NEW Pirate Station!!!

[rbrucecarter5]

South Waterview Drive area in Richardson, 95.9, even goes by the calls "KXVI", which is actually licensed to a small 94.3 religious station in East Texas. Plays oldies and soft rock - but one channel only.

No HD!

 

[newsmark]

Apparently this is a translator station. K240DS Garland, TX at 95.9 and 89.9 relays KKVI in Overland.

I found this website: http://www.kxvi.net/index.php.

 

[salemjedi54]

South Waterview Drive area in Richardson, 95.9, even goes by the calls "KXVI", which is actually licensed to a small 94.3 religious station in East Texas. Plays oldies and soft rock - but one channel only.

No HD!

Dude, what is your deal with HD...If there was an HD station that had classic hip hop hits mixed in with the 80's-90's New Jack stuff, I would invest in it.

 

[gospeldan]

Actually this station is ran from downtown Garland, Texas broadcasting from a tower near Lake Ray Hubbard. It relays all its programing by Internet feed to its transmitters in Overland, Texas and Garland, Texas. It is fully licensed by the FCC as low power stations. You might recall a few years back that it was considered a pirate at one time and was even investigated by radiochick at that time. Since then it has been Internet only awaiting a license from the FCC which was finally approved in the spring of this year. How do I know? I used to help with trying to get it on air. After I thought it would never make it, I opted to take a job with KKGM AM 1630 where I have been for the past year and a half. I have no plans to return to KXVI. I am happy where I am!

 

[arnoldevns]

Actually this station is ran from downtown Garland, Texas broadcasting from a tower near Lake Ray Hubbard. It relays all its programing by Internet feed to its transmitters in Overland, Texas and Garland, Texas. It is fully licensed by the FCC as low power stations. You might recall a few years back that it was considered a pirate at one time and was even investigated by radiochick at that time. Since then it has been Internet only awaiting a license from the FCC which was finally approved in the spring of this year. How do I know? I used to help with trying to get it on air. After I thought it would never make it, I opted to take a job with KKGM AM 1630 where I have been for the past year and a half. I have no plans to return to KXVI. I am happy where I am!

Let's be honest here: the station that was on the air a few years ago wasn't "considered a pirate".. it WAS a pirate. It was operating illegally in this area with no license of any kind. The fact that it was retransmitting something from a licensed facility in northeast Texas was meaningless.

This new station on 95.9 is a properly licensed facility. I have no problem with that. They could have saved themselves a lot of headaches if they had gone through the proper procedures to begin with. I am somewhat surprised the FCC didn't revoke their other licenses a few years back when they put the pirate on the air. I'm even more surprised they've given them this license considering their past illegal behavior. However, it's possible the people responsible for that activity then are not the ones operating the station now. So be it. They've done it right this time and I can at least applaud them for that.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

This new station on 95.9 is a properly licensed facility. I have no problem with that.

I sort of figured out that it was a translator. I had occassion to go to Garland last night and they have a pretty good signal. Usually, when a station has horrendous technical quality:

--- clipping
--- missing channel
--- overmodulated bass

you can pretty much assume it is a pirate. Also, with KXVI being a religious station, and the songs they played being decidedly SECULAR, it sounded like somebody appropriated the call letters. They call themselves "the bridge" and I guess are trying to use secular music to draw listeners in to a Christian station. The only problem was - some of the music is really over the line when they are belting out stuff about sex every other line in the lyrics. That was another reason why I thought it might be a pirate.

Isn't there some sort of minimum technical quality requirement for translators? With the clipping and over modulating - I can't believe they are meeting the mask for sideband emissions. It is almost like they took a Ramsey or an FM modulator and put it into a linear and called it a translator. Unprofessional and unpleasant to listen to!

 

[txchipk]

Actually this station is ran from downtown Garland, Texas broadcasting from a tower near Lake Ray Hubbard. It relays all its programing by Internet feed to its transmitters in Overland, Texas and Garland, Texas. It is fully licensed by the FCC as low power stations. You might recall a few years back that it was considered a pirate at one time and was even investigated by radiochick at that time. Since then it has been Internet only awaiting a license from the FCC which was finally approved in the spring of this year. How do I know? I used to help with trying to get it on air. After I thought it would never make it, I opted to take a job with KKGM AM 1630 where I have been for the past year and a half. I have no plans to return to KXVI. I am happy where I am!

Let's be honest here: the station that was on the air a few years ago wasn't "considered a pirate".. it WAS a pirate. It was operating illegally in this area with no license of any kind. The fact that it was retransmitting something from a licensed facility in northeast Texas was meaningless.

This new station on 95.9 is a properly licensed facility. I have no problem with that. They could have saved themselves a lot of headaches if they had gone through the proper procedures to begin with. I am somewhat surprised the FCC didn't revoke their other licenses a few years back when they put the pirate on the air. I'm even more surprised they've given them this license considering their past illegal behavior. However, it's possible the people responsible for that activity then are not the ones operating the station now. So be it. They've done it right this time and I can at least applaud them for that.

Is it really operating correctly now though? I thought translators couldn't originate programming. Their website lists it as "KXVI Radio 95.9" and says it broadcasts "community oriented programming for Garland." The jingle I heard on the air was "KXVI Garland/Dallas/Fort Worth" (Fort Worth?!). I don't believe I have heard any sort of legal ID for the KXVI-LP 94.3 Winfield, the station it supposedly is relaying.

Also, LPFMs were created supposedly for the purpose of non-profits to program locally to small communities. The owners couldn't be multi-station owners, etc. to foster local groups for starting these community stations and creating local programming. Is 94.3 Winfield really fufulling that by existing for the sole purpose of being an "originating" station for a Dallas-area translator that the programming running on it seems to be targetted to.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

Is it really operating correctly now though? I thought translators couldn't originate programming. Their website lists it as "KXVI Radio 95.9" and says it broadcasts "community oriented programming for Garland."

I forgot to mention that - they are full of stuff about Garland- as if their originating station didn't even exist. Talk about a stealth move-in ---

 

[Chuck]

Is it really operating correctly now though? I thought translators couldn't originate programming. Their website lists it as "KXVI Radio 95.9" and says it broadcasts "community oriented programming for Garland." The jingle I heard on the air was "KXVI Garland/Dallas/Fort Worth" (Fort Worth?!). I don't believe I have heard any sort of legal ID for the KXVI-LP 94.3 Winfield, the station it supposedly is relaying.

Also, LPFMs were created supposedly for the purpose of non-profits to program locally to small communities. The owners couldn't be multi-station owners, etc. to foster local groups for starting these community stations and creating local programming. Is 94.3 Winfield really fufulling that by existing for the sole purpose of being an "originating" station for a Dallas-area translator that the programming running on it seems to be targetted to.

Translators in the commercial band, are supposed to receive their signal off the air from the originating station. How far is Winfield from Garland? It looks like a long way on my map. The originating station is 68 watts at 36 meters HAAT. On a good day, that ought to go 10, maybe 15 miles, assuming there isn't a lot of co-channel interference.

 

[CW]

Is it really operating correctly now though? I thought translators couldn't originate programming. Their website lists it as "KXVI Radio 95.9" and says it broadcasts "community oriented programming for Garland." The jingle I heard on the air was "KXVI Garland/Dallas/Fort Worth" (Fort Worth?!). I don't believe I have heard any sort of legal ID for the KXVI-LP 94.3 Winfield, the station it supposedly is relaying.

Also, LPFMs were created supposedly for the purpose of non-profits to program locally to small communities. The owners couldn't be multi-station owners, etc. to foster local groups for starting these community stations and creating local programming. Is 94.3 Winfield really fufulling that by existing for the sole purpose of being an "originating" station for a Dallas-area translator that the programming running on it seems to be targetted to.

A translator can only inject 30secs per hour of "local" programming (a commercial, etc). Thats it, iirc from Part 73.........If its a translator, then it should be IDing as KXVI-LP Winfield audibly (though the translator can ID in other ways not heard by the normal listener....) Sounds like what we have is an illegal LPFM that is using the translator license...(but the big boys do that too; CC in Beaumont TX has a "translator" on 103.3 for their 104.5 in Orange.....yet MANY times 104.5 has been off the air and the 103.3 signal is still on (the 103.3 is at the studios!...need we say more?)

 

[arnoldevns]

Is it really operating correctly now though? I thought translators couldn't originate programming. Their website lists it as "KXVI Radio 95.9" and says it broadcasts "community oriented programming for Garland." The jingle I heard on the air was "KXVI Garland/Dallas/Fort Worth" (Fort Worth?!). I don't believe I have heard any sort of legal ID for the KXVI-LP 94.3 Winfield, the station it supposedly is relaying.

Also, LPFMs were created supposedly for the purpose of non-profits to program locally to small communities. The owners couldn't be multi-station owners, etc. to foster local groups for starting these community stations and creating local programming. Is 94.3 Winfield really fufulling that by existing for the sole purpose of being an "originating" station for a Dallas-area translator that the programming running on it seems to be targetted to.

Hey, I was just glad to see they actually bothered to get some kind of license for the thing from the FCC. I agree that this is probably not being operated properly as a translator. It really is more of an LPFM station in Garland. That said, the FCC is so lax about so many rules regarding city of license and program origination that it would probably be hard for them to lower the boom on these guys without going after a lot of others first.

 

[jd]

I agree that this is probably not being operated properly as a translator. It really is more of an LPFM station in Garland.

That's the whole point, and it's not surprising that the word "pirate" was used when this thread started. LPFM's can originate their own programming and although the station in Garland is a licensed facility it's certainly not an LPFM. It's an FM translator, and as CW mentioned translators can broadcast local announcements such as commercials on a very limited basis. But that's not what's going on here.

The application concerning their move-in to Garland listed the station to be relayed as KTXG 90.5 Greenville (an AFR station, owned by American Family Association of Tupelo MS). Of course, there's nothing preventing an owner from designating another "parent station." Originally the translator was to built over in Canton; it was and still is owned by Edgewater Broadcasting out of Twin Falls, Idaho. So what sort of relationship exists between "The Bridge" and Edgewater? The Garland translator seemingly doesn't relay programming directly from their supposed parent station, KXVI-LP in Winfield. That's required by law, unless a waiver is granted for them to find another way such as satellite delivery, and there's no public record of such a waiver. Over the air delivery of the programming, as txchipk mentioned, is virtually impossible because Winfield is about 90 miles from Garland.

Even if K240DS is a "licensed" station it's not operating legally as described on their license (as an FM translator) and their station ID's are patently illegal. The title of this thread refers to a "pirate" station; is a licensed station that bends the rules like this really that much different from an unlicensed pirate station operating outside the FM band at 87.9? As far as FCC stepping in and doing something about it, you just never know. It all depends on their priorities and probably whatever mood the field agents are in.

 

[eas_test]

Someone pointed this out to me a couple weeks ago and I've been doing some checking on the rules for translators vs LP stations. The originating station (KXVI) is running SIXTY SEVEN WATTS in the middle of east texas somewhere. The translator is NOT legal, as per FCC rules, the translator MUST RECEIVE THE STATION IT'S TRANSLATING OFF AIR. With the actual station only running 67 watts, theres no WAY anything in Garland can hear them. There's absolutely NO way those guys are legal. They've been busted before, and I'm working on a list of all the rules they're currently breaking. The translator IS licensed, for 250 watts, but they're NOT allowed to originate programming. What do you want to bet the studio is feeding the translator as well as the original station? I would also bet they don't have properly working EAS equipment... anyone ever heard a RWT or RMT on there? I'd like to see what happens if someone goes in and asks for their public file!
Oh and they're allegedly "non profit" (according to their website) however they have their advertising rates (for spots) listed on their site too. Shouldn't that be UNDERWRITING? Granted they're in the commercial part of the band, but they either ARE for profit or they're not. There are too many fishy things going on with this group.

 

[arnoldevns]

Is a station that's licensed by the FCC a pirate? No. That doesn't mean they're abiding by the rules, but I wouldn't call this a pirate. To me a pirate is a station that goes on the air without FCC permission from a clandestine location.

Again, I agree that this is probably not operating under the rules the FCC set forth for translators. But the FCC granted the license and who knows what sort of other filings or permission the FCC has given them. I think the agency is too lax on many of these rules. It's entirely possible the FCC does not care.

There's another complication here. They don't say they're a translator of KXVI. On the air they mention KKVI in Overland.
There is little chance they're actually picking that station up over the air in Garland either since it is only in the CP stage. (look here: http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/fmq?list=0&facid=173765 ) Once it gets on the air, they might be able to get it in Garland with a really good antenna.

Here's some more twisted logic for the debate: I don't think the advertising thing is an issue on a commercial frequency like 95.9. I believe a non-profit entity can run ads all day long on a commercial frequency. What you can't do is run ads on a non-comm. Since this is supposedly a repeater of a non-comm, that does create a problem. On the other hand, if they're not actually repeating a non-comm's programming they're probably not breaking that rule.. just the rule about repeaters. (oy vey!)

One other point: doesn't this station seem a little strong for only 250 watts on a 600 foot tower?

 

[Chuck]

One other point: doesn't this station seem a little strong for only 250 watts on a 600 foot tower?

I don't believe you can run 250 watts at 600 feet and be in compliance. In round numbers, the higher the center of radiation, the more power translators are allowed to run, up to a maximum of 250 watts at about 185 feet. When you go higher than that, the power level is supposed to go down.

I am very familiar with what 250 watts does at 185 feet. It is a pretty good signal for about 15 miles, and receivable for maybe 25 miles under the right circumstances. If you ran 250 watts at 600 feet, I suspect that aside for building penetration, it would be hard to differentiate from a full power station while driving around in your car.

As I read it, their original CP was for 250 watts, but they filed an engineering amendment. The FCC currently shows this station as being 115 watts at 121 meters (476 feet). That should still be a pretty darn good signal.

 

[CW]

Translators in this area of the US are allowed MAX 250watts at 100meters....IF they go higher than 100meters (330ft), they must reduce power to keep the service 1mV contour within the same predicted area...thus 115watts at 121m seems proper...but again, they are LICENSED as a translator...that means REtransmitting another signal AND only ONE local insertion per hour and if it IS a non-commercial entity operating it, they CANNOT run ADS on the translator though it is in the commercial band. Otherwise, they lose their non profit status, etc...this whole thing stinks to high heaven (pun intended)....I never trust religious groups on broadcast anyway...most of them bend the rules more than the commercial ops!

 

[busyradioguy]

OK I'm confused here... They must reduce power, the higher the stick goes? How does that account for the normal power loss due to the increase in the antenna height?

 

[CW]

OK I'm confused here... They must reduce power, the higher the stick goes? How does that account for the normal power loss due to the increase in the antenna height?

I should have been a little more clear but we are talking ERP (Effective Radiated Power), not TPO (transmitter power out).....The higher the antenna goes, the farther the circle of coverage goes....BUT they must restrict that coverage to the equivalent of 250watts ERP at 100meters......same thing for full power FMs...EX: Class Cs; if they go over 2000ft in height above average terrain (like on a MOUNTAIN), they must reduce ERP to where they cover no farther than 100KW at 2000ft would do at the same location. Hope that clears it up for you.

(Use a flashlight in a dark room pointed at the floor...the higher the light goes, the bigger the circle but to lower it with the light HIGHER, the lamp itself would be lowered in power until the same circle as required is reached; same principle......in most cases, the xmtr power would go down slightly but in some cases, it could go higher due to line loss....but thats if they are using cheap stuff like Radio Shack RG 8!! 3 1/8in rigid or Heliax doesnt loose THAT much

 

[busyradioguy]

Well I was looking at this from what I know about the Mesquite School's station. When they were on 88.3, I believe the ERP was 3.0 kW, on a stick about 180 feet in the air (approx guess). Their ERP is now 61.0 kW on a stick that's about 514 feet. I doubt they could get 61.0 kW from an xmtr putting out barely enough TPO to equal 3.0 kW ERP at 180 feet, especially if the TX had a TPO of say 2.5 kW max..

Maybe I am forgetting that their coverage area probably increased with the move to 88.5. That must be it.

 

[arnoldevns]

In just looking over the FCC website I found a couple of things.

1. The license for K240DS in Garland was indeed updated to show 115 watts. However, it also shows the station is a translator that is supposed to be picking up KKVI from Overland over the air.

2. KKVI in Overland got a construction permit in April. They filed for a "license to cover" on Friday. (June 13) I believe that means that this thing does not yet have a valid license. It's kind of hard to run a translator for a station that's not on the air.

What idiot at the FCC granted the license to the translator before the station it's supposed to translate was granted a license?