KZDC downgrading day signal

[Mediafrog+]

KZDC 1250 has applied to move its daytime transmit site to the current night diplex with KTSA. Day power will be 290 watts from the same directional array used at night. Night power remains at 920 watts.

This obviously marks the end of the current separate day site, which ran 25kw.

There had been speculation that the KZDC license would be turned in, but it would appear the station will be kept going a while longer.

Check the attachments to the application:

https://enterpriseefiling.fcc.gov/dataentry/views/public/amDraftCopy?displayType=html&appKey=25076f919dba1f16019ddb6b4607076c&id=25076f919dba1f16019ddb6b4607076c&goBack=N

 

[ted chittenden]

KZDC 1250 has applied to move its daytime transmit site to the current night diplex with KTSA. Day power will be 290 watts from the same directional array used at night. Night power remains at 920 watts.

This obviously marks the end of the current separate day site, which ran 25kw.

There had been speculation that the KZDC license would be turned in, but it would appear the station will be kept going a while longer.

Check the attachments to the application:

https://enterpriseefiling.fcc.gov/dataentry/views/public/amDraftCopy?displayType=html&appKey=25076f919dba1f16019ddb6b4607076c&id=25076f919dba1f16019ddb6b4607076c&goBack=N

While I can understand the advantage of dropping your daytime tower location so you are using the same location for both day and nighttime transmissions, why drop the power during daylight hours to less than half of the allowed nighttime power. It seems to me that you would lose some of your current and potential San Antonio market audience with such a drastic reduction.

 

[lanceventa]

While I can understand the advantage of dropping your daytime tower location so you are using the same location for both day and nighttime transmissions, why drop the power during daylight hours to less than half of the allowed nighttime power. It seems to me that you would lose some of your current and potential San Antonio market audience with such a drastic reduction.

The 1250 programming is also on 94.5. That's where the audience is listening... I too was told over a year ago the plan was to surrender the KZDC license when the daytime tower lease is up. They've instead for whatever reason decided to diplex it full time on the night site and that's the best they can do with the one tower non-directionally.

 

[fybush]

While I can understand the advantage of dropping your daytime tower location so you are using the same location for both day and nighttime transmissions, why drop the power during daylight hours to less than half of the allowed nighttime power. It seems to me that you would lose some of your current and potential San Antonio market audience with such a drastic reduction.

Probably because that's all the power they can get as a non-directional daytime operation from the KTSA site. I haven't looked to see what exactly 1250 has to protect, but if it's a choice between turning the AM off completely and leaving it on at minimal expense to support the translator, you do what you have to do these days.

 

[ted chittenden]

Probably because that's all the power they can get as a non-directional daytime operation from the KTSA site. I haven't looked to see what exactly 1250 has to protect, but if it's a choice between turning the AM off completely and leaving it on at minimal expense to support the translator, you do what you have to do these days.

And I didn't realize (gulp) that only one tower was used for the nighttime arrangement. Given that information:

1) There are no same frequency stations KZDC has to protect until you get to Seminole (going north/northwest); Paris (going northeast); or Port Arthur (going southeast), and all of those are pretty far away.
2) On the other hand, when one looks at adjacent frequencies, one finds stations at 1260 kHz licensed to Falfurrias, San Angelo, and Taylor (an Austin suburb). The Taylor station especially would really limit how much power one could legally use with a non-directional antenna on 1250 kHz.

Thanks for the heads up.

 

[Kent]

Probably because that's all the power they can get as a non-directional daytime operation from the KTSA site. I haven't looked to see what exactly 1250 has to protect, but if it's a choice between turning the AM off completely and leaving it on at minimal expense to support the translator, you do what you have to do these days.

From what I can tell looking at the application, it would seem to be using the same 4 towers in the daytime that it uses at night. You can probably figure out the FCC filings better than I can since you make those filings regularly, though. I also was under the impression that an AM had to cover the entire city of license during the daytime. That daytime signal doesn't do that, though the nighttime signal does, albeit barely.

1) There are no same frequency stations KZDC has to protect until you get to Seminole (going north/northwest); Paris (going northeast); or Port Arthur (going southeast), and all of those are pretty far away.

Unless there's some kind of issue with interference to KTSA, I can't figure this one out either. San Antonio's 1250 was, for decades, a 1,000 non-directional signal in the daytime. I suppose some station(s) could've upgraded around the changes to 1250's new daytime pattern, thus making the old non-directional signal no longer workable. I'm not sure who that would've been, but it doesn't look like it was KTAE, which has had the same daytime power and transmitter site for at least the last 30 years.

 

[kevtronics]

KZDC's nighttime site has five towers: three on one side of a road that cuts it in half, and two on the other side.

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Is the fifth tower unused, or is it used by another co-located station?

Also, if you click of "view towers" on FCCData, it shows four towers all on the North side of the road, which doesn't match Google's latest Street View images from November 2025.