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Fresno / Central Valley Sierra Wave Television History

I'm currently doing some research on Sierra Wave Media here in Bishop, CA and I'm currently having some trouble researching its TV station, so according to the 1996 Broadcasting Yearbook Benett Kessler owned 4 TV stations, K28EE in Bishop, K33EG in Bishop-Mammoth Lakes, K20DZ in Bridgeport, and K32DO in Independence. But, in the 1997 issue, there are not there. For the 1998 and 1999 issue, the Benett Kessler stations returned (except for K20DZ Bridgeport and K28EE was renamed K28FH and moved to Mammoth). And, finally in the 2000 issue, these stations disappeared again and in the 2001 issue is when KDAY-LD 33 makes its appearance. So my question is, did these stations ever go on air? were these proposed stations? Because in Benett Kesslers obituary, it states that KDAY-LD 33 (Which later became KSRW-LD) went on air 4 years after the founding of KDAY-FM (now KSRW-FM) which went on air in 1996 (The same year that these entries made it into the yearbook) which would have made it in 2000. So according to fccdata.org KSRW-LD was originally proposed as K28EE in January of 1994 and later K33EG in December of that year. And its FCC license to cover was summited on February 2nd of 2000, so did KSRW-LD go on air as K33EG in February 2nd or did it go on air as KDAY-LD in December 26 of 2000? I'm sorry if this is to much information for something that could be very simple to figure out, I'm very new to researching this kind of stuff and I want to get my information right since I'm writing this for a Wikipedia page.
 
I'm currently doing some research on Sierra Wave Media here in Bishop, CA and I'm currently having some trouble researching its TV station, so according to the 1996 Broadcasting Yearbook Benett Kessler owned 4 TV stations, K28EE in Bishop, K33EG in Bishop-Mammoth Lakes, K20DZ in Bridgeport, and K32DO in Independence. But, in the 1997 issue, there are not there. For the 1998 and 1999 issue, the Benett Kessler stations returned (except for K20DZ Bridgeport and K28EE was renamed K28FH and moved to Mammoth). And, finally in the 2000 issue, these stations disappeared again and in the 2001 issue is when KDAY-LD 33 makes its appearance. So my question is, did these stations ever go on air? were these proposed stations? Because in Benett Kesslers obituary, it states that KDAY-LD 33 (Which later became KSRW-LD) went on air 4 years after the founding of KDAY-FM (now KSRW-FM) which went on air in 1996 (The same year that these entries made it into the yearbook) which would have made it in 2000. So according to fccdata.org KSRW-LD was originally proposed as K28EE in January of 1994 and later K33EG in December of that year. And its FCC license to cover was summited on February 2nd of 2000, so did KSRW-LD go on air as K33EG in February 2nd or did it go on air as KDAY-LD in December 26 of 2000? I'm sorry if this is to much information for something that could be very simple to figure out, I'm very new to researching this kind of stuff and I want to get my information right since I'm writing this for a Wikipedia page.

Hans Laetz, who runs KBUU-LP in Malibu, was Bennett's engineer. He'd be the one---and likely the only one---able to sort this out for you. His e-mail is [email protected] .

Also---the prefix for this post should be either High Desert or no prefix at all, since the board doesn't have a "Sierra Nevada" prefix (which would be handy for Big Pine, Bishop, Mammoth and the Tahoe stations on the California side of the lake).
 
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Hans Laetz, who runs KBUU-LP in Malibu, was Bennett's engineer. He'd be the one---and likely the only one---able to sort this out for you. His e-mail is [email protected] .

Also---the prefix for this post should be either High Desert or no prefix at all, since the board doesn't have a "Sierra Nevada" prefix (which would be handy for Big Pine, Bishop, Mammoth and the Tahoe stations on the California side of the lake).
Thanks for the Info 👍, also I was once told by someone else to use Fresno / Central Valley when talking about the Eastern Sierra's after I posted something else without a Prefix.
 
Thanks for the Info 👍

Sure. Good luck!


, also I was once told by someone else to use Fresno / Central Valley when talking about the Eastern Sierra's after I posted something else without a Prefix.

You live there. You know that makes zero sense. There’s 11,000-14,000 feet of granite between the Owens Valley and the Central Valley. Radio signals don’t travel between the two (except at night for KMJ and KYNO and knife-edge reflections off Sierra peaks for some FMs).

Bishop and the High Desert share geography and Los Angeles TV.
 
@lanceventa , would it be a lot of trouble to create a prefix for the Sierra Nevada (see reasoning above)? There are several commercial stations on the eastern side...

KSRW, Independence
KRHV, Big Pine
KIBS/KBOV, Bishop
KMMT, Mammoth Lakes

...plus an assortment of religious, ethnic, Native American, etc.


They could be folded into "High Desert", though the actual boundaries of the Mojave stop at Lone Pine.

And while most of the California-side Tahoe stations are actually up on Mt. Rose and are for all intents and purposes Reno stations, the Truckee stations are not and are very much in the Sierra Nevada.
 
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I assume some of the translators were Los Angeles stations (or even KOLO Reno). L.A. has been on TV in Bishop since the '50s through microwave links.
I would say Olancha would be the boundaries of the Sierra Nevada region...where the Crystal Geyser plant is.
 
I assume some of the translators were Los Angeles stations (or even KOLO Reno). L.A. has been on TV in Bishop since the '50s through microwave links.
I would say Olancha would be the boundaries of the Sierra Nevada region...where the Crystal Geyser plant is.

TV translators when we moved to Bishop in 1965 were KNXT, KNBC and KABC from Los Angeles and KOLO from Reno.

The only way to get the other L.A. TV stations (KTLA, KHJ, KTTV, KCOP) was to subscribe to cable, which initially carried those, the L.A. O&Os and KOLO—-no L.A. UHFs and no other Reno channels.
 
The LA indies were also carried all over NM and west Texas on cable. KTLA was still on El Paso cable until the 2000s.
Reminds me that I need to EQ my old KSRW-FM airchecks from years ago (their NAC/Soft Rock days), I had the 'free' Total Recorder version with static bursts every minute or so. I wonder if there's a way to muffle or remove them via Audacity so I can share them somewhere. They are so annoying. 16 kilobits per second mono...those were the days (glad streaming has improved...A LOT!) I discovered a lot of great music through that low-quality stream, including some of Bonnie Raitt's later songs, Jimmy Buffett album cuts, James Taylor album cuts, etc. an incredibly random shuffle of obscurity.
Somewhere on a CD I have about an hour and a half of Bob Todd's morning show from January 2014 (may he RIP).
 
The LA indies were also carried all over NM and west Texas on cable. KTLA was still on El Paso cable until the 2000s.
Reminds me that I need to EQ my old KSRW-FM airchecks from years ago (their NAC/Soft Rock days), I had the 'free' Total Recorder version with static bursts every minute or so. I wonder if there's a way to muffle or remove them via Audacity so I can share them somewhere. They are so annoying. 16 kilobits per second mono...those were the days (glad streaming has improved...A LOT!) I discovered a lot of great music through that low-quality stream, including some of Bonnie Raitt's later songs, Jimmy Buffett album cuts, James Taylor album cuts, etc. an incredibly random shuffle of obscurity.
Somewhere on a CD I have about an hour and a half of Bob Todd's morning show from January 2014 (may he RIP).
I see a lot of Airchecks uploaded on to YouTube, the big problem though is copyright. Also, something that I would love to hear is when KSRW was originally KDAY and the old Spanish programming they aired in the 2010s, apparently my Uncle would always call in and dedicate music to a lot of people (Including my parents).
 
Yes, Sierra Wave did a Spanish program on Sunday afternoons. And a jazz show on Saturday nights. I don't have anything from either show. Sorry about that.
 


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