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Tucson FM for sale/ KEVT off again

landtuna said:
Interesting but not real helpful due to relatively ambiguous location descriptions. No matter (see previous post), those north Swan Road towers are not in current use. I am real surprised that the residents of the foothills haven't gone out there with grinders and chopped them down.
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Ambiguous is good enough - pull the FCC data for minutiae, as desired.

Pima County Wireless Integrated Network is the major tenant there - city owns the dirt there - stories from 2013:

https://www.kold.com/story/22090011/familiar-radio-tower-taken-down/

https://www.kold.com/story/22093445/case-of-the-disappearing-radio-towersolved/

...and old Fybush article:

https://www.fybush.com/sites/2010/site-100903.html
 
Appears transaction took place c. 1995
 
CAVEMANager said:
I'm told by a reliable source that the station for sale is a 150 watt translator. Its signal would be slightly worse than K-DRY on 101.7. But in order to use this translator the buyer would either need to own an existing Tucson area station or lease one. One possibility might be to buy 1210 or 1330 and use it to feed audio to the translator.
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The listing has little information, but it does claim to be a full-power commercial FM, which would rule out any translators.

I have absolutely no inside information, but if i was to take a guess based on what was mentioned it would be it would be KWCX-FM (CP for 104.9) or possibly KZLZ (CP for 105.3).

That listing website routinely has old facility listings that have long been sold.
 
One thing I've never understood is why a person wanting to sell a radio station wouldn't want all prospective buyers to know what station it is. Be that as it may, my informant says that his wife is heavily involved with the station that is for sale so he's in a good position to know. There is little doubt that it is a translator that transmits from the Tucson Mountains communications site.
The attempt to move the Willcox FM on 104.9 to Tucson has been in the works for at least ten years but it never has materialized. Very likely the problem is massive opposition from the company that owns the translator that relays the sports talk station on 1490 A.M. For years that station was owned by Scripps, a company that could afford high priced lawyers in Washington. The new full power FM would require that translator to go silent. I can't see any new attempt to move the Willcox station to Tucson though you should never say "never".
Years ago the owners of the Sierra Vista station on 100.9 tried to move into Tucson but that fizzled. Ted Tucker's company owns 101.7 in Sierra Vista and they do have permission to move to Tucson but curiously it has yet to happen though the construction permit was issued years ago.
 
CAVEMANager said:
One thing I've never understood is why a person wanting to sell a radio station wouldn't want all prospective buyers to know what station it is. Be that as it may, my informant says that his wife is heavily involved with the station that is for sale so he's in a good position to know. There is little doubt that it is a translator that transmits from the Tucson Mountains communications site.
The attempt to move the Willcox FM on 104.9 to Tucson has been in the works for at least ten years but it never has materialized. Very likely the problem is massive opposition from the company that owns the translator that relays the sports talk station on 1490 A.M. For years that station was owned by Scripps, a company that could afford high priced lawyers in Washington. The new full power FM would require that translator to go silent. I can't see any new attempt to move the Willcox station to Tucson though you should never say "never".
Years ago the owners of the Sierra Vista station on 100.9 tried to move into Tucson but that fizzled. Ted Tucker's company owns 101.7 in Sierra Vista and they do have permission to move to Tucson but curiously it has yet to happen though the construction permit was issued years ago.
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If it is just a construction permit then there isn't much harm in being public. When it is an established station, there is reservation for publicizing the station because it could hurt existing cash flow and cause a staff exodus or make hiring more difficult.

With regard to the the 104.9 move-in, Scripps and and now Lotus might object, the construction was already issued and translators are a secondary service which means they do not have full rights and can be displaced. In San Antonio a similar situation just occurred with the licensee of a translator trying to block the move-in of a full power FM on the same channel. The move-in application was approved and the translator has to find somewhere else to go, if there is any spectrum left.

Fortunately for ESPN Tucson, they should be able to move down two channels as 104.5 looks like it might work.

You are right, the listing very well could be for KKYZ.
 
Looks like Ted Tucker already has designs on 104.5 and in 2017 he got a CP to put his Vail station on 104.5. There is no question in my mind that the station to be sold for $650,000 is a translator with 150 watts. I was able to hear the translator clearly almost as far east as Benson so it has a useable signal in most parts of metro Tucson. I don't believe that KKYZ is presently for sale. It is currently top rated in Cochise County and one of the few Tucker stations that isn't losing money. I think that Ted has designs on keeping KKYZ in Sierra Vista and also somehow claiming a nearby frequency in suburban Tucson. Why the Tucson station isn't yet on the air is a mystery. Ted may be experiencing some financial problems.
 
CAVEMANager said:
Looks like Ted Tucker already has designs on 104.5 and in 2017 he got a CP to put his Vail station on 104.5. There is no question in my mind that the station to be sold for $650,000 is a translator with 150 watts. I was able to hear the translator clearly almost as far east as Benson so it has a useable signal in most parts of metro Tucson. I don't believe that KKYZ is presently for sale. It is currently top rated in Cochise County and one of the few Tucker stations that isn't losing money. I think that Ted has designs on keeping KKYZ in Sierra Vista and also somehow claiming a nearby frequency in suburban Tucson. Why the Tucson station isn't yet on the air is a mystery. Ted may be experiencing some financial problems.
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A translator is not a full power station, which the listing says.. this would be gross mis representation by whoever posted that listing.
 
CAVEMANager said:
Looks like Ted Tucker already has designs on 104.5 and in 2017 he got a CP to put his Vail station on 104.5. There is no question in my mind that the station to be sold for $650,000 is a translator with 150 watts. I was able to hear the translator clearly almost as far east as Benson so it has a useable signal in most parts of metro Tucson. I don't believe that KKYZ is presently for sale. It is currently top rated in Cochise County and one of the few Tucker stations that isn't losing money. I think that Ted has designs on keeping KKYZ in Sierra Vista and also somehow claiming a nearby frequency in suburban Tucson. Why the Tucson station isn't yet on the air is a mystery. Ted may be experiencing some financial problems.
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The only Tucson-area Tucker frequency that has been on-air consistently lately is 98.1 Tubac. The other two, 98.5 and 103.7, have been 'dark' for months now.
 
99KTKT said:
The only Tucson-area Tucker frequency that has been on-air consistently lately is 98.1 Tubac. The other two, 98.5 and 103.7, have been 'dark' for months now.
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Of course, it was inevitable: No sooner do I post the above than to discover that today both 98.5 and 103.7 are On air, while 98.1 is not! 98.5 is running public affairs-type talk programs, while 103.7 has the same generic 60s-70s oldies music that it did when it was last on-air last year. Could Tucker be keeping those two frequencies 'legal', while taking 98.1 off temporarily for some reason or other? Will have to keep checking in on those three frequencies to see what happens. Both the 98.5 and 103.7 signals sounded somewhat distorted and 'metallic' (for lack of a better term) today.
 
I've heard 98.1 at early hours of the morning. My suspicion is there's no power problem where the transmitter is located for that station, as opposed to the 98.3 / 103.7 station location.
 
kwthom said:
I've heard 98.1 at early hours of the morning. My suspicion is there's no power problem where the transmitter is located for that station, as opposed to the 98.3 / 103.7 station location.
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From what I've heard/read, the 98.5 (98.3 is an 'old school hip-hop' station not owned by Mr. Tucker)/103.7 transmitters are solar-powered,which is why hey go 'dark' at night when those frequencies are on-air. 98.1 is not. So you would be correct in your 'suspicion'.
 
98.3 is owned by iHeart and plays hip-hop and rap and whatever young Mexicans and blacks are into. 98.3 and 103.7 are owned by companies controlled by Tucker and they are quite possibly the only FM daytimers in the nation. Both transmit from a site just east of Highway 83 that leads from the Interstate to Sonoita. Nearby ranches have commercial power but Tucker would rather not pay to install the power lines. Cheaper to run down at sundown. He has an uncanny ability to get the FCC to disregard its rules including minimum operating schedule. On Monday afternoon I noticed that both 98.5 and 103.7 were off the air. 98.5 is so close to 98.3 that it must be relocated to another frequency before it can be sold at a capital gain. But the needed changes are simply not happening. Meanwhile radio stations lose value almost with every passing day.
 
Wrong frequency noted...

...apologies for my confusion.
 
CAVEMANager said:
98.3 is owned by iHeart and plays hip-hop and rap and whatever young Mexicans and blacks are into. 98.3 and 103.7 are owned by companies controlled by Tucker and they are quite possibly the only FM daytimers in the nation. Both transmit from a site just east of Highway 83 that leads from the Interstate to Sonoita. Nearby ranches have commercial power but Tucker would rather not pay to install the power lines. Cheaper to run down at sundown. He has an uncanny ability to get the FCC to disregard its rules including minimum operating schedule. On Monday afternoon I noticed that both 98.5 and 103.7 were off the air. 98.5 is so close to 98.3 that it must be relocated to another frequency before it can be sold at a capital gain. But the needed changes are simply not happening. Meanwhile radio stations lose value almost with every passing day.
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Again, the Tucker-owned frequency is 98.5,not 98.3. Assume a typo on your first line above. And you are correct regarding 98.3's format. I was confusing it with 97.5, which is the 'old school' hip-hop/rap station.
 
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Nine months after starting this thread, we are now in a position to name the station which was just sold. It is the translator on 92.5 that presently relays an HD side channel of KLPX. The Buyer is Bustos Radio which presently owns 1030 A.M. and 106.3 FM. They paid $450,000 and got terms, $200,000 less than the original asking price. What Bustos will do with this station remains to be seen. One possibility is to relay 1030 on FM which would give the Tucson area right wing political talk on FM. But junk is still junk regardless of what band it's on. Bustos could also go HD on 106.3 and use 92.5 to relay the side channel on analog FM. Or they could keep the arrangement with Lotus and continue to air Mexican music on 92.5. 92.5 is on the Tucson Mountains communications site so its signal is slightly inferior to that of 101.7 which has 250 watts from the same mountain location.
 
CAVEMANager said:
98.3 is owned by iHeart and plays hip-hop and rap and whatever young Mexicans and blacks are into.
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I know this is an old thread, but Hot 98.3 has about half non-Hispanic white listeners. The market is 53% in that category, and less than 4% Black. Yes, it has a lot of Hispanics, but what they are playing are the current rhythmic hits.

And if they are in Tucson and listening to a hip-hop based station in English, they are Americans and Hispanic, not Mexicans.

And it's not just kids. They are, on average, 8th overall. They are 10th in 35-44, so it gets a lot of adults, too.
 
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