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Washington South Asian BC Border Blaster Updates

R

RF101

This thread seems like a good way to capture updates to Washington State stations on 1110, 1550, and 1600 targeting the Lower BC Mainland and Vancouver Island.

First update - KRPA Oak Harbor AM 1110 . Since about 6 pm on Tuesday night (5/12) the station has been off the air. Their Internet stream remains alive.
 
I'm in Richmond (directly in the line of fire of the border blasters). 1110 and 1550 basically sound the same to me these days. 1550 sounds incredibly weak, and I have a hard time believing that it's reaching it's target audience very well. I still am under the impression that 1110 exists to target listeners in Victoria, which seems a bit more realistic for where the station is located.

1600 is the strongest of the bunch and is the only station that is agruably marketable at the moment.
 
KRPA did sign back on after 1800 on Wednesday night. I agree with FordRanger797's comment about 1110 and 1550 weaker signals.
 
1110 was not a good frequency for serving BC. Those 9,000 watts are mostly spent by the time they hit Canadian shores. Add the notorious onshore RF noise floor and I don't know how they make ends meet.

1550 has indeed been weaker than normal. Not sure why. 1550s from San Francisco and elsewhere can be heard underneath overnight. Doesn't usually happen in Whatcom county normally
 
Bongwater said:
1110 was not a good frequency for serving BC. Those 9,000 watts are mostly spent by the time they hit Canadian shores. Add the notorious onshore RF noise floor and I don't know how they make ends meet.

1550 has indeed been weaker than normal. Not sure why. 1550s from San Francisco and elsewhere can be heard underneath overnight. Doesn't usually happen in Whatcom county normally
Click to expand...
I think 1110 may not be too bad if you’re in Victoria. From my location in Richmond, it doesn’t sound great, but it sounds about par with 1550. I’m still unclear on whether or not they actually want to market that station to Victoria or not, but that seems like the only logical thing to do with it. There isn’t much left of the signal by the time you reach their core audience in Surrey.

I don’t know what the future holds for 1550. It sounds awful, and I’m not sure how long it can continue to operate when it’s barely listenable in Surrey proper. 1600, on the other hand, sounds very good.
 
1550 has notified the feds that they are back to full power, and driving around Whatcom County this weekend it is pretty clear that indeed they are. Signal loud and clear even if I don't understand a word of it (other than the not quite legal TOH legal ID, that is.) The acid test for any of those border blaster signals is driving by the 10kW sticks of KPUG...no dropout of the 1550 signal was noticed.

As far as the financial viability of 1550, 1600, 1340 or 1110...I am just not at all plugged into that world. I do have a friend who IS, and she says that all of these stations are "status signifiers", a term I understand if not totally comprehend. In other words. the ownership groups get more out of having their statons on the air than they do actually selling spots. She said the only real exception is Red FM, which definitely is all about making money and selling ads.

Wish I could give more insight, but I lack the cultural backgound to really do so. She said the stations are representatons of political power, and it was a real black eye for the owner of 1550 when he couldn't get the move to Pt. Roberts approved back in the day.
 
The New Chico said:
1550 has notified the feds that they are back to full power, and driving around Whatcom County this weekend it is pretty clear that indeed they are. Signal loud and clear even if I don't understand a word of it (other than the not quite legal TOH legal ID, that is.) The acid test for any of those border blaster signals is driving by the 10kW sticks of KPUG...no dropout of the 1550 signal was noticed.

As far as the financial viability of 1550, 1600, 1340 or 1110...I am just not at all plugged into that world. I do have a friend who IS, and she says that all of these stations are "status signifiers", a term I understand if not totally comprehend. In other words. the ownership groups get more out of having their statons on the air than they do actually selling spots. She said the only real exception is Red FM, which definitely is all about making money and selling ads.

Wish I could give more insight, but I lack the cultural backgound to really do so. She said the stations are representatons of political power, and it was a real black eye for the owner of 1550 when he couldn't get the move to Pt. Roberts approved back in the day.
Click to expand...
Much like you, I really don’t know anything about the programming on any of these border blasters. I know there’s a huge market of Punjabi speakers in BC, but it would seem like most of those listeners would prefer to listen to something more focused on their direct community (including Red FM, Punjabi news/talk on 600 or 1200, or even Connect FM on 91.7(?)). As I recall, the local shows that are now heard on 600 locally in Vancouver were once aired on 1550.

I don’t think the existing programming on any of the border blasters is “local,” so it seems like it might be a tougher sell. I think some of the programming is religious in nature, but even that may have limited viability.

I think times have changed quite a bit. Getting programming on the air in Canada in other languages used to be nearly impossible, but this isn’t the case in 2026. There are many local signals in Vancouver that are broadcasting to the local Indian community now. The AM band in Vancouver has really thinned out, with multicultural broadcasters being among the few to remain.
 
I noticed AM 1550 KRPI recently submitted paperwork (5/26) for "restored operations". Could have fooled me . Same lame audio and RF output.

I agree that KRPA is the weakest of the border blasters but they carry ads mostly for Surrey, Burnaby, etc. and not Victoria. Many of their ads have English tag lines although the content is in Punjabi. (Lately KRPA has had a few breaks in their broadcasts, sometime just unmodulated carrier and other times completely off the air. )
 
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