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Ventura County: 1520 and 1590 Swap Call Letters, Formats

J

Joey1986

When I was in North Hollywood today, I was flipping through the AM stations on my car radio, and upon tuning to Port Hueneme-licensed 1520, I heard that frequency stunting with a loop telling listeners to find all their KVTA programming on 1590, interspersed with a deeper voice speed-reading "KUNX-AM Port Hueneme." So this means that the KVTA call letters, along with the news/talk format, moved to 1590; while the KUNX call letters, previously on 1590, moved to 1520.

Couldn't find any news articles on this swap, but Wikipedia's (for what it's worth) article on KVTA claims that the two stations swapped frequencies because 1590 has a better signal (5 kW day and night), whereas 1520 is licensed to broadcast at 10 kW daytime, 1 kW nighttime.

Wonder what the new format for 1520 is going to be?

Meanwhile, last month, co-owned KKZZ-AM 1400 Santa Paula flipped to Spanish-language news/talk Radio Fórmula. Before that, KKZZ was mainly a simulcast of KVTA's programming, when it was on 1520.
 
LARadioRewind said:
Radio Fórmula Network programming ( http://www.radioformula.com ) used to be on 1400, then moved to 1590 in 2008, and is now back on 1400. (Aaggh, all those numbers!)

K.M. Richards, who I've found to be a smart guy---in the best sense of the adjective---speculates that 1520 may go dark because of the expense of repairing damage to the radial lines of the tower:

http://radioinsight.com/blog/headlines/81171/ventura-ams-play-musical-chairs/
Click to expand...

Makes sense because the only "stunting" they have been doing for a few weeks now has been a tape loop promoting 1590. I would have thought that the new format would be on by now.
 
Arbitron surveys the Oxnard-Ventura market only twice a year, but in the most recent figures (fall 2012), KVTA had a 2.8% audience share and KUNX had only a 1.0. The market has a 12+ population of 420,000; more than half (212,700) are Spanish. Obviously there weren't many of those 212,700 listening to KUNX!
 
Listened to 1520 every day-only place in the San Fernando Valley you could hear Beck and Levin live. (Thanks KRLA and KABC) Hard to believe but could they be getting ready to start selling sports or Spanish programming in 1520. 1590 is unlistenable next to the unlistenable 1580.

Maybe Gold Coast will put KCAQ in 1520.

Taking off the air due to antenna system damage? Heck, I don't think they ever made their nite DA switch on time. Regularly heard em on their daytime non-DA until 8PM in December. Dark out side = 1520 loud and clear. Let see, Oh!!!Tonight at 8:30PM, they were not audible, guess they got that nite pattern think-a-ma-jig switched on.
 
How long has it been since 1520 dropped daytime power to 10,000 watts from 50,000?

And that was because they didn't want to pay the power bill for putting out 50,000 watts?
 
The switch back to 10kw happened a long time ago. I think it was because the 10kw signal actually covered more people in the market where the 50kw was wasted mostly out to sea.
 
...and they (KACY) chose an RCA AmpliPhase, which had great audio response, but required internal RF alignment
procedures on a regular basis. Between the TX and tight antenna pattern maintenance, going back to 10kw
was/is the most cost effective.
 
LARadioRewind said:
The market has a 12+ population of 420,000; more than half (212,700) are Spanish.
Click to expand...

The Census for 2010 shows less than 0.01% Spanish origin population.

Obviously there weren't many of those 212,700 listening to KUNX!
Click to expand...

Hispanics, for whom KONX was programmed, listen to AM even less than Non-Hispanic whites. That's why in Mexico, 85% of AM stations are being eliminated, for example. The second largest Hispanic population group in SoCal, Salvadorans, similarly reject AM: in El Salvador, about 75% of commercial AMs are gone, and half the remaining ones are Evangelical religious stations.
 
On the subject of Ventura County radio, a friend just informed me that KRRF, 106.3 "The Surf", has abandoned its classic-rock format. I can't hear the station here in Glendale. Apparently the last song played was Queen's Another One Bites The Dust and the station's "Listen live" link-- http://player.streamtheworld.com/_players/citadel/?sid=22746 --is not connecting, nor is the link at http://tunein.com/radio/The-Surf-1063-s33594/

Is the station off the air now? Does anyone know what the new format will be and when it will debut?
 
Hello, me. Let me answer my own question. I don't know if the 106.3 call letters have changed but the Ventura County station is now known as "Classic Hits 106.3" and they play 1960s-70s-80s. They signed on last night (April 1) and are playing 10,006 songs in a row. I'm guessing that there aren't 10,006 different songs---not in today's world of corporate radio. :-\
 
LARadioRewind said:
Hello, me. Let me answer my own question. I don't know if the 106.3 call letters have changed but the Ventura County station is now known as "Classic Hits 106.3" and they play 1960s-70s-80s. They signed on last night (April 1) and are playing 10,006 songs in a row. I'm guessing that there aren't 10,006 different songs---not in today's world of corporate radio. :-\
Click to expand...

10,006 songs in a row = yawn (I've got several satellite and internet stations that do much more).

10,006 different songs in a row = a good reason to tune in (and stay tuned in).

Of course, given those choices, we all know which one they'll go with.
 
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