KMCQ files Minor Change for Cougar & KAFE, Bellingham files for 104.1 Mhz

[FMSteve]

Board member Semoochie from the 503 tipped us on this. As expected, First Broadcasting, licensee of KMCQ, Covington filed a minor change to go from Enumclaw to Cougar Mountain, contingent upon KAFE, Bellingham filing a minor change to go from 104.3 to 104.1, and the Forks station, KBDB to change channels, as well. The Forks station is owned by......yes........First Broadcasting.........surprise, surprise. There is a huge undisclosed sum of money being transferred to KAFE owner, SAGA broadcasting. KAFE will reduce their power in two directions towards Canada, 33KW and 26KW, respectively, and presumably go their full 60KW in all other directions. The tower location up on Cougar is cryptic, to say the least. I  cross-referenced their stated coordinates to see which tower it's on, and came up with the Puget Sound Energy tower. But this is probably a ruse to throw us off as we attempt to determine the new buyer. The new buyer can easily correct these coordinates to their own tower.

Here's the new 60 dbu service: http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-service-area?x=FM1187001.html

47  32  36.9 Long
122 6  35.2 Lat (NAD 27)

Here's the app:

http://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101187001&formid=301&fac_num=41861

So, inquring minds want to know, how much money did it take for SAGA to be bought off?
And shouldn't we have the right to know the amount, as these are the public airwaves?

[Stephen_TheMCO]

Wow... didn't think that app would happen so quickly.... 

Looks like with the new app., Olympia is out of the 60db contour (and also away from KDUX's hair), while to the north, Everett gets some good coverage.

Unfortunately, we may never know as people out in the public, how much radio stations pay to get on the airwaves, or how much they sell for.  It would probably be easier to find out how much a politician makes in office, than to find out how much a radio station pays to squeeze into a certain frequency.

[semoochie]

Thanks for the credit!  I'm also a Stephen.  That makes 3 of us on this page so far.

[LITTLEBOYBLUE]

I find it ironic that the consulting engineer is on "Shady .... Court".  That kind of sums up this whole transaction.

[notalent]

You need to search by the ASR number, not the coordinates. 

This tower is registered to American Tower Co. at Issaquah, Wa. 

[radioplayer]

No surprises here FM Steve.  I've said this all along in my posts that this would be the end result and I say the only people getting rich in radio nowadays are the guys who shoe-in stations like KMCQ and rimshot them into the metros. 

In this case the winners are: First Broadcasting and their investors, KAFE, Mid-Columbia, and all the lawyers and consultants that have worked on this mess over the past 6 years.  The losers are: The City of The Dalles and the service area of central Oregon and south central Washington, plus all the LPFM's that were going to serve the local places around here like Auburn, Maple Valley, Bainbridge Is. and one or two more local places that were deserving of service on 104.5 fm. 

The big constellation prize goes out to KMIH, who's general manager and crew pulled off the choker with Cantwell that dragged this thing out as long as it did and in the end, gained a nice check plus a new channel for all their troubles at Mercer Island. 

Ironically, the City of Covington will see absolutely nothing out of this either.  We all know that the "new" KMCQ will be another jock in the box that gets it's power from a rack inside the building on Elliott Avenue in Seattle.

[semoochie]

I don't think it's over yet; this is only for a Class C2.

[Generic Poster Guy]

We all know that the "new" KMCQ will be another jock in the box that gets it's power from a rack inside the building on Elliott Avenue in Seattle.

No, we don't.  With the group on Elliott going private and selling a ton of assets in other areas, there's almost no chance KMCQ ends up there.  It's far more likely that 104.5 ends up on Eastlake.

[radioplayer]

My money's still on Elliott Avenue, but you are right, it could be Eastlake or Dexter even, with a very slight chance it might end up on 4th Avenue for that matter.   As for format, expect "soft rock" to come off the dish and into that box in the rack. 

As long as First owns it, it will be run on the cheap and will merely "appear" on the air, with no serious promotional efforts.
Someone like cc will do an LMA for the ads.  That's why I see this thing running out of the Elliott office building.

[e-dawg]

Whats up with KAFE being directional at 104.1? What stations does it have to protect in Canada. Also, is it directional towards Vancouver (Lower Mainland) or Victoria?