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KWDB Sold (Again.)

Bongwater

Bongwater

DrJerry said:
So I could get my own radio station for around the price of an Acura?
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Hell, I could have bought that station. But I'd rather have the Acura. At least it can run anytime, 24 hours......
 
Just wondering, don't know the answer but sure somebody does:

How many have tried to do something with Oak Harbor?

We looked at Oak Harbor a number of years ago and had done engineering on a frequency close to 910 but can't remember exactly. Wally Nelskog proposed to upgrade KIXI and we decided not to get in his way. Just think, I could have been selling an AM in Oak Harbor for $35,000!!!
 
IIRC, There WAS an application to move 1110 to 1520 about 20 years ago. There were LOTS of apps for that frequency at one time. None ever came through (except for Mr. Skotdal's.) and unless the Canadians want to offer up one of their vacant AM frequencies, KWDB is pretty much stuck on 1110.

I don't remember seeing anything about 910, but since CKMO will be vacating 900 kHz in 2013, I couldn't think of a better frequency for KWDB than 910

1110 has always been a scrappy little radio station. With audio processing by the walkie-talkie division of Fisher Price. It started as Hot AC KISD, then became MOR as KJTT (K-Jet) and completely went to hell in the '90s and nearly got deleted when they were saved at the last minute and became KWDB.....
 
I'm not too familiar with the Oak Harbor-Anacortes area these days, but has there been a significant increase in the South Asian-Punjabi population recently? If not I'm totally behooved as to why Satnam would be interested in this station as the signal is barely audible in the Vancouver area (not to mention that slop from CKWX 1130 destroys them on your average radio).

Satnam currenty has an application in front of the CRTC to boost the power of CIHS 93.5 Wetaskiwin from 5,120 watts to 50,000 watts which will essentially make it an Edmonton station. He plans to drop the Country & Christian programming and go all Ethnic.
 
Dan said:
I'm not too familiar with the Oak Harbor-Anacortes area these days, but has there been a significant increase in the South Asian-Punjabi population recently? If not I'm totally behooved as to why Satnam would be interested in this station as the signal is barely audible in the Vancouver area (not to mention that slop from CKWX 1130 destroys them on your average radio).
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While I haven't visited Victoria, BC, perhaps that market is their ultimate target? A signal aimed the right way from Anacortes could cover Victoria.
 
Never thought about that, but just checking out the 2006 census for Greater Victoria it shows that only slightly over 1% of the population is of Punjabi ethnicity (as opposed to about 10% in Greater Vancouver).

I wonder if this guys ulterior motive might be to move KWDB out of Oak Harbor and set up shop closer to the border on a different frequency and become another Punjabi blowtorch (a la: KRPI 1550 & KRVI 1600). Would that be possible under existing FCC regulations?
 
KWDB does put in a reasonable signal out towards Victoria, though nothing spectacular. But if that's the case, they got a pretty good deal for $35K. But to REALLY make it work, they will have to switch frequencies to go 24/7 and bump up power to at least 10,000 watts. And prepare to WAIT, as the speed of the FCC is geologic compared to the CRTC.

But as for Oak Harbor/Anacortes themselves, there's hasn't been any really significant jump in the South Asian population as far as I know.....

It is possible they could really vamp it up to a full blown border blaster to Vancouver. 1270 (the former CHWK frequency), is still open and is far enough from any other station to not be any problem. But that road is going to be long too....
 
Bongwater said:
It is possible they could really vamp it up to a full blown border blaster to Vancouver. 1270 (the former CHWK frequency), is still open and is far enough from any other station to not be any problem. But that road is going to be long too....
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If their goal is to cover Vancouver BC or even Victoria, aren't there many no-longer-used, but still-protected AM assignments in southern BC? Why mess with a US station (daytimer at that) that would rim-shot the community they want to serve when there are decent possibilities for full-time stations entirely within Canada? This would seem especially true when one of the owners is a Canadian citizen who owns stations elsewhere in Canada. Maybe the US$35,000 price just seemed too irresistible.
 
DanStrassberg said:
Maybe the US$35,000 price just seemed too irresistible.
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ask the most recent seller/owner if whatever price he paid, seemed too irresistible at the time.

say, wasnt this station for sale within the last few years for well over $100,000?
 
Last time KWDB sold was in July 2009 for $100,00.00. At one time Pat O'Day owned this station. I believe it was around the early 1990's.
 
DanStrassberg said:
Bongwater said:
It is possible they could really vamp it up to a full blown border blaster to Vancouver. 1270 (the former CHWK frequency), is still open and is far enough from any other station to not be any problem. But that road is going to be long too....
Click to expand...

If their goal is to cover Vancouver BC or even Victoria, aren't there many no-longer-used, but still-protected AM assignments in southern BC? Why mess with a US station (daytimer at that) that would rim-shot the community they want to serve when there are decent possibilities for full-time stations entirely within Canada? This would seem especially true when one of the owners is a Canadian citizen who owns stations elsewhere in Canada. Maybe the US$35,000 price just seemed too irresistible.
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That's an interesting question......
 
By the way, what's the news (a few postings back in this thread) about CKMO going dark on Am900 in 2013? Do they have an FM assignment waiting for them in Victoria? Seems the FM band is so packed now around here, that it would be hard to come up with something other than a low power option for them. Do you know what freq they'll be switching to? I can tell their AM transmitter set up is gradually deteriorating, since the signal falls off within a mile of the shore on the US side. Thought they were supposed to be 10kw, either nondirectional, or with a loose pattern that should work its way well beyond the saltwater boost on the "mainland." Still, even with their announcers that can't pronounce many of the "foreign" names of their world music format artists, it is refreshing to have CKMO as a noncommercial option on the AM band that's different from the other outlets on US side of the border.
 
Goldilocks94941 said:
By the way, what's the news (a few postings back in this thread) about CKMO going dark on Am900 in 2013? Do they have an FM assignment waiting for them in Victoria? Seems the FM band is so packed now around here, that it would be hard to come up with something other than a low power option for them. Do you know what freq they'll be switching to? I can tell their AM transmitter set up is gradually deteriorating, since the signal falls off within a mile of the shore on the US side. Thought they were supposed to be 10kw, either nondirectional, or with a loose pattern that should work its way well beyond the saltwater boost on the "mainland." Still, even with their announcers that can't pronounce many of the "foreign" names of their world music format artists, it is refreshing to have CKMO as a noncommercial option on the AM band that's different from the other outlets on US side of the border.
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CKMO isn't going FM. They're going online only.. They decided that AM was just too expensive and not enough people were listening to their AM signal to make it worth anything.

They had a deal with Rogers, which swapped CKMO's original 103.1 FM frequency (now CHTT "103.1 Jack FM") with their 900 kHz signal (then known as CJVI) in 2000. For the next 14 years, Rogers would maintain transmitter equipment, offer technical assistance, pay the power bill and cover some promotion costs as part of the frequency swap deal with Camosun College (which owns CKMO.) When that ends, CKMO was on it's own.

That's a big power bill for a small college radio station on a shoestring budget. They pretty much figured out they couldn't afford to keep a 10,000 watt AM station on the air on their own. (the original CKMO 103.1 FM was only 50 watts.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CKMO
 
Bongwater said:
KWDB, which currently runs conservative talk could be in for a format switch
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They very well could be on their way. The sale was approved just after New Year's. As of this week (based on Tim Kammer's mention on a Friday newscast), Radio Punjab has taken over the 12-2 spot on weekdays from "The Aforementioned Mr. Miller" or whatever ended up there after they dropped Robert Wuhl. Don't know the exact weekend plan as yet, but from doing a quick listen, they also have snapped up some time on Sunday.
 
FLIP!

As of last week, KWDB has gone 100% Punjabi/East Asian. No more Miller, Gibson, Lewis, MTP, CAR Show, Valentine, etc. The only thng left in English are the IDS and sign-on/sign-off announcements.

Website's even gone, but the internet stream isn't.
 
And as of today, they've flipped their call letters to KRPA.......
 
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