Turned on my radio to look for good long-distance catches on the AM band Friday night and found KWYZ 1230 missing from the band; it's also missing today. Not sure when it went off the air, as I'm not a regular listener even though I live only a few miles from the tower near Everett. Anybody know if this is a permanent thing? I can't find any new notices in the station's online FCC file.
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KWYZ 1230 off air
- Thread starter Treehouse SWL
- Start date
I’m not sure if this information is current, but at one time they had a FM translator in service as well. If that facility is operational, than I would assume that most of the listeners wouldn’t notice or care. However, if the entire facility has gone dark, then it’s genuinely too bad. Many small AMs can disappear without a trace, but KYWZ was providing a service to Korean listeners in the north sound.
Still off the air as of today, and their listed FM translator on 102.1 is nowhere to be found from here in Lake Stevens. That said, I hadn't checked the FM translator in years. KSUH 1450, the sister station in the South Sound, seems to be on (I had to check the nearest SDR online radio to check, as that signal doesn't carry up to here), as is the online stream at the Radio Hankook website.
I volunteer with KSER up here and, given the relatively few media outlets based in Snohomish County in any language, I too am sad if KWYZ is off for good. I used to hear K-pop (before most people in the U.S. were listening to K-pop) from the station being played in a few businesses around this area.
so you dont think 20 years of korean format and serving an underserved audience is worthy of anything?
A: It’s an AM station with poor coverage.
B: Unless there is a very loyal Korean community or a rich sugar daddy willing to pump money into an outdated form of media, it’s not sustainable.
Streaming KPop music is more available to the target age group with much higher quality via streaming.
Well it obviously made some money 'cuse its hung around for 20 years.
Apparently not anymore. RIP
Oh, and 20 years ago is two decades. Things change.
20 years with a small am in the shadows of a major metro is a very good record.
And why are we counting them dead.. maybe a major transmitter part failed and theyve been unable to get a part due to a parts shortage?
Historical success means zero in the current radio business world.
And why are we counting them dead.. maybe a major transmitter part failed and theyve been unable to get a part due to a parts shortage?
I’m hopeful they’ve finally nailed the coffin shut on that station. Less clutter on the remaining AM band.
Keep an eye on the AM Query site at the Commission. If it remains silent for more than ten days, the station has to file for an STA.
They only have to notify the commission at 10 days, the askign for an STA comes at 30 days
Why are you so negative about everything? I've never seen a positive comment out of you anywhere on here.
What clutter? How can a single station on a graveyard channel like 1230 "clutter" the AM band? It's not like there is another 1230 station ten miles away that is being interfered with. The closest 1230 is in Chelan, across the mountains.
You're correct that historical success means nothing in the radio world -- but actually, it means nothing in any of the media world. You could ask former writers at the P-I and Times about that. Or workers at AskJeeves and Excite and similar internet media sites.
I agree, I'm extremely doubtful they'd be off the air for good. For reference, the Korean community in the Puget Sound area is about 50,000 - and is considered a fast-growing one at that. Like someone mentioned above, Radio Hankook provides a service to the Korean community in the area on AM transmitters KWYZ 1230 and KSUH 1450, and they have a pretty active Facebook page. There's a good chance if they were shutting off one of their transmitters for good, they would have announced it to their listeners. I occasionally monitor Korean outlets in Washington and haven't heard anything.
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Any MW or SW station creates a certain amount of band clutter. That includes to Canadian and adjacent channels too. A 500W or 1kW station, given the doubling of man made terrestrial noise, has become essentially useless as a relevant and listenable form of media for average consumers. Young people within the target of popular music, let alone K-POP, don't listen to crappy mono AM stations. There are so many more choices out there now.
You may remember that something similar with Spanish language stations in the U.S.; either AM stations did a time brokerage agreement, and sold the programming/advertising time to an entrepreneur, or the station was purchased on the cheap, and was a good first economical step to reaching a (at the time) lesser-served audience. As the Hispanic population grew, so did the need for a higher quality audio and wider reach, so FM stations came into play. Fast forward twenty years. Instead of jumping to FM, most Korean's have cell phones capable of live streaming. So far K-POP or Korean programming isn't saddled with the same royalty and streaming overhead as Western music, so having to tolerate an inferior form of media like a flea-power AM, which is probably more expensive than streaming anyway, doesn't make sense.
Nothing lasts forever. To your point; there are probably tech nerds who fondly remember the days of Compuserve, Alta Vista, Ask Jeeves, or AOL. The reality is; consumers have moved on. Nobody is going to claim that any of those old search engines or platforms are relevant in today's on-line community.
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Only contradicting what you claimed. If a hobbyist says something that isn't in the realm of reality, I'll point out reality of the situation. Sometimes unfortunately, reality bites.
I do the same thing, i nfact.. so i get you there, I guess..... but im not willing to count out KWYZ just yet or say its been a cesspool
I never called it a cesspool. Obsolete? You betcha.
I dunno, im not even willing to call it obsolete, yet..but only because theyve been on the air for so long, they mustve been serving some purpose and making some money. It wasnt my niche or your niche, but it worked/has worked for someone
Being on the air doesn't mean they showed a profit. A mid-band 1 kw AM in Everett didn't hit much of the Seattle metro in the good ol' days, let alone in today's high-noise environment. When will we get over this AM thing? It is obsolete. AM served us well back in the day, but we're not "back in the day" anymore. I'm with Kelly A on this one. And by the way, for those who think there's a killing to be made, I've got an AM available for you...
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