Potentially Bad News for a Kitsap Peninsula Noncom

[fordranger797]

I saw this on Northwest Broadcasters, and thought it was worth a read. It looks like the Peninsula School District (in Gig Harbor/Purdy) had commissioned an appraisal assessment for their student radio station, KGHP. We all know that the COVID pandemic has been challenging on broadcasters, so it doesn't come as any surprise that KGHP came up in district budget conversations. While I can't disagree with that assessment from a budget perspective, it would be sad to see this hyperlocal radio station leave the dial. The Kitsap Peninsula is ridiculously underserved by Seattle radio and TV, and there is certainly something to be said for the local connection that KGHP provides.

School District Explores Options for KGHP-FM - Key Peninsula News

Kris Hagel, executive director of digital learning for Peninsula School District, commissioned an appraisal and educational assessment in July of KGHP-FM to consider its options as a school district and a radio station owner.

keypennews.org

 

[Kelly A]

I saw this on Northwest Broadcasters, and thought it was worth a read. It looks like the Peninsula School District (in Gig Harbor/Purdy) had commissioned an appraisal assessment for their student radio station, KGHP. We all know that the COVID pandemic has been challenging on broadcasters, so it doesn't come as any surprise that KGHP came up in district budget conversations. While I can't disagree with that assessment from a budget perspective, it would be sad to see this hyperlocal radio station leave the dial. The Kitsap Peninsula is ridiculously underserved by Seattle radio and TV, and there is certainly something to be said for the local connection that KGHP provides.

School districts and colleges have been looking at non-comm radio stations during budget reviews for at least the past fifteen years. Since the demand for industry legacy radio talent as some sort of farm team has pretty well dried up, having to justify keeping radio stations around is a tough sell to the Board. Depending on the class of station and community it serves, EMF has been paying good money for some non-comm stations.

 

[valvashon]

I volunteered there from about 1990 to 1998. We did the best with what we had but that is a real turkey of a license with the transmitter location largely determined by the contour maps of KGRG and KUPS. The K207AZ translator at 89.3, first in downtown Gig Harbor and later moved to Fox Island, has been pissing people off for decades, wiping out fringe listenership of KAOS in the area. And their other translator has been on three different frequencies which can't help listenership.
When I was on I would occasionally get calls from West Seattle (!), Lakewood and the north end of Olympia but our signal wasn't all that listenable with our low power, low tower height and poor (at the time) audio processing. When the students were on it was a real amateur hour and not terribly listenable to the general public. Measures were taken later to rein in the daytime playlist and to try to make it a "local station you can have on in your shop or workplace" and that helped somewhat. The coverage of local football games was a plus, but generally this has not been a very popular station since it has signed on, struggling in large measure to find it's identity.
I'd be surprised if even EMF would be interested in this one. If you look at the main coverage map that I have included you can see that it mostly broadcasts to coniferous foilage. In addition, the main transmitter might still be the one in use at sign on and I think it was old then, and I'm sure the K207AZ transmitter is still the original one. Lousy coverage, ancient equipment, unless it's at a giveaway price...
Given the way it obliterates or interferes with other stations that people actually do want to listen to (KGRG, KUPS, KAOS) perhaps the best thing to do would be to turn in the KGHP and K207AZ licenses and see if the K289BZ translator on 105.7 (with really good coverage of Gig Harbor proper) could be converted to an LPFM and turned over to a Gig Harbor based LPFM non-profit if there is any interest.
Did I enjoy my time on the air at KGHP? Yes, but the uphill battle that it faced everyday was never out of mind.
Here's the coverage map of the main transmitter on 89.9:

 

[fordranger797]

I volunteered there from about 1990 to 1998. We did the best with what we had but that is a real turkey of a license with the transmitter location largely determined by the contour maps of KGRG and KUPS. The K207AZ translator at 89.3, first in downtown Gig Harbor and later moved to Fox Island, has been pissing people off for decades, wiping out fringe listenership of KAOS in the area. And their other translator has been on three different frequencies which can't help listenership.
When I was on I would occasionally get calls from West Seattle (!), Lakewood and the north end of Olympia but our signal wasn't all that listenable with our low power, low tower height and poor (at the time) audio processing. When the students were on it was a real amateur hour and not terribly listenable to the general public. Measures were taken later to rein in the daytime playlist and to try to make it a "local station you can have on in your shop or workplace" and that helped somewhat. The coverage of local football games was a plus, but generally this has not been a very popular station since it has signed on, struggling in large measure to find it's identity.
I'd be surprised if even EMF would be interested in this one. If you look at the main coverage map that I have included you can see that it mostly broadcasts to coniferous foilage. In addition, the main transmitter might still be the one in use at sign on and I think it was old then, and I'm sure the K207AZ transmitter is still the original one. Lousy coverage, ancient equipment, unless it's at a giveaway price...
Given the way it obliterates or interferes with other stations that people actually do want to listen to (KGRG, KUPS, KAOS) perhaps the best thing to do would be to turn in the KGHP and K207AZ licenses and see if the K289BZ translator on 105.7 (with really good coverage of Gig Harbor proper) could be converted to an LPFM and turned over to a Gig Harbor based LPFM non-profit if there is any interest.
Did I enjoy my time on the air at KGHP? Yes, but the uphill battle that it faced everyday was never out of mind.

Thank you for sharing your personal experience and perspective! Admittedly, it always drives me crazy when I see radio stations operating on multiple frequencies over the same general area. In the case of KGHP, I agree that it might not be the highest and best use of bandwidth to have multiple signals that don’t achieve great results. I also think that 105.7 is their best signal, as this seems to be the best listening option for the bulk of their listening audience. Their primary signal on 89.9 is located far out on the Key Peninsula, and doesn’t even reach Gig Harbor effectively. 89.3 provides better reception, but it doesn’t beat 105.7.
It would certainly be sad to see this station go, but it seems like it would be very hard to make a case for keeping this station going in a district budget meeting. I think that they would have to eliminate some of the redundancy and focus on one signal, promoting its benefits as a LPFM. Perhaps they could even convert it into a LPFM, and give members of the community more of taste of day to day operations (while still giving willing students a chance to test it out as well).

 

[valvashon]

Thank you for sharing your personal experience and perspective! Admittedly, it always drives me crazy when I see radio stations operating on multiple frequencies over the same general area. In the case of KGHP, I agree that it might not be the highest and best use of bandwidth to have multiple signals that don’t achieve great results. I also think that 105.7 is their best signal, as this seems to be the best listening option for the bulk of their listening audience. Their primary signal on 89.9 is located far out on the Key Peninsula, and doesn’t even reach Gig Harbor effectively. 89.3 provides better reception, but it doesn’t beat 105.7.
It would certainly be sad to see this station go, but it seems like it would be very hard to make a case for keeping this station going in a district budget meeting. I think that they would have to eliminate some of the redundancy and focus on one signal, promoting its benefits as a LPFM. Perhaps they could even convert it into a LPFM, and give members of the community more of taste of day to day operations (while still giving willing students a chance to test it out as well).

That was the original intent- have students on during the day and community volunteers on in the evening to keep the broadcast hours up and the license alive. The two groups didn't always mix well and the wildly diverse programming styles were also a potential listener turnoff.
We had some solid adult volunteers- our longtime reggae show and our longtime blues show come to mind (and my show, sort of) but we also had as many or more volunteers who didn't understand what it takes to be good on the radio or were just outright flakes- not showing up, stepping outside for a smoke, accidentally letting the door lock behind you and then just leaving (with the lock groove on your noisy 45 just enough to keep the silence detector from shutting down the transmitter), stealing records. There should have been better training and selection on the adult volunteers but the station was new with poor coverage and listenership so there wasn't exactly a queue of volunteers outside the door.

 

[TheBigA]

From the article in the OP: “Peninsula High School no longer offers classes in radio broadcasting due to a lack of student interest,” according to an email from Aimee Gordon, director of communications at PSD, sent to KP News.

When I hear this, it usually tells me that they're teaching old style radio broadcasting, rather than courses in audio that use traditional radio as a platform. There are ways to teach courses in digital audio editing and content presentation that can apply to any medium, broadcast or otherwise. That's what some colleges are doing. To be honest, it's a broader curriculum when you do it that way, and offers the students more options in how the information they create is used.

Schools and colleges need to look beyond their own older definitions of radio, and see it more as part of the bigger world of digital content presentation. The radio stations they own provide a better platform for that kind of created content than online radio stations. More and more, we're seeing that users don't listen to online radio stations for produced content, but unhosted music. So training students using online radio as your platform will not lead to a productive occupation.

 

[crainbebo]

If KGHP is in trouble, I wonder if KASB is also in trouble. The Bellevue High School station on 89.9 I'm sure has struggled since the shutdowns, and they barely got the students back in with hybrid classes before the end of the school year. Radio programs may have not been offered. When I lived there, they had a morning show with several students at the mic talking sports and everyday life, plus occasional student shifts throughout the day where they would play a variety of music - mostly rhythmic and hip-hop.
Meanwhile, KCWU here in Ellensburg seems to be faring OK, as they are still on the air and doing support messages, but I rarely hear a live voice on the microphone anymore. That may change in the fall. It does help that they lean top 40/rhythmic, as KFFM is noisy here.
EMF is already saturated with Air 1 (KWAO) and K-LOVE (KNBQ, KLSW) anyways. This is a situation in which they will not buy it. If anything, turning in the licenses may be the only plan they have if they can't get the budget or funds into that station.

 

[bobdavcav]

I agree, EMF won't buy this thing. Perhaps though the 247 Ministries group that currently owns 104.9. This would be a nice suplament to that signal.

 

[fordranger797]

I agree, EMF won't buy this thing. Perhaps though the 247 Ministries group that currently owns 104.9. This would be a nice suplament to that signal.

104.9 doesn’t have a terrible signal around the kitsap peninsula. Unless they could get it for virtually nothing, then I don’t think 24/7 Ministries would be a player either. I think the only viable signal would be a LP on 105.7 that has direct coverage into Gig Harbor. The 89.9 signal is their worst.

 

[Kelly A]

Schools and colleges need to look beyond their own older definitions of radio, and see it more as part of the bigger world of digital content presentation. The radio stations they own provide a better platform for that kind of created content than online radio stations. More and more, we're seeing that users don't listen to online radio stations for produced content, but unhosted music. So training students using online radio as your platform will not lead to a productive occupation.

Having met with a community college board of directors who were looking to do a time brokerage agreement and shutting down the radio program, these people are only looking at numbers. If student interest or enrollment is down or nonexistent, boards aren't interested in spending the time to reinvent in a program or curriculum. As with my example, many have heard from other schools or colleges about how they sold off the station to religious broadcasters. Cut expenses, and make a few dollars? Win!
Part of the equation, is how much buzz the board and school leadership gets from students and the community. If the station gets a lot of buzz from being popular with students, parents, or positive listener feedback, then it's 50% harder to kill the station and program. I suspect anymore that buzz, is as non-existent as students signing up for a program. High school and college students don't listen to the radio anymore, and the Board's know that. So, why are we hanging on to a radio station?

 

[TheBigA]

If student interest or enrollment is down or nonexistent, boards aren't interested in spending the time to reinvent in a program or curriculum.

I understand, and that's why there's so little creativity being taught in schools any more. I've had this discussion with the decline of music programs in schools. At one time, music was part of the basic curriculum, and now it's really a specialty program. Like with most things, the declining interest really has to do with the way the subjects are taught. There are ways to teach music and media that are interesting and drive more study. But sure it's very easy to give up and just shut things down. My view is if they take that attitude with electives, they probably feel the same way with the basics.

 

[Kelly A]

I understand, and that's why there's so little creativity being taught in schools any more. I've had this discussion with the decline of music programs in schools. At one time, music was part of the basic curriculum, and now it's really a specialty program. Like with most things, the declining interest really has to do with the way the subjects are taught. There are ways to teach music and media that are interesting and drive more study. But sure it's very easy to give up and just shut things down. My view is if they take that attitude with electives, they probably feel the same way with the basics.

Totally agree. Now kids are self-taught music via TikTok. Nevermind that they aren't learning anything more than a form of impersonation.

 

[fordranger797]

On the topic of college radio, not every college is equal in terms of the skills you acquire. Many colleges don't even have a radio station anymore, and there is a significant amount of variation between the college radio stations that remain. I'd argue that KCWU at Central Washington University is one of the better student facilities out there, as they have received numerous awards over the years, and provide student volunteers with high quality equipment. Obviously, KCWU is a teaching tool and you really can't compare it to a commercial radio station, but it does seem like students who pass through the KCWU studio are equipped for professional radio jobs after finishing their education. On the other hand, there are other college stations out there that have no consistency, and aren't preparing anyone to work in radio.

It probably goes without saying that nobody volunteering at a student radio station should ever feel compelled to make radio their professional career. There is something to be said for having fun without adhering to strict programming guidelines. With that being said, KCWU has probably been so successful because they treat their radio station as a legitimate teaching tool. Compare this to a college station I volunteered with at one point where we played CD's all day with no automation, and logged every song individually on a computer to keep up with the web stream.

 

[LITTLEBOYBLUE]

It probably goes without saying that nobody volunteering at a student radio station should ever feel compelled to make radio their professional career.

Western (Bellingham) station seems to be an example of that. Many shifts seemed to be filled with students who just wanted to remove an item from their bucket list!! But still fun to listen to....

 

[crainbebo]

As mentioned earlier, KASB ran on a similar system. From 7 to 9 AM they had a morning show with students, often talking about sports and teen trends. I'm sure it didn't get a lot of listenership, but it was something students could do in terms of electives. Students also came in during the evenings to do shows - mostly rhythmic and EDM, sometimes rock music. Pandemic and the transition to Spotify have screwed up high school radio. And I hope it's not for good.

And speaking of KGHP, yes, they don't get out really well across the sound. I was able to get them weakly on the beach in Edmonds several years back, but at a fringe level. And that was before KXIR fired up. In the south Sound, the competing 89.9 is often KGRG in Auburn. KXIR really gets out on the other hand - had them at White Pass about a week ago (before it got really smoky). That's about 115 miles or so, but I'm way up near 5K feet.

 

[fordranger797]

Western (Bellingham) station seems to be an example of that. Many shifts seemed to be filled with students who just wanted to remove an item from their bucket list!! But still fun to listen to....

You're exactly right! I had the chance to volunteer there for a period of time. There was a wall full of CD's with various indie bands to play, and minidiscs for airing community sponsored advertising. I'd say the music mix was about as eclectic as it gets, perhaps only second to KRXY in the south sound!

 

[fordranger797]

As mentioned earlier, KASB ran on a similar system. From 7 to 9 AM they had a morning show with students, often talking about sports and teen trends. I'm sure it didn't get a lot of listenership, but it was something students could do in terms of electives. Students also came in during the evenings to do shows - mostly rhythmic and EDM, sometimes rock music. Pandemic and the transition to Spotify have screwed up high school radio. And I hope it's not for good.

And speaking of KGHP, yes, they don't get out really well across the sound. I was able to get them weakly on the beach in Edmonds several years back, but at a fringe level. And that was before KXIR fired up. In the south Sound, the competing 89.9 is often KGRG in Auburn. KXIR really gets out on the other hand - had them at White Pass about a week ago (before it got really smoky). That's about 115 miles or so, but I'm way up near 5K feet.

I'd be interested in hearing more about how the transmitting location for the main 89.9 signal was selected by the Peninsula School District. 89.9 originates from the Key Peninsula, and covers parts of Gig Harbor with "bonus coverage" at best. I'm sure that they didn't have a ton of options at their disposal for a viable transmitter location, so they probably had to work with what they had. With that being said, I wonder if they could have established their main facility on the property of the other high school in their district, which sits high above Gig Harbor on a steep hill. A transmitting facility at this location might have been more than enough to cover the desired area and eliminate the need for a network of translators to fill in what 89.9 can't do. Additionally, I think it's a little odd that Gig Harbor is the city of license, even though the main signal doesn't effectively reach this community. I'm not an expert on FCC rules, but from what I do understand, a radio station must maintain a city-grade signal in their COL with the main signal. I was under the impression that certain exceptions can be made, but in most cases, a translator cannot fulfill this requirement while the main signal is targeting a different community. We've all seen how the FCC has been more lenient with their rules in the past few years, but they still have certain expectations for COL, and the field strength that is required in that community.

 

[valvashon]

The main transmitter location is on the grounds of Evergreen Elementary in Lakebay so the location was partly chosen due to the school district owning the property. And I've never been able to figure out why it doesn't cover the city of license. I'm sure the location had something to do with the contours of KGRG and KUPS. While they may have wished that the main transmitter location was at Peninsula or Gig Harbor high school, the current facility is what the FCC was willing to license at the time. Why they were allowed to call Gig Harbor the COL I'll never know. It's a bad coverage area shoehorned in on a bad frequency and probably should never have been issued.

 

[joebtsflk1]

I'm not an expert on FCC rules, but from what I do understand, a radio station must maintain a city-grade signal in their COL with the main signal.

That's true in the commercial band above 92 MHz. But in the non-comm band 88.1 -91.9 MHz, the coverage requirement is only 60 dBu.
"
§ 73.515 NCE FM transmitter location.
The transmitter location shall be chosen so that, on the basis of effective radiated power and antenna height above average terrain employed, a minimum field strength of l mV/m (60 dBu) will be provided over at least 50 percent of its community of license or reach 50 percent of the population within the community.

 

[bossbill]

104.9 doesn’t have a terrible signal around the kitsap peninsula. Unless they could get it for virtually nothing, then I don’t think 24/7 Ministries would be a player either. I think the only viable signal would be a LP on 105.7 that has direct coverage into Gig Harbor. The 89.9 signal is their worst.

FM translators are just that. They can't be "converted" to LPFM. But specific to the FM translator on 105.7, that will be wiped out anyway by the impending move of KJET to Union. (see FCC.gov). That's been in the works for some time.