KGOW Moving to 94.1

DavidEduardo said:

Unfortunately, AM stations are the most resilient in the case of emergencies. Even with a fallen tower, they can be put back on the air with a length of wire between two phone poles or even trees. When run non-directionally, they often cover far better than FMs, and in the event that all of a market area's stations are off, AMs from outside the market can penetrate, at least at night. FM is less resistant, and digital TV is useless when power is out. Web based news sources have an even weaker sustainability in emergency situations.

Another problem is the lack of economic viability of many AM stations. Fewer and fewer have their own news staff, so even in an emergency they are at a loss for a source for news unless they have an arrangement with a TV or newspaper outlet.

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AM is useless during a hurricane. The lightning cancels the carrier on every other word. I was trying to listen to KTRH during Hurricane Ike on a battery-powered radio and ended up switching to ABC 13 audio simulcasting on KMJQ.

During Harvey, I noticed that KUHF was simulcasting KHOU and KTRK audio uninterrupted on their HD subchannels. KTRH was hard to listen with the lightning strikes on every other word again. The other stations did not have dedicated news staffs and Cox's Houston coverage did not last for more than a few hours. Even KTRH pressed a sports talk host from a sister station into anchoring duties.

Luckily Harvey was a rain event, unlike Ike, so power was still on and everyone was mostly watching TV (for 3 days straight). But even with power out and a battery-operated radio, FM is still accessible as long as the TV/FM towers are still standing. In the aftermath, AM becomes useful again with the lack of lightning but surprisingly the Missouri City antenna farm handled Ike's winds very well.

KTN Corp said:

AM is useless during a hurricane. The lightning cancels the carrier on every other word. I was trying to listen to KTRH during Hurricane Ike on a battery-powered radio and ended up switching to ABC 13 audio simulcasting on KMJQ.....In the aftermath, AM becomes useful again with the lack of lightning but surprisingly the Missouri City antenna farm handled Ike's winds very well.

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I think that depends on the type of receiver. I have a Tescun and a Realistic DX-90; both performed very well on the AM band.

Mrtejano said:

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

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The end of the month passed and La Nueva isn’t on the radio. So I guess they had their hopes go down?

Hurricane Harvey had plenty of lightning, not as much as a Midwest summer severe thunderstorm but enough to call it a thunderstorm. Then again Harvey sort of played by its own rules.

DavidEduardo said:

It depends on the hurricane and the strength of local stations, too. Houston has a bunch of inferior AM stations and no really good signal. And most hurricanes have no lightning.

"Normally hurricanes do not have lightning and thunder because lightning and thunder are formed by vertical winds that cause water and ice to rub together. This friction creates the electrical field that causes lightning and thunder. Most hurricane winds are horizontal."

When there is lightning, it is considered unusual, although not unheard of.

http://www.lightningsfety.com/nlsi_info/thunder.html

I went through about a half-dozen significant hurricanes in Puerto Rico, and none had lightning.

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I went through four in Florida, all accompanied by intense lightning. You don't see it very well because of the blinding rain, and you don't hear much thunder because hurricanes are very noisy. Of course I went through Harvey in Houston - and there were some intense thunderstorms with plenty of lightning. It just happened in the middle of the night for the most part.

Prayers for Puerto Rico.

For all who didn’t listen to the Astros Game on the Radio.

At work we listened to it on 790 AM, not knowing that ESPN 97.5 was transmitting the game also.

Simulcasting on both 97.5 and 94.1 .

Mrtejano said:

For all who didn’t listen to the Astros Game on the Radio.

At work we listened to it on 790 AM, not knowing that ESPN 97.5 was transmitting the game also.

Simulcasting on both 97.5 and 94.1 .

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Yes, but ESPN Radio carried the national broadcast. 790 was the Astros home broadcast.

Can someone explain to me how this translator is covering areas where KBIH is supposed to be covering?

And KBIH is an even heard anywhere?

KBIH would not be protected from the 94.1 translator, or KQXY for that matter. Looks like a wasted effort on their part.

rbrucecarter5 said:

I went through four in Florida, all accompanied by intense lightning. You don't see it very well because of the blinding rain, and you don't hear much thunder because hurricanes are very noisy. Of course I went through Harvey in Houston - and there were some intense thunderstorms with plenty of lightning. It just happened in the middle of the night for the most part.

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There was lightning and tornadoes the day before the rains came. Here's KHOU's coverage at 10 PM from the night before they were flooded out. I watched this scene live with Chief Meteorologist David Paul talking about the lightning strikes in this rain band on my living room big screen TV that night: https://youtu.be/naAdjGRm58U?t=38m Good thing this was a rain event, unlike Ike's winds, so I was able to watch TV this time around!

8 hours later, chief anchor Len Cannon would be squatting on the studio floor pointing at the rising waters of Buffalo Bayou in that nationally infamous viral clip.

Bad news for Gow Media = KLTR 94.1 FM in Brenham has a CP to increase power from 6,400 watts to 50,000 watts which will cut down on the weak NW Houston influence of 99 watt SportsMap FM 94.1 = https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/patg?id=KLTR-FM&s=C

They had this permit for a long time they didn’t construct it. Hopefully they do it this time.


So KJOJ-FM let their permit expire??

Mrtejano said:

They had this permit for a long time they didn’t construct it. Hopefully they do it this time.


So KJOJ-FM let their permit expire??

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Probably...Liberman doesn't have the cash to build it to a full C...the difference in coverage from 1000 to 2000 ft isn't worth the money to be spent

ThatVoice22 said:

Bad news for Gow Media = KLTR 94.1 FM in Brenham has a CP to increase power from 6,400 watts to 50,000 watts which will cut down on the weak NW Houston influence of 99 watt SportsMap FM 94.1 = https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/patg?id=KLTR-FM&s=C

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We did discuss that RH had filed an informal objection against the translator a while back. I'm assuming this is personal for him due to Centro's continued interference of KTWL.

Good for him.

Roy hasn’t given up on the DKROY either. SMH.

Was in the city last night, Westheimer area... KFNC was barely receivable, with no sign of HD reception. K231CN was still blasting away, sounded like they were running the same content as KFNC.

It was nice to hear the Game 1 on the radio on ESPN 97-5.

I listened on 790AM until I got to the Stuckey's near Winnie on I-10, then the station faded, which it wasn't supposed to do until the FM 365 and I-10 exit, according to radio-locator.com, which is pretty accurate.

ESPN 97-5 took me to Lake Charles.

I wish ESPN 97-5 or 610 KILT would buy the Astros from Clear Channel, where KBME is wasting a good product with a bad signal (at night).

Their maps are not usually accurate...in the past the local, etc signal levels are wrong..not sure if they have updated or not

ContinuousWave said:

Their maps are not usually accurate...in the past the local, etc signal levels are wrong..not sure if they have updated or not

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I've had good luck with the radio-locator maps. I am using a car radio, though, and I believe that's the way their maps were intended to be read.

In regards to their nighttime AM maps, you only get the "local" area; anything outside of that, unless it's a clear channel AM or a Mexican blowtorch, you're not getting anything outside the red.