Re: radio: heed the red flags: public boredom abounds

[Dan Strassberg <dan.strassberg@worldnet.att.net>]

At 07:57 PM 4/15/99 -0400, you wrote:

> OTOH, the
>ridiculous prices that are paid for stations (didn't Disney buy a Class
>IV AM in LA for 33 mill?) make owners afraid of not making their
>"nut",so they sanitize the product to he point of overkill.

As far as I know, there is only one Class IV (now called Class C) AM
licensed to LA, the former KGFJ 1230. There is (or was) also a Class IV
limited-time station licensed to Pasadena, the former KPPC (AM) on 1240.
KPPC was licensed for only 100W, and during the hours it operated both KGFJ
and KGIL 1260 (which used to be licensed to San Fernando), had to reduce
power. I did not know that ABC had bought the 1230 station. If they have,
what are they programming on it? ABC owns KABC 790 (talk) and the former
KMPC (don't know the current calls) 710 (Radio Disney). Ex-KMPC is 50
kW-D/10 kW-N DA-N, a really prime facility in the LA market. With Radio
Disney on 710, ABC would not need to use 1230 for Radio Disney. Given that
Jacor's all-sports KXTA 1150 is now 50 kW-U (technically 44 kW-N, but the
night signal is stronger than most 50-kW AM signals), there is no way that
ABC could compete in the sprawling LA market by putting ESPN Radio on the
puny 1230 signal. (Besides being a low-powered Class C AM on a "graveyard"
channel, 1230 also uses a rooftop antenna, which I believe to be a very
inefficient horizontal "longwire". Most likely, what saves this station from
being completely worthless is the excellent soil conductivity in the LA
basin and the location of the TX, which, I believe, is in downtown LA, in
the cetner of a densely populated area.) 

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Dan Strassberg (Note: Address is CASE SENSITIVE!)
ALL _LOWER_ CASE!!!--> dan.strassberg@worldnet.att.net
(617) 558-4205; Fax (617) 928-4205

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