• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Pirate or licensed station?

They're on the air...the signal is at its best between Sacramento State University and the State Capitol---just under six miles. This was recorded at 59th and Folsom Blvd. Here's video:


They were running a mix show until 10:01, when they broke for the top of the hour, and went back to it after.
 
Last edited:
I guess I can't load the video without putting it someplace else and linking to it and I don't have time.

They're on the air...the signal is at its best between Arizona State University and the State Capitol---just under six miles.

They were running a mix show until 10:01, when they broke for the top of the hour---a 60-second promo for 106.9 KUEL, soliciting artists who'd like to have their own shows. That was followed by a legal ID ("KU-BU-FM, Sacramento. Your community radio station."), then back into music.
Between Arizona State University and the state capital, that's a lot more than 6 miles!! Lol
 
Anyway.....

Geography is the least interesting thing in all this.

The FCC doesn't appear to have a notice that anyone other than the Sacramento Community Cable Foundation is responsible for 96.5 (there's no record of a silent authorization), and it has granted a CP in the past month to the Sacramento Community Cable Foundation that the Sacramento Community Cable Foundation doesn't know anything about, but someone is broadcasting on that frequency, using the call letters KUBU, and Kevin Coble, who runs an internet station called KUBU965, says it isn't him.

Still want to talk about Tempe?
 
I know that if I had standing as a Sacramento-area resident/listener, I would file an official inquiry with the FCC.

But I'm not, so I won't waste my time.

(Hey, maybe they will file to move to Tempe?)
 
Really? Sacramento over Tempe? I beg to differ, but each their own.

Well, first, I don't live in Sacramento. I'm 25 miles east of Sacramento in Folsom. And I never lived in Tempe, just Mesa and Phoenix.

But---yeah. I don't miss $700 air conditioning bills eight months out of the year.

I'll take six weeks of hit-and-miss fog (right now it's bright sunshine at my house, but foggy in Sac proper) versus six weeks of temperatures of 110 or above and four months of 100 or above.

I'll take 90 minutes to Tahoe and two hours to San Francisco.

I can actually drive to Santa Monica in the same amount of time from my house here that it took me to drive from my house in Phoenix. Or in half that time, I can drive to Santa Cruz, and then saunter down Highway 1 through Monterey, Carmel, Big Sur, San Simeon...
 
Well, first, I don't live in Sacramento. I'm 25 miles east of Sacramento in Folsom. And I never lived in Tempe, just Mesa and Phoenix.

But---yeah. I don't miss $700 air conditioning bills eight months out of the year.

I'll take six weeks of hit-and-miss fog (right now it's bright sunshine at my house, but foggy in Sac proper) versus six weeks of temperatures of 110 or above and four months of 100 or above.

I'll take 90 minutes to Tahoe and two hours to San Francisco.

I can actually drive to Santa Monica in the same amount of time from my house here that it took me to drive from my house in Phoenix. Or in half that time, I can drive to Santa Cruz, and then saunter down Highway 1 through Monterey, Carmel, Big Sur, San Simeon...
Good points, except summer can be brutal at times in Sacramento, with temps over 100. Anyways, Folsom is a nice area...now back to Radio discussions already in progress.
 
Good points, except summer can be brutal at times in Sacramento, with temps over 100.

True, but:

Phoenix has an average of 111 days over 100 degrees per year. That's the average. The record is 145 days in 2020.

In 2024, it had 113 of them in a row (May 27-September 16). The old record was in 1993 (I was there) when it was 76 days in a row over 100.

Sacramento averages 23 days over 100 degrees per year. Its all-time record is 35 days, in 1988.

Days over 100 degrees in a row? The longest ever were 11 days (2006 and 2009). The average is TWO.

What saves us? The Sacramento Delta. The delta breeze cools the overnights, with nighttime lows in July and August averaging 60 degrees (the highest recorded was 67).


There really is no comparison.
 
After 27 years in that place, I can promise you it is warmer, has sunshine and no Tule fog.

It is still not a better place to be in the winter.

Or anytime.

Adding a more serious note, this is turning out to be the warmest winter in the Phoenix area since I moved here in 1972. There have only been two days thus far where the daytime highs have been below 60 degrees (F). More ominously, perhaps, the coldest temperature at night this season thus far has been 43 degrees. (Last year, the coldest overnight temperature during the winter months was 33 degrees and it reached that twice.)

The (possibly) good news is that the climate change (hoax, according to our president) is expected to raise average winter temperatures more than our average summer temperatures. That said, (and bringing this back on topic), I dread that we in the Valley of the Sun may see temperatures so hot this or next summer that all electricity will be lost during the middle of the day. While some of our radio and TV stations do have backup generators, one sometimes wonders if the power provided by those generators will be enough for these broadcasters to both run their air conditioning units full throttle while providing full power to their transmitters.
 
Adding a more serious note, this is turning out to be the warmest winter in the Phoenix area since I moved here in 1972. There have only been two days thus far where the daytime highs have been below 60 degrees (F). More ominously, perhaps, the coldest temperature at night this season thus far has been 43 degrees. (Last year, the coldest overnight temperature during the winter months was 33 degrees and it reached that twice.)

The (possibly) good news is that the climate change (hoax, according to our president) is expected to raise average winter temperatures more than our average summer temperatures. That said, (and bringing this back on topic), I dread that we in the Valley of the Sun may see temperatures so hot this or next summer that all electricity will be lost during the middle of the day. While some of our radio and TV stations do have backup generators, one sometimes wonders if the power provided by those generators will be enough for these broadcasters to both run their air conditioning units full throttle while providing full power to their transmitters.

Very serious. And it goes well beyond whether broadcasters have sufficient power. This story is just about last year---2025:

Essential pull-quote:

Heat-related deaths have soared in Maricopa county over the past decade, with 645 in 2023 compared to 61 in 2014. The county has become increasingly unlivable for many amid record-breaking heatwaves driven by the global climate crisis, unchecked urban sprawl and an affordable housing crisis – which combined with patchy mental health and substance misuse services has contributed to a growing unsheltered population.

Last year, heat deaths fell for the first time in a decade to 608, according to official figures, but the city and county have since come under fire for alleged undercounting. A recent investigation by the local TV station ABC15 identified multiple cases in which heat was discounted as a factor despite the person dying in extreme temperatures.


That's with the air conditioning working. What happens if the grid fails in summer? What if none of the 4.9 million people in the Phoenix metro have access to air conditioning for a day or more, beyond what generators can provide? That's a mass casualty event.
 
Okay, so here's what I know this morning:

A group called California Cares for Veterans is supposed to be the current licensee for KUBU-LP.

Access Sacramento says it did file for silent authorization with the FCC, and believes California Cares for Veterans has gotten necessary clearances to actually be on the air on 96.5 FM, though Access Sacramento also believes there's a call letter change that should have been filed for by CCFV.

Why none of this shows up on the FCC page for KUBU no one seems to know.

More as I learn it.
 
I found the FCC page we should have been looking at all along:


It that shows the Sacramento Community Cable Foundation did file for silent STA on 4/2/2025, citing an off-air date of 3/29/2025---within the 10-day legal requirement:


Next, on December 10, was a minor modification---that's the new tower location---granted on December 12:


And---submitted on the same day---another silent STA request---also granted on December 12, requesting the extension of the Silent STA until 9/25/2026:


That page includes a downloadable .PDF with the reason for the extension request. This is a copy-and-paste of that:

EXTENSION OF SILENT STA

EXTENSION OF SILENT STA IS BEING REQUESTED BECAUSE ONGOING TRANSITION

FROM CURRENT LICENSEE TO PROSPECTIVE NEW LICENSEE HAS TAKEN LONGER

THAN PREVIOUSLY ESTIMATED. HOWEVER, LICENSEE IS POISED TO ASSIGN THE

LPFM LICENSE, AND FOUND A NEW BROADCAST LOCATION. A REQUEST FOR MINOR

CHANGE CONSTRUCTION PERMIT IS BEING CONCURRENTLY SUBMITTED, AND

LICENSEE WILL PROMPTLY CONSTRUCT AFTER FCC CP GRANT, THEN FILE LICENSE

TO COVER, RESUME OPERATIONS WITHIN BY OR WITHIN JANUARY, AND THEN,

FINALLY, SUBMIT REQUEST FOR ASSIGNMENT OF AUTHORIZATION. THIS REQUEST

FOR EXTENSION OF SILENT STA IS BEING FILED LATE (THE REQUEST WAS DUE

AT END OF SEPTEMBER 2025) BECAUSE LICENSEE SAW IN FCC LMS THAT THE STA

EXPIRATION WAS 12/05/2025:

UPON CONTACTING OUR FCC PAPERWORK CONSULTANT TO FILE EXTENSION 12/03,

HE STATED THAT THAT DATE WAS INCORRECT, BUT FOR THE MOST PART IT COULD

HAVE NOT BEEN FILED IN OCTOBER OR NOVEMBER (FOR THE MOST PART) BECAUSE

THE US GOVERNMENT WAS SHUT DOWN. THE PAPERWORK CONSULTANTS WERE

BACKLOGGED WITH CATCH-UP FCC FILING IN THE LAST WEEK, SO IT IS BEING

FILED NOW.

THIS IS BEING FILED AS A NEW SILENT STA SINCE LMS DOES NOT PERMIT

EXTENSIONS CONCERNING DELAYED SILENT EXTENSIONS.

So:

  • Sacramento Community Cable Foundation is still the licensee for 96.5, but seems to think it can transfer the license to the new guys. I'm no LPFM expert, but don't the new guys have to file and be approved as licensees by the FCC?
  • California Cares for Veterans has not filed anything with the FCC in regards to the frequency.
  • As of two days ago, 96.5 is on the air, but Sacramento Community Cable Foundation expressed surprise at that news over the weekend.

It appears Kevin Coble has nothing to do with this at all, apart from running a Live365 station called KUBU965. I was copied in on an e-mail giving Kevin Access Sacramento's blessing to continue that website, provided he change the logo so it does not resemble the one Access Sacramento used.
 
Last edited:


Back
Top Bottom