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Transmitter issues in the Seattle area

e-dawg said:
I think there was a time that KUOW could move to Cougar or West Tiger Mountain, but the owner decided to stay on Capitol Hill.
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And I can give you three simple reasons why they shouldn't:

1. Rent alone on Cougar or WTM will cost the station close to $250,000 annually. And that doesn't include fees for using a multi-user antenna system. Right now they pay nothing.

2. Construction/moving costs would be pushing $750K.

3. In spite of how you perceive their signal performs; KUOW has remained top five 25-54 M-F for several years. If you were the GM, would you stake a bet that spending a million dollars in the first year, plus the significant ongoing operating expenses for at least the next ten years, will pay for itself over what you have now?
 
fordranger797 said:
Any of the broadcasting companies with equipment located on Tiger or Cougar do care about listeners in Everett and Snohomish County. Cougar and Tiger are some of the best locations for broadcasting in this region, but unfortunately, there are dead spots to the north and south of the Seattle metropolitan area. In general, Cougar is closer to the metropolitan area and allows for better service in King County as a whole (as Kelly mentioned), with the only real exception being highway 18 behind the shadow of Tiger Mountain. The majority of listeners will be located in this county, therefore making technical changes to improve coverage in Everett or Olympia are not part of their consideration. While some of these stations may have reception problems this far away from Seattle, many people tune in anyway, and these listeners probably don't notice these coverage issues as much as those of us who are hyperaware might. Also, both Everett and Olympia have some of their own radio stations that are separate from the Seattle market, indicative that these areas are toward the fringe of the market where strong city-grade coverage isn't essential from a business standpoint. As for KUOW, they provide great coverage in the City of Seattle, but I agree, their signal is horrendous outside of the city. This isn't a television post, but it's the same story with KIRO, KING, KOMO, or any of the Seattle TV broadcasters using Queen Ann or even Capitol Hill.

I'm not an engineer, but that is my $0.02 for all that it's worth.
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This might be true, but can tell you that when I was little, I could seldom tolerate any kind of static on the radio. This is how I remember 96.5 was on Cougar at one point, though I can't remember when they moved. I used to love that station when it was KYPT, but we usually changed it going north of Everett because of those issues downtown. If I remember correctly, we also used to flip away from KBSG to KLSY at some point in the drive up to Camano Island, but can't think of where that was now. I had no idea at the time where the towers were, but I sure did care about the signal.
 
bobdavcav said:
This might be true, but can tell you that when I was little, I could seldom tolerate any kind of static on the radio. This is how I remember 96.5 was on Cougar at one point, though I can't remember when they moved. I used to love that station when it was KYPT, but we usually changed it going north of Everett because of those issues downtown. If I remember correctly, we also used to flip away from KBSG to KLSY at some point in the drive up to Camano Island, but can't think of where that was now. I had no idea at the time where the towers were, but I sure did care about the signal.
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Could that be due to your heightened sense of hearing? Most people can care less. If a station fades to noise for too long, they switch somewhere else. But they'll be back.
 
bobdavcav said:
This might be true, but can tell you that when I was little, I could seldom tolerate any kind of static on the radio. This is how I remember 96.5 was on Cougar at one point, though I can't remember when they moved. I used to love that station when it was KYPT, but we usually changed it going north of Everett because of those issues downtown. If I remember correctly, we also used to flip away from KBSG to KLSY at some point in the drive up to Camano Island, but can't think of where that was now. I had no idea at the time where the towers were, but I sure did care about the signal.
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That may be true, but that doesn't necessarily mean that listeners on the fringe of a station's coverage map won't listen. Let's use Lewis county as an example. If you're living down in the twin cities, chances are you are not going to any more than a marginal signal from any Seattle station. However, lots of people living this far away from the market still listen. If there is programming that a listener wants to hear, they may put up with a marginal signal up to a certain extent.
 
fordranger797 said:
That may be true, but that doesn't necessarily mean that listeners on the fringe of a station's coverage map won't listen. Let's use Lewis county as an example. If you're living down in the twin cities, chances are you are not going to any more than a marginal signal from any Seattle station. However, lots of people living this far away from the market still listen. If there is programming that a listener wants to hear, they may put up with a marginal signal up to a certain extent.
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I know in Lewis County twin cities (Centralia & Chehalis) can pick up both Portland and Seattle radio signals.
 
For some formats, Lewis County residents rely on locals (classic rock - KRQT, country - KMNT, hot AC/current - KITI-FM). However some formats like classical are spotty, the nearest being KVTI 90.9 when they are not in Morning Edition, All Things Considered or other specialty NPR shows.
It's a packed dial nevertheless down there, with Portland and Seattle battling away.
 
I know, in the Chehalis-Centralia area, you can be certain that Seattle stations are .2 MHZ about Portland stations. i.e. 92.3 KGON, 92.5 KMVQ, 93.9 KPDQ, 94.1 KSWD, 95.5 KBFF, 95.7 KJR-FM, etc.
 
Yes, though there are a few exceptions, 100.5 is a KITI-AM translator with KKRZ at 100.3 and KKWF at 100.7. Also 100.9 is open, and I don't think there's anything at 101.3 there either. There is a 101.7 local down there, as well as a 102.3 translator. Also there's a 99.7 translator relaying 97.7, the first-adjacent to KWJJ on the other side actually comes from South Mountain. Also there's nothing at 103.5 in that area, Seattle, Portland, or local. There's a local 104.3 there though. Speaking of that area, wasn't there a CP at one time for a 92.9 licensed to Napavine? Seems like that would be a pretty tight fit, but I seem to remember something about it a few years ago.
 
Yes, the band is quite full down in Lewis County, with very little spacing. Back to the original point, if you're looking for a Seattle station that far away from the Seattle Metro area, chances are you're really not going to notice any real difference between a Tiger signal and a Cougar signal. To all of us radio nerds, we might say that the Tiger stations sound better, but anyone who wants to listen to Star 101.5 will listen anyway as long as the signal isn't too noisy. As Kelly was trying to say, Cougar is a better broadcast location, as you get a better signal into Seattle while maintaining appropriate coverage to the outlying areas.
 
bobdavcav said:
Yes, though there are a few exceptions, 100.5 is a KITI-AM translator with KKRZ at 100.3 and KKWF at 100.7. Also 100.9 is open, and I don't think there's anything at 101.3 there either. There is a 101.7 local down there, as well as a 102.3 translator. Also there's a 99.7 translator relaying 97.7, the first-adjacent to KWJJ on the other side actually comes from South Mountain. Also there's nothing at 103.5 in that area, Seattle, Portland, or local. There's a local 104.3 there though. Speaking of that area, wasn't there a CP at one time for a 92.9 licensed to Napavine? Seems like that would be a pretty tight fit, but I seem to remember something about it a few years ago.
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You made me think of something only slightly off topic: I always thought it interesting that there were three 1470s between Centralia and Vancouver B.C.
 
Well, there's Moses Lake I suppose
 
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