Central Coast KVYB Gets Groovy With True Oldies Channel

[Joey1986]

Some here might recall when the now-defunct KVEN 1450 carried The True Oldies Channel from June 2008 until flipping to sports in February 2011, first from ESPN radio and later CBS Sports Radio. So this marks a return of True Oldies to the Oxnard/Ventura radio market after a 14-year absence. KVYB will still be the Ventura County station for Los Angeles Dodgers baseball.

KVYB Gets Groovy With True Oldies Channel

Cumulus Media brought "Scott Shannon's True Oldies Channel" programming to Oxnard/Ventura CA with the flip of CHR "106.3 The Vibe"

radioinsight.com

 

[K.M. Richards]

Interesting, since Cumulus owns Westwood One, which just pulled the plug on their own Good Time Oldies format this past Sunday.

It's almost as if they waited to do that before flipping KVYB.

 

[Mark Roberts]

Interesting, since Cumulus owns Westwood One, which just pulled the plug on their own Good Time Oldies format this past Sunday.

It's almost as if they waited to do that before flipping KVYB.

Even more interesting to me, at least, I was in Santa Barbara two weeks ago and took an aircheck of KVYB, including the tail end of a Dodgers broadcast and about a quarter hour of the CHR format. Little did I know….

 

[K.M. Richards]

There's another factor that I had not considered.

106.3 was a move-in to the Oxnard/Ventura market from Santa Barbara in 2013. (Some might remember it from its two runs as KMGQ Goleta, Magic 106 from 1982 to 1996 and from 2005 to 2010.) It went from Classic Rock to Classic Hits when it moved, and the CHR format only dates from 2019. In those nine years it went from Classic Hits to Cumulus' "Nash Icon" national format to classic hip-hop to CHR.

Cumulus has owned the station for only about 25 years; it was their first cluster on the West Coast. In that quarter-century, pre-Oak View COL, it was Country, then CHR (2000), Oldies not long afterwards after a battle with Clear Channel over the "Kiss" trademark, then smooth jazz (2005) and Classic Rock (2010).

This flip makes nine formats in 25 years (plus the pre-1998 soft rock format before Cumulus). I get the feeling they don't really know what to do with it.

 

[Gregg.]

This flip makes nine formats in 25 years (plus the pre-1998 soft rock format before Cumulus). I get the feeling they don't really know what to do with it.

KVYB is a Class A station, just below 1,000 watts on an 800 foot tower. I saw an article suggesting it makes sense for Cumulus to put 60s/70s oldies on the station and sell it in combination with one of the most powerful FM stations in the U.S., KRUZ 103.3, which has a Classic Hits format.

Scott Shannon's True Oldies Channel is a good listen. He voice tracks the morning show and has someone do PM drive. There are features like "The Top 5 on This Day in 19xx." I hear it in the NYC area on WINS-FM-HD3. It also streams on iHeartRadio.com

 

[Joey1986]

Some here might recall when the now-defunct KVEN 1450 carried The True Oldies Channel from June 2008 until flipping to sports in February 2011, first from ESPN radio and later CBS Sports Radio. So this marks a return of True Oldies to the Oxnard/Ventura radio market after a 14-year absence. KVYB will still be the Ventura County station for Los Angeles Dodgers baseball.

KVYB Gets Groovy With True Oldies Channel

Cumulus Media brought "Scott Shannon's True Oldies Channel" programming to Oxnard/Ventura CA with the flip of CHR "106.3 The Vibe"

radioinsight.com

I wish I’d thought of saying in my original post that oldies fans in Ventura County would be “Feelin’ Groovy.”

 

[TomásEstefan]

KVYB is a Class A station, just below 1,000 watts on an 800 foot tower. I saw an article suggesting it makes sense for Cumulus to put 60s/70s oldies on the station and sell it in combination with one of the most powerful FM stations in the U.S., KRUZ 103.3, which has a Classic Hits format.

Scott Shannon's True Oldies Channel is a good listen. He voice tracks the morning show and has someone do PM drive. There are features like "The Top 5 on This Day in 19xx." I hear it in the NYC area on WINS-FM-HD3. It also streams on iHeartRadio.com

With more than 100 kw at over 4000 ft right above the Blue Pacific will get you a little bit of coverage! As I reported on another thread along time ago, I was aboard a cruise ship listening to SB's 103.3 with a portable radio when we were more than halfway down the Baja California peninsula.

 

[K.M. Richards]

And 103.3 has had those calls since 1972 (well, sort of), after being KMUZ for the first eleven years of its existence. It was a Beautiful Music station initially and the call letters changed as part of William H. Buckley (no, not that William Buckley) selling the station to Carl Scheule, who kept it for 23 years ... and it stayed with the same format all that time. It wasn't until that 1995 sale that the station went more Adult Contemporary; that's a whopping 35 years in the BM format, making it one of the absolute last holdouts.

It was one of the first stations on the West Coast owned by Cumulus (they acquired it, along with eight other stations in Santa Barbara and Oxnard/Ventura in 1999) and they tried to use it in 2005 to compete against KCAQ/104.7 by moving the KRUZ calls and format to 97.5 and installing what they called a "Hispanic-targeted Rhythmic CHR" as KVYB "The Vibe". They even hired Q-104.7's morning team ... which lasted all of three years before they were let go and KVYB going in a more traditional CHR direction.

They flipped back to the KRUZ calls when they went Classic Hits in 2019. The Vibe moved to 106.3 at the same time, and lasted until this latest move.

It seems that even when Cumulus manages to do something right, they only sustain it for several years and then make major changes.

 

[SwapMeetLouie]

And 103.3 has had those calls since 1972 (well, sort of), after being KMUZ for the first eleven years of its existence. It was a Beautiful Music station initially and the call letters changed as part of William H. Buckley (no, not that William Buckley) selling the station to Carl Scheule, who kept it for 23 years ... and it stayed with the same format all that time. It wasn't until that 1995 sale that the station went more Adult Contemporary; that's a whopping 35 years in the BM format, making it one of the absolute last holdouts.

It was one of the first stations on the West Coast owned by Cumulus (they acquired it, along with eight other stations in Santa Barbara and Oxnard/Ventura in 1999) and they tried to use it in 2005 to compete against KCAQ/104.7 by moving the KRUZ calls and format to 97.5 and installing what they called a "Hispanic-targeted Rhythmic CHR" as KVYB "The Vibe". They even hired Q-104.7's morning team ... which lasted all of three years before they were let go and KVYB going in a more traditional CHR direction.

They flipped back to the KRUZ calls when they went Classic Hits in 2019. The Vibe moved to 106.3 at the same time, and lasted until this latest move.

It seems that even when Cumulus manages to do something right, they only sustain it for several years and then make major changes.

I worked in the San Luis Obispo-Santa Maria-Lompoc market in the 80's and 90's. During that time, we used to refer to 103.3 KRUZ as "The Sleeping Giant."

 

[K.M. Richards]

I worked in the San Luis Obispo-Santa Maria-Lompoc market in the 80's and 90's. During that time, we used to refer to 103.3 KRUZ as "The Sleeping Giant."

You might even have heard me on Y97 in 1988-89, then. You should have heard some of the nicknames we jad for KRUZ and Carl.

 

[TomásEstefan]

And 103.3 has had those calls since 1972 (well, sort of), after being KMUZ for the first eleven years of its existence. It was a Beautiful Music station initially and the call letters changed as part of William H. Buckley (no, not that William Buckley) selling the station to Carl Scheule, who kept it for 23 years ... and it stayed with the same format all that time. It wasn't until that 1995 sale that the station went more Adult Contemporary; that's a whopping 35 years in the BM format, making it one of the absolute last holdouts.

It was one of the first stations on the West Coast owned by Cumulus (they acquired it, along with eight other stations in Santa Barbara and Oxnard/Ventura in 1999) and they tried to use it in 2005 to compete against KCAQ/104.7 by moving the KRUZ calls and format to 97.5 and installing what they called a "Hispanic-targeted Rhythmic CHR" as KVYB "The Vibe". They even hired Q-104.7's morning team ... which lasted all of three years before they were let go and KVYB going in a more traditional CHR direction.

They flipped back to the KRUZ calls when they went Classic Hits in 2019. The Vibe moved to 106.3 at the same time, and lasted until this latest move.

It seems that even when Cumulus manages to do something right, they only sustain it for several years and then make major changes.

I think I remember a couple of their liners or positioning statements when they were still BM: "Bridging the gap between the Bay Area and Los Angeles, 103.3 KRUZ. and, "In all of California there is no station more powerful than KRUZ".

 

[K.M. Richards]

I think I remember a couple of their liners or positioning statements when they were still BM: "Bridging the gap between the Bay Area and Los Angeles, 103.3 KRUZ. and, "In all of California there is no station more powerful than KRUZ".

I don't specifically remember those, but they did have a lot of liners with similar phrasing.

What I remember most is their identifying as "being on a stereo cruise".

And KRUZ is not the highest-powered grandfathered station with over 100kW ERP. That distinction belongs to WLFP/99.7 Memphis (the former WMC-FM; it changed calls a couple of years ago) with a whopping 300kW horizontal and 100kW vertical ERP.

 

[radiofan2023]

And KRUZ is not the highest-powered grandfathered station with over 100kW ERP. That distinction belongs to WLFP/99.7 Memphis (the former WMC-FM; it changed calls a couple of years ago) with a whopping 300kW horizontal and 100kW vertical ERP.

Isn’t WBCT’s 320kW the highest powered grandfathered FM?

 

[K.M. Richards]

Whoops. I overlooked them on the list I consulted.

I wouldn't want the electric bill for either.

 

[radiofan2023]

Whoops. I overlooked them on the list I consulted.

I wouldn't want the electric bill for either.

I wonder how big the backup generator is/was….

 

[davideduardo]

I wonder how big the backup generator is/was….

Remember, most of those higher power stations are using high-gain antennas... 8, 10 and 12 bays. So they can run a 40kw or so transmitter (which for FM consumes a lot less than an AM transmitter of the same power) and the power bill is not huge relative to the kind of billings you can get in markets like Santa Barbara, Memphis, etc.

As to backup, there are several choices... 100kw of bigger, or using a smaller genny and the auxiliary transmitter if the power is out.

 

[radiofan2023]

Remember, most of those higher power stations are using high-gain antennas... 8, 10 and 12 bays. So they can run a 40kw or so transmitter (which for FM consumes a lot less than an AM transmitter of the same power) and the power bill is not huge relative to the kind of billings you can get in markets like Santa Barbara, Memphis, etc.

As to backup, there are several choices... 100kw of bigger, or using a smaller genny and the auxiliary transmitter if the power is out.

Thanks for explaining. Does it make any difference when they're on a TV station's antenna, the way WBCT is on WWMT's antenna?

 

[K.M. Richards]

Remember, most of those higher power stations are using high-gain antennas... 8, 10 and 12 bays. So they can run a 40kw or so transmitter (which for FM consumes a lot less than an AM transmitter of the same power) and the power bill is not huge relative to the kind of billings you can get in markets like Santa Barbara, Memphis, etc.

A 40kW transmitter on either band still creates a electric bill I wouldn't want to see.

 

[K.M. Richards]

I got curious after I posted my latest retort, so I pulled the history card for KRUZ.

Its CP was issued in 1958 on what would eventually become KTYD's frequency (99.9 mc) at a whopping 1kW ERP -- at ground level, no less -- and was amended a year later to 103.3 at 50kW on Broadcast Peak (which, BTW is officially named Santa Ynez Peak, if anyone cares). It would appear that even then, it was using a high-gain multi-bay antenna because the TPO was specified as 5kW. And it still almost didn't get on the air; the CP expired and was reissued one month before KMUZ signed on in July 1961.

The new CP authorized the 105kW ERP with 10kW TPO, and they upgraded to those facilities in November and went to a 12-bay antenna higher on the tower a year later.

It gets more creative after that: A CP was issued in 1968 for 38kW ERP/11kW TPO which also specified 105kW in a lobe created by a 2½ beam tilt of the antenna. They were licensed with those parameters in 1969 and subsequent renewals continued to reference the 105kW ERP.

Hey ... wake up! I know it's boring stuff.

 

[Mark Roberts]

Isn’t WBCT’s 320kW the highest powered grandfathered FM?

In 2013, Doug Smith put together a list of superpower FMs. It's now available only via the Internet Archive. The original URL was http://www.w9wi.com/articles/superfm.html - the site itself is now gone, and I don't know where Doug is these days. I saved the list, and here's an extract of the list showing stations with ERPs above 100 kw. (Note that there are multiple categories of superpower, but I don't want to complicate the discussion.)

The screenshot immediately below may be easier to read directly than the text copy-and-paste, but the screenshot isn't friendly to those who are visually impaired, so I've provided both. HAAT is in meters; ERP in watts. Fields were tab-delimited.

This information is from 2013, so some attributes such as call letters may have changed in the meantime.

Oddly, KRUZ is not in the list, though clearly it is currently licensed for 105 kw.

KRUZ is not even the highest-powered station in California; KIOI San Francisco has 125 kw. Even then, KIOI needs boosters in the Diablo Valley, where, it is said, FM signals go to die.



Call Letters Frequency City HAAT ERP Class maximum ERP Height-limited ERP 60dBu contour Amount 60dBu exceeds maximum
KPFK 90.7 CA Los Angeles 863 110,000 50,000 930 103.15 51.15
KQED-FM 88.5 CA San Francisco 387 110,000 50,000 7,000 79.77 27.77
WBCT 93.7 MI Grand Rapids 238 320,000 50,000 20,000 78.69 26.69
KIOI 101.3 CA San Francisco 354 125,000 50,000 8,600 78.64 26.64
WTSS 102.5 NY Buffalo 355 110,000 50,000 8,600 77.42 25.42
WNCI 97.9 OH Columbus 171 175,000 50,000 38,000 66.36 14.36
WDCX-FM 99.5 NY Buffalo 195 110,000 50,000 29,500 64.24 12.24
WOMC 104.3 MI Detroit 110 190,000 50,000 50,000 58.49 6.49
WSLQ 99.1 VA Roanoke 607 150,000 100,000 97,000 96.36 4.36
KZZO 100.5 CA Sacramento 100 115,000 50,000 50,000 52.12 0.12
WMC-FM 99.7 TN Memphis 277 290,000 100,000 100,000 81.24 -10.76
KGOR 99.9 NE Omaha 375 110,000 100,000 100,500 78.89 -13.11

WMC-FM had 300 kw originally; there was a slight downgrade due to some adjustment or another.

Edit: Another omission in the list, which I definitely should caught: KHKI Des Moines, currently with 105 kw and 143m HAAT - originally was KDMI with 115 kw. It was one of the few Des Moines stations that I could receive at my southern Iowa location near the Missouri border, but it wasn't of much interest: preaching programs. The state of FM in that part of the world was pretty dismal from a teenager's point of view in the early 1970s.