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K291ce

purpledevil said:
From the studios high atop the Central Bank Building in midtown Houston! 93Q was indeed on 92-5 for a period less than a year. Then, it moved to 92-9, 92-1 came to life in Seabrook, and somewhere along the line Groves got an allocation for the channel.

You are 100% correct, stan. The AM and the FM were combined for the Q Morning Zoo, however, during the rest of the day KKBQ went its own way as "Hot Hits 79Q", with an ID of KKBQ Houston. KYND(then KKBQ-FM) played the same music, but delayed. Its ID was KYND(KKBQ-FM) Pasadena, Houston as "93FM", "93KBQ", and finally the now longtime moniker of "93Q".

After a couple of years, the split broadcast was abandoned and KKBQ/KKBQ-FM were fully simulcast, as I recall. The legal ID then became "KKBQ-FM Pasadena-Houston, KKBQ Houston" and stayed that way until 790 broke back off of the simulcast and became "Unforgettable 790 KBME" in the mid 90s.
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Both KTFA (Groves) and KZRQ (Seabrook) filed for CPs in 1983...Groves was 1st but both were approved as Class As...Seabrook looks to have upgraded/move tower site 1st...Groves did not move to 92.5 until 1990! (the FCC CDBS is not the best to work with....I'll repost if I need to correct any of this)

790 was split from the FM iirc before the flip to country on KKBQ....the people at KKBQ called 790 then "Keep Bringing Me Exlax"!!!

John Lander finally made it to the TRHOF this year but will not be at the induction ceremony in Nov. at Galveston...
 
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rageradio said:
I stand corrected on the info I posted on Wikipedia about KKBQ-FM signing on at 92.5. According to another source KYND had already moved to 92.9 within the year before the flip.
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I heard one story that the jock on 79Q right before the flip did this to sign off his show. "Well, that's going to do it for 79Q... hang on, 93Q is up next!"
 
790 was still simulcasting 92.9 up until 1998 when it became KBME. 790 took the KBME calls on 4/24/1998.

I had an old Realistic AM Stereo tuner that I would use to check the AM dial (was around 94-95) to see which AM's were still in stereo. I remember hearing the some of the 93Q Country live broadcast from The Texas Longhorn Saloon.

Found a picture of the old tuner I had
http://www.vintage-tuner.com/tuner3/realistic/realistic-tm-152-01.jpg
 
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ContinuousWave said:
Oh and KYND/KKBQ FM is still licensed to Pasadena.....but its transmitter was One Shell along with the others who moved to Sr Road...the old master on One Shell was removed years ago but the old 26 antenna, used by 20 after the original Sr Road fell, is still up there.
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Isn't KAMA broadcasting from One Shell? I thought it was now, which corresponded with the shift in COL to Deer Park from Mo. City. Have I lost my mind? Is 104-9 actually on the KLTN/KCOH tower on Ennis??
 
johndavis said:
I heard one story that the jock on 79Q right before the flip did this to sign off his show. "Well, that's going to do it for 79Q... hang on, 93Q is up next!"
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Here is the actual flip (with a promo that ran about the flip)..you can hear the morning Zoo folks "walking" into the FM control room to take over...It was also simulcast on the AM after the TOH ID (done by Lander himself)...

http://formatchange.com/92-9-kynd-becomes-93q-kkbq/
 
purpledevil said:
Isn't KAMA broadcasting from One Shell? I thought it was now, which corresponded with the shift in COL to Deer Park from Mo. City. Have I lost my mind? Is 104-9 actually on the KLTN/KCOH tower on Ennis??
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USED to be downtown..moved to the Ennis tower because of RFR and antenna restrictions on TX Commerce building (never were on One Shell that I know of)..after they located downtown, the building folks had blanketing issues and noone could get on the roof to work on any 2way antenna because of 104.9 unless it signed off or went to the aux site...the antenna was down on the roof and could not go on a pylon to place radiation higher due to FAA rules)
 
rageradio said:
790 was still simulcasting 92.9 up until 1998 when it became KBME. 790 took the KBME calls on 4/24/1998.

I had an old Realistic AM Stereo tuner that I would use to check the AM dial (was around 94-95) to see which AM's were still in stereo. I remember hearing the some of the 93Q Country live broadcast from The Texas Longhorn Saloon.

Found a picture of the old tuner I had
http://www.vintage-tuner.com/tuner3/realistic/realistic-tm-152-01.jpg
Click to expand...


djrage has it correct, 79Q remained simulcast with 93Q even through the "Easy Country" and "93Q Country" formats. It broke from the simulcast to launch "Unforgettable 790" standards which gave a home to all the displaced Standards fans that had just lost 1230 KQUE. This was in 1998, as KQUE had just been moved from its longtime home of 102-9 the year before, being replaced with "The Planet". Tghe 79Q image was long dead, but it remained KKBQ AM& FM right up until KBME launched.
 
ContinuousWave said:
USED to be downtown..moved to the Ennis tower because of RFR and antenna restrictions on TX Commerce building (never were on One Shell that I know of)..after they located downtown, the building folks had blanketing issues and noone could get on the roof to work on any 2way antenna because of 104.9 unless it signed off or went to the aux site...the antenna was down on the roof and could not go on a pylon to place radiation higher due to FAA rules)
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Sure enough! I didn't know Univision had added 104-9 to that stick. I thought it was on the roof of One Shell and that was why it gets out as well as it does now at only 10.5 kilowatts. It used to fade out as you hit The Woodlands from the old site, but now it reaches up to Conroe reliably. Interesting, but IIRC, isn't this temporary as a site for KAMA? As I remember, it has been slowly but surely making these moves over the years in anticipation of getting it placed on Senior Rd. I suspect I will never live to see it happen, lol. It's taken 20 years or more just to get from Rosenberg to Houston via Deer Park.
 
I was told by the former asst chief of the Univision stations that the plan was to move 104.9 eventually to the Mo City farm as a C1...but a co channel station, KBUK had to move to allow KAMA to up the power on Ennis from 8 to 10KW ERP....with Univision making noises about selling out totally, I doubt they want to put any money into moving 104.9 now...(though a C1 would be worth more than a C2...but the coverage is pretty good off Ennis (KHMX had an aux there for years...and it could match the Sr Road signal to the north when it was on.)

edit: However, with Winnie now a C2 and the other adj channels stations, it may not be possible..would probably have to move some of the adj channel stations to allow a full upgrade to a C1 (it would be tight with KBUK even with the last move it did)....a C2 could maybe get an increase of power to 50KW max at Mo City...
 
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purpledevil said:
djrage has it correct, 79Q remained simulcast with 93Q even through the "Easy Country" and "93Q Country" formats. It broke from the simulcast to launch "Unforgettable 790" standards which gave a home to all the displaced Standards fans that had just lost 1230 KQUE. This was in 1998, as KQUE had just been moved from its longtime home of 102-9 the year before, being replaced with "The Planet". Tghe 79Q image was long dead, but it remained KKBQ AM& FM right up until KBME launched.
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I was in Conroe until 1996 and knew the news guy on 93Q (Alan Justice.....ala: Alan R Linder III who was on 106.9 after his run on KKBQ....) I remember him telling me that staffers would joke about KBME being the Keep Bringing Me Exlax...and that was BEFORE late 1996.....odd....
 
rageradio said:
790 was still simulcasting 92.9 up until 1998 when it became KBME. 790 took the KBME calls on 4/24/1998.

I had an old Realistic AM Stereo tuner that I would use to check the AM dial (was around 94-95) to see which AM's were still in stereo. I remember hearing the some of the 93Q Country live broadcast from The Texas Longhorn Saloon.

Found a picture of the old tuner I had
http://www.vintage-tuner.com/tuner3/realistic/realistic-tm-152-01.jpg
Click to expand...


79Q started with Kahn's ISB AM stereo system......but later switched to Motorola's CQUAM.....which had better high end and sounded great! I had a Sony XRA-33 FM/AM Stereo with cassette car radio in my 83 Shelby Charger...actually preferred the AM sound to the FM (until nighttime since 790 had NO signal up 45 toward Conroe)..Actually got to see the CQUAM in operation while visiting the transmitter site in the 80s...the then CE said the Kahn was a PITA to set up (due to the mutli tower operation of 790...the "SWR" curves were not flat or the same on either side of the carrier which is required for Kahn to have equal audio response though limited correction could be done but Kahn had no separation above 7kHz or so..CQUAM was not affected by it)
 
rageradio said:
790 was still simulcasting 92.9 up until 1998 when it became KBME. 790 took the KBME calls on 4/24/1998.

I had an old Realistic AM Stereo tuner that I would use to check the AM dial (was around 94-95) to see which AM's were still in stereo. I remember hearing the some of the 93Q Country live broadcast from The Texas Longhorn Saloon.

Found a picture of the old tuner I had
http://www.vintage-tuner.com/tuner3/realistic/realistic-tm-152-01.jpg
Click to expand...

Those are great old tuners. Not DX by any stretch of the imagination, but you could modify them with a bigger ferrite bar, and they can be easily re-tuned to cover up to 1700. I had mine coupled with a 2 foot loop, and it was great at seeking out stations. I still have it, although I don't use it - no AM stereo music stations in range that I care to listen to.
 
ContinuousWave said:
I was in Conroe until 1996 and knew the news guy on 93Q (Alan Justice.....ala: Alan R Linder III who was on 106.9 after his run on KKBQ....) I remember him telling me that staffers would joke about KBME being the Keep Bringing Me Exlax...and that was BEFORE late 1996.....odd....
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You know, CW, maybe my mind is really starting to slip. I distinctly remember KBME taking over where KQUE left off. The Planet bumped KQ to 1230 in '97, KQ lasted on 1230 roughly a year then suddenly switched to a simulcast of The Arrow, then KBME launched with Paul Berlin and most of the gang at 790.

Yeah, that had to be '98, because it wasn't too many weeks afterwards that 102-9 was sold, The Planet was dumped, and Estereo Latino moved down the dial from 104-9 (and in Beaumont from 93-3). I know that happened in '98, as I have the cassette tape of the midnight switch to "Estereo Latino" marked as such. Dave Morales and Elaine Closure was the last shift on the air for The Planet.
 
purpledevil said:
You know, CW, maybe my mind is really starting to slip. I distinctly remember KBME taking over where KQUE left off. The Planet bumped KQ to 1230 in '97, KQ lasted on 1230 roughly a year then suddenly switched to a simulcast of The Arrow, then KBME launched with Paul Berlin and most of the gang at 790.
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The flip of 102.9 to The Planet happened in March, 1997, IIRC. Both KQUE and KNUZ had been simulcasting for a few weeks prior to that following the dumping of the News/Talk format on 1230. After the KKPN launch, the KQUE call was moved to 1230 where the Standards format continued for another year.

The Standards format on 790 launched in January 1998, although the official call change to KBME was delayed by a few months (they used KBME informally during that time, but the TOH legal ID was still KKBQ; by May 1998 the call change had taken place.)

Yeah, that had to be '98, because it wasn't too many weeks afterwards that 102-9 was sold, The Planet was dumped, and Estereo Latino moved down the dial from 104-9 (and in Beaumont from 93-3). I know that happened in '98, as I have the cassette tape of the midnight switch to "Estereo Latino" marked as such. Dave Morales and Elaine Closure was the last shift on the air for The Planet.
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You are correct about Estereo Latino moving in 1998; I believe at the end of May. EL had been a trimulcast with KLTN on the tall Devers tower on 93.3 (signal upgraded in 1990, EL since 1992) and the two 104.9's in Rosenberg and Galveston (KLTO/KLTP.)

Sometime in the Spring of 1998 KQUE 1230 began running a loop of Standards music and promotional announcements telling listeners to switch over to 790. The two stations were co-owned for a brief time.
 
Well, spoke too soon. K291ce is back on again, and they're even stronger than before. Guess their engineer did some tweaking...
 
They shut down HD on 106.9 - I've noticed a better signal as well, even in the Houston area. But I would think KOOI would be the dominant signal in Henderson, they are a monster that fights it out (or used to fight it out prior to HD) with KHPT South of Dallas.
 
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