A little late indeed as their license specifies sign on 6:45a, and sign off 6:30p for the month of March. In that 15~Eighty doesn't have PSRA or PSSA, the Nurse and I suspect their lamptimer was built in Kenosha.
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New Sports Parking Lot
- Thread starter EricStein
- Start date
A little late indeed as their license specifies sign on 6:45a, and sign off 6:30p for the month of March. In that 15~Eighty doesn't have PSRA or PSSA, the Nurse and I suspect their lamptimer was built in Kenosha.
I am glad to see KHEP is trying to do something mainstream and competitive with an AM signal. Lots of sports already in the market, but it is much better than more paid programming whether religious, ethnic or infomercials.
The key will be selling the format to advertisers.
AM can still be viable if sold effectively and if expenses are managed smartly. There are lots of advertisers on a budget in the Valley who would benefit from a (relatively) low cost supplier with full market coverage.
Best of luck to them. There are some of us out here who are rooting for them.
(Just do the power change on time before the F.C.C. sends out a "Notice of Apparent Liability".)
The key will be selling the format to advertisers.
AM can still be viable if sold effectively and if expenses are managed smartly. There are lots of advertisers on a budget in the Valley who would benefit from a (relatively) low cost supplier with full market coverage.
Best of luck to them. There are some of us out here who are rooting for them.
(Just do the power change on time before the F.C.C. sends out a "Notice of Apparent Liability".)
KHEP delivered a better "locally focused spoken word format" than any of us ever suspected.
Good news for Coyote Country listeners! - The KHEP/KQFN translator that was supposed to sign on at 99.1 has applied to move to 99.5. They'll be dodging Tucson and Morristown/Wittman, but they did find a way to settle the interference issue with KFXY-LP.
99.5 is like a boxing match out here. Country versus grupera, each trading blows. It's going to be brutal.
They could take 101.9 if they aimed their signal due south from Fountain Hills, but they already got the paperwork filed before Riviera shut down their South Mountain signal. We'll see how well their signal can break through KIIM's and KRPH's.
The FCC has approved the sale of KHEP to CRC, and new call letter of KQFN now hang on 15~Eighty. What remains to be approved is an increase of night pow-pow-power from 95 watts to 700 watts, non-D. With the imminent departure of Sports Parking Lot 8~Sixty, this leaves the Valley with only four Sports Parking Lots on Ancient Modulation, and one and 1/3 on FM. (Sorry, Los Buckeye Boyz don't give full credit to translators)
We got a look at the new projected contour map for the 99.5 FM translator for 1580 KQFN-AM the Fanatic, K258DH. https://fccdata.org/?appid=1754694&facid=156059.
As you can see, the translator, which is being moved all the way from Nogales to Phoenix, will broadcast from Fountain Hills with 250 watts. The transmitter looks like it will be aimed at the East Valley with best coverage into Mesa and possibly north Gilbert. This translator should help KQFN-AM 1580 reach the East Valley and give them with, just about, valleywide coverage on FM.
As you can see, the translator, which is being moved all the way from Nogales to Phoenix, will broadcast from Fountain Hills with 250 watts. The transmitter looks like it will be aimed at the East Valley with best coverage into Mesa and possibly north Gilbert. This translator should help KQFN-AM 1580 reach the East Valley and give them with, just about, valleywide coverage on FM.
Right now, 1580 is very noisy in east Mesa during the day, and barely audible at night. In fact, both KFNN and The Lumberyard are much stronger here, despite lower power. I'd be surprised if they're running the full 50 kW during the day right now.
This 99.5 translator is a very good idea. Any idea when it'll go live?
According the the Special Temporary Authority, they're currently running 10,000 watts daytime only from the KXEG tower. They're waiting for the Class B 700 watt nighttime application to get approved by the FCC, which could take a while.
Whenever they get the equipment in Fountain Hills installed and tested. I wonder if there will be any objections from KRPH, even though their signal doesn't really boom into the East Valley?
That minor mod has been in the hopper for over two months now, so the decision should be coming down from DC any time now. As the Nurse and I've said, we'd sure like to know why there was such a variance in nighttime pow-pow-power between two CE's? The original mod called for 95 watts Non -D. The next mod calls for 700 watts non-D. That's a lot to miss the first time around...especially going from Class B to Class D, then back to Class B.
And What in the Wide, Wide World of Sports is a goin' on with their 50kw authorization? catfish (lower case "c") opined there was no three phase service at the 12~Eighty site, so the most they could crank out was 10k. With MDCL in place, that 50kw Nautel shouldn't cost that much more to run...but can it power down to 700 watts? Disney ran it at 50kw, day and night.
I was listening to 1580 The Fanatic this afternoon and Roc & Manuch mentioned that they will be on 99.5 FM "very, very, very soon. Like really soon." What that means exactly, I'm not sure, but my guess is the translator will be up and running by the end of next month. Shouldn't take too long to get that tower going.
Funny thing is, the 99.3 translator has been down most of the day so I've had to listen to the Fanatic on good ol' Amplitude Modulation! It still is not 50,000 watts and they are not broadcasting at night, but it's good to have 1580 back on the air at the end of the Phoenix AM radio dial.
How they mentioned it 99.5 should be on the air not by the end of May, but by the end of this month. The FCC still hasn't approved their 250 watt application, but they could go on the air now at 38 watts. All that would need to be done is to re-direct the antenna and change the TPO if they do get approval to go 250 watts.
Since I have my radio presets in a row, that would sure make it easier to flip from 98.7 to 99.5 whenever one of the hosts on each station is talking about something I could care less for.
You are right Eric, it sounds like it is going to be up and running by the end of THIS month. Listening to the end of Roc & Manuch this afternoon, they said that they will have a "big announcement next week concerning a new frequency to hear the Fanatic, specifically for listeners in the East Valley." This will presumably be the launch of the 99.5 FM translator that they were talking about yesterday.
I agree, it's easy to turn the dial a few stations over to listen to the Fanatic on FM. I love listening to Arizona Sports 98.7 FM, but they repeat topics a lot so I find myself checking out the Fanatic more so than Fox Sports 910 KGME-AM.
As a side note, anyone else surprised that Clear Channel... er I mean iHeartRadio, hasn't done an FM translator for Fox Sports 910? I found it interesting that they put KOY-AM, aka KFYI-2, on 93.7 K229DB-FM. That's a good translator with decent market coverage broadcasting from South Mountain (sorry KRQQ listeners). I thought they would have put the mothership on there, 550 KFYI-AM, or, at the very least to appeal to a younger audience, put FOX Sports 910 on the FM dial. But, it's I Heart Debt so who knows anything behind their moves!
Using any translator to rebroadcast KOY~AM is a total waste. You're right ASU Jorge, Fox Sports 9~Ten should be on 93~Seven. The Nurse and I think I ♥ Debt is so preoccupied with keeping creditors at bay, they're overlooking opportunities in Phoenix.
As far as 12~Thirty goes, sell it.
In other Phoenix sports radio news, 98.7 has rebranded themselves from "Arizona Sports" to "Arizona's Sports Station." This couldn't have been triggered by lower ratings (post-NFL season and a lackluster Suns team should be to blamed), or was it because of the increased competition with its second FM translator about to be fired up?
I noticed that too. It started yesterday. They dropped the "Arizona Sports" moniker before the "98.7 FM" and are now branding themselves as "98.7 FM, Arizona's Sports Station." I don't know the point of this change, the new moniker sounds bulkier on the air and, as if the Top of the Hour ID wasn't short enough, the nameless and faceless voice guy now rattles off the TOH ID as fast as the fine print details after a car commercial!
My only thought was maybe they wanted to make their slogan similar to 92.3 KTAR-FM which has been "Arizona's News Station" for a while now. Both stations now have similar monikers. The only other event that occurred in the last couple days to warrant a change in their slogan were the ESPN layoffs, but if anything, that would affect "ESPN Phoenix" 620 KTAR-AM.
Doubtful 98~Seven is concerned about 15~Eighty and its twin translators. And rather doubtful The Fanatic has 98~Seven in their target...the low lying fruit (6~Twenty, 9~Ten, 10~Sixty) is always easiest to pick.
The new 99.5 translator for 1580 the Fanatic, 99.5 FM-K258DH, is now on the air! I'm listening to it right now in north Gilbert and it's coming in pretty good with a solid signal (registering a 22 dBu on my Tecsun radio). Glad to see the Fanatic now have some East Valley coverage!
Which was good, because 1580 was either completely off the air or just had a dead carrier for most of the day today. It's back on now.
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