When the antenna farm at Missouri City was built, most of the Houston area FM's moved there, except KQUE. Just curious if anyone knows why.
Old Chicago
Old Chicago
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QUESTION ABOUT THE ORIGINAL KQUE
- Thread starter OldChicago
- Start date
During that time, KQUE had 280,000 watts and was owned by Texas Coast Broadcasters which owned KNUZ. Dave Morris was the owner and KQUE was on the KNUZ tower. KQUE was grandfathered in at 280KW. However, if Uncle Dave (as we called him) wanted to raise the height of the tower, the FCC said he would have to power back to 100KW. For him, a move to Senior Road made no sense economically. He did increase the height and took it to 100KW. Why it hasn't moved since the time of ownership changes, I have no idea.
P
purpledevil
Guest
Chuck Tiller said:
Chuck, why did he drop 102.9's power from the 280,000? I remember when KQUE-FM's signal would reach nearly to Dallas, and on good conditions did before the sign on of Dallas' co-channel KDMX. Now KLTN makes it to about Centerville, and a little past with the right weather scenario.
This is something that has intrigued me for awhile as I can't fathom why he'd eliminate, I imagine, the highest powered station in the south. Unless he was well compensated....
I believe the issue was polarization...KQUE was grandfathered at 280 kw but I think it was only horizontally polarized which didn't work too well with reception in autos so when the engineering decision was made to go to a new circularly polarized antenna, they had to reduce power to the 100kw limit. In my days as a CPA performing business valuations, after Bailey Swenson, one of the then five stockholders of Texas Gulf Coast Broadcasters, died, I was engaged by the attorneys of his estate to value the company for both estate and and buy-sell agreement issues so I got pretty deep into the history of the company and a review of operations, meeting several times with Dave Morris and their accountant and visiting the tower site with a real estate appraiser.
F
foursider
Guest
As I remember it, that was about the time they lit up a new antenna called the "Broadhead". It was a pretty hairy beast that also lit the tower itself up pretty good. And the light bill was probably a killer, too. When they decided to replace it with a more conventional antenna, they went to something new (at the time) known as circular polarization. No one made an antenna that could take that much power. Someone help me with my history here. I think it was also about that time that the FCC re-classified the FMs in the South. No more Super FMs. Class Bs went away in the South. No more Class Ds. Just As and Cs.
KQUE was both horizontal and vertical polarization, and promoted their power as 560,000 watts (280,000 H&V). That was until they completed installation of a new antenna and lost their superpower status (in 1984, if I remember correctly). Under rules governing grandfathered stations they could not raise their antenna height unless they lowered power to the 100,000 watt maximum for a Class C. Their increase in height was substantial, from 540 to 970 feet.
I recall hearing the high power KQUE signal in Austin in the mid 1960's. My father had a tall yagi antenna pointed east.
The 280kw signal was grandfathered as long as no changes were made to the transmitting setup. Any modification meant the new rules kicked in.
In the late 60's both portable and car FM radios were starting to make an appearance. With their whip antennas, such radios would often encounter dead spots for reception depending on orientation. Circularly polarized transmitting antennas greatly improved reception on such receivers. I recall that when Austin's KASE signed on in 1969, they made a big deal about their new CP antenna providing better reception on portable and car radios.
The KQUE power drop happened with the increase in antenna height, and with a CP antenna perhaps not that much was lost coverage-wise. Also less RF bouncing around the downtown buildings, so fewer multipath issues.
The 280kw signal was grandfathered as long as no changes were made to the transmitting setup. Any modification meant the new rules kicked in.
In the late 60's both portable and car FM radios were starting to make an appearance. With their whip antennas, such radios would often encounter dead spots for reception depending on orientation. Circularly polarized transmitting antennas greatly improved reception on such receivers. I recall that when Austin's KASE signed on in 1969, they made a big deal about their new CP antenna providing better reception on portable and car radios.
The KQUE power drop happened with the increase in antenna height, and with a CP antenna perhaps not that much was lost coverage-wise. Also less RF bouncing around the downtown buildings, so fewer multipath issues.
jd is correct, they had both horizontal and vertical and the 560,000 watt figure was mentioned on-air very frequently. Less frequently they would break it down with '280,000 watts horizontal and 280,000 watts vertical.' They would run plugs about how far away they were being heard. I remember once a mention of reception in Australia and others spread throughout the Western Hemisphere. They would also ask listeners to write in with reception reports.
I don't understand how it didn't make sense economically to go on Sr. Rd. but they spent the money to increase the tower on Navigation. Would a space on Sr. Rd. have been more expensive or did Morris still not understand how much the market had grown?
I don't understand how it didn't make sense economically to go on Sr. Rd. but they spent the money to increase the tower on Navigation. Would a space on Sr. Rd. have been more expensive or did Morris still not understand how much the market had grown?
hrhwebmaster said:
That was Uncle Dave. There was no rhyme or reason for the decisions he made. On some things he was farsighted but others? He was very frugal. His initial decision to get 1230 from KTHT to move to 790 was an example. He felt that 250 watts was enough for Houston coverage.
You have those details on your website He could have had a 5KW on 790 which had much better coverage.
Having said that, KNUZ-TV Ch39 was a good idea but it was too early. Very few had in Houston had UHF TV sets. It was until the 1960s when manufacturers had to include both VHF & UHF frequencies. But I digress. "Why should I pay rent on a tower when I already own one" was his mindset. Sometimes you could tell him things that could improve the situation and he just would not listen. I will say this, he could be very gracious at times at other times he could be a tyrant. I have a lot of KNUZ stories from my time there in the 1970s and the early 1980s. I can hear his voice on the intercom right now, "Joe Ford, call 5-5. Joe Ford 5-5. call 5-5." That would bring an "Uh-oh. What is it now?"
foursider said:
Would be curious to see any photos of this. Why was this antenna different?
Old Chicago
jd said:
EGAD ! I would hate to have to live or work around that tower. RF overload like crazy.
Old Chicago
OldChicago said:
I'd be curious to find out what the actual transmitter output power was, as the 280/560kw would be ERP.
OldChicago said:
Yes, it was pretty messy. I remember scanning the dial while I was driving in on the North Freeway years ago. I noticed a few odd things as I approached the Pierce Elevated and rescanned the whole band. KQUE was coming in on at least nine frequencies besides 102.9 by the time I passed Cullen, and this wasn't on a cheap radio!
Mediafrog+ said:
I'm not sure, but I seem to recall hearing that they had two 20kW rigs in tandem.
jd said:
They did...a pair of Gates 20H3 transmitters into a combiner. One of those rigs has been refurbished and now lives at the Univision Radio backup site on 59 just up the road. AFAIK, it's still there, although by now it may have been replaced with something more modern.
As to the coverage/ERP question, IIRC grandfathered FM stations could increase HAAT as long as the 1 mv/m contour remaind the same as what they had. If they had to reduce power to make that happen, so be it. Also, grandfathered FMs were not protected any more than as if they were a standard class C. Mileage seperations did not take into account their higher power.
jd said:
Were there any other stations in the area/state that ran high power like that back in those days?
Old Chicago
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