Which one would do better KILT or KFNC?

[jras20]

If they do flip to ESPN... I dont really see much of a chance for KFNC, KILT has a better coverage in Houston then KFNC. However strange as it sounds, I can get KFNC better out at my place in Lavaca county than KILT. But KILT comes in pretty decent. Nighttime forget it. I can pick up 1640 out of OKC for my sports most of the time, or 1660 Waco.

 

[adguy]

There really isn't any questions:

KILT: Strong signal, wide coverage, long established successful local talk shows, Jim Rome, Texans Broadcasting rights, Rockets Broadcasting rights, strong corporate backing, etc....

KFNC: Rim shot signal barely audible in many areas of the DMA, No local sports connection, No Broadcasting rights to any local pro or college sports teams, years of catching up to match even the #2 sports station, not to mention KILT, corporate backing from a company with no Houston connections, etc, etc, etc.....

Need anymore be said.

 

[stan]

But KFNC has better coverage at night. KILT is just unlistenable in many areas at night in the Houston metro area.

 

[adguy]

Stan, I don't know where you live, but I pick up KILT loud and clear day and night all over town, however over the past week their signal has been cutting out like someone is doing maintenace on it. In either case, even if KILT's signal were on the same level as KFNC's, you still have the same mismatch in terms of experience and resources. I predict the format will not last on KFNC beyond 12 months and that is probably a stretch.

 

[stan]

I'm not referring to picking up KILT where I live (Beaumont), because that is nearly impossible.

There are spots within the immediate Houston area where KILT does not cover well.

 

[Mike O]

I'm not referring to picking up KILT where I live (Beaumont), because that is nearly impossible.

There are spots within the immediate Houston area where KILT does not cover well.

Stan other than the northern suburbs, which no AM station covers worth a damn at night, what parts of Houston does KILT not cover? Every station has areas they do not cover as well, curious where KILT has a poor signal in the metro.

I live less than eight miles from the KMIC 1590 array and can not pick them up at night as I am dead center of their null towards Corpus Christi. I can hear KMIC at night just fine at my parents who live near Cypress, probably twenty miles from the antenna and I doubt KMIC is sending anywhere near 5000 watts in that direction. KCOH probably only sends a couple of hundred watts towards Cypress, but on the nights that the skip level is low I can get a very listenable signal from KCOH. Other nights Tulsa'a Sports station KTBZ "The Buzz" rules the frequency.

Mike O

 

[thumper_77375]

KILT is good in day here in tomball, but sucks at night fading in and out cant listen to the longhorn football games when trying to catch the score, KTRH is ok, and 790 is good at night, 97.5 is ok if KFDX from corpus or KWTX from waco arent running over them, I read where we touch on the subject about that houston has outgrown there AM radio station signal patterns and really need tower work, yes we need a good signal even for our northern 'burbs to share in that too.

 

[jd]

I read where we touch on the subject about that houston has outgrown there AM radio station signal patterns and really need tower work, yes we need a good signal even for our northern 'burbs to share in that too.

A few changes have been made over the past few decades, but overall the AM nighttime coverage is still pretty dismal. And it's going to get worse in light of the continuing urban sprawl, unless something drastic happens, like a reduction in the number of stations that use the AM band or relaxed FCC rules. In other words, don't expect anything to change. Patterns that were once adequate now struggle to cover 25% of the Houston area.

A number of stations that have either a reasonable amount of power or low dial position have patterns that don't favor the northside of the metro area. KILT 610 has 5000 watts from I45 near Greens Road, but at night their pattern is tucked in along the northern side; KTRH 740, with their 50,000 watts from the far northeast packs the equivalent of more than 200,000 watts toward downtown still lacks a punch due west (toward the far north side of town); 5000-watt KBME 790 has a complicated pattern from a site in northwest Houston that favors downtown and is full of gaps (including due north) and KPRC 950 runs 5000 watts but is mainly beamed southwest from a close-in site off northeast Loop 610, and despite its 5000 watts KXYZ 1320 has a pattern that is more of an east-west orientation from its Pasadena site.

Other Houston area stations are low-powered, have highly directional patterns don't favor the northside, or have poor ground conductivity. KSEV 700's towers are north of Tomball but their coverage of the northside is poor because their pattern is cropped toward the northeast to protect dominant WLW in Cincinnati. (And don't go by the coverage map on Radio-Locator; it's nowhere near that good.) KEYH 850 runs 185 watts in a narrow easterly lobe, KRTX 980 and KLAT 1010 have relatively low power and their patters favor the westside. KNTH 1070 uses a complex 9-tower array off Kuykendahl near 1960 that slams most of their 5000 watt signal parallel to the Gulf Freeway, but produces a sharp null toward The Woodlands. KGOL 1180 Humble has awful ground conductivity at its site near Porter, low power and a pattern with a huge null toward Houston. (Unlike what Radio-Locator shows, the station barely gets into Humble at night.) With the high noise level on their "graveyard" channel, KQUE 1230 struggles to cover the area within Loop 610. KWWJ 1360 Baytown's night pattern is directed away from Houston; KCOH 1430 is heard well on the south and southeast side of town, but has a severe null to the north (see Mike O's comments), and KLVL 1480's 500 watts doesn't go far from their Pasadena site, considering a somewhat east-west orientation and the high noise level on 1480. KYND 1520's recently authorized night pattern barely covers Cypress with 260 watts and has a sharp null due east toward Spring and The Woodlands. Finally, there's not much far northside coverage for KMIC 1590, which has some of the same problems as nearby KBME 790 (complicated pattern with a lot of nulls, especially to the southwest like Mike O talked about).