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What The(GreensBurg Kansas media)

R

Radiogeek500

I took a look on Radio-Locator and was taken back. One FM and two crappy AMs with pretty much no nightime coverage is all the city could hear? Thank god for Tornado sirens because if Greensburg had to rely on Media, everyone in that town would have been dead.

How the hell did they only get one FM, a Bible Thumper at that?
 
Here's the skinny on Greensburg from someone who used to live 30 miles east of there.

The big AM in Greensburg is KWLS 1290 out of Pratt. Their day (5KW) signal is directional west, and sends out a city grade signal about 50 miles to the west because of the high ground conductivity in that part of the country. The 0.5 mv signal goes to about Garden City. The 500 watt night pattern is a cloverleaf, and how well it can be received in Greensburg depends on weather and other factors (the further north you are, the better the signal). It may only be 500 watts, but I can tell you a lot of stations would kill to have the night coverage KWLS has, such as it is.

The other two close AM's to there are KGNO 1370 out of Dodge City, 5KW non directional day with a good signal coverage and 230 watts at night, also non-directional (and a class B); and KNNS 1510 from Larned, a daytimer at 1KW with 500 watts critical hours.

I think the religious station you mentioned is KKCV, which just went on the air in the past few weeks. It's part of the Bott network out of Kansas City. There are a number of FM signals out there that the maps may not show reaching Greensburg but because of that legendary flat terrain do. That would include the three commercial FM's in Dodge City (all sister stations of KGNO), at least one of the Garden City based FM's plus single stations from Great Bend and Hutchinson (the latter a C0 on a Pratt License). There is also another religious station out of Medicine Lodge (locally programmed) that can be heard there, and there's a translator in the county for a big CCM station based in Meade (also locally programmed).

I don't know what the stations out there did Friday night, but the Wichita TV stations were on top of the storms all night. (The TV market covers about the western 2/3rds of the state) Most everyone there has cable, and can get at least two of the major networks over the air, depending on how big an antenna they have.

NOAA weather radio has a transmitter in Kiowa County.

I do know there has been some talk off and on about trying to improve nighttime radio reception in that part of the state.
 
Thank you for your analysis sir. :)

Like I said, I am very grateful the residents got advanced warning of this, because if it happened any later or there was no warning at all, there could have been complete chaois. They're lucky more lives wern;t lost in this horrific Tornado. It just gave me a great deal of concern that the area was EXTREMELY under radioed(there should be 2 FMs for that area)
 
The fact that the ONLY local FM to Greensburg is an overpowered religious translator speaks volumes about what's wrong with terrestrial radio today.

Used to be, a license applicant had to have a local presence and show service to the community. Now, the highest bidder wins the CP. It's all about the money.

Interesting also how Bott was able to get 102.5 upgraded to a C1. When we investigated the possibillities on this frequency 9 years ago (as a potential purchase/upgrade for KGTR-96.7-Larned), we learned the absolute maximum facilities would be a C2. Even this was dependent on transmitter location, due to spacing issues with 102.5/Goodland and 102.7/Liberal.

Frankly, I'm surprised the KJIL/KHYM folks didn't make some noise about this. Especially since KKCV city-grades their home market of Dodge City.

LKidd is correct about FM signals in Kansas reaching further than the contour maps suggest. This is especially true in the western half of the state where the dial is relatively sparse. I did a live noontime request show on our Class C in Hays (100kw @ 1000 feet, totally digital chain) and regularly received calls from as far as Colby, McCook, Kearney, Salina, Hutchinson, and Dodge City.
 
I understand your disappointment in not getting the station that Bott now has, but that may have something to do with their "great" track record as an owner (goving the fcc wahat they want) and their superior Washington attorney who "gets it done."

In radio, it IS both what you know and WHO you know.

After working for Bott in St. Louis for a couple of years, (and going on to ownership myself) I found them to be oustanding operators, but only entry level employers.
 
Why can't one of the religious stations take time off from emptying the pockets of their listeners during severe/life threatening weather and go into an "alert mode" and save lives the old fashined way? Through communication!
 
Ask THEM - not this board. If you feel so strongly, CALL the station and tell them how you feel! Venting HERE won't solve the problem. Talking to Bott may do it.
 
My question was valid not not a vent. There are , according to Radio Locator, 16 FM stations that put a signal into Greensburg. 6 of them are religious or christian contempory. I didn't refer to any specifc station and I have no plans to contact Bott since, in no way was I referring to him.
The reason I suggested one of the religious stations that covers the area step up to the plate is the lack of any public radio stations covring the area and because religious stations are supposed to be concerned with saving souls. What better way to put their faith to the test and broadcast severe/life threatening weather alerts. I doubt that the % of time doing this would be 1-2% at most of the airtime in a given year and who knows? Maybe they would get a few converts or better yet some ca$h!
 
vibe said:
My question was valid not not a vent. There are , according to Radio Locator, 16 FM stations that put a signal into Greensburg. 6 of them are religious or christian contempory. I didn't refer to any specifc station and I have no plans to contact Bott since, in no way was I referring to him.
The reason I suggested one of the religious stations that covers the area step up to the plate is the lack of any public radio stations covring the area and because religious stations are supposed to be concerned with saving souls. What better way to put their faith to the test and broadcast severe/life threatening weather alerts. I doubt that the % of time doing this would be 1-2% at most of the airtime in a given year and who knows? Maybe they would get a few converts or better yet some ca$h!
Click to expand...

Greensburg's just a little too far west for Radio Kansas...
http://www.radiokansas.org/coverage.cfm

and a little too far east for High Plains Public Radio...
http://www.hppr.org/map.html
 
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