Stations going dark, Could it happen in Tulsa?

[billyg]

In the late 1970s, I seem to remember a radio station in Cushing, maybe an AM station that I passed by while driving one week. I think some of the smaller town AM stations are dropping by the wayside. 

That was KUSH. I believe it was owned by a former 60's KAKC DJ (Don Kelly?).

And I remember the old KXVQ 1500 in Pawhuska. It was the first commercial station I worked for in 1982-3 and a summer stint in 1984. What an antique shop, mostly 60's vintage equipment.

I remember it had a old Collins 212G control board. The owner said he got it used from a station in Tulsa. Years later I saw photos of the original KAKC studio and it had the same model board.

It used to have a great daytime signal, 5000 watts that could get into Tulsa, but 500 watts critical hours to protect KSTP in Minneapolis. It was a pain to power down, sometimes as early as 3:30 pm in December..and there went any listeners we had in Ponca and B'ville!  It was dark for a couple years, and later the people who owned KRIG bought 1500 and moved the transmitter closer to get a better signal into Bartlesville, but only at 500 watts.

[Les Stock]

KEOR Atoka signed off 1110 a few years ago to make room for a station in the DFW area on that frequency.  It was reassigned to 1120, with Catoosa as its new city of license.  You can see its new towers and transmitter building, already built out, at 106th North and Peoria.  Because of its proximity to KMOX, nighttime authorization seems unlikely.  Anyone besides me think KEOR will never get lit again?

[Bob Oshea]

55-
  I think everybody has a piece of the puzzle.  Economy, bad management, bankruptcy, too leveraged, sub-prime, de-regulation....who really knows.  It's more sad than scary.  Peoria, while not a giant of a market, is a solid little market.  Illinois is feeling the economy meltdown like everybody else, maybe more so because of all of the concentrated industry in the state.  I mean everything in this country can be found in Chicago.  All other Illinois cities seem to exist economically because of Chicago after a fashion.  Then take a short trip to Michigan and Ohio.  It is just an absolute tragedy.  Flint, Detroit, Cleveland, etc., ad nauseum, all are suffering in a way the rest of us have not yet seen and hopefully won't have to.  You ask for thoughts?  Here is a thought:  Pray for this nation like you've never prayed before.  I fear this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Bob O

P.S.  Coop, when you bloviate you're supposed to say 'excuse me'. 

[radioforelife]

Speaking of "102 Jamz" in Muskogee, I had never heard of its existance until this post.  Was it a good station?

[Kent]

102 Jamz didn't last long at all.  I don't think it was on for more than a few months.  As for whether or not it was a good station, I couldn't tell you.  I've never been much of an urban listener.  So, I don't know what's good versus what isn't when it comes to urban!

[Les Stock]

KEOR Atoka signed off 1110 a few years ago to make room for a station in the DFW area on that frequency.  It was reassigned to 1120, with Catoosa as its new city of license.  You can see its new towers and transmitter building, already built out, at 106th North and Peoria.  Because of its proximity to KMOX, nighttime authorization seems unlikely.  Anyone besides me think KEOR will never get lit again?

I may have spoken too soon.  Something's happening on 1120...Sunday afternoon, they were tracking pop hits of the 50's and 60's.

[charlestace]

The station on 1120, licensed to Catoosa, is a 2 kw directional daytimer with, as you might expect, a hard null in the direction of St. Louis.  Undoubtedly it will have a fine daytime signal to the south (into Tulsa), but my question is: why bother?  Even in the unlikely event you managed to get a one-percent share of the audience, you couldn't make any money with it.

[MN Maniac]

There are WAY too many stations on the dial, both AM and FM.  This causes interference, reduces coverage, and thus decreases value of individual stations.

If the FCC would just allow the free market to work, this problem would sort itself out.  The weaker sticks would go dark, thus allowing the survivors to become stronger and more solvent.  Of course, it was the FCC who alllowed the dials to become oversaturated in the first place with Docket 80-90, breaking down the AM clears, downgrading Class C's under 450m to Class C0, and especially the AWFUL practice of allowing religious satellite translators on EVERY second adjacent channel to local broadcasters!

[NightAire]

Listening this afternoon, 1120 seems to have a pretty decent signal over most of Tulsa as was predicted, but the processing is non-existent and presentation is less than stellar (gaps between all songs you could drive a truck through, a legal ID sounding like it was recorded using one of those plastic stick microphones that come with new computers).

If 60s music is what they're going to program...  isn't that already what 1270 is doing?

I wish them well...  no, REALLY...

[NightAire]

IDEA:  They are barely northeast of downtown Tulsa and their signal shoots south-southwest.  Most AMs don't penetrate buildings very well, but in their case they should get into the high-rises, I would think.

Since you're daytime-only anyway, your most practical audience to go after is in-office listeners.  Your signal gets into downtown buildings.

Should they super-serve the downtown office workers?  Perhaps with a beautiful music format, or something else (non-duplicated on FM) that would appeal to 9 to 5-ers downtown?

Then you get all those lovely new businesses going in downtown who already serve the downtown office workers to advertise...  hm...  that ALMOST sounds like it might make money, promoted right...

I wasn't impressed with beautiful music on 930 WKY in Oklahoma City, but maybe it would work on 1120 here...  opinions?