I just discovered that KYNO and KFIG switched call signs a week ago. Normally that would not be worth writing about, but I suspect this is going to be a trend – not a good one for news talk.
KFIG AM (the former KYNO) is a 50,000 watt day/night station on 940. During the day, it can be heard almost from San Francisco to Los Angeles. At night, it remains omnidirectional and has almost the same reach. It is now airing ESPN instead of news/talk
The KYNO call sign was moved to the former KFIG on 1430, a 5,000 watt station with a directional signal that doesn’t reach much beyond Fresno. Wikipedia says they are now playing Oldies.
America loves Sports!
ESPN sux. we already knew that. How much does it cost to run a 50,00o watt transmitter, 24 -7 ? they sell enough commercials to run the thingwith ESPN programming? Is ESPN paying then to transmit trash ? I would rather listen to a CB radio ! (and that is Mind Numbing )
Its not like ESPN or FOX sports are airing an ‘Actual’ game. Oh hell no. What you get with these annoying networks is some ‘noid’ pontificating on the games. Like we need someone to translate what happened during a game and what was the players and coaches were thing. Its just more of the dumbing down of America.
Even the Presidential debate @ Hostra sucked. It was misdirection on actual issues. It was just re-frame and deflect. Heck Romney had three opportunities (probably more) but three I clearly remember, to act Presidential and let the Obo hang himself. Instead, Romney thought he needed to say something. Sometimes ‘Less is More’ !
Let Obo hang himself on $4 gallon gas, second amendment and the Benghazi-Hilliary Circus. Dam boy, Shut UP! Go out on top.
I bet the KFIG and other stations had ESPN on and did not air the debate. They could have used sports terminology to ess-plain the debate to Lucy and the rest of us.
Then we would have turned on the CB radio.
annoyed
Parrott
I meant to say Hofstra University. sorry about that.
Parrott
I’m not a radio engineer – you probably have heard the term “effective radiated power (ERP). Having a 50,000 watt signal doesn’t necessarily mean 50,000 watts of input energy (especially on FM and TV) – ERP means basically if you were using an omnidirectional antenna broadcasting 360 degrees and in all directions up – FM antennas point downward and don’t send their energy into space
http://www.marcspages.co.uk/tech/antgain.htm
If the antenna for a 50kW AM station with a 1/2 wave dipole had 0Db gain/loss, then it would consume at least 50 kW of power – transmitters are not 100% efficient, throwing off some input energy as heat, plus you have tower lights,etc.. Let’s assume the cost is $.20/kWh (Los Angeles) – the electric bill would be ~$10 an hour