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Post by David on Mar 14, 2022 13:11:52 GMT -6
KOVO's signal comes in well in the southern part of Salt Lake County. So if ESPN were to need a new affiliate, an Ogden station could be adequate. KOGN would do if it can get back on the air. KSVN is obviously not going to change. I'm not seeing that happening for several reasons. First of all, it's probably going to take a minimum of 1-2 years for the owner of KOGN to find a plot of land that's suitable for an AM tower, and that's assuming they have the cash on hand to buy property and put up a new antenna. The article from Radio Insight which mentioned the transfer of KOGN from Famila Broadcasting to Radio Positiva was in exchange for the LMA fees that Radio Positiva had paid since April 2014. As near as I can tell, that means no additional money changed hands over the deal. radioinsight.com/headlines/212616/station-sales-week-of-9-10/Finding land suitable for an AM radio tower isn't going to be easy, especially in Ogden. I live in NE Ogden, and there's new restaurants, apartment complexes, and businesses being built almost constantly. I know Frank (owner of Utah's Goat) has been looking for a place to put up a new tower for KSRR for at least two years, and I think he's still working on it. Moreover, there's almost always opposition to radio towers from the NIMBY crowd to deal with. KOGN had been a Regional Mexican station since returning to the air around 2013, and I'm not seeing that changing unless the current owner decides to put the license up for sale. Moreover, a 1,000 watt graveyard station isn't going to be very desirable if ESPN is shopping for a new affiliate in Salt Lake City. KOGN's signal starts to fade once you're beyond Layton, especially at night when there's dozens of other stations audible on 1490. I still think the most likely scenario is that KMRI is the AM station that's for sale.
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Post by oldiesfunhouse on Mar 14, 2022 15:15:11 GMT -6
I remember 1510 having the KLLB calls for a long time. I think at one time they actually called it KLUB 1510. My last memory of it was being the "America's best gospel" and it was kind of a Southern black gospel station. I can't remember when it went dark but it was a station that went off the air at night. Maybe to protect, is it KGA in Spokane? KOGN and KOVO wouldn't be sufficient to get ESPN radio into Salt Lake City proper. KOGN didn't even exist on my dial and KOVO is very faint during the day, not really listenable, and nonexistent at night. Two pardon my ignorance questions: 1. What are the NIMBY people that are opposed to radio towers? And 2. I've heard people refer to both AM 1230 and AM 1490 as "graveyard" stations. At first, I just figured that meant they were stations that were "dead" or not going anywhere. But I've heard that term enough, now, specifically associated with those stations, or maybe frequencies, that I'm starting to think it's either actually a technical term that has a specific meaning, or a tongue in cheek term that is in reference to something specific. I hope you all don't mind educating this radio neophyte.
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Post by David on Mar 14, 2022 16:51:14 GMT -6
KLLB signed off for good in May 2017, although their license wasn't surrendered to the FCC until late September 2017. I think KLLB still streams online, but I haven't tried to find them on the Tune In app lately. 1510 was diplexed off of the tower for 630 KTKK, and both stations went dark around the same time because their tower was demolished to make way for a housing development. Since 1510 is a clear channel frequency, KLLB had to sign off at night to protect KGA as you mentioned.
The "graveyard" term is used by radio hobbyists to describe the six AM frequencies which are restricted to transmitting a non-directional 1 kW signal 24/7/365. Those six frequencies are 1230, 1240, 1340, 1400, 1450 and 1490. They're called graveyard frequencies because there's at least 300 stations on each of the six frequencies, which makes it almost impossible to pick out one signal from the jumble of stations at night. At night, most graveyard stations can't be heard more than 10-15 miles from their tower sites, but that's not always the case. Since KOGN went off the air last December, I've been able to hear KZEZ in Santa Clara, UT on 1490 almost every night. That's a driving distance of about 345 miles from Ogden.
The NIMBY crowd that doesn't want radio towers in their neighborhood usually object because of fear of RF radiation, or because they think radio towers are an eyesore. I'm sure you've probably heard about the people who have made all kinds of wild claims about the effects of 5G cellular and allegedly damaging radiation. The cell phone companies have gone to great lengths to disguise some cell towers in order to make them less of an eyesore. In fact, kenglish mentioned on another thread here that Murray City didn't want to allow Cumulus to rebuild the tower for 1230 after it collapsed in 2015, but somehow Vic Michael convinced the city to allow him to rebuild it.
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Post by radiowyoming on Mar 14, 2022 18:54:09 GMT -6
Selling KALL wouldn't necessarily mean the end of ESPN there. The ESPN affiliation is valuable and there are almost certainly contracts involved. I'm sure it makes money, though whether it would make more money (or some other sense) for someone else and thus motivate that someone to pay handsomely for it is another matter. ESPN Radio in general is confusing for me. ESPN just sold their New York, Los Angeles and Chicago O&O's who are keeping the affiliation. Why do that? I haven't got a clue. As for the timing, it took MLS stepping in and taking over Real Salt Lake before anything got done there. That issue wouldn't apply with KALL if it is for sale.
The ESPN affiliation isny that valuable anymore..it was lsot in Dallas when an FM went from disney ownership/leased by Cumulus to a sale to VCY America who put their conservative religious format on the FM.. and no ones chomping at the bit to take up ESPN
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Post by oldiesfunhouse on Mar 15, 2022 10:02:59 GMT -6
Since NIMBY was in all caps, I thought it might have been an acronym for something. Thank you for all the great information. I had no idea those rules existed for those six frequencies. I wonder if the Dallas Mavricks have a new flagship station, then. There's used to be the ESPN station there, as I recall.
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Post by amanuensis on Mar 15, 2022 10:25:26 GMT -6
NIMBY is a acronym for Not In My BackYard. A perfect example of this is homeless shelters. Polling here in Utah shows that the public strongly supports the idea of constructing of additional homeless shelters. But when asked if they would be willing to have one constructed near their own home, support drops drastically.
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Post by oldiesfunhouse on Mar 15, 2022 10:28:07 GMT -6
Answering my own question, yes, the Dallas Mavricks have a new flagship station. A mainstream rocker called 97.1 the Eagle, KEGL. We've talked a lot about the Weber State games being on the Wave KLO. I wonder how fans of the Eagle feel about the Mavricks games being on that station. I bet there aren't very many NBA teams, or teams of any sport for that matter, whose flagship stations aren't all sports formatted. Very interesting.
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Post by CAwasinNJ on Mar 16, 2022 2:27:21 GMT -6
I agree that KOGN would be able to cover the Ogden area but would have a difficult time in Salt Lake during the daytime. At night, forget it.
David, you got the KLLB/KTKK situation backwards. KTKK was operating from the KLLB site under STA's for something close to 20 years.
I disagree that the ESPN affiliation isn't that valuable. If nothing else all the live play-by-play they carry would be worth a fair amount. As for what will happen in Dallas, the switch just happened. Even if ESPN doesn't clear at least the live games there, that doesn't seem to be bothering the umpteen other ESPN affiliates around the country.
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Post by oldiesfunhouse on Mar 16, 2022 8:57:40 GMT -6
Thank you, Amanuensis, for explaining "not in my backyard" to me. I really appreciate it. I wonder if 101.5 would be a good FM to simulcast call on. Do we really need three country stations? I think KSOP and KUBL are sufficient. My apologies to any Eagle fans out there. I wonder if Tracy Chapman is still on the eagle. I'm not a huge country music fan so I don't tune in there much. He does a lot of great work in the community for the special Olympics and things like that. I don't want the badk carma that might be associated with eliminiating his job. LOL! I do find it interesting that the Eagle now is Broadway's only FM signal that is not available somewhere in HD. I do wish KALL had a market wide FM simulcast. The AM in our car just doesn't sound good. I find when I want to listen to say Spence Checkitts, I hook my phone up to the car speakers and listen to their internet stream. I wouldn't want them to be in HD, though, because then there'd be a delay on live games, so KEGA would be perfect.
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Post by David on Mar 16, 2022 9:23:42 GMT -6
The Eagle hasn't had any on air staff since 2019, presumably because of poor ratings. KEGA has always placed a distant third in the ratings behind KSOP-FM and KUBL, so if Broadway was looking to move KALL to one of its FM stations, KEGA would be a good choice. BTW, Tracy Chapman is now on KSOP-FM weeknights from 7:00 PM-Midnight. He's also on KSOP-AM weeknights from 6:00-10:00 PM, although I think he's voice tracked on the AM station. www.z104country.com/djs/
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