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Following up on Washnotore’s post about the One Ministries LPTV in Santa Rosa, CA, after the recent set of firestorms, I took a look at the Bay Area listings on RabbitEars, and here’s what I found. They’re currently running the following LPTVs in the SF market:
K03HY-D (ch. 3/RF 3) SF
K03IC-D (3/RF 3) SF
KTVJ-LD (12/RF 4) San Rafael
KUKR-LD (27/RF 26) Santa Rosa*
KQRO-LD (45/RF 2) Morgan Hill
KFTY-LD (45/RF 2) Middletown*Listed as currently off the air, but that was the case on RabbitEars listings before the fires.
All of these stations are listed as rebroadcasting KKPM-CD (28/RF 28) Chico/Sacramento. All of them carry the same 12 subchannels, which are set up like this:
x.1: 3 Angels/Better Life Network
x.2: Better Life Health Network
x.3: Better Life Preaching Network
x.4: 3 Angels Latino (Spanish)
x.5: God TV
x.6: Daystar
x.7: AUN News
x.8: Infomercials
x.9: The Walk (religious channel)
x.10: CMC-TV
X.11: Family Life Radio (audio only)
x.12: Broken FM (audio only)*10* video services on one channel? Seriously? In conventional ATSC? I can’t begin to imagine how blocky and hazy that must be since that’s stretching 6 MHz pretty thin.
All SD I assume? No way they’d be able to transmit a HD service in that big of a mux and actually have any of it be marginally watchable (reserve your comments of the programming itself). If so that would have to be one of the lossiest TV multiplexes I’ve ever heard of.
“Broken FM” sounds like an appropriate moniker for the LPFMs that briefly went on the air to fulfill their construction permits and quickly signed off thereafter: 96.7, 98.3, and 101.5.
Sorry Alfredo, it’s a good comment but they are already known by a previous term coined long ago (hundreds of years) and adopted as a radio license group term long before LPFMs came around.
squatter
The first time I heard the term in that connotation was in reference to EMF when they started to expand their empire of translators. Someone pointed out to me that even before then, speculators that got involved in filing on new channel openings for no other reason then to prevent it from being available and hopefully reselling their CP or if built out their LIC were referred to with that term. When the FCC started implementing filing windows, squatters became more widely known because the limits on ownership were gone and shell companies need not be created within any state to own unlimited licenses. As these groups grew, it didn’t take much to figure out that all these state wide group owners were all owned by a single corporation (e.g. iHeart Clear Channel operates in Oregon as Citicasters).
Also, signing on for tests and immediately filing for STA to be silent is not a new trick either. It’s just a more easily digested lie since most LPFMs don’t have antennae very high up. The lower to the ground the CP indicates, the easier it is to fake it. Of course in some cases the lies are so atrocious to local folks but the FCC doesn’t have a clue, like the Salem 94.3 proposed site has no power, no cable, no telco (for hundreds of feet in all directions), no existing towers, no building in the vicinity . . . so the likelihood of their ‘tests’ ever really occurring is pretty small.
There was an article linked on this site that suggested that “tests” or short term operation could be achieved by driving a truck with a minimal set of broadcast equipment to the transmitter site specified in the license, broadcasting for a few hours, and shutting down.
If I were more of an optimist, I would say that maybe it is a good thing that 96.7, 98.3, and 101.5 are being squatted upon because that keeps clutter off the dial. I can enjoy listening to KZRY while the squatting lasts.
A leap-frogging translator got away with a site allegedly had operated “for several months” before filing a Silent STA. The site was located on USFS land, 4 miles from the nearest road or power line. There is a hiking trail a quarter mile away. No mention of the need for USFS permits that never existed in any of their paperwork. She’s now got it licensed 150 miles from where it started.
A mobile test such as suggested would be invalid. Stations must construct and test exactly as proposed in their application. That includes a specific height for the antenna as well as the type of structure it is to be supported by.
They should just open up shop behind lumber yards somewhere and automate the transmitter with a lamp timer. That’d solve all their problems right there!
The TeeVee Guyd Facebook page reports that Weigel Broadcasting is buying up stations. Weigel owns METV, Heroes & Icons (not in the PDX market yet), Movies (co-owns with Fox), and Decades (co-owns with CBS). They recently bought KAZA Los Angeles (Azteca) and KDNL St. Louis. Now they’re buying KVOS Bellingham/KFFV Seattle, KTLN (currently a religious channel) and KAXT in San Francisco. Reported purchase price: $23.2 million. KVOS Bellingham carries METV on its 12.1, which is rebroadcast on one of KFFV’s subchannels so that Seattle gets METV. KVOS 12.1 is also seen on several cable outlets in the Canadian Vancouver/Victoria market in BC. Speculation is already starting about subchannels moving in LA, SF, and St. Louis. Will they come into the Portland market next? Stay tuned.
By the way, Broken FM is a Christian rock station which also runs on several FM’s in Northern CA. Broken FM and Family Life Radio are both priduced and distributed by 3 Angels Broadcasting, which also runs the same two audio channels on most of their O&O LPTV outlets, including ch. 8 Seattle. The KPPM-CD website has a map showing transmitters running from Chico down to Monterey. The Monterey srstion will be on Ch. 5 and is expected, according to the website, to get on air soon.
You know that substation near the notoroius KKAD transmitter site? The one behind the dairy farm off 162nd. There’s been a tower at the substation’s southwest corner since time immemorial. It appears it’s currently being used as a cell phone site (what else?) but in the late 80s/early 90s there were parabolic microwave antennas on that tower.
What was that tower’s use at that time? Relay site for Long Lines?
“Relay site for Long Lines?”
Don’t think so. The ATT long lines went from Capitol (downtown PDX, tower still there on top of the building at about 8th and Burnside) out in 5-7 directions. One feed went north, one went east of north to Livingston Mountain (now rebuilt with weather radar I think). Here’s the old map:
Phoenix to Serve as “Model Market” for ATSC 3.0 – Ten stations in the market will deploy the next-generation TV standard before early April 2018.
http://www.tvtechnology.com/atsc3/0031/phoenix-to-serve-as-model-market-for-atsc-30/282269
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