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KZEY The licensed station with no towers??

6

600kogo

Has anyone heard or seen from the infamous Jerry Russell?? I am still trying to figure out how a station has a valid license with no transmitter site, towers, public file, and NO EAS?? The station has been dark for 5 years, and the FCC was notified 2 years ago by complaints that it has been gone. So how is it that there is still a valid license?

I heard from someone that had talked to the FCC inspector that they were told to layoff when they pursued Russell. Someone high up politically stopped the license termination, and re-instated it.

If any other broadcaster tried this they would be shut down! Why does Russell get away with this? Anyone with answers??? Please?
 
"It ain't personal, it's just business."

The FCC has historically been slow when it comes to cracking down on illegal broadcasters. Just look at how long it took them to shut down KFCC, and I'm not even sure they have...
 
600kogo said:
I heard from someone that had talked to the FCC inspector that they were told to layoff when they pursued Russell. Someone high up politically stopped the license termination, and re-instated it.
Click to expand...

I'd really like to know more about this deal. Then again, I'd like to know why the nation's highest powered pirate station (KOFY 1060 Gilmer) continues to operate. Were they told to lay off that one too, since it's still owned by Jerry Russell?
 
I would like to know what congressman, senator, or FCC person he has dirt on that they can keep this non-sense going. I believe that i will write a letter to every congressman in Texas. This is an abomination to broadcasting! If this were Clear Channel even this would not be happening! And they have every politician in their pocket
 
jd said:
600kogo said:
I heard from someone that had talked to the FCC inspector that they were told to layoff when they pursued Russell. Someone high up politically stopped the license termination, and re-instated it.
Click to expand...

I'd really like to know more about this deal. Then again, I'd like to know why the nation's highest powered pirate station (KOFY 1060 Gilmer) continues to operate. Were they told to lay off that one too, since it's still owned by Jerry Russell?
Click to expand...

Is 1060 still on the air? They are no longer listed with the FCC database :eek:

I recall hearing then in San Antonio when they were conducting late night Equipment Tests back in 1972. They were testing with Gospel music
in preparation on going on the air with a Gospel music format.
 
gabigley1 said:
jd said:
600kogo said:
I heard from someone that had talked to the FCC inspector that they were told to layoff when they pursued Russell. Someone high up politically stopped the license termination, and re-instated it.
Click to expand...

I'd really like to know more about this deal. Then again, I'd like to know why the nation's highest powered pirate station (KOFY 1060 Gilmer) continues to operate. Were they told to lay off that one too, since it's still owned by Jerry Russell?
Click to expand...

1972? EGADS, that was 38 years ago!
Is 1060 still on the air? They are no longer listed with the FCC database :eek:

I recall hearing then in San Antonio when they were conducting late night Equipment Tests back in 1972. They were testing with Gospel music
in preparation on going on the air with a Gospel music format.
Click to expand...
 
Geez dude, you've had your Radio-Info account for one day and you've already asked about format changes in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Midland-Odessa, and now Tyler/Longview.

You writing a book or something?
 
gabigley1 said:
I recall hearing then in San Antonio when they were conducting late night Equipment Tests back in 1972. They were testing with Gospel music
in preparation on going on the air with a Gospel music format.
Click to expand...

That's back when 1060 was in Gilmer, they had the tower on a high hill about 5 miles west of the city. I worked there in 1989-90 and had to run back and forth from the studio to keep that old RCA 10K on the air. It liked to trip the circuit breakers when it got too hot during the summers.

I'm really amazed 1060's still on the air..
 
What would be the purpose in keeping the KZEY license? The station has no facilities and I doubt Russel plans on spending the money to get the station back on the air. Is he somehow using it as a tax write-off?

As Captain Woodrow F. Call would say, "That don't make no sense a-tall."

Or maybe, he has some diabolical plan to somehow "recycle" the KOFY facilities for KZEY? What we be involved with modifying the 1060 transmitter and antenna to operate on 690? Is it even economically feasible? Just a thought...
 
Greg Branch said:
Or maybe, he has some diabolical plan to somehow "recycle" the KOFY facilities for KZEY? What we be involved with modifying the 1060 transmitter and antenna to operate on 690? Is it even economically feasible? Just a thought...
Click to expand...

Doubtful, it would take some cash to convert the FM 2767 tower site for 690 which Russell doesn't have. With the tower pattern 690 had in Tyler (going SE) you'd have to add a phazor and another tower to null it out of Dallas. And with 92 watts at night the only people that could pick it up would be in Liberty City, maybe Kilgore.
 
Ok engineering wise it is imposible for 690 to broadcast from there. 1060 is a single tower and a 10kw BE transmitter. It is far too north to work there. At 1 tower the daytime power would be around 200 watts and maybe maybe 1 watt at night. Plus to move an AM is nearly impossible even for the infamous Jerry Russell. Plus he would have to replace the grounding system, towers, and probably the Phaser.

At Lake Park he had a nice 1kw Harris Gates 1, he had fairly new Harris ATU's, but the phasor was the original RCA and it was in TERRIBLE shape. To get any sort of power out of 690 now it would need at least 6 towers. For the towers alone for 2 towers for the AM 690 to be 1/8th wave radiators it would be at least $400,000.00 So imagine if someone really wanted power it would take a million to do anything with this station.

Russell owes so much money on all of his stations that the license is the only tangible assett so his creditors have to have something to show for this! I just dont understand with ALL of his stations dark (except KWRD) how is he paying them and why havent they repossessed them??

As most of you know the Lake Park drive site was lost to back taxes, and the Sherriff sold it for around 7K dollars.
 
600kogo said:
Ok engineering wise it is imposible for 690 to broadcast from there. 1060 is a single tower and a 10kw BE transmitter. It is far too north to work there.
Click to expand...

You're right that doing anything for KZEY from the KOFY site would be impossible without more towers, but more power would be out of the question too. There's just too much in the way of co- and adjacent channels to consider. It's worth noting the Dallas area station on 700 (KHSE Wylie) that came on the air a few years ago had to provide considerable protection to KZEY. It still does. Likewise the latest application for a change in facilities from New Orleans' WIST 690 had to show no overlap with the non-existent 690 in Tyler. So nothing in the way of spacing between stations has really changed in the recent past.

Getting KZEY back on the air (in Tyler) could be done, with just two towers and using their former power levels since the "protected" allocation area still exists. That's providing a site could be found near where the old towers stood, but I doubt that anyone would want to do it. The KZEY license will eventually expire, the call letters will be deleted, and Jerry Russell's whereabouts will remain unknown.
 
The license was deleted once already. The call letters changed to DKZEY for Deleted! and somehow he got it back! And hes not missing hes at a building in Tyler on loop 323 behind the Rio. Thats where hes running 1060 KOFY-Pirate radio. You know Ill bet that the station in New Orleans and Dallas would love to know that KZEY doesnt exist so that they could let out their patterns a bit, and with their high price lawyers they could actually do something about it.
 
600kogo said:
And hes not missing hes at a building in Tyler on loop 323 behind the Rio. Thats where hes running 1060 KOFY-Pirate radio.
Click to expand...

All right, I stand corrected with regard to the rogue. You're also right about the deletion of the call letters, which was passed off as more or less of a clerical error. Russell was successful in clearing that hurdle somehow, but due to the seizure of his transmitter site it just doesn't matter now.

As for other stations taking advantage of KZEY's absence on 690, the people at KHSE are aware of it (and I'm figuring WIST knows it also) but don't look for any changes. Neither station is likely to be interested in paying high-priced lawyers to seek changes that wouldn't benefit them that much.

WIST wasn't doing that well before Katrina and five years later they're still struggling, operating under an STA for some time now with 2.5kW max days and 1.25kW max nights non-directional since the transmitter site was almost totally destroyed. They've incurred a lot of expenses so far in their attempts to get back to (or near) full power and, all things considered, little would be gained by an adjustment of their pattern that would allow more radiation to the northwest. There are many other stations on 690, 680 and 700 that have a bearing on proposed coverage for WIST, and the silent KZEY was (and still is) just a minor part of the equation. It would also be a moot point now since WIST was recently granted a construction permit for 9.1kW day non-directional.

At KHSE they have other concerns besides an adjacent channel to the southeast of their site. They're already on the cusp of interference with co-channel KSEV Tomball/Houston.
 
billyg said:
Hook or crook Russell has found a way (via special temporary authority) to keep 1060 on the air.
Click to expand...
I'll take the latter of those two choices.

Yes, we've talked about it before. That request for an extension of the STA was "accepted for filing," not approved. At least that's what the FCC public records show, if we can believe that.
 
The commission sat on his paperwork for 5 YEARS before they finally approved his renewal?! To the outside observer, it looks as if (besides not paying his $150 filing fee), Jerry did his part, it was the FCC that was screwing everything up.

I do like the line where they found "no record of operational violations".

Hmmmm, the FCC must not get out to East Texas much.
 
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