KLVA-105.5 Moving In Closer To Phoenix

[SiriusD]

Last week I ran into someone I know who does engineering work for K-Love (Educational Media Foundation). He told me about the downgrading of 105.5 from a C2 to a C3 and moving the transmitter to a site south of Laveen. Also the COL will change from Casa Grande to Maricopa. This would give better reception to the west valley, but the shadowing of South Mountain will give it problems in Scottsdale. After this upgrade is complete, they plan to swap transmitter sites with KHOT-105.9. KHOT wants the new 105.5 site since it will give them better coverage of the areas they want to target. This would also complement the KHOT simucast at KHOV-105.3. The current 105.9 site has some problems in the west valley. Once this swap is done, EMF plans to hopefully move its KLVK-89.1 with a COL in Fountain Hills to the White Tank Mtns after 89.5 KBAQ moves to South Mountain. Once this is all done they will more than likely sell off the 105.9 signal to make some profit. I noticed EMF has done this in other areas like in Fresno. They upgraded their educational frequency at 88.5 and sold off their 106.3 in the commercial part of the FM band. This move would also make Casa Grande without no FM station, but he told me if the FCC has a problem with the move, they plan to suggest adding a class A channel of either 96.5 or 99.1 to Casa Grande. An class A channel at 96.5 would have to be 60 miles from the class C at 96.9 KMXP on South Mtn. A new site at 96.5 would be located probably east of Casa Grande. Also don't forget the class C from Tucson at 96.1. I guess with some work it could be done. Also look at what is also going on in Northern AZ with moving some stations around see this thread from the Arizona Board http://www.radio-info.com/smf/index.php/topic,63507.0.html

 

[ajhenderson]

It may not city-grade a huge part of the market, but I've heard it 105.5 on a $10 radio in a basement in a friend's Cave Creek home. Doesn't seem too bad, esp. considering Pinal county's growth.