KQUE seems to have dropped Little Saigon....

[purpledevil]

...and the only way I can describe the new format today is that it sounds like KODA from about 30 years ago. A lot of elevator music and easy listening type songs. I heard Hum Tum City this morning, but wasn't listening to see if Little Saigon ever hit the air at 11:00am. The music has been playing since at least 1:30 with no commercials, much like 1180 KGOL.

 

[willdav713]

...and the only way I can describe the new format today is that it sounds like KODA from about 30 years ago. A lot of elevator music and easy listening type songs. I heard Hum Tum City this morning, but wasn't listening to see if Little Saigon ever hit the air at 11:00am. The music has been playing since at least 1:30 with no commercials, much like 1180 KGOL.

According to Wikipedia it shows Liberman owns the station, but according to KQUE's website it is owned by Hum Tum City must have sold KQUE 1230 but to whom?Back to Liberman Maybe KQUE Popular Standards is making a comeback.

 

[jd]

According to Wikipedia it shows owns the station, but according to KQUE's website it is owned by Hum Tum City

This is kind of puzzling since there hasn't been any change in ownership. It still belongs to Liberman but where's Rehan and his programming?

 

[Mediafrog+]

This is kind of puzzling since there hasn't been any change in ownership. It still belongs to Liberman but where's Rehan and his programming?

He may have discovered that the "crystal clear" 1230 signal he initially boasted about is in reality, garbage, and the audience vanished. A 1kw graveyarder can't cover a huge metro area like Houston.

Surprised Liberman hasn't leased out KEYH. Good daytime signal, and the night signal over central Houston isn't half bad. Would hit the South Asian-American target demos, especially in the SW area of the market.

 

[bturner]

The fate of the programmers: Little Saigon Radio and Rehan's Hum Tum City is still out. I know both of these groups and think I know what happened but I won't disclose it here.

I suggest you check the broadcasting history of Rehan. This will give you the story. Rehan was in Dallas for years following his start at KYND in Houston. As for Little Saigon Radio, I can only guess. Maybe there would be some details in one of the Vietnamese Community publications such as Viet-Tide. I can tell you Little Saigon Radio was with 880 AM a few years prior to moving to 1520 AM over 6 years ago, then moved to 1230 AM. If my memory serves me, Rehan has also been on 880 AM, 1180 AM, 1110 AM and last at 1230 AM.

 

[Kent]

He may have discovered that the "crystal clear" 1230 signal he initially boasted about is in reality, garbage, and the audience vanished. A 1kw graveyarder can't cover a huge metro area like Houston.

I seem to remember that, even 20 years ago, KNUZ 1230 was trying to operate an experimental on-channel booster to better its coverage in Houston.

 

[ChuckTiller]

Ah yes, the great synchronization transmitter experiment which was in Cypress or Katy back in the early 1980s. I don't remember the exact location, but I do remember it was on the northwest side. The morning KNUZ signed on that transmitter at full blast, they discovered what a mess they had created. Two transmitters operating at full blast. (Well, full blast as far as 1KW is concerned) The two signals were beating the excrement out of each other. They decided to operate it with 52 watts daytime and 400 watts at night. They did this because of the signal problems to the west and southwest of Houston.

For years and years and years, I mean over 30 years, they didn't seem to understand why the signal was so bad to the southwest. When the station was sold to SFX, it was discovered that many years ago, the management leased out the southwest end of the property on Ennis street at the transmitter site to a company which dumped old batteries.

Oh yes, the hunger and greed for moola had cost them dearly as the acid leaked from the batteries and ATE the groundwave system to the detriment of the signal. IDIOTS!

Now AM-1230, is practically useless, unless you program something unique to within loop 610 where the signal penetrates. Thinking 4701 Caroline at Blodgett here; the only other option is "dial 3 and lower the carrier." (The control was on the left side of the board with a rotary dial, like a telephone, which you lowered and raised power from 250 watts to 1000 watts, or simply cut it off.)

 

[jd]

You're right, Chuck. This was a dismal failure and I don't know why they ever did it. Anybody, engineer or not, could have told them that 1000 watts downtown and 410 watts about 15 miles away would be a disaster, day or night. I know they were working on it in the mid-80's and the license to cover was granted in August, 1987. What I don't remember is when they finally gave up on it.

The location of the synchronous KNUZ tower is listed in archived records as 10549 West Little York Road, putting it between Hempstead Highway and the West Belt. It looks like the coordinates that were originally given were a little off, since the location would have been around a mile south of there. Not that it matters anymore, of course.

What's really sad is that Dave Morris might have been able to do something with the signal years before that, like applying for another close-by frequency. But he's the one who boasted that 1230 had "five-county coverage."

 

[aunti-terrestrial]

Good Lord, I am enjoying reading this thread.

 

[Mediafrog+]

The location of the synchronous KNUZ tower is listed in archived records as 10549 West Little York Road, putting it between Hempstead Highway and the West Belt.

That tower is still there--it is just to the east of the Sam Houston Tollway plaza near West Little York. It is amongst a number of trees; you can get a good look from the tollway service road. Short tower, seems less than 1/8 wavelength.

The synchronous signal was quite solid at my Cy-Fair location, about four miles away...of course, I was well outside the "clash zone" between the two transmitters. Operation was never consistent; would be on for a few weeks, then disappear, then return again...last heard it in the mid-90's.

The signal from the main 1230 transmitter has deteriorated badly over the last 20 years.

Now AM-1230, is practically useless, unless you program something unique to within loop 610 where the signal penetrates.

Which is what Liberman had been doing with the Hispanic targeted formats. The signal did quite well in Houston's heavily Hispanic east end. However it is as much a victim of the audience preference for FM, regardless of all the signal issues.

 

[radiobop]

Interestingly, back in late 80s, one of the then five stockholders of Texas Gulf Coast Broadcasters passed away and as CPA of the surviving heir I was engaged to perform a valuation of the company for estate tax purposes (at the time the company owned KNUZ/KQUE and KAYC/KAYD Beaumont). In the file of documents Dave Morris provided me was a valuation proposal to sell the 1230 frequency/transmitter with the studio facilities of 1320 KXYZ...they had seriously contemplated buying KXYZ, swapping frequencies and selling off the unwanted assets. I talked to Dave about it and the big stickler back then was that they didn't want to give up the tower site since KQUE's antenna was there and the lease of the tower to the 1230 buyer would overly-complicate the transaction. At the time KQUE was broadcasting somewhat more than the 100kw limit eventually set by the FCC and making any move on FM would cause them to lose that grandfathered power (though it was not circularly polarized which ultimately became the standard).

 

[jd]

That tower is still there--it is just to the east of the Sam Houston Tollway plaza near West Little York. It is amongst a number of trees; you can get a good look from the tollway service road. Short tower, seems less than 1/8 wavelength.

Thanks, Mediafrog+. I didn't know it was still up and hadn't really thought about it. From an aerial view (thank you, Google Maps) the tower and ATU appear to be visible near the south end of Fisher Road, like you said, basically east of the toll plaza. Next time I'm through there I'll check it out, since I'm curious about why they listed a West Little York address.

FCC records show that the tower really is short (about 154 feet, with no lighting required) and that works out to a 5/8 wavelength. Here's the kicker: the repeater wasn't assigned the usual "experimental" call letters, which would have been KN2XUZ, just KNUZ. So even after 1230's call letter change to KQUE the repeater still exists on paper as an adjunct of the primary station, and ostensibly is still licensed.

 

[LibertyNT]

If I were the owner of 1230 and that Booster was still licensed I would Zero Beat The Transmitters. Thus Gaining a good signal all over. And would mean zero Transmitter Beatings.

 

[Mediafrog+]

FCC records show that the tower really is short (about 154 feet, with no lighting required) and that works out to a 5/8 wavelength.

Checked the FCC records myself. The tower's electrical height is 67.5 degrees, which actually works out to 3/16th of the roughly 244 meter wavelength...just over 150 feet. Tower doesn't look even that tall when seen from the tollway service road.

If I were the owner of 1230 and that Booster was still licensed I would Zero Beat The Transmitters. Thus Gaining a good signal all over. And would mean zero Transmitter Beatings.

It's not an issue of zero beating the two transmitters, which appeared to be accomplished with the two transmitters on 1230. Instead it is the phase difference between two signals coming from two different locations...a value that will change depending on your receiver's location in relation to the two transmission towers. The signal problems happened in areas where the two transmitters came in at more or less equal strength, but were out of phase depending on the location. It's the same distortion you hear when you drive through a null area of an otherwise strong AM directional pattern.

 

[jd]

Checked the FCC records myself. The tower's electrical height is 67.5 degrees, which actually works out to 3/16th of the roughly 244 meter wavelength

You're right, I dropped a digit somewhere.

The signal problems happened in areas where the two transmitters came in at more or less equal strength, but were out of phase depending on the location.

That's a very good description of what happened. There are a couple of installations like this that actually work but it's a whole different scenario. In Massachusetts the classic WLLH 1400 Lawrence and Lowell synchro system works, even though the communities are only about 10 miles apart because ground conductivity is so horrible there. Each signal does well to make it out of town. And here in Texas KMVL 1220 Madisonville's synchronized repeater in Huntsville works as well, because there's enough distance the two towns. Granted, it sounds horrible in between but in each respective community there's no real problem.

The way I see it, synchronized repeaters can be useful if done right; fill-ins at night when the main station's pattern changes, for instance, or in two separate communities. But in a contiguous metropolitan area like Houston it was a bad idea, especially during the day.