Sacramento TV Transmitter Site Question

[whonigs]

KBTV-LP ( Ch. 8 ) and KEZT-CA (Ch. 23, originally airing Telefutura until KTFK Ch. 64 was purchased by Univision. it now airs HSN 24/7) are on the ATC tower located at the Bee facility on S & 23rd downtown Sacramento. 103.5 KHMM is also on this tower.

KMUM-CA (Ch. 15) is on ATC Elverta tower. KGBY-FM is here also.

KMMK-LP (Ch. 14) is on the old El Dorado tower where the old KSPX analog facillites used to be located. This is the original KXTV (Ch. 10) facility. The tower still stands...the building ehh..well lets just say it has four walls and power.

KEXT-CA (Ch. 27) Modesto. This low power was the Telefutura station serving the Modesto area before KTFK Ch. 64 was purchased by Univision. KEXT-CA is owned by Univision still , but running HSN the last time I knew. Its transmitter is up at Mt. Oso.

Bill H.

 

[jhimbo]

Is channel 3's old downtown tower used for any over the air broadcasting ?

 

[TedL]

Is channel 3's old downtown tower used for any over the air broadcasting ?

No. It was once the analog 3 main transmitter site, and had 96.1, KCRA-FM co-located.

The site was the KCRA-TV backup after the move to Transtower, and came in handy when power outages would drop the big 3.

KCRA-FM morphed to KCTC, and the studio was moved to the California Television (Corp.?) building on the frontage by 160 and Arden Way a few blocks west of the KOVR-TV Sacramento Studio.

The Kelly family owned California Television Corp, the Zenith distributor, IIRC.

The FM and TV were still on the downtown tower until the mid-80's as I recall.

At one time, you'd walk past the backup analog 3 TX, the FM TX and a very old, black RCA microwave transmitter that fed NBC network over four hops to what was then KCRL-TV (4) Reno.

Kelley Broadcasting sold KCRA AM (1320) Newsradio 132 and KCTC to Tribune, which renamed the AM KGNR.

Eventually the FM was moved to the KGNR transmitter site with an extension on one of the towers (North, if I recall correctly) and strobes were added.

The move may have coincided with the construction of what's now the main KCRA (television) studio building west of the original brick building and removal of the transmission facilities from it.

One of the benefits (to residents near the tower downtown) was the cessation of FM blanketing from 96.1.

 

[Madmansam]

BTW, KUVS is located up at Bear Mountain about 10 miles outside of San Andreas. KUVS is liscensed to Modesto. KSCO-LP and now DT is also up at Bear Mountain. KUVS is on the tower that once was owned by St. Partners (Chester Smith) before Univision took ownership. KSCO is on the newer tower builit by Chester Smith afterwards, its now owned by ATC.



Bill H.

Actually the correct calls are KCSO, not KSCO which is calls for a Santa Cruz radio station on 1080 AM.

 

[recto101]

Mountains are great for getting signals out over huge distances, but they come with a downside--shadowing. Very rare is a single mountain sitting by itself. You have to watch out for shadowing of areas where you'd like to have coverage. In some cases this is unavoidable in very mountainous areas, for example where I live in the Roanoke market, there's no alternative; one has to be on a mountain to cover more than a few miles, but as a result, part of Roanoke itself is shadowed by mountains from the Poor Mountain stations which are licensed to Roanoke.

I think Walnut Creek makes a lot of sense for Sacramento broadcasters because it's centrally located in the market and avoids shadowing of most populated areas. Besides, stations already have a heavy investment in Walnut Creek, with several stations having recently installed new antennas and transmitters there, and they're not going to want to throw that away in favor of being at a different tower site where people will have to adjust antenna aim to receive it properly.

- Trip

Why would Mount Diablo be used for a Sacramento Station? its in the middle of the SF market?

 

[kenrayc]

Mountains are great for getting signals out over huge distances, but they come with a downside--shadowing. Very rare is a single mountain sitting by itself. You have to watch out for shadowing of areas where you'd like to have coverage. In some cases this is unavoidable in very mountainous areas, for example where I live in the Roanoke market, there's no alternative; one has to be on a mountain to cover more than a few miles, but as a result, part of Roanoke itself is shadowed by mountains from the Poor Mountain stations which are licensed to Roanoke.

I think Walnut Creek makes a lot of sense for Sacramento broadcasters because it's centrally located in the market and avoids shadowing of most populated areas. Besides, stations already have a heavy investment in Walnut Creek, with several stations having recently installed new antennas and transmitters there, and they're not going to want to throw that away in favor of being at a different tower site where people will have to adjust antenna aim to receive it properly.

- Trip

Why would Mount Diablo be used for a Sacramento Station? its in the middle of the SF market?

Mount Diablo is a excellent site for the Sacramento-Stockton market if your an independent, KOVR originally broadcasted there back in the 50/60s as a ABC affiliate, but at that site there would be to much overlap with the Bay Area Network affiliates, KOVR had to move to Walnut Grove to keep there ABC affiliation.

 

[recto101]

Its good for KKDV 92.1 to be on Mount Diablo but not a Sacramento Station

 

[Madmansam]

Its good for KKDV 92.1 to be on Mount Diablo but not a Sacramento Station

The Radio Station formerly known as KSTN-FM 107.3 and currently a K-Love station, licensed to Stockton. It's transmitter is located on Mount Diablo.