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The Vine is Going Away…

seattlesarchiebunker

seattlesarchiebunker

Surprised this hasn’t happened earlier, but KVIN 920/107.1/92.3 has been sold. No clue on when the oldies format is going away, but it’s been on autopilot since before the pandemic. Hardly any commercials…I’m sure KRVR’s revenue has been shoring the station up.

Anyway, get your 50’s and 60’s pop in now…might not come back in this neck of the woods!
 
Threshold will be down to just two stations. KRVR and a Class A (KORJ) near Medford, Oregon which plays only instrumentals and PSAs, surviving on listener donations. Threshold recently ended a long-running battle with Premier (of Centralia WA) by selling the construction permit of KVNW Napavine for $250K.

My question: Can Punjabi-American somehow consolidate the Lodi and Ceres AM outlets into one operation, keeping all the FM translators alive? I suspect something falls out the 25-mile or daytime contour limits.

An interesting side note, Punjabi-American also was one of the early bidders in Auction 109 for the Earlimart 93.5A. I am sure more Central Valley properties are on that group's radar screen.
 
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I’ll have to listen after work to see if 107.1 is broadcasting anything. I’m assuming not if they’re following the rules
 
The assignment was filed on 11/18/2022. There is nothing showing for a LMA so I would expect that the programming will stay the same until the sale is approved by the FCC and the sale in consummated by the two parties.
 
This is one of the better oldies stations also. I normally think limiting a format to old music is a waste, but this one plays a lot of obscure tracks that you might not have heard in a long time, rather than repeating "Stand by Me" or "Heard it Through the Grapevine" ad naseum.
 
Threshold had to submit an amendment on their transfer filing ( 12/30). It was a market listing for Modesto. With the paperwork resolved, the sale should be quickly processed.
 
When KYNO gets back to full 50,000 watts (hopefully soon), it'll still be covering the central valley during the day and most of the state at night with oldies on 940am.
 
Camron Fry said:
When KYNO gets back to full 50,000 watts (hopefully soon), it'll still be covering the central valley during the day and most of the state at night with oldies on 940am.
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What's happened to KYNO. I didn't know they were not at full power. I'm too close to tell a difference.
 
mofocat said:
What's happened to KYNO. I didn't know they were not at full power. I'm too close to tell a difference.
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the story I heard was copper theft of the grounding system at the transmitter site. I'm up in the Sacramento valley area and they used to boom in here at night. Now, it's VERY faded and sometimes nonexistent.....so, I'm assuming they haven't resolved that issue yet (very costly as I understand). I wish them luck with it. I very much enjoy the station!
 
Camron Fry said:
the story I heard was copper theft of the grounding system at the transmitter site. I'm up in the Sacramento valley area and they used to boom in here at night. Now, it's VERY faded and sometimes nonexistent.....so, I'm assuming they haven't resolved that issue yet (very costly as I understand). I wish them luck with it. I very much enjoy the station!
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Ouch!! Big bummer! That would be a lot of copper! I wonder how much they've had to reduce power. I guess a grant of an STA would state that.
 
mofocat said:
Ouch!! Big bummer! That would be a lot of copper! I wonder how much they've had to reduce power. I guess a grant of an STA would state that.
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The standard is 120 copper radials, one every 3°, generally a length equal to or greater than the height of the tower. If the land is smaller, the radials may be shorter.

The gauge of the copper can vary, but in general you'd expect #10 copper, as any thicker is very expensive and thinner is more fragile to lay in trenches. Everything I built was #10, but I would imagine some of the "big" stations in a better era may have used heavier wire..


The ground radials form the other "half" of the tower circuit, and RF tends to travel along the surface (look up "skin effect"). Many engineers believe that burial too deep reduces efficiency. I have no empirical data on that.

Length of radials: Best practice is to get as much copper in the ground as possible. Especially with a short tower as it helps bandwidth and match. The reason insulated wire works is that the radials are one half of a dipole antenna--the other half is the insulated tower. Think of the old 1/4 wave vertical CB antennas with the drooping "ground plane." If you are limited in tower height because of zoning, air port, etc. you can compensate (to a degree) by running longer radials in the ground.

Some data condensed from The Virtual Engineer - Broadcast Engineering Forums - Index page

I have ground-up built over a dozen AMs as well as moving or rebuilding a few more. I'm not anywhere near being a skilled technician, but I'm fairly good at searching the Internet. 🤔
 
brettbutlerisok said:
I'm kinda surprised all of this hasn't make the news at all!
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I'm not. This certainly isn't the kind of thing I'd want my advertisers knowing about if it were my station. I also wouldn't want to make it known to other would be thieves that the land underneath these towers are loaded with copper that could be scrapped and sold.
 
Big D said:
The STA is for 12.5kw ND.
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Correct. Looks like the are running off of tower #2 for the time being. I can still receive it up here at night, but nowhere near as strong as it used to be. I have the adjacent KAHI at 950 near me which makes it difficult to hear them at this lower wattage. According to the STA, it looks like they're having to deal with their insurance company and the like.... so this could take them some time. I hope it goes well. They are an uniquity on the dial.
 
Another key to this transaction is ... land. Threshold owns the transmitter site on the western outskirts of Modesto (off Paradise Road near the Tuolumne River) which had to be an important part of the deal, considering the stations that have gone dark recently because of lost transmitter sites.

As of right now (4 PM Pacific on 14 February 2023) KVIN is still broadcasting its quirky Oldies/Standards format over the air on 920 AM. I'm going to miss it when it's gone, and I'm grateful that Jim and Doug kept it going for as long as they did.

DJ


KVIN 920 (Daytime Pattern 2020).jpg

KVIN 920 (Transmitter Site 2020).jpg
 
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