KDFC Still Searching For South Bay Signal

[DToTheJ]

KDFC president Bill Lueth tells the Mercury News' John Orr: "We're working hard to get a signal in the South Bay... We have the funding in place to do it... Every day we work on this. We have meetings about it three days a week."

Lueth credits South Bayers' "technical savvy" with making an easy transition from radio to the Internet to hear KDFC. But "a South Bay signal is priority #1."
http://www.mercurynews.com/peninsula/ci_17537487?nclick_check=1

(The above article also recounts an interesting exchange between KUFX's PD and Lueth, still currently situated in the Entercom building; the PD stops by and says to Lueth, "I'm so sorry I took your radio station." )

 

[recto101]

Who has the lowest rated frequency in San Jose and would KDFC be able to buy it? I understand that Entercom had to sell KDFC because of Wall Street pressure. also does SJ state or Santa Clara Universty have a radio station that might be cut due to budget cuts? They could sell it to KDFC.

 

[Gregg]

96.1 kSQQ is probably the lowest rated South Bay FM station, broadcasting various ethnic programs which I guess are paid for by the hosts. 4700 watts, only 161 feet above average terrain with primary coverage according to www.radio-locator.com from Freemont to Gilroy. Owned by VLB Broadcasting which has no other stations locally, KSQQ was ranked #27 in the January San Jose book.

Gregg
[email protected]

 

[suburbandj]

Who has the lowest rated frequency in San Jose and would KDFC be able to buy it? I understand that Entercom had to sell KDFC because of Wall Street pressure. also does SJ state or Santa Clara Universty have a radio station that might be cut due to budget cuts? They could sell it to KDFC.

87.9 KSFH St. Francis High School, Mountain View
89.3 KMTG Pioneer High School, San Jose
89.7 KFJC Foothill Community College, Los Altos Hills
90.1 KZSU Stanford University, Stanford
90.5 KSJS San Jose State University, San Jose
91.5 KKUP Assurance Sciences Foundation, Cupertino
103.3 KSCU Santa Clara University, Santa Clara

 

[DavidKaye]

Who has the lowest rated frequency in San Jose and would KDFC be able to buy it? I understand that Entercom had to sell KDFC because of Wall Street pressure.

What is this comment about? This is the second time I've read it. What "Wall Street pressure"? With a company the size of Entercom, one station is not going to make or break them. But it is clear that they bought a gold mine. 102.1 is an excellent frequency that could make a boatload of money with a different format. But keeping it classical for a couple years wasn't going to break them.

Entercom never intended to run KDFC, but knew that there would be an uproar if they just ditched the format. So, after a long process they managed to find a buyer for two non-comms where the format could be moved.

 

[travisl5678]

Add EMF's countless South Bay signals to the list...

There seems to be plenty of signals for KDFC to go on in the South Bay

 

[KimmiKat]

They could try to grab a couple of the KLove stations. There's enough of those to choke a horse.

 

[DaveBayArea]

They could try to grab a couple of the KLove stations. There's enough of those to choke a horse.

From a portable radio in Newark:
87.75
88.9
91.9
99.3
103.1
107.3

But Air1 is only on 100.9 so they may be moving one of those some day.

There's also a "translator" on 88.1 that's supposed to be KAWZ in Idaho the last time I checked. But I don't know what they're really translating. In this check today I just heard an announcement for an event at a church in San Jose. That one just amazes me. It's supposed to be 10 watts, but it comes in all the way to South San Francisco. Could there be some "divine intervention" involved in that facility?

Dave B.

 

[MarioMania]

Would K-Love give up any there stations in the Bay Area..Nope

 

[Gregg]

Remember, the station aquired has to have a decent signal or it will be pointless. Some of those frequencies mentioned above are fairly low-powered. A South Bay outlet for KDFC has to be able to cover San Jose and at least 10 miles around the city limits.

Then if you try to buy a functioning, well-programmed college station, I imagine there'll be backlash from the students. At least with 96.1 KSQQ, it's a commercial station that covers the San Jose region fairly well. The hosts on the station pay for air time. There could be backlash from various ethnic communities that this station serving people in their particular language should not be taken over by a San Francisco-based classical station. But I'm sure those ethnic broadcasters could be accomodated by one of several time-brokered ethnic AM stations in the San Jose area.

Gregg
[email protected]

 

[recto101]

Who is the worst commercial operated FM Station in San Jose with Low Ratings in San Jose and could KDFC buy it? Or Does it have to result in KDFC buying the High School Stations that you listed here. I understand that budget cuts in the schools would have to put the stations on the cutting block. or would it result in the same backlash when KDFC took over KUSF's signal and KUFX took over the 102.1 spot?

 

[suburbandj]

Who is the worst commercial operated FM Station in San Jose with Low Ratings in San Jose and could KDFC buy it? Or Does it have to result in KDFC buying the High School Stations that you listed here. I understand that budget cuts in the schools would have to put the stations on the cutting block. or would it result in the same backlash when KDFC took over KUSF's signal and KUFX took over the 102.1 spot?

In the January San Jose PPM KSQQ beat KCNL 6+

 

[DavidKaye]

Remember, the station aquired has to have a decent signal or it will be pointless. Some of those frequencies mentioned above are fairly low-powered. A South Bay outlet for KDFC has to be able to cover San Jose and at least 10 miles around the city limits.

In the case of specialty formats such as classical and foreign language it doesn't matter. The listeners will seek them out. Note that KNDL has doubled its audience in the latest Arbitron (since the switch to classical), and they're not running much power.

Then if you try to buy a functioning, well-programmed college station, I imagine there'll be backlash from the students.

That doesn't or shouldn't matter. Except for rare circumstances, college radio stations are owned by the colleges, not by student associations or student government.

 

[Merfelberf]

Remember, the station aquired has to have a decent signal or it will be pointless. Some of those frequencies mentioned above are fairly low-powered. A South Bay outlet for KDFC has to be able to cover San Jose and at least 10 miles around the city limits.

In the case of specialty formats such as classical and foreign language it doesn't matter. The listeners will seek them out. Note that KNDL has doubled its audience in the latest Arbitron (since the switch to classical), and they're not running much power.

Come on, David. KNDL has enough power to be receivable in my car on the mid- and south-peninsula. Granted, it's a noisy signal that far south, nobody would want to listen to it for any length of time, but if I can pick it up in Palo Alto and Redwood City, it's got to be putting a respectable signal into most of the North Bay and some of the East Bay.

The one South Bay station that seems to make sense is KSCU at 103.3; while it may not be the strongest signal currently, it's a commercial channel and might have the potential to be upgraded to the kind of signal KDFC needs to cover the rest of the Bay. It's currently a Class D, running 30 watts from a height of 50 meters (probably on a building roof), but at first glance it looks to have upgrade potential. The closest co-channel is in Modesto (and they might need to protect that station with a directional antenna), and the nearest first adjacents are in Paso Robles (103.1) or Sacramento and Salinas (103.5).

Santa Clara University, which owns KSCU, is another Jesuit college, just like USF. And like USF, the Jesuits might be looking to get out of the radio business. (Or not -- I have no inside information.)

 

[semoochie]

I didn't think a Class D could be upgraded beyond a D.

 

[w9wi]

The one South Bay station that seems to make sense is KSCU at 103.3; while it may not be the strongest signal currently, it's a commercial channel and might have the potential to be upgraded to the kind of signal KDFC needs to cover the rest of the Bay. It's currently a Class D, running 30 watts from a height of 50 meters (probably on a building roof), but at first glance it looks to have upgrade potential. The closest co-channel is in Modesto (and they might need to protect that station with a directional antenna), and the nearest first adjacents are in Paso Robles (103.1) or Sacramento and Salinas (103.5).

103.3 is not allotted to Santa Clara. (or anywhere else in the South Bay) That's OK for a Class D station, but if they were to upgrade to Class A or anything higher, they would need to petition to get the channel allotted.

Assuming the FCC approved the petition, the channel would go to auction. The construction permit would go to the highest bidder. (for a commercial channel providing a city-grade signal to San Jose, that high bid would be pretty darned high)

They could petition to have the newly-allotted channel reserved for non-commercial use. Non-commercial channels don't require an auction. (there would however almost certainly be multiple applicants, with no guarantee KDFC would be the successful applicant.)

I will admit to not being fully familiar with the requirements for this. **I think** you have to show you'd be the first or second non-commercial service for some minimum proportion of the people in your coverage area. Given the number of non-commercial stations in the South Bay, it seems unlikely that standard could be met.

All of this, assuming it all went in KDFC's favor and nobody took it to court, would take at least two years and probably quite a bit longer.

_________________________________________________

But it's a moot point. 103.3 cannot be allotted for Class A (or greater) use in the South Bay. Modesto would prevent it. At least 143km separation is required between a Class A station and a Class B on the same channel. The Modesto station is only 58km from the existing KSCU transmitter site. (the 143km figure takes directional antennas into account. There is a limit to how directional a directional antenna can be.)

(KBLX 102.9 is also in the way -- the KSCU site is 5km too close for Class A operation -- but I don't think moving 5km to the south would be a big deal)

Buying the Modesto station and downgrading it to Class A wouldn't help either. You'd still be 34km short of the 92km required separation.

Since there are two other stations in Santa Clara, I suppose you could downgrade Modesto to Class A *and* move KSCU's transmitter to the west & relicense it to some other town. I'm not familiar enough with the geography to know if you could move KSCU's transmitter 34km to the west without getting the tower wet (grin!).

I suppose one option would be to buy the Modesto station and move it to the South Bay. (Santa Clara wouldn't result in a "favorable arrangement of allocations" as there are already stations there, but it wouldn't be hard to find another South Bay community that doesn't have any existing stations) It would probably have to be downgraded to Class A in the process, to avoid excessive short-spacing with San Francisco/Salinas stations. Obviously, this solution would be VERY expensive. Buying KSQQ would probably be cheaper.

 

[DaveBayArea]

One thing that could happen, I guess, would be to move Modesto to the East side of the Central Valley & increase the mileage separation that way. Ironically, that would put more signal into the Bay Area and create greater interference. But no matter what, it's not going to happen. Way too expensive. The funny thing is, those of us who live here know that a class-A on 103.3 could easily exist in Santa Clara with no interference problems to Modesto whatsoever. Thanks to terrain shielding. The 2nd adjacent spacing rules are also pretty much meaningless since the ceramic IF filter was introduced in the 1970's. I've sat in the shadow of the 98.5 transmitter in San Jose and tuned in 98.1 from San Francisco with no problem whatsoever. We've also had 89.7 and 90.1 in existence for 30 years. Spaced about 7 miles apart. 93.7 or 104.1 could also be used as translator frequencies in the South Bay. I think there's about 15 applications in from the last Translator window, but all I hear on those frequencies are pirates.

Dave B.

 

[DavidKaye]

Come on, David. KNDL has enough power to be receivable in my car on the mid- and south-peninsula. Granted, it's a noisy signal that far south, nobody would want to listen to it for any length of time, but if I can pick it up in Palo Alto and Redwood City, it's got to be putting a respectable signal into most of the North Bay and some of the East Bay.

Thank you for making my point. You said "nobody would want to listen to it for any length of time", but this isn't true, and the doubling of KNDL's ratings shows it. My point is that listeners to specialty formats will put up with poor a signal to get what they want.

 

[chris319]

Who has the lowest rated frequency in San Jose and would KDFC be able to buy it? I understand that Entercom had to sell KDFC because of Wall Street pressure. also does SJ state or Santa Clara Universty have a radio station that might be cut due to budget cuts? They could sell it to KDFC.

87.9 KSFH St. Francis High School, Mountain View
89.3 KMTG Pioneer High School, San Jose
89.7 KFJC Foothill Community College, Los Altos Hills
90.1 KZSU Stanford University, Stanford
90.5 KSJS San Jose State University, San Jose
91.5 KKUP Assurance Sciences Foundation, Cupertino
103.3 KSCU Santa Clara University, Santa Clara

There is also 89.1 KCEA, Menlo-Atherton high school. I say this not to suggest it would be a good fit for the problem at hand, but to make the list complete.

http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=KCEA&service=FM&status=L&hours=U

 

[emprex]

I don't know if you remember? About 5 -6 years ago a low power Rock station in San Jose at 104.1 FM was shot down because of interference. Because 104.1 The Hawk located in the central valley and 103.9 FM in Monterey are interfering.

93.7 or 104.1 could also be used as translator frequencies in the South Bay.

Dave B.