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KTRE Lufkin Sinks Slowly in the West

What can Raycom do with this station? They can take it dark, they can turn it into a 100% satellite of KLTV with no local content, or try what was done with channel 19 and turn the station into a full market signal by moving the transmitter closer to Tyler-Longview and going after one of the other station's affiliations. Would the present rules allow Raycom to own 2 full market VHF signals in the market?

Personally, I would love to see North Texas Public Broadcasting buy KTRE, move the station closer to Tyler, and bring a satellite of KERA into the market. Big pipe dream though.
 
KTRE can't move it's tower into the market because of KFWD on the same channel in Dallas. KFWD upped their power and in the process installed a directional antenna to protect KTRE's current coverage. So KTRE can't possibly move closer to Tyler.
 
Sorry about the Pay Wall - here's the story

I hoped I could avoid doing this, but I'm putting the entire Lufkin Daily News story in this posting. I hope the Radio-Info folks won't delete it.

As part of a restructuring move, KTRE’s 5 p.m. newscast will no longer be broadcast from Lufkin.

Starting Sept. 10, the 5 p.m. newscast will be broadcast from Tyler and will be lengthened from a 30-minute program to an hour-and-a-half, starting at 4 p.m., according to KLTV Vice President and General Manager Pat Stacey. The morning newscast, broadcast from Tyler via KLTV, will also be extended, starting at 4:30 a.m.

“We’re expanding our news product by an hour-and-a-half a day,” Stacey said. “The 6 and 10 will stay the same.”

Because of the changes, six positions at KTRE have been affected, according to Stacey.

“I won’t speak to who was affected, but there are open positions and the opportunity for some to be moved to different stations,” he said. “It is a difficult decision to end a position, but sometimes the economies you work in demand that. We’ve got some great people being affected by this and we want them to be solid in their career development from now on.”

Stacey said the restructuring is a way to stay alive in the changing face of news delivery.

“The way people consume news continues to change. The economies of our industry continue to change,” he said. “We do have standards we are gearing towards to make sure relevant news is presented to all communities impacted.”

For the future, Stacey said, Raycom plans to continue growing KTRE and KLTV’s Internet presence and mobile products.

“We’ve seen incredible growth recently on our digital product and our mobile product,” Stacey said. “With such an increased appetite for our digital products which include KTRE.com and our mobile product, we look forward to matching that appetite.”
 
fredcantu said:
KTRE can't move it's tower into the market because of KFWD on the same channel in Dallas. KFWD upped their power and in the process installed a directional antenna to protect KTRE's current coverage. So KTRE can't possibly move closer to Tyler.
Click to expand...

Since the idea is to extend coverage north to Tyler/Longview and not west toward DFW, KTRE could install a directional antenna of their own to protect KFWD. Or they could wait for KTVT to give up RF 11 and move back to that channel.

Is KFWD currently operating on the new antenna? Haven't noticed any change in their signal strength, but 6 dB may not be noticeable where I live.
 
JHBrandt said:
fredcantu said:
KTRE can't move it's tower into the market because of KFWD on the same channel in Dallas. KFWD upped their power and in the process installed a directional antenna to protect KTRE's current coverage. So KTRE can't possibly move closer to Tyler.
Click to expand...

Since the idea is to extend coverage north to Tyler/Longview and not west toward DFW, KTRE could install a directional antenna of their own to protect KFWD.
Click to expand...

If you look at a map, you'll see that Tyler is north-northwest while DFW is northwest. You can't really move KTRE closer to one without making it closer to the other.

Of course, even KYTX with their VERY directional antenna got a full 6% interference from KTXA when they moved back to channel 18 after the transition. This is far in excess of 0.5% and would not have been allowed under normal circumstances.

Or they could wait for KTVT to give up RF 11 and move back to that channel.
Click to expand...

The FCC has frozen all channels changes except stations moving off of channel 51.

- Trip
 
JHBrandt said:
Is KFWD currently operating on the new antenna? Haven't noticed any change in their signal strength, but 6 dB may not be noticeable where I live.
Click to expand...

The raw power here on the Sencore is exactly what it was in April and May when I last took measurements. As Trip can tell you, the last several weeks at work have been intense. I literally had to blow some dust of the device and refer to the manual since it's been so long since I used it.

It's my understanding that the power increase and antenna change weren't part of the STA that KFWD filed several months ago. The work on Cowboy Tower was or is simply to remove the old KPXD channel 68 analog antenna.

The last technical change involving KFWD was back in October 2011 when a new exciter was installed, improving its MER but, of course, the power was unchanged. Then, as now, KFWD remains 6.2-6.6 dB down from its next-door neighbor on channel 8, WFAA.
 
Aside from the technical issues with moving KTRE closer to Tyler, now that I think about it really what would Raycom gain from doing this? KLTV doesn't cover and will never cover Luf-Nac, so moving KTRE and chasing another affiliation would just cause the southern part of the market to lose their ABC affiliate. It seems that Raycom doesn't have a lot of options here except reduce KTRE's local programming so they become just a satellite of KLTV.
 
But they still have to keep enough Luf/Nac advertisers on KTRE. Will those advertisers be as willing to spend as much money on KTRE if its local presence is reduced so dramatically--particularly on the 6 & 10 newscasts?
 
tripinva said:
JHBrandt said:
Since the idea is to extend coverage north to Tyler/Longview and not west toward DFW, KTRE could install a directional antenna of their own to protect KFWD.
Click to expand...

If you look at a map, you'll see that Tyler is north-northwest while DFW is northwest. You can't really move KTRE closer to one without making it closer to the other.
Click to expand...

I did look at a map; specifically, this one. I also looked at the service contour map for KFWD's 55kW permit.

I'm thinking they could move the KTRE transmitter somewhere near the intersection of highways 21 and 69, and put a soft null in their pattern to protect KFWD's viewers. It actually helps to move NW because the difference between the directions to Tyler and Cedar Hill increases, so it becomes easier to shape a radiation pattern that reaches Tyler while still protecting KFWD. There are other locations that might work out too.

Now I haven't done a full-blown interference study, and I'm not saying it'd be easy or even worthwhile. I'm just saying it's not inherently implausible.
 
Bob E. Nelson said:
JHBrandt said:
Is KFWD currently operating on the new antenna? Haven't noticed any change in their signal strength, but 6 dB may not be noticeable where I live.
Click to expand...

The raw power here on the Sencore is exactly what it was in April and May when I last took measurements. As Trip can tell you, the last several weeks at work have been intense. I literally had to blow some dust of the device and refer to the manual since it's been so long since I used it.

It's my understanding that the power increase and antenna change weren't part of the STA that KFWD filed several months ago. The work on Cowboy Tower was or is simply to remove the old KPXD channel 68 analog antenna.

The last technical change involving KFWD was back in October 2011 when a new exciter was installed, improving its MER but, of course, the power was unchanged. Then, as now, KFWD remains 6.2-6.6 dB down from its next-door neighbor on channel 8, WFAA.
Click to expand...

Well I didn't think they had upped their power, but after what Trip said I wasn't sure. They did renew the CP for a power increase and antenna change on 4/5; the FCC approved it 4/16 but I didn't think they could've possibly gotten it done already.

It makes sense that they could've removed the old RF 68 antenna during the two non-consecutive days I saw them at low power. I suppose they'll file a new STA if/when they decide to follow through on the CP.
 
Does anybody know who was laid off? I have learned that News Director Tina Alexander and Anchor Man Lane Luckie were let go Monday. That amounts to chopping off the head of the News Department. Nobody to direct the news and nobody to anchor it on the air.

I'll go out on a limb and guess that a small staff of reporters will stay on to cover Lufkin/Nacogdoches stories and send them to KLTV for air.

The newspaper online story says six people were affected. Anybody know any more names?
 
While I hate to see anyone lose his/her job, getting rid of the news director -- if that really happened -- kinda makes sense. With them now just producing 2 shows on their own, and with a reduced staff, they can easily be managed from KLTV ... and it's a cut viewers won't notice.
 
Well, I can only say that a radio executive acquaintance told me that Alexander and Luckie were gone. Of course, he could have been repeating a rumor. We all know what happens to facts when they turn into rumors.
 
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