Did this station just flip formats to "Classic Country"? Over the weekend, I was scanning the "dial" and found it. They are 24 hr network feed - no TOH news or local spots. Also, noticed their machine misfiring ID's over music.Station comes in strong in Longview until you get into the Spring Hill area.
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KXAL 100.3 Tatum, Tx
- Thread starter formerhouston
- Start date
It seems KXAL has made the change to Classic Country, since the Spanish format has moved to KDVE. They were simulcasting the Spanish format on both stations for a while. KXAL and KDVE are both Waller stations. The new format sounds to me like a Jones format. On a drive through Longview tonight, the audio was pretty decent. Coverage was good in my car wherever I went. In fact, it sounded a lot louder than you'd think it would be for a relatively low power station. Of course, loudness and power have nothing to do with each other in the land of FM. I did notice quite a few train wrecks when the local inserts were supposed to happen. There was quite a bit of dead air, and a few occasions where a liner played over one of the network spots. I guess there is more to do to get the local automation to like the satellite feed. So how many formats does that make for KXAL? I've lost count.
Woo-hoo. Another country station that no one will listen to.The problem with KXAL is that their signal is too marginal to cover Longview. They regularly get killed during the tropo seasons, Spring through Fall, which is pretty much every morning March through October. For instance, this morning, there were about 4 stations competing on 100.3. The 100kW blowtorches in DFW and Houston just kill poor little KXAL.If KXAL is ever going to be successful, Waller is going to have to try to up their power and/or move the tower closer to Longview to improve the signal.I liked the Memories format that 100.3 ran a few years ago, but all the technical issues with the station (poor signal, poor audio, lots of dead air) just killed any chance of success.
I believe the transmitter was down early this morning. I was picking up all of the garbled DFW and Houston stations even in Kilgore.There probably is a market for a well managed "Country Classics" station in Longview area. 104.1 out of Tyler has spotty coverage and simulcasting on KFRO-AM is not the answer.
You're right about the tropo problems. As the lowest power station in the area, I can certainly relate. There is nothing like geting obliterated for a few hours every morning. Unfortunately, I don't think there is much that can be done for KXAL. It is the "left over" from various moves to bring rim shot stations into the DFW market. I doubt that you could move it very far, if at all, and I'm pretty sure you're locked in power wise as well. They might be able to persuade the FCC to allow it to go directional, which could concentrate the signal, but I suspect that the direction it would need to be beamed at would have more cows than people. Chuck/KZQX
What stations would they have to protect? I am guessing 2nd adjacents 99.9 in Mineola and 100.7 in Overton. Neither station has a decent signal in Longview. I am not sure what their signal is like in Henderson, but maybe they should try to target that audience. Henderson is a decent size town with no "local" radio station. Is KWRD even on the air these days, and if they are, is there any local programming? KXAL actually is the remains of the old 100.1 KGRI (FM100), which was a very good Henderson station in the 70's and 80's, until it was ruined by attempting to make it a Longview rimshot. By the way Chuck, the 105.3 translator has a killer signal for a LPFM. I can easily receive it in north Longview.Chuck said:
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What stations would they have to protect? I am guessing 2nd adjacents 99.9 in Mineola and 100.7 in Overton. [/quote]Isn't there a 100.1 or close to it in Lufkin?[/quote] Is KWRD even on the air these days, and if they are, is there any local programming? KXAL actually is the remains of the old 100.1 KGRI (FM100), which was a very good Henderson station in the 70's and 80's, until it was ruined by attempting to make it a Longview rimshot. [/quote]Yes, KWRD is on the air these days and local is all it is.And wasn't 99.9 the old KGRI-FM? That one moved to Mt. Enterprise and eventually across the border into Louisiana (Zwolle?)[/quote]By the way Chuck, the 105.3 translator has a killer signal for a LPFM. I can easily receive it in north Longview.[/quote]Agreed. I've sat in Gladewater and listened to 105.3, which is killer for a translator. This translator, BTW, has about 2-3 times the power of the station it's translating.Speaking of the Kilgore translator, how will the sale of KTPB affect its housing?
Wow. The history of this station is so fuzzy, but if memory serves me correct, KGRI was originally in Henderson on 100.1, then moved to 99.9, them moved to Mt. Enterprise still on 99.9, then to Tatum on 100.3. The 99.9 station in Zwolle was an allocation that was moved from Mt. Enterprise sometime after 99.9/100.3 moved to Tatum. But, if you look at the FCC call sign history, both KXAL Tatum and KTEZ Zwolle trace their history back to KGRI. There were some weird allocation changes in 1997 and 1998. Call Sign Begin Date KXAL-FM 11/08/2001 KDVE 10/15/1997 KGRI-FM 03/31/1980 KGRIFM Call Sign Begin Date KTEZ 05/07/2002 KGRI 04/10/1998 So, it looks like what happened was that in 1997, KGRI-FM 99.9 Mt. Enterprise moved to Tatum and became KDVE 100.3. A "new" KGRI was allocated to Mt. Enterprise on 99.9, and that station moved to Zwolle in 2002. So KTEZ Zwolle, although originally called KGRI, was not a descendent of the original KGRI in Henderson.The only thing that I am sure of is that the original KGRI-FM Henderson definately was on 100.1, with sister AM KGRI on 1000. I also believe that KGRI-FM moved from 100.1 to 99.9 some years prior to the move from Henderson to Mt. Enterprise.Whew...C414B said:
I remember when KGRI FM in Henderson flipped to KDVE which then simulcast another station from Sherman. The new moniker was "the Lonesome Dove." I'd wager that didn't win many friends in Henderson, since KGRI-FM had been a great LOCAL station. It wasn’t slick or refined, but it was almost text book perfect for serving a small rural town. You could almost call it "primitive art."I think the call letter change came about when Hunt Broadcasting bought it. The Hunt's interest was in moving stations around to get rim shots into metro areas like Dallas. Thanks to the Communications Act of 1996, this was possible and quite legal. I wish I'd thought of it..... I'll bet they made a tidy sum in the process. A lot of people did. Anyway, somewhere along the line, it shifted frequencies and moved to Tatum as the City of License. The call letters were switched between KXAL in Pittsburgh and KDVE in Tatum. The station has certainly had a colorful past and a ton of formats. A few years ago it was running one of ABC's oldies formats. It wasn't too bad as I recall, although there was tons of dead air and lots of technical glitches. Some people liked it because there were very few commercials. A lot of those technical problems could have been fixed, but the Hunts were absentee owners. For a little while, it was running ESPN sports had had quite a following. When they flipped formats, I got lots of angry calls from their listeners. I guess their number wasn't in the phone book. Mine was. 
Actually, I thought the ESPN thing was working pretty well. If they'd gone to work doing local high school sports to supplement their network feed, and maybe a couple of local sports shows, I think it could have been quite successful. But that is a lot of work to do, and it takes some promotion as well.What the station needs is someone to fix its technical problems, then program and promote it locally. I can think of several formats that get loyal niche audiences that might work. Whoever does that needs to have some patience. I don't think any of its owners or LMA's have kept it the same format for more than about six months. That's not very long if there is no promotion other than word of mouth. As for our 105.3 signal, it is actually a translator, not a LPFM. (Same for 101.9). The 105.3 signal is licensed for 250 watts, and the antenna is at 58 meters (about 190 feet) above ground level. Under good conditions, it does quite well. The 101.9 signal is only 45 watts, but the tower is on top of a hill at nearly the highest point in Longview. You can see downtown Kilgore from the Longview tower, so line of site, even low power work fairly well. That is until a weird tropo morning, then all bets are off. Chuck/KZQX
Actually, I thought the ESPN thing was working pretty well. If they'd gone to work doing local high school sports to supplement their network feed, and maybe a couple of local sports shows, I think it could have been quite successful. But that is a lot of work to do, and it takes some promotion as well.What the station needs is someone to fix its technical problems, then program and promote it locally. I can think of several formats that get loyal niche audiences that might work. Whoever does that needs to have some patience. I don't think any of its owners or LMA's have kept it the same format for more than about six months. That's not very long if there is no promotion other than word of mouth. As for our 105.3 signal, it is actually a translator, not a LPFM. (Same for 101.9). The 105.3 signal is licensed for 250 watts, and the antenna is at 58 meters (about 190 feet) above ground level. Under good conditions, it does quite well. The 101.9 signal is only 45 watts, but the tower is on top of a hill at nearly the highest point in Longview. You can see downtown Kilgore from the Longview tower, so line of site, even low power work fairly well. That is until a weird tropo morning, then all bets are off. Chuck/KZQXC414 asked about how the KTPB sale will affect us. I had a meeting today with Bill Holda, President of Kilgore College. He's actually a very nice gentleman, who is very torn between his fiduciary responsibility, and his personal interest in fine arts and classical music. He asures me that the current studios and STL tower are not a part of the sale to EMF. Our tower lease is sound. In fact, we are going to try to take up some of the slack that the station sale will leave. You may hear KC football and basketball on KZQX next fall. There may be other opportunities. We're trying to think of positive ways we can work together.Some of these things may be quite a stretch for an all-volunteer operated LPFM station with an incredibly small budget. But you never know unless you try, and we intend to work hard to make lemonade out of the lemons.Chuck/KZQXwww.kzqx.com
More plug and play radio from Waller.. ??? When I worked for KWRD/KGRI in Henderson in 1994-5 they had reciently upgraded the power to 12K at 99.9. Looking back that 12K on the 300 ft tower in Henderson had a better signal in East Texas than it does now in Tatum. Splitting that signal in half to make it a rimshot ruined it.As for KWRD, is it still on low power? The modulation seems way down too. Sounds like its a one-person operation . I havent heard any other local jocks besides the guy trying to keep it on the air.As for Kilgore College, could the school get a LPFM licence if they wanted it?
100.3 ran the ABC Memories format in the late 90's-early 2000's. Memories 100. It was mostly soft rock from the 60's and 70's. Lots of Bread, Carpenters, Bee Gees, etc. Great music, few commercials, terrible signal and sound quality, and yes, lots of dead air. It obviously was completely automated and when it went down, sometime took days for someone to go to the studios and fix it. It shared a format with KMEO Flower Mound (Memories 96.7). IIRC, Memories 96.7 was live during the day, then switched to the Dallas-based ABC feed during the overnight.Chuck said:A few years ago it was running one of ABC's oldies formats. It wasn't too bad as I recall, although there was tons of dead air and lots of technical glitches. Some people liked it because there were very few commercials. A lot of those technical problems could have been fixed, but the Hunts were absentee owners. For a little while, it was running ESPN sports had had quite a following. When they flipped formats, I got lots of angry calls from their listeners. I guess their number wasn't in the phone book. Mine was.
>When I worked for KWRD/KGRI in Henderson in 1994-5 they had recently upgraded the power to >12K at 99.9. Looking back that 12K on the 300 ft tower in Henderson had a better signal in East >Texas than it does now in Tatum. Splitting that signal in half to make it a rim shot ruined it.You worked for KGRI when it was a really good local station. Although I lived in Dallas at the time, I had family in the Henderson - Kilgore area. When I’d drive by, I always listened to KGRI-FM to sort of keep in touch, even if I didn't have time to stop for a visit. Their signal was decent along IH-20 for a good 25-30 miles. Considering how far IH 20 is from Henderson, I think it was covering a lot better than the current KXAL transmitter is doing. I think KXAL is only about 2500 watts, although the tower is around 400 feet. >As for KWRD, is it still on low power? The modulation seems way down too. Sounds like its a one->person operation . I haven’t heard any other local jocks besides the guy trying to keep it on the >air.As far as I know, it is not running at full power. It is LMA'd with an agreement to purchase. The last I looked, the FCC database still has it licensed to Jerry Russell. Phillip, the guy running it is pretty much a one man show, although his wife and daughter help out. I wish him good luck with it, but I suspect it is going to be an up-hill battle. >As for Kilgore College, could the school get a LPFM license if they wanted it?That would certainly be a good thing if they could. They are keeping the existing KTPB studios, so it wouldn’t be a technical problem to get one on the air. The problem is, I don't think there are any frequencies open for KC to try to get an LPFM. In any case, they'd have to wait for an FCC filing window. That may never come. Supposedly the FCC is still going to have a 10 watt filing window, but that seems to be stalled out, at least until they figure out what to do with all the translator applications they have on hand. Some sources at the FCC have indicated that they have no intention of opening a new LPFM window at all. We'll see. In any case, I wouldn't hold my breath.They'd probably do better with Internet streaming. They are in the process of making the entire campus a Wi-Fi Hot Spot. Right now, I can travel all over the country with my lap top computer and listen to our station's audio stream via Wi-Fi, very frequently, for free. Even the Gregg County Airport has it. It doesn't take too much imagination to envision a small iPod like device that tunes wireless Internet radio stations. In fact, I think some exist, but I've never seen one in a store. It's just a matter of time though. Chuck/KZQX
I remember a few years ago when KOCC 88.9 in Oklahoma City sold to K-Love and became KYLV. Oklahoma Christian College decided KOCC would be better off as an internet/campus cable station. The streaming isn't going on anymore outside of sporting events. I believe the campus cable is still going on as they still have an active broadcasting program. However, those who enjoyed the old K-Rock 89, later PR-89, are pretty much out of luck.Chuck said:
KGRI/KWRD was the busiest station I have ever worked at (for Minimum Wage!). If you wanted small town full service radio we were it. The people in the town counted on us for local sport scores and weather info. Chipper Dean built a small studio in Kilgore and tried to get local advertisers in the late 90's to support KGRI but it was a losing proposition. It might have also been because of the long bitter rivalry between Kilgore & Henderson High Schools. Then he sold off KGRI, and then KWRD to Community Broadcasters Group.Chuck said:
It's gonna be tough but I think he's doing it right. >As for Kilgore College, could the school get a LPFM license if they wanted it?
I heard of a cellphone that will be able to hear streaming wi-fi webcasts, hopefully available in the near future.
Yes, I can remember listening to it on High Street in downtown Longview with little problem. I'm under the impression that KWRD went off the air last summer because some of the windings in a large transformer in the transmitter opened up. It seems the transformer was center tapped, so half of it still is functional, albeit at lower power. The new operators figured out how to jury rig it, using half the windings that did not open up. Most likely, that would result in 50% power, which explains a lot.I was listening today to their TSN Noon News and noted that the modulation must also be peaking about 50%. Maybe that's because of the kludged transformer. It certainly was not a loud as other stations.At least, it is on the air, which beats what it was doing for many months.Greg Branch said:
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I listened to it and yes, it's a Jones format. It seemed to be tightened up some when I was listening a few days ago.Chuck said:
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