere.
 
Last time I tuned KNBR 104.5 in Sonoma County (many months ago) the signal had multipath issues and wasn’t pleasant to listen to. I was surprised considering they transmit in mono which usually helps with fringe reception. Could be issues with their antenna…
 
I like how half the recent thread are local listeners speaking about how poor KNBR’s signal has become… surely there’s something here guys, haha.

Cumulus is not a great broadcaster, let’s be honest…
 
I like how half the recent thread are local listeners speaking about how poor KNBR’s signal has become… surely there’s something here guys, haha.

Cumulus is not a great broadcaster, let’s be honest…
The transmitting site for KNBR-FM and its predecessors has always been Mt. Sutro.
 
I like how half the recent thread are local listeners speaking about how poor KNBR’s signal has become… surely there’s something here guys, haha.
If you also read the threads from FM DXers, you might have noticed that the last week to 10 days have been notorious for all kinds of skip activities, with local stations overwhelmed by ones a considerable distance away.

This appears to be one of the most extreme times ever for FM coverage disruption and distant signal interference to local stations.

In case you are unaware, a "DXer" is a hobbyist who pursues distant ("DX" is an abbreviation in ham lingo for that word) radio stations.
 
Didn't know people DX'd FM stations. Always thought that was for AM, where back in the pre-digital world, I could pick up stations from Pittsburgh, Nashville, Louisville, New Orleans in the Bay Area late at night. Can't imagine FM would be much different between day and night...and the distance can't be more than 100 miles.
 
Consider how many hills are between Mt. Sutro and anywhere in Sonoma County.
True. However this was that stretch along 37 with a (mostly) clear shot to Sutro. I remember it did not sound good! I have not listened recently so could have just been the weather conditions on that particular day. The San Bruno stations sounded fine.
 
Didn't know people DX'd FM stations. Always thought that was for AM, where back in the pre-digital world, I could pick up stations from Pittsburgh, Nashville, Louisville, New Orleans in the Bay Area late at night. Can't imagine FM would be much different between day and night...and the distance can't be more than 100 miles.
A guy here on this board who is located in San Antonio spent the day listening to stations from Guatemala, Yucatán, Quintana Roo, Campeche, Tabasco and Belize. There have been openings from the Northeast to Texas and Oklahoma, in other recent posts. And those are just typical of some of the longer distance catches.

Here is documentation of trans-continental FM DC recently from the FM DX Club Official WTFDA Website | A DXing Site

Coast to Coast Double Hop FM Skip!​


double-hopnv-nc-1080x502.jpg


While most DXers in the Eastern half of the country were drowning in single hop Es on May 31st, WTFDA member Randy Zerr in Goldfield, Nevada was raking in the double hop skip from Tennessee and North Carolina, much of it over 2,000 miles from his location.

Here is a video made of the double hop he heard. The SDR software is SDR Console. Watch
 
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