Potential 97.5 Changes Coming

[davideduardo]

Plus, the most recent big K-Love deal involved Salem allowing K-Love to essentially buy its music stations on credit.

As I read the deal, there was a transitional "credit" but EMF / K-Love essentially paid cash for the stations.

 

[Kent]

As I read the deal, there was a transitional "credit" but EMF / K-Love essentially paid cash for the stations.

You may know more details than I do, but I saw that it was a promissory note due in mid 2027 with monthly payments starting in about six months.

That sounds like seller financing to me. Now that Salem no longer has financial concerns going forward, it can sustain that deal easily. K-Love is essentially a no risk borrower. Private equity firms, however, typically don’t like those kinds of deals unless they’re the buyer (or their hands are otherwise forced).

 

[Mediafrog+]

Again, what did improve 103.7, was EMF purchasing KOUL and simulcasting Air1 on it. That eliminated the biggest co-channel interference issue that the station had.

Having the same programming on two clashing co-channel FM stations will do nothing to mitigate interference issues. Competing signals of roughly the same strength will still result in hiss/hash/swishing/distortion of the audio on one or the other. This isn’t synchronized AM transmitters as employed in Europe.

I’m in NW Harris County, and the biggest issue with KFNC is the tropo interference from KWTX and KFTX, with the Waco station the more frequent culprit. The problem is worse in spring/summer/fall when tropo is much more common. With the current cold snap reception of KFNC had been very clean for me, around 70 miles from the transmitter.

Little known fact - Cumulus had aspirations of moving KQXY Beaumont to Devers and making it a Houston rimshot as well. I forget exactly where, but there was a blocking station that refused to downgrade or change frequency, so the KQXY move never happened.

Most likely the 94.1 in Brenham, which has long wanted to upgrade.

 

[Deleted member 108832]

Roy Henderson had the dream to move KLTR out of Brenham and into Katy, too. Upgrade or blocking mechanism? You decide.

 

[HTX]

It’s been awhile since I’ve been that way but every time I’ve checked the Brenham station it was a lot weaker than expected. Only really strong in that city. Signal is not there at all in fringe cities like College Station, Waller, & Giddings. Also the audio quality is quite low as well that makes it hard to listen to.

 

[Fieldtech1]

Actually GPS time synced signals on FM can sound OK. Mostly a few tiny blips here and there as the capture effect of the receiver goes signal to signal.

 

[2Speakers]

Having the same programming on two clashing co-channel FM stations will do nothing to mitigate interference issues. Competing signals of roughly the same strength will still result in hiss/hash/swishing/distortion of the audio on one or the other. This isn’t synchronized AM transmitters as employed in Europe.

Oh really? It won't do anything?

Surely you would agree that having George Strait blast in on top of your Christian pop is more annoying to the listener and detrimental to the listening experience than a little swishing or distortion, right? That's just common sense.

I used to drive a SUV that had a diversity receiver. There was a vertical antenna embedded into the rear quarter panel glass on one side, and a horizontally polarized one on the other side. I'd be driving one direction listening to 103.7, and as soon as I made a turn, the receiver would switch to the other antenna and I'd be listening to country on KOUL.

EMF's acquisition of and simulcast on 103.7 in Corpus has eliminated that problem.

 

[2Speakers]

Actually GPS time synced signals on FM can sound OK. Mostly a few tiny blips here and there as the capture effect of the receiver goes signal to signal.

You have to pick a spot where clean reception is most important and time align the signals for that spot. As you venture away from that spot, interference becomes a problem.

I'm not a fan in general of employing boosters over flat land, even if they're synchronized, because they do result in mutual interference away from the place that served as the time alignment target.

That said, we're talking about making lemonade from lemons here. 103.7 in Corpus isn't a booster. It's a full power station that used to interfere in a very destructive way, and now interferes in a minimally destructive way.

 

[Deleted member 108832]

Oh really? It won't do anything?

Surely you would agree that having George Strait blast in on top of your Christian pop is more annoying to the listener and detrimental to the listening experience than a little swishing or distortion, right? That's just common sense.

I used to drive a SUV that had a diversity receiver. There was a vertical antenna embedded into the rear quarter panel glass on one side, and a horizontally polarized one on the other side. I'd be driving one direction listening to 103.7, and as soon as I made a turn, the receiver would switch to the other antenna and I'd be listening to country on KOUL.

EMF's acquisition of and simulcast on 103.7 in Corpus has eliminated that problem.

Actually, if we're getting all technical, the original KOUL is now sitting in San Antonio as a puny Class A, with a mere 2.3kW. The new KXAI @ Odem is only 82kW @ under 1,000 feet. That big of a downgrade for "Corpus Christi's" 103.7 certainly helped to mitigate as much interference to KHJK as it was receiving from the old 100kW operation from Sinton. While the two signals may be airing the same content, there is still quite an annoyance, that most listeners won't tolerate, in the two signals battling during tropospheric conditions. The problem is compounded with the two separately broadcasting a digital signal.

 

[BamaTX]

It happens frequently enough in Houston, and 103.7 was obliterated routinely until EMF purchased the 103.7 frequency in Corpus to simulcast on.

Define the quantitative value of "frequently". And then count the number of times it has been severe enough to completely blanket a rimshot station. And then consider that it only affects the morning drive of that day.

But we digress;

Tropospheric ducting is a "rare inconvenience" for full market signals. It's a much larger problem for rimshots.

Not only is KFNC's coverage area worse than KHJK, but between 2005-2013, I experienced KWTX more often than I experienced the old KOUL (and believe me, it wasn't for lack of trying).

All in all, KFNC is a much worse facility than KHJK. It's not even close. There's a reason why KFNC has been a stereo-less station with some type of talk format for almost 20 years now.

 

[2Speakers]

Define the quantitative value of "frequently". And then count the number of times it has been severe enough to completely blanket a rimshot station. And then consider that it only affects the morning drive of that day.

Frequently enough that I once told the program director if he woke me up one more time at 5AM because he was hearing country music from Corpus on the frequency instead of ESPN, I was going to start waking him up at midnight.

Not only is KFNC's coverage area worse than KHJK, but between 2005-2013, I experienced KWTX more often than I experienced the old KOUL (and believe me, it wasn't for lack of trying).

All in all, KFNC is a much worse facility than KHJK. It's not even close. There's a reason why KFNC has been a stereo-less station with some type of talk format for almost 20 years now.

KFNC has been mono for close to 18 years because I personally turned the stereo pilot off in 2007, and apparently nobody has turned it back on. Fun fact about KHJK back then - it only had 3 dB of stereo separation for the same reason.

As for KWTX and KFTX, see above. I wasn't getting wake up calls from the PD everyday because pop from Waco was blasting in. That did happen occasionally, but it was rare. KFTX made appearances daily on the frequency in west Houston after the owners fixed their antenna burn-out and went back to full power.

But feel free to keep sharing opinions. I lived it, and I'm pretty sure you didn't.

I guarantee I know both of these facilities much better than anyone else contributing here, at least what they were and how they performed during the Cumulus era.

I was their chief engineer, and the person who physically handed the keys to the transmitter sites to the new owners. Driving away from each of those transmitter sites for the very last time felt great.

 

[HTX]

EMF's acquisition of and simulcast on 103.7 in Corpus has eliminated that problem.

But they’re not in sync. There’s at least a few seconds delay between them. Definitely would sound like something is wrong with the station if you’re driving and picking both up.

 

[BamaTX]

KFNC has been mono for close to 18 years because I personally turned the stereo pilot off in 2007, and apparently nobody has turned it back on.

It's been back on by accident a few times. But it keeps getting turned off for a reason. The facility needs all the help it can get.

But feel free to keep sharing opinions. I lived it, and I'm pretty sure you didn't.

You lived your anecdotal experiences just like other have lived theirs. It doesn't change a thing and it doesn't give you authority to have the last word. No one has any quantitative data to prove who is right or who is wrong.

But to say that KHJK is a worse facility than KFNC because of a handful of instances of severe tropospheric interference each year is silly. The fact of the matter is that your run of the mill tropospheric interference isn't really much of a concern for rimshots across most of the market. For a rimshot to be completely wiped across the entire market, you would need extremely severe flare-ups in the atmosphere (which are rare). Catching stations such as KBPA, KQXY, KSMG, KSAB, WACO, or KISS across our region over a translator is one thing. But a 100kw rimshot getting completely drowned out in the entire market is a different story. Yes, it happens. But not enough to make up for KFNC's awful tower location over KHJK.

I guarantee I know both of these facilities much better than anyone else contributing here, at least what they were and how they performed during the Cumulus era.

I would say the KFNC engineer who visits this board probably knows more about the KFNC site than any of us.

 

[BamaTX]

But they’re not in sync. There’s at least a few seconds delay between them. Definitely would sound like something is wrong with the station if you’re driving and picking both up.

I wouldn't know since I haven't had the chance to compare both stations. But I don't doubt your observations. I've heard EMF translators in other places be a few seconds behind each other.

 

[2Speakers]

You lived your anecdotal experiences just like other have lived theirs. It doesn't change a thing and it doesn't give you authority to have the last word. No one has any quantitative data to prove who is right or who is wrong.

You think my experience is purely anecdotal? A lot of time was spent driving around Houston mapping the signals of 97.5 and 103.7 back then.

And Cumulus decided to build an "aux" site for one of them to test as a potential new main - KHJK. That's not an anecdote, that is a fact. It existed. I'm surprised to see it's still licensed. Maybe EMF held onto it after all.

Now put on your thinking cap for a moment, and try to figure out why Cumulus made this effort to try to improve KHJK.

Would you like a clue? I've already written the answer in this thread. It's because KFNC was not the problem Cumulus was concerned about until KFTX fixed their antenna, but by then, the KHJK "aux site" was a failed experiment, so it wasn't repeated for KFNC.

Here's another clue. The HAAT that the aux site was built at is 462'. Now why do you suppose the consulting engineers Cumulus hired to look at the problem chose that height?

The situation was so desperate that Cumulus was prepared to give up 60 dBu in The Woodlands and Galveston to try to eek out a bit more stability on the west side of the metro.

Believe whatever you want. I honestly don't care. You clearly don't know the history, and you weren't privy to the discussions inside the company.

 

[MarkW]

When both stations were under Cumulus ownership, 97.5 had the better signal by far. Again, this was primarily because KFTX was operating at greatly reduced power due to technical issues for quite some time.

When 103.7 was being built, Cumulus management told the staff of then Rock 97.5 KIOL that the 103.7 signal would perform better than 97.5. It didn't. In fact, it was worse, which led to some rather tense discussions between the local staff and corporate engineering. (One of which apparently involved an air talent from the rock format screaming at then Cumulus engineering VP Gary Kline shortly after the rock format moved from 97.5 to 103.7.)

Cumulus attempted to address the 103.7 signal issue by building an aux site at Baytown. I don't remember exactly what it was licensed for, but it was something like 12kW at 600'. Cumulus wasn't really interested in a backup transmitter site for the station. It was built as a test, and if it had performed better than the main site in the Houston metro, it would have become the main transmitter site. It didn't, and EMF let the aux site go shortly after acquiring the station.

Again, what did improve 103.7, was EMF purchasing KOUL and simulcasting Air1 on it. That eliminated the biggest co-channel interference issue that the station had.



It means KFTX isn't for sale, so it can't be purchased for simulcast purposes the way KOUL was. Unlike KOUL in 2013 when EMF bought it, KFTX primarily exists as a very wealthy man's toy.

Whataburger was founded by the late Harmon Dobson. His son, former Whataburger CEO Thomas Dobson, is the president of Quality Broadcasting Corporation, which owns KFTX.

Did that clear things up for you?

I agree, based on my experience over several trips to the area. I've never, ever been able to pick up even a hint of 103.7 successfully indoors at any hotel at which I've stayed, whether we're talking downtown or near Bush IC Airport. Meanwhile, most times I was able to receive a less than stellar but somewhat usable signal from 97.5 with a bit of effort. (This was mostly when 97.5 was still owned by Cumulus, although this also held true for my one visit after Cumulus sold the station.)

Leave it to Lew & John Dickey to be stupid enough to believe 97.5 & 103.7 could be viable Houston market stations w/ for-profit music formats despite such lousy signals in the Houston metro.

 

[MarkW]

Oh really? It won't do anything?

Surely you would agree that having George Strait blast in on top of your Christian pop is more annoying to the listener and detrimental to the listening experience than a little swishing or distortion, right? That's just common sense.

I used to drive a SUV that had a diversity receiver. There was a vertical antenna embedded into the rear quarter panel glass on one side, and a horizontally polarized one on the other side. I'd be driving one direction listening to 103.7, and as soon as I made a turn, the receiver would switch to the other antenna and I'd be listening to country on KOUL.

EMF's acquisition of and simulcast on 103.7 in Corpus has eliminated that problem.

Many car antennas are omnidirectional, at least to a degree. Most are now mounted to the roof as opposed to the hood near the windshield, which had been a common practice for decades. Thanks to the laws of physics, signals from two different sites with different distances will reach the receiver at slightly different times. There is technology that will try to sync signals airing the same programming together over a certain geographic area, but that technology is hardly perfect, as either you or someone else noted earlier in this thread.

I do completely agree that KHJK's site for years & years did a lousy job of reaching the Houston metro when Cumulus owned the station. Each & every time, I had more luck receiving 97.5 indoors whether downtown or near Bush Airport. 103.7 always failed to break through the intermod noise.

 

[Kent]

Leave it to Lew & John Dickey to be stupid enough to believe 97.5 & 103.7 could be viable Houston market stations w/ for-profit music formats despite such lousy signals in the Houston metro.

They billed more as terribly rated Houston signals than one did as a highly-rated Beaumont station and the other did as a rural signal. Rimshots are typically moved into larger areas because that is universally true.

I do, however, agree with you that putting a talk-based format on at least one of them should’ve been a no-brainer from the start.

 

[BamaTX]

You think my experience is purely anecdotal? A lot of time was spent driving around Houston mapping the signals of 97.5 and 103.7 back then.e

So you were "mapping" during tropospheric flare ups? Why? It's a waste of resources to worry about something that can't be fixed and doesn't happen a very often.

But hey, if you have the quantitative data...then let's see it

And Cumulus decided to build an "aux" site for one of them to test as a potential new main - KHJK. That's not an anecdote, that is a fact. It existed. I'm surprised to see it's still licensed. Maybe EMF held onto it after all.

Irrelevant to the conversation.

But if you insist that using a booster as proof that the signal is awful, then I'd like to remind you about Gow's attempt at KFNC-1 (or the fact that they've added a translator to supplement their signal).

Now put on your thinking cap for a moment, and try to figure out why Cumulus made this effort to try to improve KHJK.

Maybe put yours on. Any other engineer would have told Cumulus that it was a waste of money.

But again, we digress...

KHJK puts a better overall signal into the ENTIRE Houston market than KFNC. That's not even debatable.

 

[2Speakers]

So you were "mapping" during tropospheric flare ups? Why? It's a waste of resources to worry about something that can't be fixed and doesn't happen a very often.

Did I say we were mapping during tropo? No.

But hey, if you have the quantitative data...then let's see it

I don't take homework assignments from anonymous people on chat boards.

Irrelevant to the conversation.

Everything you've said in response to me has been irrelevant. One of us has the facts and it's not you.

But if you insist that using a booster as proof that the signal is awful, then I'd like to remind you about Gow's attempt at KFNC-1 (or the fact that they've added a translator to supplement their signal).

More proof of why your responses are irrelevant. We're not talking about a booster. Cumulus did not build a booster. Try to get your facts straight. This was an aux. It's still licensed as an aux. It was not ever on the air at the same time as the main transmitter site.

Maybe put yours on. Any other engineer would have told Cumulus that it was a waste of money.

Sorry. My last name isn't Dickey. Some high-priced consulting engineer sold them the dream, and they wanted to give it a try. It was their company, and their call. Things generally didn't end well for people who told the Dickey brothers their ideas weren't great.

But again, we digress...

KHJK puts a better overall signal into the ENTIRE Houston market than KFNC. That's not even debatable.

No, you don't digress. You bloviate. You're speaking at length about things you have no direct knowledge of.

Why? I have no clue. There's no prize for king of the chat board.