It occurred to me that 1040AM has been off the air for sometime and I haven't seen an application to transfer control or anything else. I was wondering if the frequency is gone for good. It isn't like there's a separate antenna site anywhere so there appears to be no "real" property.
According to the FCC's silent station page, KXPD (as well as KXOR Junction City) have been silent since Dec. 30th, 2009. They have a year to put something on it (or sell it to someone who will) at least temporarily to avoid the license being canceled.
http://www.fcc.gov/mb/audio/status/silent.html
(If I was somebody, had the personal money and investment backing to put together a business plan, and could convince the current owners that selling for something is better than the license being canceled...)
The current owners primary business of real estate development in Eugene is currently in Chapter 11. They paid $1.8 million for the station in 2006. The only assets are the transmitter and related equipment at the transmitter site. The tower is a joint lease of KBNP and KXPD. Neither station owns the tower. Should be interesting to see if they come down in price for the station. Very few assets and a very low cash flow when the station was operating. The main problem is there are no studios or equipment. Major investment just to set up studios. I'm sure one of the engineers on this board could come up with what a realistic price would be to set up studios.
Don't tell me Dave Jack still owns the tower!
FCC records show the tower owned by Oaks amusement Park.
"I'm sure one of the engineers on this board could come up with what a realistic price would be to set up studios."
Rent on tower, existing transmitter
Insurance on transmitting equipment
Rent or payments on Studio Transmitter Link microwaves or other means
Studio:
Rent on studio space
Insurance on equipment contained therein
Power at studio
two consoles (air plus production)
three computers, one server capable, one DAW capable
SAN (hard drives)
CD player or two (pro quality preferred)
microphones
You could probably start on a shoestring budget of maybe 15 grand, but you won't be
having any money for RPU, music library or contract service, no station owned news
dish or service, no high end studio DAW software, etc.
Capital equipment budget is not the big money eater. It's operating expenses monthly, payroll, and promotion.
I mean all you really need to get started is an iPod in shuffle mode and a cable to connect it to the processing feeding the exciter. Three hundred bucks. 
How about something like "KPSU"... they have a studio and programming, but no stick?
How about something like "KPSU"... they have a studio and programming, but no stick?
At first I didn't want to say it, but I was almost going to post as a tongue-in-cheek follow-up to my original reply something like they could connect a computer running KPSU and/or an encore presentation of "The Debate Hour" if license security isn't their top priority.
Of course, someone has to pay for the computer, the internet connection, and power to run the thing, as well as the transmitter. Many people will probably say that (K)PSU and the State of Oregon have better things to spend money on than getting a signal for the station. (Although I wouldn't necessarily agree with them.)
I mean all you really need to get started is an iPod in shuffle mode and a cable to connect it to the processing feeding the exciter. Three hundred bucks.
http://krud.com/toon167.html 
This from All Access:
CHURCHILL MEDIA, LLC has applied for an extension to its Silent STAs for KXPD-A/TIGARD, OR and KXOR/JUNCTION CITY, OR due to financial problems. The company says it is looking for a buyer for the stations.
I'd almost like to see the frequency go dark and have KOOR move to the tower, only for completion's sake, if nothing else. That would give a Milwaukie licensed station a real signal in Milwaukie, as it should be.
Wouldn't it be better if KOOR could move to 1040 kHz? That way, they could broadcast at night. As I understand it, the tower that KOOR uses is diplexed with 1230 and is owned by Bustos. With the financial situation that company is in, I wouldn't expect them to want to rent space on somebody else's tower.
There's quite a bit involved. 1040 is limited to 2Kw. How much of that is because of 1010 and how much from 1050 in Eugene and the various 1030s around? 1010 tried for nighttime power once and I believe even had a construction permit. 8Kw directional daytime/500 watts nighttime rings a bell. If they were to stay with one tower, I don't see any advantage to 200 watts at night, in the middle of the metro area, in this day and age.
Actually their 200 watts nights did a pretty good trip up and down 205...couldn't believe it at the time.
I may be a little late to this, but 1040 was interfering with my ability to listen to the Champs Sports Bowl on 1050 from San Francisco. Are they back on the air? How long has KXPD been back?
1040 KXPD must have just come back on the air! What are they calling it?
The reason why 1040 is back on the air might be that they have to broadcast within a one year span of time to keep their license which would run over one year "dark" on Dec 30th. That's the date in 2009 when they signed off air. I've heard of this kind of thing before. Once they've broadcast a number of hours, they will go silent for another year.
Hopefully they continue to broadcast!
I'm surprised that KBNP hasn't tried to get the 1040 frequency. It would give them a better night signal.
KPDQ would have a better night signal at 1040
Yeah, and KGO would have a better signal too! 
I know! why do they have sports on now? they carry the Pilots games! 
Ok..someone wanna explain to a non-techie how 200 watts at night on 1040am is a better signal than 500 watts at night on 800am. The math just ain't clickin' for me on this one...
1040's night signal was pretty impressive, considering the 200 watts. I think it has a lot to do with the ground conductivity at the tower site. It is real close to the river. Also, tower height has a lot to do with the coverage. KXPD is on a 1/4 wave tower, KPDQ is running a 1/5 wave tower.
Just heard a station ID (at about 9:20 PM) saying "this is KXPD 1040 AM Tigard, Oregon." It sounded very scratchy with some background noise. The station immediately went back to the old time radio programs.
Edit 9:50 PM: Heard another ID. The OTR they're playing is "The Shadow," and includes the original advertisements, including the almost century-old addresses of where to write for more information.
. . . Like it was over a telephone or something.
I'd still rather have 500 watts on 800KHZ than 200 on 1040 although neither is enough to cover the area adequately.
Is 1040 KXPD stunting, or is Churchill just trying to keep their license? (My guess would be the latter.)
I'm surprised that 1410 KBNP hasn't taken over 1040 KXPD. KBNP's 9 watts at night isn't enough to cover up Vancouver's 1410 CFTE, unless you're right by the transmitter.
Just heard a station ID (at about 9:20 PM) saying "this is KXPD 1040 AM Tigard, Oregon." It sounded very scratchy with some background noise.
The station ID sounds like a guy in a bathroom speaking into a megaphone. Funny that all the 60-70 year old programming sounds better than that.
So this is what it was like to listen to the Mercury Theater on AM radio.
I was listening to KXPD and heard some good news! Streptomycin is still in the testing stages but promises to be an effective antibiotic, even better than penicillin.
I love this old time radio.
But how do I use "Blue Coal" in my heat pump ?
Fun stuff, but I suspect it will be over soon 
1040 is still on with the old time radio shows. It seems that they play a block of a few of each program, with the programming roughly organized by category. Late last night was comedy. Now, they are running detective shows. The station ID sounds as if it had been recorded at the transmitter site, and it is not a legal ID; it has the station's frequency between the call letters and city of license.
That's a legal ID. You can insert the frequency, licensee and/or network affiliation between the call letters and location.
When did the rules change? As late as 2004 (while I worked at Crawford), I was told that nothing can be placed between the callsign and city of license.
I'll go out on a limb and say "1934". It's been legal to say "KOIN-TV Channel 6 Portland", at least since I was a little kid. I can hear Bud Beechwood's voice resonating in my head right now!
"KISN. Serving the Great Oregon Territory from Vancouver."
I remeber that voice made for radio doing ID's on Ch 6 for much of the 1960's. He had great rhythm and phrasing, too: "KOIN-TV. (pause) Channel 6. (Pause) PORTLAND." And it was all live, not prerecorded, as most ID's are these days. And it was accompanied by a full-screen slide, because there was an FCC rule at the time that the ID had to be separate and distinct and clearly identifiable as an ID. By contrast, KGW (and sometimes KATU) nowadays put an almost-full-screen freeze-framed ad on-screen, with the legal ID in small type at the bottom of the image. To me, that violates the spirit of that rule at least. Or is the FCC that loose with legal ID's today? Best, M. 
Here's what 47 CFR 73.1201 of the FCC Rules & Regulations says:
(b) Content. (1) Official station identification shall consist of the station’s call letters immediately followed by the community or communities specified in its license as the station’s location; Provided, That the name of the licensee, the station’s frequency, the station’s channel number, as stated on the station’s license, and/or the station’s network affiliation may be inserted between the call letters and station location. [...]
(2) A station may include in its official station identification the name of any additional community or communities, but the community to which the station is licensed must be named first.
Sounds pretty clear that you must state the callsign, letter by letter, followed by the city of license. The only exception being that the network affiliation can be given in-between. This jives with all the training I've received at radio stations I've been at...
"KISN. Serving the Great Oregon Territory from Vancouver." That isn't legal and they had to change it after a further clarification was made in the late 60s. It was changed to "KISN Vancouver, serving the Great Oregon Territory". This clarification also stopped stations from inserting the word "in" or "the voice of". DarkStar, before posting, I looked up the information, using your source. If you look again, as I said, it refers to the name of the licensee, the station's frequency and network affiliation. I left out "channel number" because we were discussing radio.
I think what's most illegal about their ID is that it's hard to understand. It could be "KSPD". It could be "1030".
How long do they have to broadcast before they can file for another STA to go dark again and turn it off? Kinda cool to have the OTR.
Missing_KVIX
OK, I stand corrected. I guess that station management often opts to play it safe by using only the most basic definition of a legal ID in order to discourage the natural tendency to insert the word "in" between the callsign and city of license.
Now, of all the alternative legal formats provided in the latter part of 47 CFR 73.1201 (b) (1), the only one that I can envision being truly useful is the one that inserts the frequency/channel number between the callsign and city of license (e.g. "K-O-I-N-TV Channel 6 Portland"). The other ones sound somewhat cumbersome, i.e.:
I've found the radio drama programming on KXPD to be somewhat addictive. Last night, I was up way past my bedtime listening to a one-hour radio adaptation of Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage, put on by NBC University Theater. The radio play included a brief intermission by a college professor who talked about the novel. This play came from a series of radio plays that went along with literature courses offered by several universities across the country.
Well, on 1040 I just heard the NBC "tones" followed by "This is KFI, Los Angeles". 
Yes, I just heard that too during NBC's "Best Plays" program (hence my edit!).
That's gotta be against the law.
I heard a KFI ID on 1040 about two days ago. I also heard one show say that it is sponsored by Chesterfield Cigarettes. Then again, "The History of Portland Radio" on KJUN included a KISN aircheck that that a commercial for Pall Mall Cigarettes. I once even saw a documentary on PBS that included 1930s era clips of movie theater advertisements for various cars. Are there special FCC rules provisions for instances like this, wherein advertising material is obviously presented solely for historical purposes, and the broadcaster receives no monetary compensation from the sponsor in the advertisement?
For years KINK FM 102 Portland was used, and it's not really kosher since "102" is not their frequency nor anyone else's frequency for that matter.
Until they modified the rule in the 70's, nothing could be inserted between calls and location.
Broadcasters have stretched ID rules to the limits for years. It rarely is an issue with the FCC as long as there is some ID given with the call sign and the correct community of license is spoken first. Trying to associate your signal with a nearby larger location by mentioning it first is a no no.
I remember newbies at KVAN used to ID the station as KVAN Portland. Many didn't know it was Vancouver.
KKSN ads in the Oregonian continued to use KISN even though those calls were at the time already gobbled up by (I think) someone in the southwest. I also used to hear them ID on the hour with "kissin' " 91 instead of K-K-S-N, Vancouver.
Bottom line: No one cares. Or at least practically no one.
A few Christmases ago, my mother and six other members of our family circle went to Maui, Hawaii, fo the holidays. All the major-network stations are based in Honolulu, the other islands have relay stations that rebroadcast Honolulu output verbatim. The network stations all promote themselves as ABC Hawaii, NBC Hawaii, etc., with legal ID for Honolulu stations underneath. During the first segment of a program, the legal ID's for the other islands are crawled across the bottom of the screen. This has apparently been common practice in Hawaii for many years. No, they don't get local stations from the mainland, except for the two Los Angeles area Fox Sports channels (FSN West and FSN Prime Ticket), which they get live. But the program schedules are very odd...network stations start primetime at 7PM HNL every night, cable channels are eiether live off West feed or locally tape-delayed (Hawaii is 3hrs behind West Coast in winter, 2hrs in summer because they don't have Daylight Time in summer). The local stations in Hawaii are therefore very Oahu-centric!
Best, M.
It sounds like the other way around: two hours behind the west coast and 3 in summer. If it's 8PM on the west coast, Alaska/Hawaii time is 6PM. When the west coast goes to daylight time, it's 9PM on the west coast but still 6PM in Hawaii.
semoochie: I believe you are correct -- my wife's family in Maui are just getting off work right now... 7pm our time, 5pm their time!
I'm thinking at this point KXPD was been on the air long enough to file another an STA.
Is the owner showing the station's coverage to potential buyers? Isn't that what KJUN 104.1 did?
Yes, it seems like they're wasting electricity at this point unless they have an interested buyer.
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