Purpledevil

Heck, I'd like to see you take it a step further, Mouse. Bill would make a tremendous addition to the HAIF ranks. Fantastic man, and knows the radio business inside and out. 

I haven't mentioned anything to him about what I posted earlier, Mouse. The Streamline site was my only means of communication with him. I don't know if the Pro ownership would even give consideration to the idea; I was just bouncing it off of the wall. Nothing more, nothing less. Would be neat for Jim, though, and some much needed awareness that Cypress Radio is up there jamming away.

I feel a little tear welling up, lol! Thanks for contacting him, Stan. I really appreciate it.

Mouse! You didn't think I was going to leave you to wither away on the vine, now did you? Welcome to the HAIF, my friend. I am absolutely ecstatic to see you come aboard. I'd tell you who told me, but I wouldn't want to jeopardize their membership over there. Another HAIFer, and someone I now consider a friend, was banned for mentioning me after I requested my account closure. I certainly wouldn't want to jeopardize your membership there either, since the HAIF doesn't have much going on in the San Antonio portion of the community.

Of course, now that you're here, hopefully you'll change all of that. Anyway, just wanted you to know that I'm okay, and also where to go to find us continuing the Houston area radio conversations, so you're not just sitting there talking to yourself ! Welcome to the HAIF, Mouse! Jump on in, the water is just right!

Noticing a much improved signal from the 94-1 translator these last couple of days. Lo and behold, the Christian Center has filed and, as of March 21st, has been granted its License to Cover for 99 watts @ 300 meters, directional towards the NW. Clean signal here in the 4-4, however it is still broadcasting in mono.

With the much improved signal up here, I'd think it behoove the Pastor to light up the stereo pilot. As always, reception reports welcome; it should be reaching Jersey Village and IAH receivers with little effort. Southward I've no idea, as it has a pretty significant null south and southeast.

http://fccdata.org/?facid=93460

You know what would be neat? If Bill Turner would allow these guys to use the airtime on KYND. It's not generating any revenue right now anyway, and that'd be a great gesture to a local group keeping the KLOL legend alive. Sure, it'd only be during the daylight, but the burrito joke introducing Europe's "Final Countdown" is really starting to wear thin when you hear it day after day after day.

Or...or...since 1520 IS licensed to Cypress, why not donate the airtime to Jim Pruett for his LPFM "Cypress Radio"? I would think he'd certainly be appreciative. Maybe I should just quit trying to give away airtime on someone else's facility, lol. It seems like that would be a great thing for Pro Broadcasting to do for the smaller community broadcasters, and a feather in their cap to truly give back to the community they are licensed to call home.

Just a thought; maybe I'm asking too much. I've talked to Bill many times over the years. Great guy, and it may just be a case of him never even thinking about something like that while KYND is on the search for a new client to lease the time.

Would one of you contact the Mouse via PM? He's currently going by the screen name "Unknowable" now. I miss my little buddy, and I got an email that he's all alone over there. Please, someone give him an invitation to become a HAIFer. I'd like to roll out the red carpet for him. It's nice over here, and not full of crickets chirping...also, if someone would drop "Mediafrog" the same invite. He is an absolute wealth of knowledge and it would be an honor to see him join the HAIF family too.

Thanks in advance!

PD

Me too...although I'm kinda glad I was in San Antonio last weekend and missed the "dangerous disco"! Haha...

5210 North Shepherd Drive

Inside and out...

Crap...

Sorry, SpaceGhost. You're post did not show up when I responded. This new format is still giving my phone fits, even after taking mkultra's advice on how to remedy it. <<sigh>>

Wasn't it another name after Memorial Market. Seems like it was a Korean food market before it shuttered. Maybe I'm thinking of another building. As I recall, that was an awfully small Kroger. Was it ever a Henke & Pillot, prior to Kroger?

Have you received a pic of 5210 N. Shepherd yet, sevfiv? If not, I live right down the road from it. I'll pull over and snap one for you when I pass by it tomorrow. I've got to make a trip down to O'Reilly for an oil pressure switch on my truck. 

That's cool. Guess I can add 38.9 back to that set's lineup. Ran across color bars the other day and deleted it. Glad to see you're back up and running. Didn't want to post anything about it as I thought it'd be rubbing salt in a wound.

Now, if you could just get control of that still not ready to go KRUT-LP for Joe-FM and stick it up there on Neyland...

You're even running the liners, which is a nice touch. Outlaw Radio 101 KLOL, not the Rock 101 crap Clear Channel destroyed KLOL with. You planning on a best of S&P tomorrow morning? That'd be the cherry topping.

Been a long time since I rock n' rolled...

On Wednesday, March 23, 2016 at 11:24 PM, ArchMemoH said:

you mean no longer employed in Azteca 26/WB 26/TV 26/Paramount 26/CW 26/Smile of a child 26/CBS 26/ABC 26/NBC 26

I mean KRIV Fox 26, and you know exactly what I meant.

Arch, I'm going to give you a nickel's worth of advice for free. I'm nothing more than a HAIF participant, so I can't stop you from posting your ridiculous nonsense, but if you troll me one more time, you're going to find out firsthand why I have the ironclad reputation I do for absolutely destroying trolls online. I suggest you leave me well enough alone.

You will only receive this one cautionary advisement. Take heed to it.

I mean, why wouldn't she, Blue Dogs? You don't think she would be retaliated against over this incident, do you? That'd be a lawsuit against KRIV in a hurry.

I noticed you included Lindsey Day in your list of choices. You do know that she, too, is no longer employed at KRIV, right?

Come on now, Mr. B. You are the go to guy for this stuff; I rely on you often to keep me up to speed on the television side of Houston media. You're as big of a TV nerd as I am a radio one. 

Forgive the word omission. Tried to edit, however, it won't save the edit. All of these ads popping up everywhere now, really give my phone a fit. So much so that I'm reconsidering my continued participation here. I get it, need to generate some revenue, but my God has it slowed things down for my phone and sends it into odd tangents, as well. Couple that with the editor allowing a certain participant to hijack threads with incomprehensible babble unabated, and it's becoming more of a chore to be involved rather than a pleasure.

The sentence with the omission is in the KRBE portion. It should read "most every CHR in the country plays some gold". I let my head outpace my fingers and erranrly left out the word gold. I'm sorry, the sentence doesn't make the point without it included.

Certainly not an ignorant question, Witch King. To really delve into what all is wrong with Cumulus Media as a radio operator would take up multiple pages. From horrible business decisions like giving Lew Dickey a lucrative extension, then having to buy him out just a few short months later, rolling out the "Nash" country brand nationally and spending extensive money to do so, which has been an utter failure to date, leading to several stations dropping it already, the Rdio fiasco, the cookie cutter one size fits all programming that is mandated from the Atlanta HQ, the fact that their stock price is squarely in the toilet; there are just so many negatives to name.

We have our own examples here in town. Let's quickly look at two of them. On your dial, there is a 103-7 FM. Once, a small time country station serving Conroe, Willis, and The Woodlands, owned by local grocery retailer Ben Amato. Cumulus purchased it from him in 2005 for $32.2 million. Then they incurred the expense of moving it from the old tower site in Montgomery County, upgrading it to 100kW at the Devers tower, and giving birth to Rock 103-7. That failed as a format, since no matter how much they tried to make it into the continuation of KLOL, with programming having to be approved from Atlanta, it wasn't even close to capturing what made 101 the station so many remember as THE rock station others could only dream of being. It then became Jack FM, which lasted all of 6 months, then to the final product "103-7 FM" which teeter tottered between classic rock and Adult Album Alternative. All the while, the station never generated more than a 1 share in Houston. They then turned around and sold the now 100,000 watt station, that has a coverage area from Lake Charles all the way here to Houston to EMF for $5 million. That's no typo, Witch King. $5 million dollars. Talk about taking a complete bath. It will easily go down as the worst period in the facility's existence. 

Then there's our heritage KRBE. Once owned by Susquehanna, it was known for the top 40 powerhouse of southeast Texas. Looking for the latest and greatest tracks in contemporary hit radio? 104 KRBE was where you went. Energetic DJs, constantly evolving playlist, tremendous promotions and involved interaction within the community. KRBE is still reporting as a CHR, or Top 40 for us oldtimers, but they play songs like Pearl Jam's "Alive". Huh? Flo Rida's "Oh Hot Damn, This is My Jam". What? I mean, most every CHR in the country plays some, but good golly, when Mix 96-5 is more current than your Top 40 station, you've got big problems. Heck, KRBE isn't even Cumulus' worst CHR in SE Texas. That honor goes to KQXY over in Beaumont. They play songs from the 80s in the regular rotation. Fellow HAIFer Stan could go much more in depth on the saga of Q94 than I ever could attempt, but unless it's some type of specialty retro show, that decade of music has no business on a station that should be squarely focused on the latest releases available.

Then we could go into the current situation with where their current stock price is hovering, well under $1, and that they have always operated the company at a significant loss.

Given how good the current 6 station CBS Houston cluster is, that would be a long, long fall for the heritage KILT AM/FM, KLOL(consistently only outperformed by 102-9 within the Spanish language formats), Hot 95-7(which adds new popular and trending hits to the playlist almost daily, and it's perfect compliment the ever formidable Mix 96-5(which is going into its 26th year on the air in Houston. Did I mention that 610 is also consistently the #1 sports station here? To let Cumulus get a hold of the cluster would render it a complete and total disaster within a year. They'd likely do something stupid like trying to sell KIKK for $10 to one of their subsidies, and end up surrendering the license for nothing, like they did to KTDK up near Dallas. Or having an opportunity to unload 101-5 KSTB for at least some financial gain, to a local non-profit entity who could've and wanted to turn 101-5 into a Galveston/Crystal Beach centric station, but instead simply turning in the license and just saying the hell with it and deleting the allocation altogether. Absolutely sickening to me how that went down. 

I knew my long winded self would end up typing a mile's worth if I got started, haha.

If anyone would be a good operator to pick up the 6 stations, in my view, it would be Cox Radio. Problem there, is they'd have to unload both signals for the Eagle to do so, and Country Legends too. You can only own 8 stations in one market, 5 in one band and 3 in the other. Country Legends easily moves to the citygrade 100-3 KILT-FM, complimentary of co-owned 93Q's current based Country format, but what would they do with The Eagle? Would a Cox purchase of the CBS cluster lead to Houston having absolutely NO rock station available over the air?

Ok, I'm getting way ahead of myself now...

"Boris! Is moose you said you kill in last episode!"

I wouldn't know, Blue, but I'm willing to bet you they've all got an eye permanently affixed on what's transpiring with regards to the potential sell off. Just a waiting game now. Les Moonves just announced this a few days ago. Of course, he has made the statement before, however, he now has the ability to make the call himself. That wasn't the case before, and the tone appears to be much more serious with regards to this latest release. The biggest problem here is that it's going to be difficult to find a suitor for the stations that have the means to meet the asking price CBS will likely set, and that has room under the cap to add facilities. Here in Houston, Cumulus instantly comes to mind, and God help us all if they get a hold of these four fine FM facilities, and the two historic AMs.

Yep, when the weather is right, and the station is actually on the air, it's very possible to catch Centerville's lone allocation. KUZN has a very odd existence indeed. The Villarreal brothers are the most stable owners the facility has ever had. At least it's on the air more than off. This is one of those facilities that shouldn't even still exist, given that prior to Aleluya ownership it was off the air for well over a year.

Nice catch, Señor.

Poor cat! I know that pack of dogs...or at least one just like it. You called it correctly, s3mh. The couple of blocks north of Booker T. has plenty of work going on, and there is a smattering of new construction in the neighborhood, here and there. Nowhere near the levels of Sunset Heights though, and it won't be either. You believe there will be a 5-10 year delay? I'm 49, and don't believe I'll see Studewood cleaned up in my lifetime. That's just the reality of it. People can speculate all they want, about it being ready to turn the corner. Drive up here around 11pm or after, and anyone can see firsthand that I am not exaggerating on the current elements running the streets in the least bit.

It's quite all right with me, though. I grew up in Sunset Heights back in the 70s & 80s, right down the street from the Peppermint Lounge. This feels like home, much more so than Camden Park ever did. I guess after all these years there's still a little riff-raff left in me, as well. The cherry on top is that my taxes on this house are next to nothing annually. Just over $1,000 last year, and barely. 

I couldn't even imagine living in a place where someone else can control the property I own, and tell me what I can and can't do with it. I can assure you, an HOA would hate me instantly. The most we have here is a civic club, and that's nothing more than a handful of people with nothing better to do than to gossip with one another over a glass of punch and a couple of cookies on a Thursday night. 

I know I'm coming off as all doom and gloom, and trust me, I'd love to see this gentrification of Studewood come to pass, Yale Village & Pecan Shadows turned into a pile of rubble, and the Gulf station and strip center across from Barkwood replaced with something that doesn't draw the hooligans out of the woodwork, but it's not happening as some would have you to believe. If it was, there'd be developers up here doing exactly what they did to my grandmother back in the 90's for her house on 26th. Hounding me consistently about selling out.

I had completely forgotten about this thread, but stuu, you sure are right. Late last year, after my wife passed away, I sold our home in Camden Park and moved back to our first owned house here in Parkway.

There isn't a single individual in here, including you good sir, capable of pulling the wool over this poster's eyes. I'm living in the thick of it, and the reality is, anyone that buys up these new developments in Studewood had better have tough skin, and a wife and kids that aren't squeamish. You're going to have an entire area north of Crosstimbers as your neighboring community and what's currently going on up here will really make your hairs curl, if you're not accustomed to it. Apparently, the crack dealers, meth heads, and street walkers that once graced the areas around Booker T. have suddenly found their way up here between Parker and Barbecue Inn. 

You ought to just see the Town Inn and the adjacent Chevron station at Rosamond and 45 at night these days. The hookers line up so you can even compare the merchandise. How about the dope deals in the McDonald's parking lot? Would you like fries with that? Ask Carla about her Family Dollar being robbed almost weekly. Want to see Texas style gambling? Visit the 20+ "patrons" loitering around Parker Food Mart shooting dice, swilling 40's, and throwing punches and empty beer bottles at each other. If you want even bang for your buck, post yourself up in the Shell parking lot at Parker & North Freeway after dark. The traffic between it and the Symphony Inn is bumper to bumper, and it isn't just the cars I'm talking about. Grab a beer (and a sidearm for your own safety), then come on up and enjoy the show.

Where we lived at Antoine and Vets Memorial can't hold a candle to the sheer amount of action down here. Independence Heights certainly is on the move...about a mile to three miles northward. There isn't a developer, builder, or realtor alive that will ever tell a potential Independence Heights area buyer that, but I certainly will. It sure as hell isn't the rosy picture some people are trying to make it out to be, and it definitely isn't the same quiet little pocket neighborhood my wife and I moved out of in 1999. I haven't even mentioned what is all is going down between North Main and Airline, directly to the east of Booker T., but Lord knows, that'd take up an entire page in and of itself.

$350k, huh? Really? Because mine just appraised at $83k, and if you're going to buy in Studewood and be that up close and personal with all of the festivities, ya might as well just set up shop right in the heart of it and save a couple hundred thousand. 

You can even be my next door neighbor, as that one's up for sale right now. Asking price: $78,500.

But, hey, it's not all bad. Yale is brand new, with 4 lanes up here now, and the #40 will take you clear to Hobby Airport without a transfer, for all the transportation fans around here.

Good luck with those new purchases, gentlemen.

50 minutes ago, mrtejano said:

And I'm assuming that due to La Raza 98.5 K254BZ can't move any closer to Houston?

 

What about KNTE? Can't they move closer to Houston?

 

Didnt 103.3 have a CP to move closer to Houston as well? 

That is correct. KTJM prohibits any movement of K254BZ towards downtown. It is also the reason the signal of 98-7 is highly directional towards Needville.

KNTE is stuck with what it currently has as a result of KAYD Silsbee operating on the same frequency. It also can't move northward due to another co-channel, KSAM Huntsville. When Liberman purchased 96-9 & 101-7, he upgraded both of them to the full legally allowed specifications. 96-9 got the better upgrade because the only facility it was required to protect was adjacent 97-1 KTHT Cleveland. As a result, it went all the way to 100kW, at over 500 meters. However, the tower site is no longer in El Campo itself. Instead, Liberman had to move it down near the water. Bigger coverage area, but a fair share of KXBJ's signal covers marine life in the Gulf. That's the best 96-9 can ever get, but that's perfect for what KSBJ is doing with it, simulcasting 89-3. Quite a formidable coverage are as a result of the dual signals, much like what Cox has combining 106-9 & 107-5 together.

KJOJ-FM has had that permit to move for several years now, and I've never seen a license to cover filed, so I assume it's not built yet. Some days, 103-3 screams into north Houston, others it's MIA altogether. I'm tired of being fooled into thinking that Liberman has actually cranked up the juice from the new transmit site, so I now just keep an eye out for any potential License to Cover being submitted for filing by Liberman on 103-3. Nothing yet. Wouldn't be a bit surprised if his hand is forced now, as K254BZ must be giving 98-5 a lot of trouble down there in SW Houston. I figure he's going to need the upgraded 103-3 built out to overcome that obstacle.

On Wednesday, March 09, 2016 at 9:33 PM, ArchMemoH said:

actually kdhu is on channel 50

Actually, it's not. It may map to 50 virtually, but it operates on RF channel 7. According to FCC files, it left channel 50 in the transition to digital in 2009.

I must be corrected on my response to Blue Dogs, though. After more research, KDHU-LD is not a repeater of KLTJ-DT. Instead, it carries the national Daystar feed. 

So...the Carter was better off before the renovation?

That's an interesting viewpoint. I don't agree with it, but I certainly respect it. I look at the two buildings now, compare them to what they were prior to the redo, and find them to be to the betterment of the entire block. That's just one man's opinion, and admittedly I'm biased. 

Could be worse, I guess. It could've had its beautiful stone wall ripped off and replaced by a more modern wall of glass.

I've lost track of all the different formats 101-7 in Bay City has had since Lenard Liberman bought the facility from 5 Star some 15 years ago, but there's been a bunch. You are right, they both were tried and didn't last. Admittedly, nothing stands a chance of being successful on KNTE as long as it's pretending to be a Houston targeted station, so saying Sonido and/or Baila specifically failed because of the format choice would be unfair. If 98-7 is to give it a shot, it won't fare much better. Sure, K254BZ has better coverage of Houston than KNTE does, but certainly not a big enough of a signal nor listener base here in Houston to succeed. Why Guevara doesn't make an attempt at relaunching a Tejano station here is baffling to me. K254BZ would make a fine home for a daily fix of Selena, La Mafia, Emilio, Little Joe, etc.

It'd certainly get my vote.

Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me. Cumbias? I guess...