KGOW Moving to 94.1

Still no HD on 97.5 Saturday afternoon.

Speaking of translators lacking originating stations, I also find KBXX 97.9 HD-2 broadcasting dead air. This is the originating station of the Vietnamese programming on 98.7 which is operating normally.

From the September 13th Gow Media press release: "... on October 1st ... SportsMap 94.1 FM ... will operate with a base station of KFNC-HD2" It's now Tuesday October 10th, but the "base station" is still non-existent. No one thinks of an HD2 signal as being a base for anything, except for Gow Media, and now they're 10 days late on delivering what was just announced a month ago. Gow has 'fumbled' its credibility- either they're just late, or they've finally figured out that going HD on KFNC will deteriorate already weak reception everywhere but the east side. Houston SportsMap Base Station, we have a problem.

Maybe they cancelled the idea? Like I said La Nueva claims they’ll be back on air before the end of this month.

So apparently a regular station is not needed to supply 94.1 with its audio. Amazing.

stan said:

So apparently a regular station is not needed to supply 94.1 with its audio. Amazing.

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Has anyone caught their TOH ID? In Spring, the station seems a lot weaker and can no longer be received indoors. It's seems like they reduced their power output right before that handover. (The same thing happened to 104.5 a few days before it was leased to CC.)

If the FCC comes around and finds no parent station, who gets fined? Centro or GOW?

BamaTX said:

Has anyone caught their TOH ID? In Spring, the station seems a lot weaker and can no longer be received indoors. It's seems like they reduced their power output right before that handover. (The same thing happened to 104.5 a few days before it was leased to CC.)

If the FCC comes around and finds no parent station, who gets fined? Centro or GOW?

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Signal is still pretty good here at my house near 45 and 99, on both 94.1 and 104.5. I bet Centro dropped the power to be within licensed parameters, though. Haven't heard a legal ID yet, nor have I been able to find the non-existent parent station. Centro would be fined as it is their station, I don't believe there's any LMA in place. Regardless, I doubt anything will happen... K287BQ is still on the air interfering with KTWL, and I don't see that changing any time soon.

rageradio said:

Speaking of 104.5, i noticed a week ago the parent station on 93.7 was out for a few hours but the translator was still pumping out the music. How does this work exactly that the parent station isnt running and still feed the translator?

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If I remember correctly, translators can be fed using a method that is not off-air pickup. To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if the HD channel audio was being picked up from the translator...

tb_ said:

Signal is still pretty good here at my house near 45 and 99, on both 94.1 and 104.5. I bet Centro dropped the power to be within licensed parameters, though. Haven't heard a legal ID yet, nor have I been able to find the non-existent parent station. Centro would be fined as it is their station, I don't believe there's any LMA in place. Regardless, I doubt anything will happen... K287BQ is still on the air interfering with KTWL, and I don't see that changing any time soon.

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94.1 and 104.5 are a lot weaker at SH-99 and FM 2920. They definitely did something before the handovers. 105.3 isn't booming like it used to as well, but it's still causing bloody interference (and I'm literally next to the Tomball city limits).

92.5 is an act of God. It has to be.

tb_ said:

If I remember correctly, translators can be fed using a method that is not off-air pickup. To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if the HD channel audio was being picked up from the translator...

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Fill in translators like 94.1 can use other methods besides off air to carry programming but there must be a parent station involved with that same programming...if the parent goes off air, so must the translator

ContinuousWave said:

Fill in translators like 94.1 can use other methods besides off air to carry programming but there must be a parent station involved with that same programming...if the parent goes off air, so must the translator

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I don’t see how this one could be considered a fill in. The translator transmitter itself is located outside KFNC’s 60 dBu contour, and extends KFNC coverage quite a bit.

2Speakers said:

I don’t see how this one could be considered a fill in. The translator transmitter itself is located outside KFNC’s 60 dBu contour, and extends KFNC coverage quite a bit.

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Fill-in or not, extending KFNC coverage or not, the problem for Gow Media is that 94.1 FM simply cannot exist legally when the parent station KFNC HD2 does not exist. We're now 17 days past October 1st, the day when Gow announced the concurrent operation of 94.1 FM translator and its parent KFNC HD2, where radio silence lives.

I don't think the FCC cares much. They know that in 10 years radio will be all but dead since Internet radio's taking everything over. I don't know of anyone who listens to FM on a regular basis unless they don't know how to use computers. LOL

AnyHuman said:

I don't think the FCC cares much. They know that in 10 years radio will be all but dead since Internet radio's taking everything over. I don't know of anyone who listens to FM on a regular basis unless they don't know how to use computers. LOL

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The music industry is doing its best to make sure internet radio stays a niche.

Has AnyHuman ever looked at who is listening to what online? The vast majority of online listening is to over the air radio stations. Perhaps the right phrasing should be the use of the device we call a radio is becoming obsolete.

AnyHuman said:

I don't think the FCC cares much. They know that in 10 years radio will be all but dead since Internet radio's taking everything over. I don't know of anyone who listens to FM on a regular basis unless they don't know how to use computers. LOL

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With this outrageous Data caps? Unlimited Data only for a few Gigs then they throttle you down? I rarely stream music on any device. Once in a while I’ll listen to music on YouTube. But at work, on my way to and from work? It’s all over the air radio. The music I have is purchased from ITunes but most of my music comes from radios. And so does the music many that I know off.

Radio isn’t going anywhere in 10 years.

Mrtejano said:

Radio isn’t going anywhere in 10 years.

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Unless you attempt listening in a car. Radios are already going away.

Can you point us to data that supports that claim, Stan? Would be interesting to see.

b-turner said:

Can you point us to data that supports that claim, Stan? Would be interesting to see.

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Here’s the thinking -

Several auto manufacturers have committed to going to either electric or at least hybrid vehicles over the next few years. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nb...ic-will-ditch-gas-diesel-powered-cars-n806806

Some of the all electric vehicles already have dropped the AM band from their radios due to interference (Tesla, BMW).
http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1098893_bmw-i3-electric-car-quirk-no-am-radio--but-why

Most of the auto manufacturers are moving toward a data connected dashboard model that gives customers more links to online streaming / podcasting as alternatives to traditional radio.

stan said:

Unless you attempt listening in a car. Radios are already going away.

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Yes they are, that explains why when a radio station goes up for sale companies jump fast to try to purchase them like if it was a new IPhone. That’s why FM Translators are trying to pop up everywhere cause Radio is already dead. So let’s just spend money on something that is dead right??