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KRJY 1240 Off The Air Since Thursday.

I believe that the tower site that KRJY was using is still owned by Lincoln Dellar's family. Lincoln Dellar as you know, owned both KROY and KXOA at different times.

KSMH 1620 currently shares the tower and probably doesn't have any cash flow problems.

It's sad to see 1240 kicked off of the tower that was originally built for the station...for whatever reason.
 
ChiefOperator said:
Wow... I think that tower has been used for decades, including the early 1970's during the mighty KROY top 40 years. Many great memories of hiding under my covers as a youth with a radio listening to Wonder Rabbit and the rest. Sad...

If we're talking about the free-standing green tower at the old dump site, it was built in the late 70's. Late 77 or early 78. My memory may be fuzzy, but I was on-air at KROY when it was built and that would be one of those years. At the time it was the only radio tower that was painted green. ASI had to get special permission from the FCC. The Sacramento City Council wanted it to be green because the American River Parkway is considered an ecological zone.

Never in my life would I have expected 1240 to go dark. Pretty sad for what was once one of the finest medium market Top 40's in the nation.
 
I don't know what is the most least listened radio station in Sacramento? KRJY-1240 or KJAY-1430?
 
Yes, the tower at the old dump (now park) still belongs to 1240 and is shared with 1620. And, yes, it is still green... Where was the previous tower before the current tower?
 
Ah..KJAY. My first radio job. Ran all the religious tapes/programs. Even did a segment every morning, "Prayer Request Time" The same handful of adies would call in ask pretty much ask for the same prayers for the same people every day. Hehe, driving out to the boonies on Old River Rd to the radio ranch....a tiny trailer with the xmitter and console, and a mobile home attached.

Did get my foot in the door there tho....
 
ChiefOperator said:
Yes, the tower at the old dump (now park) still belongs to 1240 and is shared with 1620. And, yes, it is still green... Where was the previous tower before the current tower?

Same place, but not a free-stander. When the present tower went up the problem was re-doing the ground system due to methane gas. Before the current site KROY broadcast from land on KROY Way. It's near 11th Avenue & 65th street. The tower was still partially up until just a few years ago.
 
Madmansam said:
I don't know what is the most least listened radio station in Sacramento? KRJY-1240 or KJAY-1430?

Wow...just saw this post now after being absent from the R-I board awhile...
This explains why I could pull in KNRY 1240 in Monterey instead of KRJY while
heading to the coast from Napa Wednesday afternoon... :-[

To "answer" your question, Sam, it's difficult to say who is the "most-least" listened to
station out of the two now. KRJY probably had the advantage, being 24/7 with a
consistent format, whereas the KJAY daytime-brokered format probably didn't attract
much...

Not only was KROY 1240 a powerhouse in its day, but wasn't KJAY was part of the
KJOY (Stockton)/KJAX (Santa Rosa)/KJAY Joseph Gamble "Top-40" chain years ago?
I don't know how a daytimer like KJAY did in the ratings years ago, but it probably didn't
do well...

KJAY did get an authorization to go 20-some-odd watts at night years ago...yet still
signs off at sunset...
--jay
 
djj said:
Madmansam said:
I don't know what is the most least listened radio station in Sacramento? KRJY-1240 or KJAY-1430?

Wow...just saw this post now after being absent from the R-I board awhile...
This explains why I could pull in KNRY 1240 in Monterey instead of KRJY while
heading to the coast from Napa Wednesday afternoon... :-[

To "answer" your question, Sam, it's difficult to say who is the "most-least" listened to
station out of the two now. KRJY probably had the advantage, being 24/7 with a
consistent format, whereas the KJAY daytime-brokered format probably didn't attract
much...

Not only was KROY 1240 a powerhouse in its day, but wasn't KJAY was part of the
KJOY (Stockton)/KJAX (Santa Rosa)/KJAY Joseph Gamble "Top-40" chain years ago?
I don't know how a daytimer like KJAY did in the ratings years ago, but it probably didn't
do well...

KJAY did get an authorization to go 20-some-odd watts at night years ago...yet still
signs off at sunset...
--jay

KJAY actually did well in the ratings if you go back far enough. At least 50 years ago or more. But once Jack Powell bought it the studios kept moving and the ratings kept dropping. For a time he had a studio on the "K" Street Mall near Macy's. As I recall it was near the old Farrel's.
 
Yes, Gamble put the station on the air. Almost worked there myself. Problem was I was 2 weeks away from high school graduation and Jack Powell wanted me and a buddy from school to drop out and come to work for him. We said no, seemed pretty stupid to quit with 2 weeks to go. The station by that time was broadcasting out of the transmitter trailer on the South River Road. Smallest studio I had ever seen up to that point. The production room was in the barn and VERY antiquated. The offices were in an old farm house next door. I'll never forget that day. Dean Stevens who I would later work with at KROY was on the air. Dean was a tall guy and had to practically shoehorn himself into the tiny control room. Powell used to ID the station as "One of Sacramento's two great radio stations". The other was the police band. We thought it a bit weird.
 
May be wrong, but I believe KJAY did very well in the ratings during the morning/afternoon dayparts back in the seventies when it was competing with KROY and KNDE. I think the format was Motown??
 
Trying to remember, but I believe KJAY for a short time when it first went on the air was in direct competition with KROY and KXOA....top 40 ( I was a little kid at the time) I think they started out with studios at a hotel, and i saw a promo pic of all the jocks swimming in the hotel pool. It didn't last too long. I recall my frustration at getting their weak signal on my Transistor radio in comparison to KROY/KXOA
 
The Hotel was the Sacramento Inn, a few of the early jocks were Ron Reynolds, Rick Cimino, Mike Cleary, and Rich Dixon.

And found this article by Alex Cosper (who has done a great job of chronicling sacramento radio)

soul music arrived with KJAY (1430 AM), run by Rick Dumm and Jack Powell. Their venture into r&b in the mid-sixties coincided with the rise of the Motown sound. Previously they had been running an MOR format. But with the hot soul format, KJAY became one of the ratings leaders in town right behind KXOA and KROY. KJAY even led the other two hit stations in certain dayparts, but because KJAY went off the air at sundown, it didn't rank as high overall. In 1966 Peter B came on at 5pm and shut the transmitter off at sunset. He did the job for a year and then was hired at KROY for various shifts. By the seventies KJAY had drifted back to its MOR roots. By the end of the seventies it was a religious station.
 
djj said:
Madmansam said:
I don't know what is the most least listened radio station in Sacramento? KRJY-1240 or KJAY-1430?

Not only was KROY 1240 a powerhouse in its day, but wasn't KJAY was part of the
KJOY (Stockton)/KJAX (Santa Rosa)/KJAY Joseph Gamble "Top-40" chain years ago?
I
--jay
That is interesting. I also believe that Joseph Gamble also owned 1580 in Merced? What station in Santa Rosa was KJAX? Any info on Joseph Gamble as well as Joseph Gamble Stations, Inc? I know that Joseph's widow, Virginia operated KJOY-1280 with Ort Lofthus, who I think is married to their daughter, Sylvia? And then there is Joel Gamble, who succeeded Ort as GM and was instrumental in the Big Change of 1989 where both station's calls flip flopped frequencies (KJOY from 1280 to 99.3 and KJAX from 99.3 to 1280) and KJOY's AC format moved from 1280 to 99.3 while 1280 went Talk.
 
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