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La Calle moving to 105.3
- Thread starter Mrtejano
- Start date
No one in their right mind would ever lease that station KTWL thinking they are going to get into Houston.. it didn’t happen before k287bq it’s not happening now.
As they should. These translators are abusing the heck out of the rules. K287BQ was already forced to move once, yet they continue to interfere with KTWL. They need to vacate the frequency since it's obvious a directional pattern isn't working.
They already had moved in. They covered the entire metro North of Greenspoint. That's a lot of households.
The point is that KTWL lost all that area due to the constant interference from K287BQ and they should fight to get it back. I'm sure Hum FM would appreciate it.
The new facility for KTWL covers only 170,000 persons. The 60 dbu, which is the protected contour, barely gets to Hockley and the coverage is just a tiny part of the far northeast portion of the market.
Even given the fact that a few listeners will be able to use a station outside its calculated coverage areas, this is not really a viable radio station.
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Viable or not, Roy Henderson still has every right to go after K287BQ and I hope he does.
Mr. Eduardo is inaccurate with the facts that he provided in his comments. He is obviously or probably using the archaic FCC 50-50 60 dbu contour of old, which today are used ONLY for allocation purposes. Today, and now for many years, the FCC officially recognizes the Longley-Rice 60 dbu contour measurement.
Going back as far as the turn of the century, namely the year 2000, KTWL and its new facility would reach four hundred ninety-two thousand, two hundred and ninety persons (492,290 persons)...all within its 60 dbu "officially protected" contour and would have reached more than 189,411 households...AND THAT'S NEARLY TWENTY (20) YEARS AGO!!
Today, in 2018, the 60 dbu "protected" contour of KTWL-FM 105.3 is estimated to reach nearly 900,000 persons and gazillions more in household numbers living in the North and Northwest Houston region.
K287BQ, the well known "zombie" and overpowered translator... reaches FAR into THE KTWL-FM 105.3 60 dbu PROTECTED CONTOUR, however I believe for not much longer.
K287BQ and also Centro Cristiano de Vida Eterna's c-owned K231CN translators operate as if they are, by some sick right, entitled to be FULL-SERVICE/FULL POWERED FM radio stations, just like iHeart, CBS, and Cox Radio but... "on the cheap, of course.
The "tortuous interference" these two translators cause KTWL-FM 105.3 AND KLTR-FM 94.1, BOTH Fully-Protected radio services, will never be a permanent thing and both may just one day simply disappear. This is my prediction.
Anyway, DavidEduardo's Houston Area population counts are inaccurate and appear to be a little biased towards the translator sector, at worst. I sincerely hope that is not the case because I enjoy reading some of his comments and contributions to this forum.
My population counts come directly from the ACS annual population updates, 2016 report. The standard for protection of licensed FM stations is the 60 dbu for A and C FMs, the only kind in the area. My data is the same source data as Nielsen uses, except that Nielsen only does 6+ population counts, not 0+.
Nielsen shows 6+ a6 6,445,000 persons and the ACS gives 6,974,000 persons due to the lack of 0-6 in the Nielsen population base.
The population comes from engineering mapping software that takes the contours and calculates population down to the ZIP Code and Census Tract level.
In flat terrain, the traditional FCC "circles" and a Longley Rice map will not give significantly different results if you are plotting for the same intensity. When comparing two standards, as we do here, we have to consider that there may be differences in the measurement criteria, such as the antenna and its height over the ground.
In any case, the useful coverage of an FM is the 65 dbu countour, wherein essentially all... 95%... of in-home and at work listening takes place. The 65 dbu of KTWL is even smaller than 170,000 persons. It's 62,000 persons. It is not "900,000" persons.
KTWL covers a bit of Montgomery to the West side, and a slice of Waller to the North side. Those two counties are the only ones KTWL puts a significant signal into that are also in the Nielsen Metro Survey Area (not the same as the OMB's Metropolitan Statistical Area, by the way).
So the protected areas of KTWL are, in fact, the 60 dbu contour of that station.
As to the translators, if they are operating illegally then someone better put and Audimat in the back of their SUV and do a grid survey of their signals.
The information as a basis for your argument above would, for sure, “glaze” over the eyes of all but the most engineering inclined minds that peruse this forum. It again, contains inaccurate “facts” put forth in your words.
For example, you state above there are only Class A and C fm stations in this area and this is simply inaccurate. There are enough Class C3,C2, C1, and C0 Full Service FM radio stations here in the Houston market to choke a mule.
I note you haven’t elaborated on much else in my post in your response...which principally involves gross and illegal interference being caused by rogue and illegally interfering “zombie” fm translators, K287BQ and K231CN, both owned by the infamous Centro Cristiano de Vida Eterna and it’s owner, Hector Guevara.
Finally, the accuracy and population measurements that were provided you earlier are backed up with Good Engineering Practice that will stand up before the Commission and a court of law.
The software used to validate KTWL-FM 105.3 and it’s facts and 60 dbu certified interference free and legally protected coverage AND population...right down to zip code and street level...is the V-Soft FM Commander Progam and accurate field strength measurements were taken with the use of a calibrated Potomac Instruments Model FIM-71 Field Strength Meter.
Your now use of 65 dbu field strength contour has come out of nowhere. Why not use the 70 dbu contour in your next comment? The fact remains, the 60 dbu contour IS the protected contour of all FM radio stations that are full-service.
You talk of Nielsen. Nielsen has actually come out and installed their Houston People Meter encoders at KTWL’s transmitter site...to measure KTWL’s Houston listener population. KTWL reaches well into Houston.
KTWL’s Longley-Rice 60 dbu is far, far greater than what you represent in your comments. And the population counts within its Protected contour are far greater than yours as well.
The real issue here is the gross and illegal “jamming” of KTWL’s lawful and protected signal by K287BQ and it’s illegal operation...which, like all other illegally operating FM translator stations, should be stopped immediately. KTWL is trying diligently to do just that.
Respectfully, why can’t you support the right of protection from interference to this and any other full-service FM radio station, DavidEduardo, as “Moderator/Co-Administrator of this forum?
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There are three classes, A, B and C. Each class has a subset, such as C0, C1, C2. But they are all C's.
The translators are legal. Anyone who thinks that they are being operated outside the licensed parameters is free to conduct an investigation, verify antenna location, height and type and to do field strength measurements. Until such things are done, "it sounds too strong" is conjecture.
No, they won't. The FCC bases its contour protection on the calculated 50 (or 54 for B's) dbu contours. Said contour is at the FCC's own site: https://www.fcc.gov/media/radio/map...HEMPSTEAD&state=TX&fileno=BLH-19990804KD&.map
And the FCC's own data overrides this unless a specific filing is made to set aside the FCC charts to establish a variance. A good example of this is in the requesting of acceptance of specific ground conductivity measurements that are at variance from the FCC maps in the AM service.
In any case, a conforming C3 is limited to 39.1 km for its interference free contour. Using that instead of the license values, we still get a 2017 population in the vicinity of 170,000 inside the 60 dbu contour using the 2017 ACS population data.
I use that contour frequently as analysis of millions of pieces of Arbitron data on listening locations in a variety of Top 100 markets shows that 95% in-home and at-work listening occurs inside that contour, so talking about fringe coverage is nice in theory but has no business application.
No it's not. B's are protected to the 54 dbu contour and B1's are protected to the 57 dbu contour.
Any station not "home" to a Metro Survey Area can lease an encoder if they believe it would be useful. A form is signed, and they ship you one.
It has not done KTWL any good to have an encoder (if it indeed working) as I can't find the station with even a 0.1 in a rather hasty survey of the last 40 or so Houston books. I also looked at three book averages back to 2012 and KTWL never showed, either.
As far as I know, Nielsen does not "install" PPM encoders; they send them to the stations that qualify and the station's engineer installs them, generally at some non-critical time of the day... like 1 AM.
Caveat: in the initial Wilmington test and the subsequent Philadelphia and Houston tests of the PPM long before the system became "currency" in 2008 to 2010, Arbitron engineers did participate in encoder installations as part of the testing involved determining the best ways of inserting the device in the audio chain of participating stations. I was actually on a couple of those installs.
The term is "interference". Jamming is a term of the trade indicating a transmitter that has a specific purpose of preventing the listening to other stations. That is not the case here, and the translators are legally licensed. If they are not operating per the license, why not spend the time you are wasting here in documentation of the alleged out-of-parameter operation of the stations in question?
I fully support the rigid enforcement of FCC rules. However, until there is documentation of a violation of those rules that goes beyond hearsay, I have to limit my observations to those facts in evidence.
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Under the old rules, any complaints of interference, even outside the protected contour, could cause a translator to be shut down, moved or directionalized.
There is rulemaking going on right now that will quantify and qualify complaints and give translators a degree more of security.
DavidEduardo,
How can you say for certain "These translators are legal"?
You sound biased in your opinion when I read your comments.
Go to the FCC CDBS database and you will find over 100 Complaints of Interference by mostly Houston listeners and even the Licensee of KTWL.
And a "Class C" radio station is one that is licensable at 600 meters HAAT with a power of 100,000 watts. Anything else is NOT a Class C station.
Once again you are using FCC 50-50 contours to determine KTWL's 60 dbu contour. This is used ONLY for allocation purposes and I believe you know that or at least you sound like you do. Your statement seems disingenuous.
KTWL-FM 105.3 is, has, and will continue to fight to protect itself from the tortuous interference it continues to receive from Centro Cristiano de Vida Eterna's K287BQ FM translator.
DavidEduardo, you may not agree however wait and see how this plays out. The one you appear to be rooting for will likely lose or be gone indefinitely. Just watch and wait and in the meantime, "hang fire", please.
How can you say for certain "These translators are legal"?
You sound biased in your opinion when I read your comments.
Go to the FCC CDBS database and you will find over 100 Complaints of Interference by mostly Houston listeners and even the Licensee of KTWL.
And a "Class C" radio station is one that is licensable at 600 meters HAAT with a power of 100,000 watts. Anything else is NOT a Class C station.
Once again you are using FCC 50-50 contours to determine KTWL's 60 dbu contour. This is used ONLY for allocation purposes and I believe you know that or at least you sound like you do. Your statement seems disingenuous.
KTWL-FM 105.3 is, has, and will continue to fight to protect itself from the tortuous interference it continues to receive from Centro Cristiano de Vida Eterna's K287BQ FM translator.
DavidEduardo, you may not agree however wait and see how this plays out. The one you appear to be rooting for will likely lose or be gone indefinitely. Just watch and wait and in the meantime, "hang fire", please.
They are licensed. They are legal radio translators.
If they are operating at variance from the licensed parameters, that is a matter for the FCC to determine based on evidence.
If realistic is being biased, go for it.
None of which have, yet, been acted on.
A "Class C" station is any of the 5 types of C, from C to C4. Originally, there were only A, B and C designations, but then the C category was subdivided into various diminishing subcategories. In fact, a C3 is the same as a B1, and a C2 is the same as a B, but in a different geographical area. The need for subcategories came when it was shown that many C's back in the day could never go above about 1000', yet stations could not be licensed in the never-to-be-served areas because the "Full C" had to be protected.
And today's "Full" C is any C that is 100 kw at a minimum of 451 meters HAAT and up to 600 meters. It does not have to be built out to the full 600 meters.
And the 60 dbu, for much listening, is not a usable signal. Still, there are less than 170,000 persons in the protected 60 dbu contour of the station. And the station still does not get and has not gotten as far back as I can go, ratings of any kind in the Houston market. That sort of proves that it does not cover 900,000 people in the Houston MSA.
"Tortuous interference" is part of contract law; interference by RF signals is not "tortuous" as it refers to a breach or attempt to breach or cause a breach in an agreement.
I have no skin in this game. I am just trying to correct a flurry of misinformation on your part.
I had never heard the term "hang fire" as I do not shoot. I suppose that's a common term in rural Texas where KTWL can actually be heard.
To RTTY and DavidEduardo: Thank you for the recent "tortuous" and enlightening exchange of information -- keep it up -- maybe a legal conclusion can be reached, or not.
The 105.3 translator is now running a promo loop directing listeners to Radio Dabang on 99.5. Normal Dabang programming on 99.5.
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