KTRB R.I.P.

[Rusty Muck]

Not true. He's being paid.

By whom? The A's or Comerica?

 

[SFStatic]

I am not at liberty to say at this time.

 

[Madmansam]

I am curious, Did KMPH-840 go into receivership by Comerica Bank too or is it still owned by Pappas? Will KMPH be auctioned off too?

 

[Rusty Muck]

I am curious, Did KMPH-840 go into receivership by Comerica Bank too or is it still owned by Pappas? Will KMPH be auctioned off too?

That's a good question... of course Pappas eliminated virtually all of the overhead by shutting down the station.

 

[DaveBayArea]

I'm curious. Does anyone know of a NEW AM station - either a new signal or a format change on an existing signal - that has had significant ratings within, say, the last 5 years or so? AM radio still has listeners, but they gravitate to the heritage stations like KGO & KCBS. I can't think of a single exception to this. Can you?

Dave B.

 

[BossRadioDJ]

I am curious, Did KMPH-840 go into receivership by Comerica Bank too or is it still owned by Pappas? Will KMPH be auctioned off too?

That's a question that John Burger can probably best answer.

 

[JKBurger]

I am curious, Did KMPH-840 go into receivership by Comerica Bank too or is it still owned by Pappas? Will KMPH be auctioned off too?

That's a question that John Burger can probably best answer.

Actually, I can't. All the same players. On Friday we were all too stunned to worry about KMPH so no one asked.
John

 

[BossRadioDJ]

That's a question that John Burger can probably best answer.

Actually, I can't. All the same players. On Friday we were all too stunned to worry about KMPH so no one asked.
John

Actually, John, that probably is the best answer!

 

[Laurence Glavin]

I'm a visitor from Boston, and in our market, Clear Channel went to great expense to move a station on 1200 khz from a distant suburb to the doorstep of Boston and boost its output to 50,000 watts fulltime. The latest cume in the 6th month of operation: fewer than 80,000 listeners. If it drops any more, there'll be one listener per watt.

 

[LKellerIII]

I'm a visitor from Boston, and in our market, Clear Channel went to great expense to move a station on 1200 khz from a distant suburb to the doorstep of Boston and boost its output to 50,000 watts fulltime. The latest cume in the 6th month of operation: fewer than 80,000 listeners. If it drops any more, there'll be one listener per watt.

What? You mean Rush Radio 1200 is not popular? From what the media tells us, there are millions of angry tea-party types paying rapt attention to Limbaugh and Hannity, and getting ready to take back America. Maybe not so true in Boston.

 

[Madmansam]

That's a question that John Burger can probably best answer.

Actually, I can't. All the same players. On Friday we were all too stunned to worry about KMPH so no one asked.
John

Actually, John, that probably is the best answer!

I agree. That is the best answer. My guess is that Comerica must have KMPH too. How can someone, like Pappas, who has gone bankrupt and lost KTRB-860 as well as his TV stations still be able to hang onto KMPH? Question is, if KMPH is put up to auction, who would be interested in it? Probably a religious organization or ethnic group, I guess?

 

[Lopaka]

Interesting. This comes as a surprise to someone old enough to remember when just owning a station, let alone a 50kw one in a major market, was considered a license to print money. I did not know about the difficult logistics for the station, the need to truck in propane. Would it be correct that if the licensee had filed for lower evening power a less expensive operation, more commercially viable, could have existed? Apparently the licensee bit off more than he could chew, was it a case of what might be called vanity, or were there good engineering reasons for going for the 50kw nighttime signal? In any event, if I had anything to do with XEMO now, I would try to throw a big XERB style flamethrower signal into LA regardless of "KRLA". I am still having trouble accepting the notion that the AM band is mortal, its not impossible the band will just die off. Kind of sad.

 

[DanStrassberg]

Interesting. This comes as a surprise to someone old enough to remember when just owning a station, let alone a 50kw one in a major market, was considered a license to print money. I did not know about the difficult logistics for the station, the need to truck in propane. Would it be correct that if the licensee had filed for lower evening power a less expensive operation, more commercially viable, could have existed? Apparently the licensee bit off more than he could chew, was it a case of what might be called vanity, or were there good engineering reasons for going for the 50kw nighttime signal?

Vanity was definitely involved. But when the project started, Pappas was not even thinking of diplexing, although they were thinking of a dual-site operation from the git-go. Yes, it would be cheaper to have built KTRB as a day-night diplex from a single site. Currently, the 50-kW ND D operation is diplexed into one of KFAX's four towers. From what I've heard via the grapevine (I live on the east coast, so I can't listen for myself) KTRB's ND day signal from the KFAX site is outstanding, probably second only to KNBR among Bay Area AMs. But, 50 kW or no, the night signal from a four-tower array in the hills east of the Bay is, because of poor soil conductivity, a major disappointment. And that's the site that, because of zoning covenants, requires the propane to be trucked in every day.

The reason the night site was built in that unfortunate location was that KTRB has to protect stations to the north (KPAM) southeast (XEMO) and east (many, especially Class A CJBC). And if you've read about the battles to find AM sites in the Bay area, you know that the NIMBYs can tie up (and have tied up) even modest proposals in the courts for decades.

Unfortunately, KFAX's tower configuration is unsuited for nighttime use by a high-power station on 860. Therefore, the most promising idea would be to move KTRB to a day/night diplex with KKGN 960. (There is no technical reason for moving the day operation, but common sense dictates that it's better financially to pay rent on one site than on two.) From the KKGN site, KTRB could run 50 kW-D ND and maybe as much as 5 kW-N DA-N using all three of KKGN's towers. Problem #1 is that the lower-power night signal, even though it might cover as much population as the current 50-kW night signal, would not give the station the night power that major sports franchises look for when they sign up stations to carry their play-by-play. Thus, this approach would limit KTRB's revenue. OTOH, the reduction in operating costs (no more daily propane deliveries) might compensate for the loss in revenue.

 

[davideduardo]

In any event, if I had anything to do with XEMO now, I would try to throw a big XERB style flamethrower signal into LA regardless of "KRLA". I am still having trouble accepting the notion that the AM band is mortal, its not impossible the band will just die off. Kind of sad.

XERB never had a flame thrower signal over LA. At the time the Wolfman howeled at night, noise levels were so much lower that reception of lesser signals was very possible. But by the next decade, it got harder and harder to hear 1090 in LA except for extreme coastal areas and the less populated southern part of Orange County. 30 years later, 1090 is unlistenable unless you are a DXer. So despite a rapidly growing Hispanic population, the ratings for XEPRS continued to decline until they could no longer pay the lease to the owners.

XEMO, against 50 kw day on KRLA, has no chance... and night AM listening is so low that evenings don't matter.

The percent of AM listening among the under-50 is in the single digits... some markets below 5% even.

 

[davideduardo]

I'm a visitor from Boston, and in our market, Clear Channel went to great expense to move a station on 1200 khz from a distant suburb to the doorstep of Boston and boost its output to 50,000 watts fulltime. The latest cume in the 6th month of operation: fewer than 80,000 listeners. If it drops any more, there'll be one listener per watt.

Not all 50 kw stations were created equal. At 1200 vs the lower frequency competitors, it's much less able to cover the 7-county metro even daytime, and with the night directional it is even more challenged. But the real issue is that the competitors are good and established. Of course, all have the same issues of having a now predominantly 55+ audience.

 

[Rusty Muck]

I'm a visitor from Boston, and in our market, Clear Channel went to great expense to move a station on 1200 khz from a distant suburb to the doorstep of Boston and boost its output to 50,000 watts fulltime. The latest cume in the 6th month of operation: fewer than 80,000 listeners. If it drops any more, there'll be one listener per watt.

Not all 50 kw stations were created equal. At 1200 vs the lower frequency competitors, it's much less able to cover the 7-county metro even daytime, and with the night directional it is even more challenged. But the real issue is that the competitors are good and established. Of course, all have the same issues of having a now predominantly 55+ audience.

Clear Channel's problem with 1200/Boston is that said format is normally supposed to be on the FM dial, so as to go up against the established competitors on the AM band. CC, however, doesn't have a spare frequency to place "Rush Radio" on... so it wound up on 1200 instead. I betcha if that format was on the FM dial, that station would be in a totally different situation.

The lack of any young listeners to the AM dial pretty makes the overall fate of 860 - be it a new buyer - very shaky. You likely aren't going to be investing in a lot of live, local programming... if not much else. In the same vein, no young listener will want to tune in to hear ethnic programming, religious talk/teaching, or brokered/paid shows. It's just the way it is.

 

[Laurence Glavin]

I came across this amusing video today; just replace "film photograpy" with "AM Radio" and you'd have something rather similar:

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/09/17/commercial-touts-ben.html

 

[djj]

While listening to the A's/Rangers game last night (after buying a ticket at the A's box office for Sunday's game), KTRB 860 was off the air once again, this time for nearly ten minutes, starting at 7:15 pm.
I was beginning to wonder if gnu owner Comerica Bank forgot to pay the gas bill for the Sunol KTRB transmitter.
;D

This is at least the third time this situation happened during a KTRB transmitter/pattern change. Last time it occured, KTRB was off the air for several hours, and I had to DX 1380 in Sacramento to hear the A's game...
--jay