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Receiving 106.1 KMEL in Bakersfield...on 102.1?

D

derek20la

This afternoon I was driving around Bakersfield and scanning the radio when I can upon a station on 102.1 FM that I've never received before. It was playing hip hop/urban music. At first I thought it could be from SLO/Santa Barbara, but they kept talking about "The Bay". When they said the calls of KMEL, and played clips of the Sana G morning show, it was unmistakable.

But KMEL is from San Francisco, 240 miles away, and is on 106.1 FM -- not 102.1

The station came in consistently with fair to good reception for over 45 minutes, and throughout the Southwest area of Bakersfield. But with no stereo, RDS, or HD/digital.

I am familiar with DXing, but I've never had a distant signal shift frequencies before.
I've also heard of translators with an over-the-air source accidentally relaying another station, but I know of no translators anywhere nearby using 102.1

I had to record it, or I knew no one would ever believe me. Link to the clip on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/wYdySuKVLbA

Can anyone explain what happened?
 
Last edited:
DaveBayArea said:
Somebody in Bakersfield really likes KMEL and is picking up the stream & rebroadcasting it on a pirate so they can listen to it. Or maybe to impress their friends.

Dave B.
Click to expand...

I don't believe that was the case.
When they first mentioned the KMEL call letters, I wanted to double check that's what I actually heard, so I started streaming it on my phone. Their internet stream lagged behind what I heard over-the-air by more than a minute.

And would a pirate station really be able to cover such a large portion of Bakersfield, without being detected by nerds like me (or the FCC)?

Do you think it could have been related to the storm that passed thru yesterday?
 
derek20la said:
I don't believe that was the case.
When they first mentioned the KMEL call letters, I wanted to double check that's what I actually heard, so I started streaming it on my phone. Their internet stream lagged behind what I heard over-the-air by more than a minute.

And would a pirate station really be able to cover such a large portion of Bakersfield, without being detected by nerds like me (or the FCC)?

Do you think it could have been related to the storm that passed thru yesterday?
Click to expand...

It has to be a stream on a pirate. I don't remember the formula for harmonics off the top of my head, but KRAB would make that impossible anyway.
 
wb6asq2 said:
Ducting, Possably
Click to expand...

Ducting wouldn't cause the signal to shift frequency 4 MHz on its way from San Francisco to Bakersfield, nor would weather. This has to be a Bakersfield pirate getting his jollies by feeding the station's stream into his transmitter. When Howard Stern went to satellite radio, someone in my neighborhood had a low-power transmitter that would relay his show every morning he was live.
 
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