I was not referring to a specific site but rather one from which to broadcast from sunset to midnight. An STA is temporary by definition and it doesn't look like there's another alternative other than going back to only being on the air from midnight to sunset. Actually, they could probably get some amount of PSSA but would they want it? It's never more than 500 watts and could easily be much less!
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Say hello to Desi Radio 1250am
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I was not referring to a specific site but rather one from which to broadcast from sunset to midnight. An STA is temporary by definition and it doesn't look like there's another alternative other than going back to only being on the air from midnight to sunset. Actually, they could probably get some amount of PSSA but would they want it? It's never more than 500 watts and could easily be much less!
You mean "sunset to sunrise" don't you? They can't go to the daytime facility at midnight unless for testing, and then without commercial programming.
I believe the station was originally 5/1 and non-directional, typical of regionals licensed in the 30's. They could likely return to 1 kw night power unless some reduction is required under the new rules. Of course, it is also possible that a level between 1 kw and 5 kw might be possible if the protections are not severe.
No. The former KTW operated for decades at 5KW non-directional from 10:15PM until sunset the following day while KWSU Pullman WA did the same from sunrise to 10:15 PM. About 30 years ago or so, they added a separate directional site for the time from sunset to 10:15 PM and at some point, changed the break point to midnight. Here is a quote from their most recent request for an STA extension: "STA IS REQUESTED TO OPERATE ND DAYTIME ANTENNA FROM DAYTIME SITE DURING EVENING DA HOURS WITH 1/4 POWER (1250 WATTS) DUE TO LOSS OF LEASE TO EVENING SITE. KKDZ NORMALLY OPERATES CLASS B SHARETIME ON 1250 KHZ, 5 KW ND FROM 12:00 AM TO SUNSET FROM DAY SITE AND 5 KW DA FROM EVENING SITE FROM SUNSET TO MIDNIGHT, WHEN KWSU PULLMAN WASHINGTON (FAC. ID 71025) SIGNS OFF."
At one time in the early days of broadcasting, there were "Shared Time" AM stations in many locations. Over time the AM band expanded so a station that had to share could move full time to a new frequency. If that wasn't available, a wealthier owner would buy off a less-well-off owner, making the richer guy's station full time on that frequency. But there are still a few shared time stations out there. In the Chicago area, two stations still share 1450 and three stations share 1240.
When 1330 in the New York area was still a shared time frequency, one station would sign off in the middle of the day, and the other sign on, different owners, different call letters, different transmitters. I can remember they wouldn't always time it correctly. Sometimes one would go off the air a few minutes before the other signed on. But sometimes the last words of the sign-off recording would still be playing when the other station started its sign-on recording. WEVD was programmed for the Jewish community and also ran other ethnic time-broked shows, while WPOW was a brokered religion station.
So in Washington, 1250 is still sort of shared by two stations, even though they are 275 miles from each other. That distance allows them to both operate at the same time, but not at full non-directional power. Funny that their deal is that Seattle has to operate with reduced power, or directional power, from sunset till midnight. Then Pullman has to sign off at midnight, allowing Seattle to go full power at that point.
I guess the Pullman 1250 can never become an affiliate of Coast to Coast or Red Eye Radio.
When 1330 in the New York area was still a shared time frequency, one station would sign off in the middle of the day, and the other sign on, different owners, different call letters, different transmitters. I can remember they wouldn't always time it correctly. Sometimes one would go off the air a few minutes before the other signed on. But sometimes the last words of the sign-off recording would still be playing when the other station started its sign-on recording. WEVD was programmed for the Jewish community and also ran other ethnic time-broked shows, while WPOW was a brokered religion station.
So in Washington, 1250 is still sort of shared by two stations, even though they are 275 miles from each other. That distance allows them to both operate at the same time, but not at full non-directional power. Funny that their deal is that Seattle has to operate with reduced power, or directional power, from sunset till midnight. Then Pullman has to sign off at midnight, allowing Seattle to go full power at that point.
I guess the Pullman 1250 can never become an affiliate of Coast to Coast or Red Eye Radio.
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Interesting. Thanks for the fact check. I'd forgotten that there are still a couple of share-timers out there. I wonder why Disney or a previous owner did not do what nearly all of these did and buy out the other station?
Washington State U. has 3 other Pullman facilities, and you'd think that having any of the formats on AM today would be fairly low priority.
Curious if radio Disney ever bought a new transmitter for when they were at the Rose hill site. They might have a spare transmitter to move to a new night site. But as we have been hashing out on this thread finding a good cheap site will be difficult. The best plan may be to finalize full time operation from the Pigeon point site. Of course with FCC approval of the night time power.
Yes, they had Nautel ND5's at both sites. The one in Kirkland was destroyed during the fire at that site, which was also the end of KKDZ using that site.
Not the curse of the old 820E Collins! Wow that's kinda interesting that another transmitter that sat their had a fire issue. Maybe it's just as well they left the site. I'm the superstitious type that would not even by the lot where that old 820E sat. That being lot 7706. I can't remember if the original 820E caught fire their or after it was moved there. But this makes for a great engineering Horror story.
"The Curse of the Collins 820E. Every year on the anniversary of the original transmitter fire you can still hear the old rig burning while on the air with Kokomo playing on every radio with in a mile radius. Poor ND5 never had a chance. That one time Radio Disney played Kokomo and due to the cures it went Poof.
They were excited about moving in. There first home. But no one warned them not to play Kokomo on any electronic device in the house."
Think I should throw in an industrial accident during construction? "The construction worker was walking across the job site enjoying the summer mix of music on his I-pod when Kokomo started to play and he crossed the line into lot 7706." Hmm. Might have to change it to lot 7713, sounds more "scary".
"The Curse of the Collins 820E. Every year on the anniversary of the original transmitter fire you can still hear the old rig burning while on the air with Kokomo playing on every radio with in a mile radius. Poor ND5 never had a chance. That one time Radio Disney played Kokomo and due to the cures it went Poof.
They were excited about moving in. There first home. But no one warned them not to play Kokomo on any electronic device in the house."
Think I should throw in an industrial accident during construction? "The construction worker was walking across the job site enjoying the summer mix of music on his I-pod when Kokomo started to play and he crossed the line into lot 7706." Hmm. Might have to change it to lot 7713, sounds more "scary".
Actually this most recent fire which pretty much destroyed everything, allegedly was caused by a malfunctioning RF switch. The night of that fire was the last sound KKDZ ever made from that site. Probably better that way, because that site barely played into downtown Seattle anyway.
If AM somehow ever again regained its former glory and ridiculous sums of money were available to spend on a station like 1250, one should consider seeing if they could diplex with a station like 1090/770. Proper tower orientation and distance west... But that would never happen, because neither of those scenarios would likely occur. Certainly not together, anyway.
If AM somehow ever again regained its former glory and ridiculous sums of money were available to spend on a station like 1250, one should consider seeing if they could diplex with a station like 1090/770. Proper tower orientation and distance west... But that would never happen, because neither of those scenarios would likely occur. Certainly not together, anyway.
The Seattle station does not have the option to operate at reduced power. They are doing so because they possess an STA that says they can but it's only temporary. They were operating with a directional signal between sunset and midnight at full power but that has nothing to do with their "deal" to share time. It was in effect for several decades before the evening service even began. If there was no "deal", they'd still have to protect the other station at night, when both are broadcasting.
The ND5 is still at 1250 and is operational as a backup. They installed an XR6 when they went HD. KBLE has the same XR model, but no HD. The tower is an old Wind Charger (could use paint), and the ATU & diplexer gear is Kintronic. I understand Ben Dawson's taken care of the major design work at that site for a long time. From that perspective, it's in great shape.
BTW... I do know that they are (really) working on a couple of locations for a night operation. Not much more than that, other than there is a concerted effort to get beyond the STA. One of the local consultants told me that if the STA was denied for one reason or another, they'd get bumped down to 30 or 40 watts during the sunset-to-midnight hours. Vashon isn't in the picture, and neither are Chris Bennett's towers, so that part can be put to rest. Also, I would guess they won't leave the day site anytime soon. There were several years left on the lease (as well as their studios), and the Disney was intent on seeing those obligations transfer to the new owners.
Oh.... add a zero to that last guess and divide by a little more than 2 and you'll be close to figuring out what the monthly hit is for that site. You've got to figure that nobody's getting their money back on a megabuck tower sale if they're only getting $4 or 5 kBucks a month in return. Between that one tower site and the studios, there's some serious overhead, but maybe not for a Seattle station. Still, add in the rent from a night site and you'd think anyone would need to turn the crank pretty fast.
What I found most interesting is that they hit the air with commercials. Legit or not, it sounded like they did some prep work before they got the keys.
No, not new at all. Used to post under another name years ago. I remember the endless KMCQ threads...they became quite funny at times.
Or pathetic.
Bring back KYAC!
Hear! Hear!
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