Mabank AM station sold

[jd]

It's not yet on the air, but KTXV 890 Mabank is being sold. JNE Investments of California (headed up by Jeffrey Eustis) is selling the the station to Bustos Media, another California company that owns a number of small stations out west, along with KREH 900 Pecan Grove (Houston). Selling price is $1 million, and one could safely assume that Bustos will air programming in Spanish.

I jumped the gun in a post back in February by saying the Mabank station was on the air; they apparently had fired up the 250-watt KKBM 890 signal from Frankston (about 30 miles SSW of Tyler) on the day I heard it, probably to keep the license. Eustis had received approval for the Mabank station on the condition that he would give up the Frankston license when testing begins at the new location. Of course that makes sense, since the two are on the same frequency and getting the Mabank application approved amounted to an upgrade instead of a brand new station.

I got a glimpse of the transmitter site a few days ago; it's a five-tower array along U.S. 175 between Mabank and Athens, in what could easily pass as a flood plain. When it finally gets on the air, KTXV will put out a signal that can be heard all the way from Dallas to Tyler. That's during the day, when they'll be running 20,000 watts. At night they'll drop to just 250 watts.

 

[KPLEXCOMPLEX]

So much for the Christian format that was suppose to rival KLTY. I guess they ran out of patience and money. Too bad they couldn't have gone country and give lame KCKL a run.

 

[easttxtv]

I've seen that array on 175...was wondering what station it belonged to. Forgot about the Mabank station...

 

[radioman921]

What will it cover, if it goes into the DFW area how much coverage will it get?

 

[jd]

What will it cover, if it goes into the DFW area how much coverage will it get?

The coverage map isn't on Radio-Locator.com yet, but I can tell you that KTXV's pattern obviously favors the west-northwest. They'll be delivering a daytime city-grade signal over basically the southern half of Dallas and northern Ellis County, along with most of Kaufman County. The secondary lobe, running east-southeast, will basically provide a comparable signal into eastern Henderson County, but not much further. There's little meaningful coverage toward the southwest, and even less to the northeast. It's a complicated, ragged looking pattern, tightly packed into a narrow gap between stations in Oklahoma City on 890, Hamilton and Atlanta TX on 900 and Conroe on 880. Here's the link to the coverage map, but it's pretty hard to read (scroll to page 87):
http://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/getattachment_exh.cgi?exhibit_id=398968

 

[C414B]

Not so fast here, pilgrims.

Just saw in the FCC Daily Digest where the application for voluntary transfer, showing the station as KKBM Frankston, from Eustis to Bustos has been dismissed. Is this just a technicality?

 

[jd]

Not so fast here, pilgrims.

Just saw in the FCC Daily Digest where the application for voluntary transfer, showing the station as KKBM Frankston, from Eustis to Bustos has been dismissed. Is this just a technicality?

Yes, it's a technicality, or you might say a moot point. Essentially it shapes up this way: the license for the Frankston station (originally KTXV), is being surrendered since it is being supplanted by the new Mabank station (which, incidentally held the KKBM calls for a short time). The sale of the Mabank station included the assets of the one in Frankston, which will cease to exist; consequently that part of the sale as a separate entity is nullified, at the request of JNE Investments. As a footnote, Eustis had previously planned a sale of the Frankston station to Bustos quite some time before the FCC had given final approval for the Mabank station (a speculative move, in my opinion), and that was also dismissed at his request.

 

[C414B]

Not so fast here, pilgrims.

Just saw in the FCC Daily Digest where the application for voluntary transfer, showing the station as KKBM Frankston, from Eustis to Bustos has been dismissed. Is this just a technicality?

Yes, it's a technicality, or you might say a moot point. Essentially it shapes up this way: the license for the Frankston station (originally KTXV), is being surrendered since it is being supplanted by the new Mabank station (which, incidentally held the KKBM calls for a short time). The sale of the Mabank station included the assets of the one in Frankston, which will cease to exist; consequently that part of the sale as a separate entity is nullified, at the request of JNE Investments. As a footnote, Eustis had previously planned a sale of the Frankston station to Bustos quite some time before the FCC had given final approval for the Mabank station (a speculative move, in my opinion), and that was also dismissed at his request.

Kinda had a feeling that was what was going on, but thought I'd ask anyway. Thanks for the info!

 

[philo_farnsworth]

Eustis and Bustos are partners, in this and several other stations. Any transfers are mere technicalities. It will begin proof of performance this week, beginning with Non-D at 5kw. Programming is expected to be just filler until Dallas studios are built, which should be several months from now. It is doubtful that it will have anything more than 5mv into Dallas, just another marginal rimshot.

 

[jd]

Eustis and Bustos are partners, in this and several other stations. Any transfers are mere technicalities. It will begin proof of performance this week, beginning with Non-D at 5kw. Programming is expected to be just filler until Dallas studios are built, which should be several months from now. It is doubtful that it will have anything more than 5mv into Dallas, just another marginal rimshot.

Testing is underway. I heard it earlier this week during the day, and I caught a fairly weak signal the other night. During the day it didn't sound like a 5kW signal; more like the 250 watt directional nighttime pattern.