Newsperson responds:
And none of those are small market stations. The only difference is that San Jose is in KGO's major lobe and it wouldn't add any coverage.
I have personal information that KSTN-FM will move off of MT. Diablo and re-license itself to somewhere in the East Bay such as Berkley.
Somehow they have figured out how to overcome the 2nd adjacent channel problem with 106.9 and 107.7. Yes and that person has earned a lot more than most of us this past year.
Regardless if it's for KGO or not, KSTN-FM was purchased to move to the Bay Area including off of MT. Diablo.
Does anyone else have some more insight on this? Boss Jock?
Newsperson
I'd love to see that engineering study. It will become public information if and when it is applied for. I doubt if the COL would be Berkeley. They have to commercial allotments already. My guess would be a city that would still be in reach of a city grade signal for allotment purposes. Interesting, allotments may not be short spaced period. Even using the one-step processes, they must have found a uninhabited location within protected 54 dbu contour KFRC-FM, and KSAN to contain all of the 100 dbu contour of a proposed move. Still, allotment procedures usually don't allow for this. BTW: Oakland is the only large city that I know of without a single FM station licensed to it.
On another note. This is a continuance of Stockton losing radio stations. They're losing a usable signal of KOSO soon and now KSTN-FM. This has to be one of the largest under-radioed markets out there. Revenue wise, Stockton is week, but considering the fact that about only 30 percent of Stockton listeners are listening to Stockton radio, the revenue is about right.
Case in point. Let's say Stockton Automall were to purchase time on Modesto's KATM, KHKK, KHOP and KOSO. All of these stations have significant listening in Stockton, but the BIA revenue for these stations are contributed to Modesto's totals.
In essence....Modesto stations benefit form Stockton advertisers so the Modesto market revenue rank is higher than it's Arbitron metro ranking. Conversely, Stockton's billing ranking is way lower than it's Arbitron ranking.
As a result, some operators like Clear Channel treat Stockton like an afterthought. It really sounds stupid when you look at the logic. Both Modesto and Stockton have like economies....High unemployment, high foreclosure rates, low paying jobs, similar number of retail stores and a fair number of people commuting to the Bay Area. But you would think the corporate bean counters would look beyond the BIA totals and actually look at who's advertising rather than saying all the money is in Modesto.
Perhaps I should move this to the Central California board.
I have to hand it to Independence Media if they can pull off a move-in like that. That would increase the value of KSTN-FM many fold.
