105.5 Kool FM

[oldiesfunhouse]

They are starting to have DJs on 105.5 Kool FM. I'm pretty sure it's Mark Waldy doing mornings. (I THINK he's still doing afternoons on Bob as well.( Last night I tuned in in the evening and, I didn't hear him say his name, but I'm pretty sure it was "Rockin'" Rob BoShard who did evenings on KISN 97 in the 90s and afternoons on 94.1 KODJ in the early 2000s. I think they called him "the afternoon loon." I seem to remember when someone would win a contest, Rob would say quickly, "winna winna winna winna winna winna winna winna …" I haven't heard if someone is doing middays because I don't have a radio at work and, as far as I know, they're not streaming yet. We were in Westhaven the other night and I tuned 105.5 in just to see if it would get up there at all and it was actually coming in quite well. I was taking an Uber to work last week and my driver had the radio on and I told him I liked the tunes. He said he was listening to 103.9. We were traveling north on Redwood Road from about 7th South to North Temple. I told him he was listening to their Utah County frequency and that if it started getting staticky he could find the same station on 105.5. But 103.9 was coming in quite good in that area. What are 105.5 and 103.9's cities of license? The only ID they give at the top of the hour is KUDD HD2 American Fork. This "loophole" or whatever they call it where stations can use translators to relay their HD subchannels is probably what's keeping HD radio alive. It's made it so there can be more stations. I was in, I want to say, Grand Junction, Colorado, several years ago and I seem to remember they had a few stations there that existed as translators relaying HD subchannels. That's cool (or Kool) though since it allows for more choices on the dial. I wonder if more DJs will be added. It was great to hear Rob again last night. Maybe they could raid some more of KODJ's former talent. J.C. Hackett, Craig "the Hit Man" Downs (They were both on KDYL/KCPX (KCPX BEING ONLINE ONLY) before that service went dark. Who are some other DJs you guys would like to hear again. Remember Michael G. Cavenaugh?  He did a show on Mix 107.5 KMXB before they became The End called Sleepless in Salt Lake. It was for "m'ladies, the lonely, the single, the shopping, the sleepless in Salt Lake." It was pretty much an over the radio dating service. Women weren't allowed to give their phone numbers but men could. Women could call in and tell about themselves and then men could call, give their phone numbers, and say "I'd sure like to hear from Lori that was on earlier." I thought I had heard that a couple of marriages had come out of that show. I met a couple of people from it. Just throwing out names now, Tom Bock, Jim Brayden, Sharla Haley, Kandace Holdaway, Peggy Ijums, Laura Bedore ...

[amanuensis]

I heard Rockin Rob also. I'd like to hear Doug Stone, if he is still in broadcasting. He was great at KSL 1160 back when they played music. I'd also like to hear again the DJ that went by the handle "Rocket".

I can pick up 105.5 and 103.9 about equally well in West Jordan where I live. I use the 105.5 frequency because it has RDS and 103.9 does not.

A couple of weeks ago, I drove to Lehi and I expected to have to switch frequencies as soon as I went around the Point of the Mountain. But 105.5 stayed fine all the way to Lehi. I am curious how a translator can do RDS and have such a large coverage area.

[Timmy]

Also, 103.9 is processed MUCH better than 105.5. Just sounds more alive and clear.

[CAwasinNJ]

105.5 is K288GY Tooele and 103.9 is K280GJ Provo. Keep in mind that for translators the community of license is even more of a fiction than for full service stations, though they are pretty close in both of those cases. Translators do not need to ID aurally and usually don't. They send the ID by shifting the carrier which can be picked up by special equipment. There's no loophole that the translators are using. Translators are defined as rebroadcasting the audio of another station. That's what they're doing.

amanuensis, I'm not sure what you mean about RDS and coverage area. Could you clarify?

[drpepper]

Several threads ago, in one of those KQMB / K244DH threads, IIRC fmdj1 mentioned that K280GJ is on Lake Mountain. To me, It does sound much better than K288GY. Same thing for K240EP vs KXRK. where it comes in clearly anyway. It sounds like a cleaner version of KXRK HD1

[CAwasinNJ]

Yes, K280GJ is on Lake Mountain.

[David]

Feb 6, 2021 17:32:17 GMT -6 CAwasinNJ said:

<snip>
amanuensis, I'm not sure what you mean about RDS and coverage area. Could you clarify?

My guess would be that Amanuensis was referring to the myth that adding RDS to a radio signal reduces the coverage range of the signal. My personal observation is that RDS does nothing to reduce the range of a radio signal, but sometimes the antenna on a portable radio has to be adjusted slightly in order to receive the RDS signal clearly.

[amanuensis]

What I meant was that many of the full-market stations have spotty RDS feeds as I drive around. But somehow this translator not only has a strong audio signal but also strong RDS.

[oldiesfunhouse]

The loophole I was referring to is the ability for stations to use their translators to rebroadcast their HD subchannels instead of their main channel. Maybe loophole was the wrong word but I have heard it called that before, I think in Wikipedia articles and I know  a lot of folks here are not fans of Wikipedia at all. So, maybe rather than loophole, I should have used the term ability or allowance or right. Anyway, Mark Waldy was on on Saturday and he said it had been their first week of having live DJs on and he mentioned them. I guess the midday guy is someone called Alan Hague. I'm not familiar with him and since they're not streaming and I don't have a radio at work, it will be a while before I can check him out. I have a doctor's appointment on Thursday. Maybe I can catch him then.

[David]

If the midday jock on KOOL 105.5 is the same Alan Hague I've heard of, he worked for Simmons Media for 20 years; and before that, he was executive VP of Carlson Communications for 20+ years. Carlson Communications is the former owner of KDYL 1060, and if it's the same Alan Hauge on 105.5, he was working for Carlson from the KRSP-AM launch in 1967 through the Imagination Station/Radio AAHS format when 1060 was KKDS.

[CAwasinNJ]

I see now amanuensis. The RDS is itself a digital subcarrier transmitted along with the analog signal and in a lot of cases the IBOC/HD digital signal so I would guess it has something to do with trying to get them to coexist.

Loophole I would say isn't the right word oldiesfunhouse, but I understand what they mean and actually agree with it. Translators were created to increase the broadcast area of a station, either outside their original coverage area (like what VFX used to do with 98.3) or to fill in coverage where the originating station should have been able to be heard but was geographically blocked (like what KCPW used to do with 105.3 when the 88.3 signal was in downtown Salt Lake and couldn't be heard in most of Davis County.) The FCC added the HD subchannels and AM stations to the list of what could be the originating stations and essentially created commercial LPFM. Of course broadcasters take advantage of any opportunity they're given but my personal opinion is that it was a mistake. If anyone would like to debate the pros and cons of that we can create a thread for that.

[David]

Someone here (I've forgotten who, mea culpa) recently asked when KOOL 105.5 was going to start streaming live. The station is now streaming at 1055koolfm.com/ Enjoy!

[mtndew]

I've been sitting on the sidelines on this one, so I have to say something here. So, Cache Valley Media has a Kool 103.9, the oldies station (with a "K") that has been there for probably at least 15 years. They have a translator in Tremonton. I know a lot of borrowing and copying goes on in radio; there are Kool stations all over the country. It just seems a little close to home to start another Kool Oldies right down the highway. It's all fair game, I suppose.

[fmdj1]

Feb 9, 2021 17:17:13 GMT -6 mtndew said:

I've been sitting on the sidelines on this one, so I have to say something here. So, Cache Valley Media has a Kool 103.9, the oldies station (with a "K") that has been there for probably at least 15 years. They have a translator in Tremonton. I know a lot of borrowing and copying goes on in radio; there are Kool stations all over the country. It just seems a little close to home to start another Kool Oldies right down the highway. It's all fair game, I suppose.

You bring up a great point, and much of it has to do with who owns what names where and how much effort they are willing to put into pursuing it. It would be impossible to get a trademark on KOOL nationally, but an owner could get it in a city or state. Years ago Bob Morey registered "Sounds of Sunday" through the state and would send C&D letters to any other station that used it. Now Carl Watkins owns "Sounds of Sunday" both in the state and nationally, but he has allowed stations to use it outside of his programming.

[CAwasinNJ]

I agree with Frank.

With patents, something that is obvious to someone in the trade is not patentable. I would think such a thing would apply in trademarks as well, like "Radio 108.1"