KNSJ countdown

[Big 121]

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.483857011658512.114057.313992585311623&type=3#!/photo.php?fbid=567596903284522&set=a.483857011658512.114057.313992585311623&type=3&theater

ASD got all sophmorishly giddy when they hung an LED sign on the I-8 bridge to Old Town, and followed it up by
placing it over I-5 on July 4th(Y/N?). Social Justice has nothing to do with that action- but City justice does, straight
out of the S.D.M.C.=

§142.1206 Violations of Sign Regulations
(a) It is unlawful to do the following:
(1) Place, post, paint or secure any sign, pennant, flag, banner, balloon, or
similar attention-seeking device on public property or within the
public right-of-way unless otherwise provided in the Municipal Code
or specific state statute;
(2) Place any lettering, card, poster, or notice of any kind on any curb,
sidewalk, street, pole, post, utility box, hydrant, bridge, tree, building,
or other surface that is located on public property or in the public
right-of-way

 

[Big 121]

Plan to attend KNSJ's 'coming out' celebration. Being deep in a gorge, KNSJ's signal is barely above the noise threshold in that area.

(From ASD's website)

Location: Mission Trails Regional Park Visitors’ Center One Father Junipero Serra Trail
asd_choices:
ASD Featured Event
Event Summary : Supporters of media justice are Invited to Celebrate KNSJ 89.1 FM's RADIO LAUNCH PARTY! Celebrate our new, independent, people-powered public radio station dedicated to news, arts and culture in our region! Saturday, August 3, 2013 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Supporters of media justice are Invited to Celebrate KNSJ 89.1 FM's RADIO LAUNCH PARTY!
Celebrate our new, independent, people-powered public radio station dedicated to news, arts and culture in our region!
WHEN: Saturday, August 3, 2013 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
WHERE: Stunning environmental setting... Mission Trails Regional Park Visitors’ Center
One Father Junipero Serra Trail, San Diego
COST: $25 per person, $40 per couple by August 1; $30 at the door, Organization packet of 10 tickets $195
RSVP and buy tickets: www.KNSJ.org
Mix and mingle with our radio hosts and celebrity guests in a spectacular natural setting, enjoy live music, Native American flute players, delicious food and drinks, museum tours and scavenger hunt, “Golden Mike Awards” presentations to leaders and activists representing voices in our communities, and learn how you can have YOUR voice heard on 89.1 FM and streaming at KNSJ.org Online tickets at www.KNSJ.org
Info: [email protected], www.KNSJ.org or call Leon at 619-241-6863
Email Address: [email protected]

 

[barman]

Plan to attend KNSJ's 'coming out' celebration. Being deep in a gorge, KNSJ's signal is barely above the noise threshold in that area.

Darn. I can’t make it. There’s a PETA meeting that night, and I’d want to ride my bike out to Mission Trails Park to keep my carbon footprint down (that’s why I wear shoes in the house..it’s about the carpet). There’s also the problem with the time because I’d have to ride my bike home, after 9, in the dark.

Do you think there will be a first anniversary celebration that I can attend? I wonder what are the odds?

 

[sdwulfdawg]

Plan to attend KNSJ's 'coming out' celebration. Being deep in a gorge, KNSJ's signal is barely above the noise threshold in that area.

Darn. I can’t make it. There’s a PETA meeting that night, and I’d want to ride my bike out to Mission Trails Park to keep my carbon footprint down (that’s why I wear shoes in the house..it’s about the carpet). There’s also the problem with the time because I’d have to ride my bike home, after 9, in the dark.

Do you think there will be a first anniversary celebration that I can attend? I wonder what are the odds?

As someone who is very familiar with their operation, I give them 6-8 months. The infighting and backstabbing on the so-called "Leadership Council" is worse than a Mexican Telenovela. They are very resistant to bring on board any professionals who know what they are doing....even on a parttime basis. They think it is so easy to run a radio station, and they are quickly finding out otherwise. The station "headend" is in an ramshackle house in City Heights. I give them an "A" for effort as far as they have gone, but "C-" on execution from a administrative and technical standpoint.

 

[johndavis]

Sounds like Pacifica on a smaller scale.

 

[radio-darn]

The infighting and backstabbing on the so-called "Leadership Council" is worse than a Mexican Telenovela.

Rather like that old quote, "Academic politics is the most vicious and bitter form of politics, because the stakes are so low."

 

[sdwulfdawg]

KNSJ 89.1 FM DeathWatch

Today KNSJ did not broadcast any call letters at the TOTH and instead of broadcasting their liberal talk shows, they were playing this god awful dance club bass and drum stuff off a server that was spitting and sputtering.

Seeing in the way they are going, I propose that we fill up this thread with a time frame YOU THINK they will cease operations, albeit that their "so called" launch party is scheduled for tomorrow night in San Carlos.
Suggestions for deathwatch swag? Perhaps a burned out CFL light bulb?

I give KNSJ eight-ten months....

 

[sdwulfdawg]

KNSJ 89.1 FM Deathwatch

Today KNSJ did not broadcast any call letters at the TOTH and instead of broadcasting their liberal talk shows, they were playing this god awful dance club bass and drum stuff off a server that was spitting and sputtering with their awful signal.

Seeing in the way they are going, I propose that we fill up this thread with a time frame YOU THINK they will cease operations, albeit that their "so called" launch party is scheduled for tomorrow night in San Carlos.
Suggestions for deathwatch swag? Perhaps a burned out CFL light bulb?

I give KNSJ eight-to-ten months....

 

[stevensonair]

Re: KNSJ 89.1 FM Deathwatch

If it bothers you so much, turn the dial.

Why celebrate anyone's failure?

 

[Big 121]

Re: KNSJ 89.1 FM Deathwatch

The East County Magazine interview w/a historian just started at 10:04 am, when he was potted down, and some non
ASCAP/BMI local music took over. Of course they missed the I.D. at 10. An hour later, nothing but dead air for hours, and I gave up. Back on Saturday,audio dropout ruled in the pm., followed by blank carrier on Sunday & Tues. night.
ASD said this station was in the planning for 7 years.
YES, they need a minimal,experienced, PAID staff on board.This Socialist committee-run operation just isn't cuttin' it.
Bob Ugly and his cohorts at Free Radio S.D. 96.9 had some problems, but were better prepared than ASD.

 

[radio-darn]

Re: KNSJ 89.1 FM Deathwatch

Why celebrate anyone's failure?

This would be the failure of a "thing," not a person, that some of us see as flawed in philosophy and concept, so why wish it good riddance?

 

[stevensonair]

Re: KNSJ 89.1 FM Deathwatch

Because it's not your money or your radio station. They got the license, if they want to play whale farts until they run out of cash & credit, what's it to you?

I've never understood the preoccupation of the broadcast community with rooting for the failure of others especially when there's no benefit to them. KNSJ isn't relevant to anyone that doesn't listen to it.

 

[Garrett]

Re: KNSJ 89.1 FM Deathwatch

Because it's not your money or your radio station. They got the license, if they want to play whale farts until they run out of cash & credit, what's it to you?

I've never understood the preoccupation of the broadcast community with rooting for the failure of others especially when there's no benefit to them. KNSJ isn't relevant to anyone that doesn't listen to it.

Whale farts might actually get ratings!

 

[sdwulfdawg]

Re: KNSJ 89.1 FM Deathwatch

Because it's not your money or your radio station. They got the license, if they want to play whale farts until they run out of cash & credit, what's it to you?

I've never understood the preoccupation of the broadcast community with rooting for the failure of others especially when there's no benefit to them. KNSJ isn't relevant to anyone that doesn't listen to it.

This begs two questions:

1) Then what's it to you that you are in this forum? 2) What's it to you that you are even signed up on a radio discussion forum?

 

[davideduardo]

Re: KNSJ 89.1 FM Deathwatch

Because it's not your money or your radio station. They got the license, if they want to play whale farts until they run out of cash & credit, what's it to you?

To us, the collective "you" of this thread, KNSJ is interesting and worth following for a variety of reasons.

While the heading of "deathwatch" may be a tad extreme, it is not far-fetched.

KNSJ has any number of items for attention:

• It's strange that it was built, as it covers practically nothing with it's usable signal.
• Given the minuscule coverage, why was so much effort expended over a period of nearly a decade to snag the license and get on the air.
• Do the people running it understand how to reach and attract listeners? The block program model is confusing and seemingly impossible to sustain.
• Comparable philosophies have produced stations like KPFK, which today has essentially no listeners despite an immense "killer" signal. Why would the group behind KNSJ think that their dreadful facility might get even a handful of listeners.
• Just as we wonder how some of the conservative talk stations with nearly no ratings survive, we wonder how this station will subsist once nearly everyone realizes that you can't hear it nearly anywhere.

... and that's our "obsession" which is best described at curiosity about a broadcast conundrum.

 

[w9wi]

Re: KNSJ 89.1 FM Deathwatch

• 1.It's strange that it was built, as it covers practically nothing with it's usable signal.
• 2.Given the minuscule coverage, why was so much effort expended over a period of nearly a decade to snag the license and get on the air.
• 3.Do the people running it understand how to reach and attract listeners? The block program model is confusing and seemingly impossible to sustain.
• 4.Comparable philosophies have produced stations like KPFK, which today has essentially no listeners despite an immense "killer" signal. Why would the group behind KNSJ think that their dreadful facility might get even a handful of listeners.
• 5.Just as we wonder how some of the conservative talk stations with nearly no ratings survive, we wonder how this station will subsist once nearly everyone realizes that you can't hear it nearly anywhere.

numbers added to David's original

1: FM translator? Music rights fees?

Here in Nashville, we have a similar community station with nearly useless OTA coverage. It's a LPFM located in the hills about 15 miles west of downtown. Coverage is useful in the Bellevue neighborhood & pretty much nowhere else. It's located where it is because the technical restrictions placed on LPFMs wouldn't allow a more useful location. I'm sure the same is applicable to ASD: the rules simply didn't allow placing the transmitter in a better location.

They push their online presence. They also have a CP for a translator which will provide far more useful coverage. Whether such a translator would be possible in San Diego I have no idea.

My understanding of music rights issues is limited. I have a vague recollection of rights fees being significantly lower for an online simulcast of an OTA station, vs. a station whose only presence is online? There's some reason Pandora is acquiring an OTA station in South Dakota..

2: see #1.

3: WORT has thrived for 35 years in Madison, Wis. with a block format. Similar stations exist in places like Minneapolis and Champaign-Urbana and Vancouver. The format has outlasted most of the commercial stations in the Madison market Seriously, nobody listens to *everything* these stations run.

4:See #3. The point of KNSJ may be to make a viewpoint available, but you have to package that viewpoint in a way that will get listeners' attention & keep them interested. Don't beat people over the head with your message. Provide a large dose of interesting music to attract those who don't really care about the politics one way or the other.

5:The Nashville operation has survived for eight years with a very limited LPFM signal. It hasn't approached the success of a WORT, but it's still around & providing some interesting programming. See #1.

I took a quick spin past their website. It would be nice to see a program schedule but after all, the station is less than a day old.. It will take a lot of dedication to make this thing work. People will need to be willing to stick with it through the lean years - and it will take years to build it into something successful. People will need to understand that while they aren't trying to reach a *mainstream* audience, they are trying to reach *an* audience -- not just themselves.

It won't be easy to make KNSJ work, and it will be easy to make it fail. But operations like this *have* succeeded, and it's far too early to be holding a "deathwatch" for KNSJ.

 

[Big 121]

Stopped by the KNSJ gala last night. A good 130 people were there, some carried in potluck food items, dressed casually. Doors were locked from inside; cash accepted at the ticket table.Went around the side to the outside
nature seating area. A group of 5 men were sitting close together...
All quiet, no remote broadcast trailer.No KNSJ banners. No audio from KNSJ either. Of course it was just airing the same repeating "Bob Dylan" wanna-be's tracks endlessly anyway. 4 cars parked in the fire lane in front of the entrance.
Observed the vehicles in the parking lot...1 "leaf" EV; a Prius, and 60-70% of the others were pickup trucks or
SUV's.(Not what true earth-huggers should drive.)
With it's erratic(or lack of) programming,and technical issues, how can operating funds from any outside
'underwriter' or donor be expected? With KPBS firmly positioned as the local, high quality alternative to the radio establishment,the viability of KNSJ's future is suspect.

 

[barman]

.

 

[barman]

4 cars parked in the fire lane in front of the entrance.
Observed the vehicles in the parking lot...1 "leaf" EV; a Prius...

I was a passenger in a car yesterday on I-5 when I looked over to see a guy in a Prius (with an Obama/Biden sticker on the back) talking merrily away on his handheld cellphone. Apparently, the law doesn't apply to him, either.

 

[Big 121]

WBAI, NYC's "Social Justice" outlet.If you can't sell Social Justice in NYC,how can it be done from Descanso? sdwulfdog may just be right with his assessment of the much-lesser 89.1 ---

WBAI Lays Off Staff

August 9, 2013 at 5:10 pm By Lance Venta


Update 8/9: In an on-air program discussing the state of WBAI, Pacifica Interim Executive Director Summer Reese announced that most staff members including the entire news department will be laid off as of Monday, August 12 as the station does not have the funds to meet payroll.

Among other notes mentioned by Reese on the program:
WBAI has lost hundreds of thousands of dollars each year for the past decade.
The station has to choose between paying back payroll or transmitter rent next week.
The station’s emergency transmitter fund will be used to meet unpaid payrolls after using another station’s money last week.
The Pacifica National Office is broke from paying WBAI and other stations.
Station GM Berthold Reimers, and interim development director, Andrea Katz, will remain.
Andrew Phillips, former WBAI Program Director and recently Interim GM of Pacifica’s KPFA Berkeley, CA will assume oversight of WBAI’s programming.
The station owes Democracy Now $2 Million.
Reese is committed to not selling off station licenses to refund the organization as long as possible.
WPFW Washington also does not have the funds to meet payroll.
Pacifica National Board’s bylaws need to be restructured to allow network’s survival.
WBAI registers a 0.1 share of the New York audience.