More on the KXXO transmitter move: The station gets half of KWLZ/Portland

Tom Taylor's newsletter reports Horizon is giving up 50% ownership of KWLZ to KXXO owner 3 Cities Inc so it can move to 96.3, giving the station a shot in from SE Portland.

Horizon then gets protection from KXXO as a first adjacent, and that becomes active once Mixx moves to its new site.

Any idea when that's going to happen? I thought I heard that KXXO was supposed to be running from the new site by last September, but obviously that hasn't happened yet.

Rob Piotrowski said:

Tom Taylor's newsletter reports Horizon is giving up 50% ownership of KWLZ to KXXO owner 3 Cities Inc so it can move to 96.3, giving the station a shot in from SE Portland.

Horizon then gets protection from KXXO as a first adjacent, and that becomes active once Mixx moves to its new site.

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I am unclear about what you are saying. KWLZ already has a construction permit to move into Portland on 96.3. Are you saying that common ownership with KXXO will allow them to increase to a directional Class C2, only protecting Eugene OR? Also, their current CP is for a west hills tower. Stations have been trying to abandon Mt. Scott(SE Portland)for decades. I can't believe anyone would move back.

Well...you would move to Mt. Scott if that was your only option. That or remain at best a Bend signal.

Buzz is that the arrangement was financial...common ownership doesn't allow signal interference by FCC rules (that I know of anyway). But now Mixx can get their new site completed and Horizon gets to complete their move. Or that's the theory. Horizon has shown great patience and stamina in moving this signal while values have continued dropping (see KMCQ).

Here's a question, it seems as if KXXO is what's holding up KWLZ, but KXXO has also shown no commitment to fix their existing high powered transmitter. Could they apply to the FCC to make their backup facility, which they've been running from for 2 years already their primary one until the new site is built with no impact on their current construction permit? It seems as if that would allow KWLZ to sign on in Portland as soon as they're ready.

jdweaver said:

Well...you would move to Mt. Scott if that was your only option. That or remain at best a Bend signal.

Buzz is that the arrangement was financial...common ownership doesn't allow signal interference by FCC rules (that I know of anyway). But now Mixx can get their new site completed and Horizon gets to complete their move. Or that's the theory. Horizon has shown great patience and stamina in moving this signal while values have continued dropping (see KMCQ).

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But that's just it. Mt. Scott isn't their only option. They have a construction permit for the Stonehenge master antenna and are just waiting for KXXO to move. If they have to remain a Class C3 then Mt. Scott is not only a step backward but they'd also have to reconfigure protection of KZEL which the current CP gets around by running slightly reduced power but remaining non-directional.

3 cities KXXO - Olympia has been broadcasting from its new state of art facility on South Mountain closer to city of license for awhile. Cumulus KZEL - Eugene had filed a few Construction and Modification applications for awhile longer. 3 Horizons filed Assignment a day or two after Cumulus applications expired. C3 with 1,400/1,400 Watts non-directional (more or less) from Stonehenge Tower. On air programming perhaps by the end of July. jdweaver observation on price is correct.

cbaravelli said:

3 cities KXXO - Olympia has been broadcasting from its new state of art facility on South Mountain closer to city of license for awhile.

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Really? Then someone sold KXXO a bill of goods because the signal strength and audio quality is no better than it was on the circa 1990 state of the art gear they were running.

cbaravelli said:

3 cities KXXO - jdweaver observation on price is correct.

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Jackson never mentioned a price - just that it was a financial arrangement (which was already common knowledge)

Rob Piotrowski said:

Really? Then someone sold KXXO a bill of goods because the signal strength and audio quality is no better than it was on the circa 1990 state of the art gear they were running.

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A "Taj Mahal". Contour to protect KWLZ-PDX and B.C. stations. Use a 4G or PC and take a gander at antenna location, position and rotation. As far as studio gear and occasional STL glitch, ask 3 Cities.

Rob Piotrowski said:

Jackson never mentioned a price - just that it was a financial arrangement (which was already common knowledge)

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Wow, just...wow. Obviously, 3 Horizons not intending to operate as a single competing against the combos. Two could purchase to fill their stables. The last PDX CLASS C frequency allocation but at 1.4 / 1.4 kW...

cbaravelli said:

A "Taj Mahal". Contour to protect KWLZ-PDX and B.C. stations. Use a 4G or PC and take a gander at antenna location, position and rotation. As far as studio gear and occasional STL glitch, ask 3 Cities.


Wow, just...wow. Obviously, 3 Horizons not intending to operate as a single competing against the combos. Two could purchase to fill their stables. The last PDX CLASS C frequency allocation but at 1.4 / 1.4 kW...

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It's a Class C3 and 1.6KW is a full signal. They need to drop to 1.4KW to protect Eugene without going directional. The difference in their signal should be almost undetectable from KRYP 93.1 which posted a #1 book just before the PPM era.

cbaravelli said:

3 cities KXXO - Olympia has been broadcasting from its new state of art facility on South Mountain closer to city of license for awhile. Cumulus KZEL - Eugene had filed a few Construction and Modification applications for awhile longer. 3 Horizons filed Assignment a day or two after Cumulus applications expired. C3 with 1,400/1,400 Watts non-directional (more or less) from Stonehenge Tower. On air programming perhaps by the end of July. jdweaver observation on price is correct.

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Fact check - I don' believe that KXXO has a facility on South Mountain.

I thought KXXO was on Rooster Rock, east of Centralia in the Cascades? When I lived in the Seattle area, KXXO could be heard up to Marysville/Arlington (until CHKG swamped it), down past Portland, west to the ocean beaches clear as day, and I've even heard them in Yakima on occasion weakly. But have they lost coverage now in the Seattle area with South Mountain?

-crainbebo

It doesn't look like they have their new site on Capitol Peak running yet. The FCC database still shows them broadcasting from Rooster Rock, but they've been running from their backup site for going on 2 years now. What's the holdup? If I knew that my new signal was over 2 years out I'd sure fix my high powered transmitter.

crainbebo said:

I thought KXXO was on Rooster Rock, east of Centralia in the Cascades? When I lived in the Seattle area, KXXO could be heard up to Marysville/Arlington (until CHKG swamped it), down past Portland, west to the ocean beaches clear as day, and I've even heard them in Yakima on occasion weakly. But have they lost coverage now in the Seattle area with South Mountain?

-crainbebo

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KXXO had a construction permit for South Mountain but it expired. When they refiled, they changed the site to Capital Peak and that's what the current CP is for.

bobdavcav said:

It doesn't look like they have their new site on Capitol Peak running yet. The FCC database still shows them broadcasting from Rooster Rock, but they've been running from their backup site for going on 2 years now. What's the holdup? If I knew that my new signal was over 2 years out I'd sure fix my high powered transmitter.

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You may be able to "fix your high powered transmitter" but it's useless without a operational power source, which is why the station is on the backup.

Well that's kind of obvious, but whats the holdup in getting that back? It's not like there's any snow up there right now. Granted, if I wasn't able to get the power fixed last summer then the weather set in up there which it really didn't last winter, then there really isn't any reason to get it fixed now with the new CP about to expire.

bobdavcav said:

Well that's kind of obvious, but whats the holdup in getting that back? It's not like there's any snow up there right now. Granted, if I wasn't able to get the power fixed last summer then the weather set in up there which it really didn't last winter, then there really isn't any reason to get it fixed now with the new CP about to expire.

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Call 360-943-9937 and ask for Dave Rauh or Toni Holm. I'm sure they'd be more than willing to answer your question.

bossbill said:

Fact check - I don' believe that KXXO has a facility on South Mountain.

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Capital Peak.

I used to get regular updates from Tim, the KXXO engineer about the fiasco that is Rooster Rock. Rob is correct, the problem has always been the availability of AC power to the site, nothing to do with the transmitter (other than it doesn't have reliable power). The AC utility lines to RR had two problems: They were a series of old spliced-together single phase power lines which were frequently failing due to rock slides, mud slides and failing splices. Second, because the only available power was single phase, with the transmitter requiring three phase, a rotary phase converter was needed to create the third phase. Having motor-generators running 24/7 at a site is more maintenance and reliability issues.

As I recall, they finally gave up trying to repair those utility lines after having failed in several um-tracable locations underground. The KXXO 'backup' site covers their Olympia market fine, and since people listening outside of the market mean zero revenue potential for the station, I agree with their decision to abandon RR.

The question in my mind is why did they not build at Capitol Peak in the first place? I was up there in the '80s and it appeared to have ac power back then.