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Why is thing happening? KEXP+KUOW on 99.5
- Thread starter speer360
- Start date
Not that unique -- here in the Dallas/Fort Worth market, the major FM stations all transmit from Cedar Hill, which is almost 20 miles from downtown Dallas. That's probably quite close to the distance between the further of the two primary FM tower locations in Seattle/Tacoma (Tiger Mountain) and downtown Seattle.
One thing that may be different (I haven’t been to downtown Dallas) is the geography/buildings in downtown Seattle mean that a lot of Tiger Mountain signals have a very tough time along the waterfront up to 6th-7th Ave or so.
I worked two floors below ground level in downtown. Funny how they always give accountants the crappy offices. Zero reception of Tiger or Cougar stations. Only three things one could pick up on a radio were KUOW/KEXP and the 103.3 translator for (then) The Mountain.
Later on, worked on the waterfront and got better reception of Olympia stations than I did Tiger stations.
I don't really know what reception is like in downtown Seattle, since my time in the area (a long time ago) was in the southwest suburbs of Tacoma between Steilacoom and what is now Lakewood. From that location, pretty much all the stations came in fine regardless of which tower site they used.
Downtown Seattle seems to experience reception issues with the Tiger Mountain stations. The terrain dips way down, blocking much of the signal. The stations on Cougar mountain do a lot better, probably due to their closer proximity and high ERP.
Outside of downtown, most of the stations perform well. Kelly explained it to me before. I believe he said that (if it were an option), it would make more sense just to have all of the FMs on Cougar where they get out well and are easily accessible. Tiger is somewhat unique due to the extreme height though. It’s just that accessibility and reception downtown pose a potential drawback.
If I were operating a radio station in Seattle, I’d probably be happy to be at either location though.
The terrain is a bit challenging there. When you dip into Fife you’ve got quite a bit of land blocking reception. Browns Point gets in the way, and there’s a decent hill you ascend (or descend) on I-5 between Highway 18 and Tacoma. It might get a little choppy, but I’ve never noticed anything that bad. Certainly nothing that might turn a listener away.
I-5 north near Everett gets a lot choppier.
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