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LaPowerFM KTWL
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You were getting the translator cause KTWL is still Texas Mix. I don’t know if you were able to get RDS but that will tell you what you’re picking up. You probably got it through tropos. It must be interesting getting the major radio stations from 4 big cities there.
I can confirm that KTWL is still Texas Mix. The station is getting overrun all over Conroe by K287BQ. Even in Montgomery, TX (which is about 14 miles from the KTWL transmitter), there is enough interference from the translator to make KTWL unlistenable.
I wonder where the sale stands at the moment?
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AnyHuman
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Wow that translator is crazy overpowered! 14 miles from KTWL's transmitter and you can't hear it because of KTWL's buyers? KTWL's an 8000 watt station? Makes me wonder just how much power the translator has...
To my knowledge the sale needs to be filed with the FCC again if they're gonna make it work, the extension of it expired, if it only lasts 3 months like I thought.
To my knowledge the sale needs to be filed with the FCC again if they're gonna make it work, the extension of it expired, if it only lasts 3 months like I thought.
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My
Many years ago, an Austin station had a slogan:
"If you can't get B93 where you live.... MOVE!"
KTWL has a good signal in Todd Mission, the city of license.
Many years ago, an Austin station had a slogan:
"If you can't get B93 where you live.... MOVE!"
Any station will have a good signal when you are in the shadow of its transmitter.
Please explain how a supposedly 99 watt signal 38 miles from Conroe is overpowering an 8kw signal 27 miles from Conroe.
Also please explain why KTWL is still Texas Mix despite numerous claims to the contrary.
You know where KTWL doesn't have a good signal? Inside it's own 60 dbu contour.
Has there ever been a slogan for breaking the laws of physics with 99 watts?
The current owner of KTWL is moving his programming and transmitter to a new frequency. It will be on the air soon. When it is, the sale will consulate and Texas Mix will no longer be associated with 105.3. In the meantime, you might as well refer to it as KTWL-LP, because that's literally how much power it's running. Until the transfer is finished, the current owner is not paying the power bill for a 25K signal.
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AnyHuman
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I thought KTWL was at full power. Maybe KTWL and the translator have swapped transmitters LOL.
That's great and all, but what does the power bill for K287BQ look like?
Remember, the Houston market has about $250 million in revenue. The top station did over 10% of that in 2019.Additional audience in Houston is probably worth the increased power bill. If it wasn't the case, the full-power stations wouldn't be running 100 kW
A 100 kw h&v FM station is going to feed about 40 kw into an antenna with "gain". The transmitter site with the transmitter, associated cooling and/or heating and lighting likely uses a rough 60 kw. At, let's say, $0.12 per kwh, that is less than $10 an hour, or just over $200 a day, or in the $6 thousand a month range.
There are 27 Houston stations billing over $100,000 a month. No FM bills less than about $200,000 a month. 15 of them bill at or over $10 million a year. They likely pay much more for insurance, their production manager, a low billing seller, their engineer, and, of course, management. And they pay way more for insurance, music licensing, rent, legal and accounting and many other things.
Unless you are running 100 kw on FM in a very small market, electricity is not a major expense.
A 250 watt translator with a 2 bay antenna and audio processing is going to use much less than one kilowatt hour of electricity an hour, so that would be perhaps $5 a day for the transmitter and audio processing and transmitter room lighting. The cooling of the transmitter room will likely cost more than the transmission itself.
"The average Houston commercial electricity rate is 10.41 ¢/kWh (6% lower than the national average). "
So, a transmitter that runs at about 75%-80% efficiency (the rest going for cooling, support circuitry, LEDs, etc) will use about $1 in juice every 8 hours, give or take.
The manager's cell phone bill will likely be higher than the electricity for a 250 watt transmitter.
(I'm not taking into account minor things like line loss, heating on the antenna if subject to freezing, tower lights, audio and monitoring gear, etc., etc.)
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It was a rhetorical question. K287BQ is outkicking its coverage.
Not always. If a station has a 10 or 12 bay antenna, and a reasonably tall tower, there will be very little signal for perhaps as much as a mile or two around the site. Really high antenna locations, such as those on mountain tops well above the city, will use beam tilt to avoid overshooting the market.
The first FM I owned and built was about 3000 feet directly above the market. We ended up using mechanical beam tilt, done with a pair of motorcycle chains on tower arms. We did empirical evaluation of the signal as we increased and decreased the tilt and it took months to get it right. We ended up using only vertical radiation, too. But, initially, we lost about 40% of the market until we went to only a 4 bay antenna and the tilt.
What power bill? When it comes to office buildings and rooftops, in most cases electricity is included. You lease a pad (short metal stick) for about $1200 a month to mount your antenna on. You have a space somewhere inside for your equipment box. The financial advantage to this type of set up is putting multiple transmitters in the box, and using a combiner to feed multiple transmitters into one antenna. Think about how economical it is for Centro to operate 94.1, 99.5, and 104.5. Oh, wait, 99.5 is supposed to be two translators -- K258DA North Houston and K258BZ Stafford. Yes, there is an app pending to move 99.5 Stafford (formerly owned by KSBJ) to 97.3, but six months later and it hasn't been granted. Hmmm... Anyway, why waste money on two additional sites when you can cover the same area with one transmitter? Oops...cat is outta the bag.
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Most building top sites I've been familiar with have separate utility charges, either based on an "expert analysis" of the installed gear or a separate meter (either the utility company or the building's own device).
In some cases, the building provides climate control as part of the lease, while the actual renter pays for the consumption for lighting, computers and other gear each tenant has.
But I've seen as many formulae as I have different sites and buildings.
And I'm sure the FMs on the Empire state building or on Hancock or Sears (whatever it is called now) would just love to pay $1200 a month. Every site, every station can be different.
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