Surprising Breaking News out of Stockton! Well I'll Be!

[BossRadioDJ]

Independence expects to close on the deal in late June or July. It is a stock deal, as Newsperson noted.

The Larue family will retain the Ralph Avenue property and lease the towers to IndepMedia. It appears that the new owners will be cleaning house -- retaining none of the current staff (on air, admin or engineering) -- and will subsequently file to move the AM transmitter site farther east of Stockton and increase power.

The FM will be moved to the Bay Area and will change its city of license, if not to San Francisco then to some other city in the Bay Area. The transmitter will be moved to an existing site, perhaps sharing with KPFA in Berkeley or, perhaps, Sutro.

Either way, IndepMedia only expects to retain the stations for a brief time -- maybe only two years -- before they put them back on the market, probably individually rather than as a pair.

 

[davideduardo]

The FM will be moved to the Bay Area and will change its city of license, if not to San Francisco then to some other city in the Bay Area. The transmitter will be moved to an existing site, perhaps sharing with KPFA in Berkeley or, perhaps, Sutro.

Any move has to take into account the separation requirements as to 106.9 and 107.7.

 

[BossRadioDJ]

Re: KSTN FCC Transfer Application

Do you have a link to the FCC filing? I can't locate it anywhere!

The FM is listed on the FCC site at:

http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/fmq?list=0&facid=69685

The AM is listed at:

http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/amq?list=0&facid=58838

Click on "Assignments and Transfers" or "Application List" to view the application information.

DJ

 

[newsperson]

BossRadioDJ.

Good to see your comments. I did read the application and it does say they have options for 25-years to lease the FM tower at Mount Diablo.

Remember there is the short spacing for 106.9 and 107.7. However they don't need to move the main tower, all they need is a booster!

The booster rules are different and a Class B booster can be 10,000 watts ERP and the adjacent channel seperations do not apply.

As long as you do not exceed the protected cotour of your station (in this case 54-dbu) it is permitted.

So it is not a situation of where they are going to move their tower, it is where are they going to locate their booster?

Last I looked their 54-dbu goes out into the ocean.

Other considerations is that they should not interfere with the main transmitter.

The other option is to downgrade but I don't beleive that is viable.

Your views?

Newsperson

 

[davideduardo]

As long as you do not exceed the protected cotour of your station (in this case 54-dbu) it is permitted.

I believe that a booster must live inside the 60 dbu contour, and do nothing to extend the 60 dbu countour as well. Since most listening is inside the 64 dbu contour, there is not much that can be done to make KSTN anything but a partial coverage station in the foothills and mountains to the East of the bay.

 

[BossRadioDJ]

I believe that a booster must live inside the 60 dbu contour, and do nothing to extend the 60 dbu countour as well. Since most listening is inside the 64 dbu contour, there is not much that can be done to make KSTN anything but a partial coverage station in the foothills and mountains to the East of the bay.

This has already been addressed by the new owners' engineering staff ... remember: this is a grandfathered C-1 you're talking about here. The same rules don't apply.

 

[gibby88]

Reverend Crosby....HAHAHAHA! That guy was great. "This is the Reverend Crosby...at KTNS..."

Best KSTN stories...anything involving the overnight guy Shawn Meade nicknamed "Mumblystache".

When the computer program the music ran off of would stop suddenly, and you'd have dead air.

The same five people calling in the same requests every day , like "Popeye" for "Disco Duck" or that old lady for
Freddy Jackson.

Knox parking his big Lincoln in the back so he could spy on the jocks.

John Hampton digging stuff out of his apartment to use as giveaway prizes.

Playing "Hey Jude" when you had to use the bathroom really bad.

 

[Fredrated]

Interesting that there aren't that many stories about how creepy Knox Larue was as an owner....(or just as a human being in general)

Several people I worked at at other stations had spent time at KSTN in the mid 70's...stories they told included Knox spying on jocks on the request line and business line from extensions in his office...

 

[newsperson]

BossRadioDJ,

Any lunch meetings coming up soon?

Yes KSTN is the power and height that is closer to a Class C1 than a B. However it is grandfarthered as a Class B which is much better. This allows a booster to cover anywhere within their 54-dbu contour and not just the 60-dbu.

So in this situation a booster's 54-dbu can go anywhere as long as its 54-dbu does not extend beyond the 54-dbu contour of KSTN.

As I remember a booster may be up to 20 per cent of the class of the channel, in this case 20 per cent of 50Kw is 10Kw. Can you imagine a 10Kw covering S.F. and San Jose?

Or do they have other Plans?


Newsperson

 

[davideduardo]

This has already been addressed by the new owners' engineering staff ... remember: this is a grandfathered C-1 you're talking about here. The same rules don't apply.

Yeah, any grandfathered station is only protected to the extent of a conforming station of the same class as was originally authorized. When KSTN-FM went on the air, there were no C-1 stations in existence.

The booster rules (http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/cfr_2006/octqtr/pdf/47cfr74.1231.pdf) make no exceptions to booster contour restrictions (60 dbu) but do have different requirements for protection to other classes of service.

 

[Madmansam]

A Question For Fast Eddie?

Just checkin' in.
"Fast Eddie" Garcia here, worked there twice, the second time being from 1996 to 9/98. I worked at KJOY and KSTN at the same time, at one point. Had no car. Rode a bike. Between the two stations I was doing three airshifts a day.
Knox was good to me. I cried a little when he died.
I'm worried about John, but I bet he lands okay. I know he will.
Some of my closest friends in the business passed through there, like Terry Simmons, who was "Syl McCray" on the air there in the 80s. Used to be real tight with Charlee Simons, too, until he became a fundiBushie and started sending out anti-immigrant brown-bashing emails to people.
Zeena, if you are reading this, I was in love with you. I hope you know that. It could have been great. I would have dumped who I was with for you at the time in a cold minute. I hope you are well.
Ryan Stone, I used to give you a hard time, but you were cool people. Thanks for putting up with my practical jokes.
Funniest thing I ever did there, in the 80's: I was doing mornings, and came in 2 hrs early to clean up the prod room. Couldn't sleep. I killed my lights at the end of Ralph Avenue and crept around the back of the building. Looking in the control room window, I saw the jock yakking on the phone with his back turned. I banged on the window with the flat of my hand, hard. Made a noise like to wake the dead. The poor guy shot straight up out of the chair, did a 360 in midair, and landed back in the chair white as a sheet and grabbing his chest. Sweet! ;D
I work in Fall River, MA, now, at WSAR-AM. The station's physical plant reminds me a LOT of KSTN, so I find myself thinking of that shop a lot lately.
Them were some damn good times.
I wouldn't trade my time there for anything.
Tossup between that and nights at KWG-AM being the most fun I ever had on the air.
And the stuff about Reverend Crosby falling asleep on the air is true!
It is, as many in this thread have said, the end of an era.

Hey Eddie, Weren't you afraid of being shot at while riding your bike to KSTN? As I can recall, in order to get to the studios at KSTN which were on Ralph Avenue must of required you to ride down South Airport Way which is a pretty rough part of town especially around Ralph Lee White's Mini Market at Airport and 8TH Street. A friend of mine was CARJACKED at that intersection.

 

[Madmansam]

Nice to see so many familiar names on here! Hello, Jay, Eddie, Jeremy.

Madmansam, we MUST know each other! Obviously, you've worked in this market for a while, or at least kept good tabs on it.

I also never had the "pleasure" to work at KSTN, which is why I remember Knox fondly. LOL! Like most people in the Valley, I've known many, many jocks who have worked there over the years and know many fun & outrageous stories!!!

It is indeed the end of an era.

Hi Johnny! I haven't met you but I know of you. By chance do you know a ROBERT BERTANI who used to work at KWG?

 

[Madmansam]

I am surprised the KSTN sale hasn't been reported in THE STOCKTON RECORD newspaper? Gotta get ahold of Record columnist, MICHAEL FITZGERALD. This story would be perfect for his column.

 

[gibby88]

Interesting that there aren't that many stories about how creepy Knox Larue was as an owner....(or just as a human being in general)

Several people I worked at at other stations had spent time at KSTN in the mid 70's...stories they told included Knox spying on jocks on the request line and business line from extensions in his office...

That sounds like classic Knox.

 

[davideduardo]

This has already been addressed by the new owners' engineering staff ... remember: this is a grandfathered C-1 you're talking about here. The same rules don't apply.

I was wrong on the contour.... a B's booster can backfill the 54dbu contour. And make no mistake, KSTN is a B. It's not a C-1.

The real issue is that the listening to FMs at home or at work (where we have full ZIP code analysis) is 80% to 85% in the 70 dbu, and fully 95% is in the 64 dbu contour. There is pretty much no listening outside the 64 dbu, and even with boosters, KSTN is not going to gain much population via boosters and probably would benefit more trying to move the site, if they can without losing the grandfathered facility. Trying to fire higher power from the Peninsula towards the foothills is really risky, as it could cause all kinds of interference with the main signal.

The boosters can be at most about 1600 watts ERP. Not much.

FCC Rule.

Service Contour Requirements. The service contour of an FM booster facility must remain within the predicted service contour of the main station. For all booster stations relaying a noncommercial educational FM primary station, and for all boosters relaying a commercial FM primary station except Class B and B1 commercial stations), the 60 dBu (1 mV/m) F(50,50) contour of the booster facility must be wholly encompassed by the 60 dBu F(50,50) contour of the primary station. For booster stations relaying the programming of a Class B commercial FM station, the 54 dBu (0.5 mV/m) F(50,50) contour of the booster station must be encompassed by the 54 dBu F(50,50) contour of the primary station.

Effective Radiated Power. The maximum permitted effective radiated power (ERP) for an FM booster station is 20% of the primary station's effective radiated power. See 47 CFR Section 74.1235(c).

 

[davideduardo]

As I remember a booster may be up to 20 per cent of the class of the channel, in this case 20 per cent of 50Kw is 10Kw. Can you imagine a 10Kw covering S.F. and San Jose?

It's 20% of the ERP of the station being boosted, or around 1600 watts.

 

[djj]

I am surprised the KSTN sale hasn't been reported in THE STOCKTON RECORD newspaper? Gotta get ahold of Record columnist, MICHAEL FITZGERALD. This story would be perfect for his column.

I don't know if he's still at The Record (he was 3 years ago), but another columnist who'd be
great in covering this story would be Scott Linesburgh, a KSJC alumnus with Milford, Garcia,
me, and countless others...
I am stunned that there has been NO mention of KSTN in that paper, either...
--jay

 

[milford]

Hi Johnny! I haven't met you but I know of you. By chance do you know a ROBERT BERTANI who used to work at KWG?
[/quote]

Hey, madmansam. I've been wracking my brain, trying to figure out who you are! Same for Tube Shortwave!

Anyway, based on the timeline, I thought for sure we must've crossed paths at Rock 104.1, but perhaps you came on after I left for KWG. Yes, I do know Bob Bertani and run into him every once in-a-while.

I am surprised the KSTN sale hasn't been reported in THE STOCKTON RECORD newspaper? Gotta get ahold of Record columnist, MICHAEL FITZGERALD. This story would be perfect for his column.

Actually, I sent the All Access article to Mike Fitzgerald early last week, as well as a couple of other reporters, but still no word of it in The Record. Mike did reply to me Monday morning, stating that he had been on vacation and would look into it. Nothing yet.

 

[Burgess]

Johnny Milford....

I hear that voice all over the place. I used to work with you at Silverado, waaaaaaaaaay back in the day. Like 1995. KMIX Country 100.9, Sammy (something) in the morning, then Tom Sisneros, Ken Carr, and me....I went by Billy the Kid....i hate that name.


Freakin' Bob!!

 

[milford]

Johnny Milford....

I hear that voice all over the place. I used to work with you at Silverado, waaaaaaaaaay back in the day. Like 1995. KMIX Country 100.9, Sammy (something) in the morning, then Tom Sisneros, Ken Carr, and me....I went by Billy the Kid....i hate that name.


Freakin' Bob!!

Hey, Jeremy!

I remember you well. Last I heard you were working at The Fish up there in Sac. Hope all is well. Hard to believe it's been 13 years since the KMIX days. I still keep in touch with all those guys on occasion, even Sammy Cruise, who's down in Bakersfield. Even Freakin' Bob!!! LOL! Nice to hear from you.