Fresno / Central Valley What Happened to KAZB-FM 94.3 Bishop CA?

[JAV-Radio]

KAZB-FM was a new radio station in the Bishop California area (licensed to Wilkerson California) and was a translator of KAVB-FM in Hawthorne Nevada. It now been weeks since I heard the station on 94.3 FM. So, I was wondering if the station has gone off the air permanently or temporarily. The last time I heard the station was when I was in my father's car, instead of picking up KAZB-FM we were picking up KOKO-FM in Kerman California. At first, I thought KAZB-FM switched from Classic Hits to a Spanish Format, but when we got into the middle of town, KAZB came back in. Was the station shutdown due to interference with KOKO-FM? I recently check to see if the radio station switched frequencies, but nothing came up.

 

[K.M. Richards]

Looking at the signal contour map at FCCdata.org, it should be terrain shielded from everywhere other than the immediate area of Bishop. I presume you are within that contour?

Also, checking the contour map at FCCdata.org for the Kerman station, there's zero possibility that either station interferes with the protected contour of the other.

I just checked in LMS and there are no STA requests for silence, so if they went off the air recently, they have 30 days to file for same. Unfortunately, without the dates of when you last heard it and when you noticed it off, I can't speculate further.

 

[JAV-Radio]

Looking at the signal contour map at FCCdata.org, it should be terrain shielded from everywhere other than the immediate area of Bishop. I presume you are within that contour?

Also, checking the contour map at FCCdata.org for the Kerman station, there's zero possibility that either station interferes with the protected contour of the other.

I just checked in LMS and there are no STA requests for silence, so if they went off the air recently, they have 30 days to file for same. Unfortunately, without the dates of when you last heard it and when you noticed it off, I can't speculate further.

I think the exact date when I last heard it was either March 21, 28 or the 5 of May, and the date I noticed it off the air was May 14. Also, I do live in the Bishop Area but none of my radios pick up 94.3, even the radio that originally picked it up clearly. I should say that the KOKO signal was very weak, and we were driving down Line Street, KAZB-FM kicked in when we passed the Yuhubi Nobi Gas Station and was at its strongest downtown when we got to Main Street. but after that the KAZB station got weak again after crossing Main Street.

 

[K.M. Richards]

I think the exact date when I last heard it was either March 21, 28 or the 5 of May, and the date I noticed it off the air was May 14. Also, I do live in the Bishop Area but none of my radios pick up 94.3, even the radio that originally picked it up clearly. I should say that the KOKO signal was very weak, and we were driving down Line Street, KAZB-FM kicked in when we passed the Yuhubi Nobi Gas Station and was at its strongest downtown when we got to Main Street. but after that the KAZB station got weak again after crossing Main Street.

Thanks. That's helpful. (Although I have to take your word about the gas station. 😉)

From the contour maps and what I know about the terrain shielding in that area, I would expect the Kerman 94.3 to be weak, and I would expect it to be non-receivable if the Wilkerson 94.3 was operating. So I think it's a safe bet that the latter is off the air.

It's pretty obvious from your recollection that they went silent sometime between May 5 and May 14. (Duh, right?) So that means that to be compliant with FCC regulations they would have to either resume operations by June 13 (at the outside) or file for a STA to remain silent. So we have a little over two weeks to wait and see what's going on there. As I don't know how deep your knowledge goes, I will point out that the STA request filing has to include a reason for being silent so once it's filed we should know more.

BTW, the Las Vegas address listed on the station records is not the actual corporate address. They're actually in Scranton PA, if the address on the original application is accurate.