The shuffle begins
Don Day | July 26, 2008
We’ve been following the potential move of a rash of Idahos stations for several years now – and the deal is done, and stations have been ordered by the FCC to starting movin’.
The rundown:
- KQFC/97.9 FM will move to 102.7 FM
- KSAS/103.3 Kiss FM will move up just one tick to 103.5 FM.
- KTPZ/Music Monster 94.3 will move yet again – this time to 97.7 (it used to be at 99.1 )
- KSKI/103.7 FM will slide down the FM slope to 94.5 FM
- KMVX/Mix 103 will move from 102.9 FM to 103.1 FM
- KSRA/92.7 FM moves to 92.9 and gets a signal upgrade to 100kw
- KEZQ/92.9 The Big EZ flips to 92.7 FM and will change from a West Yellowstone, MT station to an Iona, ID station, further pulling it into the Idaho Falls market
More fallout:
- Construction Permit KPHD changes its city of license from Elko, NV to a full class C in Melba. The new station will slot in at 97.7 FM
- A vacant channel allotted to McCall is reassigned to 103.1 but remains a class C3 so as to not interfere with KMVX at Jerome. No auction date has been set for this channel.
- KXML, a construction permit licensed to Salmon UPGRADES to 100kw at 99.9
Previously, three other stations were ordered to move – including KZDX, KAOX, and KQEO – details here.
All this fun was triggered by College Creek Media. College Creek will pay reasonable costs for all these moves, and the affected stations have until October to file for construction permits for the changes.
ALSO: Some of these stations are going to have a tough time on the web. 1035kissfm.com is Clear Channel’s Chicago station… KissFMBoise.com, KissFMIdaho.com, KissBoise.com and KissIdaho.com haven’t been registered… yet…
I would expect the change in frequencies to result in a change of formats for at least one of the stations involved. KQFC, KTPZ, and KSKI would be the top three possibilities on my list since they have to make the biggest frequency changes.
All of this triggered by an insolvent, bankrupted company owned by Chris Devine.
I’m confused. Why the shuffle?
This whole mess started out with an application to put an FM in Boardman Oregon! The FCC rules gives priority to “first radio service to a community”. If it requires moving other stations to give that to Melba (555 people) than that’s OK with them! The 97.7 will be on Deer Point with all the other FMs’. Colllege Creek is the master at playing the game.
Btw, College Creek has just turned off 3 of their new stations (filed STA’s) in WY & CO due to “financial hardship”.
I understand the primary reason Devine did this was to move his Elko CP to a bigger city (Boise) in order to produce a higher re-sale value on the CP. He had to attach his request to a pending rulemaking which is why it was originally linked to Boardman. At the time he wanted to propose the change, the FCC was not accepting new rulemaking proposals.
Devine, under yet another corporate name – Resurgence Development LLC, received approval last September to purchase KEZQ at West Yellowstone MT so that explains how KEZQ was added to the just approved rulemaking to move to Iona. The FCC document actually reflects an option between Chaparral & College Creek Broadcasting executed in May of 2006 (see link http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/getattachment_exh.cgi?exhibit_id=515597 )
Apparently the Chaparral/Resurgence deal has not closed perhaps due to Devine’s financial situation. The original plan would have been for Devine to have KEZQ, Aberdeen, Ashton and Island Park’s KWYS in a package. Aberdeen has since been sold to Sandhill Media while Ashton (KRID) is licensed but silent. Its all part of the Devine/College Creek puzzle.
Just have to give a shout out to KSRA: the station where I cut my teeth in radio and spinned the black circle.
Ditto to what Has Been said. Started there in ‘62 hosting a high-school news program, and got hired summer of ‘63. I’ve been stuck in this business since then. Radio was a little different back then.
How many of you guys today have actually spun vinyl, and cued up spots on a reel-reel deck?
I’ve “spun vinyl”, cued up programming on reel-reel decks and can recall when CD’s were the exciting new technology. Now if you’ll excuse me, my tapioca pudding is here and then the nice nurse is going to wheel me out to the patio so I can drool on myself like everyone else out there.
Although somewhat younger, I had the privilege of spinning vinyl on some funky turntables in South America, cueing up spots on cassette and reel and editing with the old grease pencil and scotch tape! Coming up on 23 years in the ‘biz. I think all of the “youngsters” should have to at least do it all “live” at least once. I wonder how many could deal with “tails out” on an old Ampex 440 with no brakes on the thing? You’d probably end up with a lot of broken tapes. I still have a notch on my left index finger that I got when I was stupid enough to try and stop a “flying” take-up reel on an Ampex machine, when I first got into the business. Talk about a war wound!
I don’t know how many cue burned 45’s I spun in my day, but I had my share. Keep in mind, KSRA did not venture into the digital revolution of CD players by choice. They were forced to buy a CD player in ‘89 or ‘90 when Warner Bros. (the only label that would service the station) quit shipping their product in 45’s.
For you whipper-snappers out there, a 45 is a little vinyl / black record. It’s about a 1/3 the size of your grandpa’s Van Halen II album…
How do you think KQFC’s move will affect it’s weakening foothold in the increasingly competetive Country genre?
Will they lose listeners to confusion? Will KAWO or KIZN benefit?
Thoughts?
Count me in and put me on the list of disc spinners and back timers… Nothing like sweating it out trying to see if you are going to make a clean transition from music to the network news and top of the hour ID… PC jocks today just dont have a real handle on what it takes to do it like we had to back in the day….
Spinning vinyl and playing reel to reels are pleasent memories compared to learning to slip cue, because the turntables took 5 seconds to come up to speed.
And no trip down memory lane would be complete without a passing mention of the jammed cart, and pinch rollers that didn’t really pinch any more.
It’s too bad the FCC has nothing better to do than try to further hinder an already struggling industry. I’ve been through frequency swaps. The listener just doesn’t understand, and yes, at least for a while, all of these stations will be damaged.
Oh wow… I remember it all. How about this for those waxing of the old days…. Boards with knobs and not sliders?
Hey Mitch, that’s a good point…There was an entire industry devoted to reparing carts and all the tape and parts that got broken when they were slammed against walls, crushed under foot, and other military spec testing type practices….caused when they failed at crucial times. And then there are all those engineers out there who are surely shedding many tears for the lack of business they have lost over the years repairing those mechanial pieces of $hit aka player/recorder units.
KXML has just filed with the FCC to MOVE from Salmon to a new city of license…Fairfield Idaho. The proposed transmitter site is Picabo mountain south of Hailey which will give it a matched signal to Sun Valley/Twin Falls’ stations KIKX and KYUN thus adding a 6th commercial FM to Sun Valley & a 12th or so to Twin Falls. The new Fairfield KXML will operate at 100kw on 99.9 thus saving our beloved KSRA from any competition in Salmon!
Makes me wonder if KSRA is still a simulcast on AM and FM. I seem to remember that.
Last I checked, KSRA simulcasted on AM and FM. When I worked there, we had to sign the AM off at sunset and the FM signed off at 10 p.m. They didn’t want to pay anybody to work overnights or up until midnight.
Now, the station goes 24/7 with automation. They also beam into Challis on a translator, but nobody listens to the station. I think Challis gets a pretty good signal from an eastern Idaho country station.
A few years ago when I was there, I could get several Idaho Falls area stations in Challis that had better audio quality than the KSRA translator. Their audio was horribly over-compressed and distorted sounding. That probably didn’t help them gain many listeners in Challis. I’m sure they’ve probably fixed the problem by now.
The Challis translator does sound better now (I know – I worked on the audio about a year ago). And, they do simulcast except they will split for some sports events now and then.
Yes, the split happens for sporting events and annual LDS Conference.
KSRA also would split the programming on Sunday mornings. God shows on the FM and automation on the AM. They had this huge machine down in the basement (the current studio down by the river) that they’d load with reel to reels of light AC music. That thing would play at normal speed and then by the end of the tape it would start…to…slow……dooowwwnnn.
I swear – every tape had “Summer Breeze” by Seals & Croft and “That’s All” by Genesis or Phil Collins or whoever.
At least that part is now history. Currently it’s all run on a Scott system. A year or so ago I helped gut the old prod room downstairs and install new stuff there as well.
Ah, yes, the “bomb shelter” which doubled as a production studio. As we all know Salmon was high on the Ruski’s target list.
I understand that was fortified to be EMP-proof! I have heard that the feds paid a pretty penny to shore it up, ever since the old ConelRad days. I used to call the Smiths everyday and get their weather (highs and lows) back in the mid 80’s, while working for KIFI.
I think I may have brought this up in an earlier post but for those researchers who may find this post at a later date and be doing ConelRad history in Idaho…KRLC in Lewiston had a fortified hole in the ground studio for the end of days as well….kind of weird to see it, climb into it etc….Now we know KSRA has one too…Would make a great place to put up the canned fruit jars and potatos for winter….
Yes. Radio bomb shelters were important back in the day. You had to make sure your equipment was EMP shielded, no doubt. That way you would know it could work reliably when broadcasting from your twisted tower fused to the glass that once was your parking lot. Duck and cover, everybody.
KGEM has a bomb shelter too, but it looks so rickety that it would probably collapse if someone lit off an M-80, let alone a nuke. Very strange…
Actually, if you look at the structure closely, the bomb shelter at KGEM would probably survive. The rest of the building, on the other hand, would probably be leveled by a good back-fire from a lawn mower. Peabody does have point, tho — if the stairway to the entrance collapsed, what good would a shelter do that you couldn’t get into?
Ok, so this topic has had some severe drift in topic, but is nonetheless somewhat interesting. Back in the ’60’s the “bomb shelter” idea was very big. A lot of stations were equipped with them. Prior to the new building at KFXD (oops, at 580) there was one, It was bulldozed into a hole under the current parking lot when it was no longer needed. Small towns like Salmon with only station were nearly all equipped. Larger cities had multiple stations equipped to theoretcially be able to operate from the shelter. The sad reality is that very few were ever properly equipped to be able to actually operate from the shelters.
Yes, we are straying off topic here since this was about the change in frequencies for a bunch of FM stations, but the “bomb shelter” at KSRA was far from a the ones you would see in movies. It was just a concrete block with a stairwell leading up to the main floor of the building. The was no place to relieve yourself and I often wondered if I had to take cover in the shelter which corner would I use to wait it out.
If bombs started flying, you were better off shutting things down, go home, roll one up and pop open a cold one. If an EMP blast took out all communications you had no other source other than a shortwave radio Blair Smith kept on the floor of the studio. Phone lines would be out and you probably wouldn’t be able to snag a satellite signal. In other words, you might be able to broadcast out, but nothing would be coming in so what could you tell people? Guess you could just play Willie Nelson records and tell everybody all is well.
I just always found it funny that KGEM’s bomb shelter has a weak little wooden door with a cheap wooden frame. In fact it’s broken, like someone got locked in and kicked the door out to free themselves. If there was actually a nuclear detonation, the blast wave would’ve blown that door right off it’s hinges and the vacuum would’ve sucked everything out. Then the reverse winds would blow everything back in- including the radiation. It seems as though, if someone was going to spring for the cost of the shelter, the least they could’ve done is invest in a steel door. And a port-a-potty.
Well now that we are on the topic….does anyone have a photo of the KGEM hole in the wall… I worked there shortly back in the 80’s but never knew of it…darn…
Give me a few days and I could take a few pics…..
New post to an old thread — I promised you some pics of the bomb shelter at KGEM. At the last meeting of History of Idaho Broadcasting Foundation, I showed some pics taken there. Some of those pics are on the Foundation website now. Check it out if you are interested. They are on the main page for now – but if you check in a few weeks, you’ll have to find the Aug 28 Meeting in the Foundation info to see the pics. Happy viewing !
Thanks Rocky. Pics bring back some memories. Wish I had taken the time when I worked there to go snooping…looks very historic. Nice job on the other site stuff as well.