Waterloo Changes in Austin

[txchipk]

That would have been the original KHFI on 98.3 in the late 1980s, which was a Class A at the time. After its big upgrade to a Class C1 on 98.1 the CHR format only went a year or so before the signal was LMA’d to KVET.

After the flip of 98.1 to Country as KVET-FM the KBTS ownership tried to move the now available KHFI call out of the Austin market to one of their stations in California. The owners of Classic Hits KQFX 96.7 successfully petitioned to block that, and wound up with the call themselves to go with their flip to CHR as the “new” KHFI.

I was going to school at A&M at the time. With the move of KHFI to KQFX, I was finally able to hear them in College Station since the old 98.3 and 98.1 facilities were blocked by local KORA 98.3.

I made a tape in mid-September 1990 of the format migrating when the top 40 format simulcast briefly on both 98.1 and 96.7 to move K98.1 to K96.7.

The KHFI calls didn't follow for a month. The new KVET/KHFI simulcasted as "K-Vet Country 98 KVET" but had the awkward legal ID of "KHFI Austin becoming KVET Austin" until the KHFI calls moved to 96.7 and 98.1 became KVET-FM.

1990 was really the year that LMAs became a thing since it became a way to skirt around the limitation at the time of being capped at 1 AM and 1 FM. KVET/KASE leasing KHFI was one of the first ones. Capstar beat it by setting up one in Jackson MS. Down the road, KONO/KSRR leased out KFAN-FM to turn it into KONO-FM.

 

[Ryan Williams]

Was KORA always an underpowered Class A?

 

[Kent]

That would have been the original KHFI on 98.3 in the late 1980s, which was a Class A at the time. After its big upgrade to a Class C1 on 98.1 the CHR format only went a year or so before the signal was LMA’d to KVET.

KHFI wasn’t on 98.1 long enough to do much damage to KBTS, but, yes, the lower powered 98.3 signal was definitely an impediment to KHFI's success. I only remember KHFI being on 98.1 for about six months, maybe even less. Encore, which I seem to remember was backed by one of the telcos, was already trying to get out of radio. By the time KHFI upgraded, it just saw the upgrade as a way to get more money when it cashed out its investment. It also had KTON/KTQN in Killeen/Temple. As you might remember, KTQN became KYZZ and kept the CHR format it had under Encore but threw up the “Oldies Channel” from Unistar about a year later due to financial pressures. Encore did CHR on all of its FM's, and it really programmed them well. Sadly, within a year of exiting the business, all of its CHR's were gone.

After the flip of 98.1 to Country as KVET-FM the KBTS ownership tried to move the now available KHFI call out of the Austin market to one of their stations in California. The owners of Classic Hits KQFX 96.7 successfully petitioned to block that, and wound up with the call themselves to go with their flip to CHR as the “new” KHFI.

Seems like Genesis/Booth was going to put the KHFI calls on 1380 in Sacramento. From what I'd heard, Rusk, which bought the new KHFI and took over KBTS in an LMA, offered Genesis/Booth KHFI when the LMA ended and couldn’t believe it declined. It ended up selling KHFI to Clear Channel instead. Secret had ready made duopolies in both San Antonio and Austin and just walked away. Like I said, that never made sense to me.

 

[Kent]

1990 was really the year that LMAs became a thing since it became a way to skirt around the limitation at the time of being capped at 1 AM and 1 FM. KVET/KASE leasing KHFI was one of the first ones. Capstar beat it by setting up one in Jackson MS. Down the road, KONO/KSRR leased out KFAN-FM to turn it into KONO-FM.

Seems like the same company that executed the first successful LMA with Capstar in Jackson was the one that bought KHFI from Encore. When that deal was announced, speculation immediately began that KHFI's days were numbered.

 

[txchipk]

Seems like the same company that executed the first successful LMA with Capstar in Jackson was the one that bought KHFI from Encore. When that deal was announced, speculation immediately began that KHFI's days were numbered.

Correct.

Spur owned WSLI-FM 96.3 Jackson and Capstar LMAed it to get WJDX 620 to FM. Spur then acquired KHFI and thus it became another spot to lease out.

 

[txchipk]

Was KORA always an underpowered Class A?

Yes, ever since it signed on in 1966.

The first commercial FM in B/CS was WTAW-FM 92.1 College Station (the present day KNDE 95.1). It started tested in the summer of 1964 and went on the air on August 8 1964. Its original format was MOR and "light classical music" from 7AM to Midnight.

The market was all class As when I started at A&M -- 92.1 (then KTSR), the odd combo of Spanish-language mornings and R&B the rest of the day KHRN 94.3 Hearne (now KVJM 103.1), KORA, and KKYS then at 104.9. It exploded when the FCC created the C2 class and allowed any frequency to house any class. Earlier in the year I diagramed how the dial has changed since those 4 stations and KAMU-FM to now: Aggieland: Home Of The 12th Station. I dug deep as I could into KNDE's past in this one: Radio This Week Back Then #29: August 4-10.

 

[b-turner]

I was in Bryan/College Station from 1984v to early 1987 when it was KTAW 92.1, a CHR "Maximum Hits 92-K". The AM, 1150 WTAW, was country.

 

[txchipk]

I was in Bryan/College Station from 1984v to early 1987 when it was KTAW 92.1, a CHR "Maximum Hits 92-K". The AM, 1150 WTAW, was country.

I missed the 92K days...it flipped to KTSR in the spring and I started in the fall.

 

[b-turner]

You may have known one of my coworkers, John Thomas (real name Ted Roberts)

 

[Mediafrog+]

I was going to school at A&M at the time. With the move of KHFI to KQFX, I was finally able to hear them in College Station since the old 98.3 and 98.1 facilities were blocked by local KORA 98.3.

The old KHFI Class A signal on 98.3 had very modest coverage, getting out perhaps 30 miles on a car radio, IIRC.

 

[txchipk]

The old KHFI Class A signal on 98.3 had very modest coverage, getting out perhaps 30 miles on a car radio, IIRC.

I remember....same with KPEZ 102.3 until it got its class A->C2 upgrade. Ditto the suburban class As KGTN-FM 96.7 Georgetown and KSSR 107.1 Bastrop. 96.7 first got to 96.5 as a C2, but the KHMX and KLTG co-channel propagation from the Gulf was problematic and they moved back to 96.7, but as a C1, after forcing the Marlin 96.7 to 92.9. KLTD sited the same issue with KODA and KRYS-FM in their move from 99. 1 to 98.9.

 

[254dan]

Could someone answer something I’ve been wondering about for sometime now? So Waterloo took 93.3 off the Bertram tower and moved the broadcast to the tower cluster northwest of Austin right? So why are sites like radio-locator.com and fccdata.org saying that 93.3 is still broadcasting from the Bertram tower when they’re not? And what was up with Waterloo switching the signal back and forth between the Austin and Bertram tower a few years back?

 

[txchipk]

Could someone answer something I’ve been wondering about for sometime now? So Waterloo took 93.3 off the Bertram tower and moved the broadcast to the tower cluster northwest of Austin right? So why are sites like radio-locator.com and fccdata.org saying that 93.3 is still broadcasting from the Bertram tower when they’re not? And what was up with Waterloo switching the signal back and forth between the Austin and Bertram tower a few years back?

The facility off the Bertram tower is the current licensed facility. Even on the FCC's own query returns that as the current facility...

https://transition.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/fmq?call=KGSR&fileno=&state=&city=&freq=88.1&fre2=107.9&serv=&status=&facid=&asrn=&class=&list=0&ThisTab=Results+to+This+Page%2FTab&dist=&dlat2=&mlat2=&slat2=&NS=N&dlon2=&mlon2=&slon2=&EW=W&size=9

They filed to move it to northwest Austin as a C2 in 2018, but the application was cancelled. It looks like they filed various STAs but none are active and the applications don't show.

 

[254dan]

The facility off the Bertram tower is the current licensed facility. Even on the FCC's own query returns that as the current facility...

https://transition.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/fmq?call=KGSR&fileno=&state=&city=&freq=88.1&fre2=107.9&serv=&status=&facid=&asrn=&class=&list=0&ThisTab=Results+to+This+Page%2FTab&dist=&dlat2=&mlat2=&slat2=&NS=N&dlon2=&mlon2=&slon2=&EW=W&size=9

They filed to move it to northwest Austin as a C2 in 2018, but the application was cancelled. It looks like they filed various STAs but none are active and the applications don't show.

So upon looking at what you sent me, it appears they’re using the northwest Austin tower as a back up, but the Bertram tower is still supposed to be the main tower, strange.

 

[txchipk]

So upon looking at what you sent me, it appears they’re using the northwest Austin tower as a back up, but the Bertram tower is still supposed to be the main tower, strange.

Based on what the FCC shows, yes. The NW Austin site is just an auxiliary site. The application to use it as the primary site was dismissed.

Now, when the FCC moved to the current application system and set of databases, some of the data from the old CDBS database is mixed up or missing...in particular, some of the call letter change histories are scrambled. So, it is possible the FCC queries -- and thus what radio-locator.com, fccdata.org, fccinfo.com also show since they just extract out of the FCC databases -- are missing data. I don't know if that is the case here or not.

 

[254dan]

Based on what the FCC shows, yes. The NW Austin site is just an auxiliary site. The application to use it as the primary site was dismissed.

Now, when the FCC moved to the current application system and set of databases, some of the data from the old CDBS database is mixed up or missing...in particular, some of the call letter change histories are scrambled. So, it is possible the FCC queries -- and thus what radio-locator.com, fccdata.org, fccinfo.com also show since they just extract out of the FCC databases -- are missing data. I don't know if that is the case here or not.

Ahhhh ok well thank you for that.

 

[theantennaguy]

I believe this is the seventh flip/tweak since KGSR moved off of 93.3 in March 2019 alone.

Soft AC "Star 93.3"
Hot AC "Star 93.3"
CHR "93.3 Austin"
Hot AC "93.3 Austin"
Hot AC "Lucy 93.3"
Spanish CHR "Latino 93.3"
Rhythmic Throwbacks "Vibe 93.3"

And it will probably change many times more as a station that wants to serve Austin but geographically can't adequately cover. That station should've stayed 93.3 KIXS Killeen where it covered all the way from Waco Brownwood and sometimes even up to Abilene.

 

[Kent]

And it will probably change many times more as a station that wants to serve Austin but geographically can't adequately cover. That station should've stayed 93.3 KIXS Killeen where it covered all the way from Waco Brownwood and sometimes even up to Abilene.

Its signal has problems to the south (which the downgrade and move to West Lake Hills wouldn’t fix), but moving into Austin was always a better idea than staying in Killeen. It was actually a successful rimshot when it first moved into Austin as that was before so much of the growth happened toward the south.

As you might remember, much of the KIXS programming moved to 105.5 Harker Heights/Killeen after 93.3’s move to Austin. KIXS was gone altogether by the end of 1990. Granted, that was a much weaker signal, but that would still likely have been 93.3’s fate had it remained in Killeen.

 

[txchipk]

And it will probably change many times more as a station that wants to serve Austin but geographically can't adequately cover. That station should've stayed 93.3 KIXS Killeen where it covered all the way from Waco Brownwood and sometimes even up to Abilene.

More revenue potential targeting market #28 than market #128, even if you are a rimshot.

It's also why KLTD 99.3 Lampasas followed the same path as 93.3 (now KUTX 98.9). Beaumont/Port Arthur lost half its FM dial when KYKR 93.3, KAYD 97.5, KHYS 98.5, and KWIC 107.9 all moved to a big stick to the west to rimshot Houston for the same reason.

 

[jras20]

On KLZT HD signal HD-2 is Mega 97.1 and HD-3 is K293BF 106.5.