H/T to Thomas Groom for the following link to the Stockton Record,
which reports that longtime Stockton station KSTN will leave the
air tonight after more than 60 years on the air:

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.d...NEWS/100219834

The report also says that KSTN-FM, currently a regional Mexican station, will
switch Monday to a contemporary Christian format.

The stations are still locally owned. KSTN(AM) was one of the last
AM stations doing a CHR format, later moving to what it called a
"power oldies" format with an unusually eclectic playlist for an
oldies station.

It wasn't possible for me to determine from my Bay Area location
tonight whether the station was on the air; the 1420 kHz signal
did not make it far into the Bay Area, whether day or night.
Still, it was a distinctive and local voice, far too rare in an era
of corporate repeater radio.

--
Mark Roberts - E-Mail address is valid but I don't use Google Groups
If you quote, please quote only relevant passages and not the whole article.

Mark Roberts wrote:

It wasn't possible for me to determine from my Bay Area location
tonight whether the station was on the air; the 1420 kHz signal
did not make it far into the Bay Area, whether day or night.
Still, it was a distinctive and local voice, far too rare in an era
of corporate repeater radio.

Looks like they stayed til the bitter end. How many Top 40 or CHR or whatever
stations are still on AM? Hardly a handful. I was surprised over the years
that they never switched the formats between the stations, but I guess the FM
format was just too lucrative (at least in the past, anyway).

According to one of the Record articles, the AM may come back on the air. I
suspect it will, since evern the most marginal AM stations are still finding
ways to stay in business. Think KVTO, KWG, etc.

David Kaye had written:
|
|Looks like they stayed til the bitter end. How many Top 40 or CHR or whatever
|stations are still on AM? Hardly a handful. I was surprised over the years
|that they never switched the formats between the stations, but I guess the FM
|format was just too lucrative (at least in the past, anyway).

That's what I always understood. I suspect there are no Top 40/CHR
stations left on AM in the United States. That would be hardly
surprising; anyone under 50 no doubt views AM as a talk-radio
medium.

| According to one of the Record articles, the AM may come back on the air. I
| suspect it will, since evern the most marginal AM stations are still finding
| ways to stay in business. Think KVTO, KWG, etc.

KVTO does it the time-honored way, by time brokerage. KWG
is an all-Catholic station, Immaculate Heart Radio -- the
same as 1260 in San Francisco.

I am amazed at how few AMs have gone off the air. In an ever
noisier and more crowded band,the smaller, weaker stations have a
harder time being heard. The new generation of ultrasensitive DSP
radios has come along too late to help.


--
Mark Roberts - E-Mail address is valid but I don't use Google Groups
If you quote, please quote only relevant passages and not the whole article.

* David Kaye wrote, On 2/20/2010 9:39 AM:

Looks like they stayed til the bitter end. How many Top 40 or CHR or whatever
stations are still on AM? Hardly a handful. I was surprised over the years
that they never switched the formats between the stations, but I guess the FM
format was just too lucrative (at least in the past, anyway).


Back in the late 60s and early 70s KSTN-FM would do Spanish and
Portuguese about half the time and then simulcast evening and
overnight from the AM. It remained that way for a long, long time
until the FM went full time Spanish.

JT
--

in article , Mark Roberts at
wrote on 2/19/10 9:59 PM:

It wasn't possible for me to determine from my Bay Area location
tonight whether the station was on the air; the 1420 kHz signal
did not make it far into the Bay Area, whether day or night.
Still, it was a distinctive and local voice, far too rare in an era
of corporate repeater radio.

The AM signal barely made it across town in the night hours!! Despite that,
it was nice to have one station in town that wasn't operated out of San
Antonio.

-Thomas Groom

Thomas Groom wrote:

The AM signal barely made it across town in the night hours!! Despite that,
it was nice to have one station in town that wasn't operated out of San
Antonio.

My experience was that both daytime and nighttime signals were good on the
eastern side of the Oakland/Berkeley hills. Daytime KSTN got into the
Hayward/Fremont area and as far west as San Mateo or so.

Now, this was in the days when KSTN was the station to listen to, when they
broke new songs before KFRC did.

In article ,
(David Kaye) wrote:

Now, this was in the days when KSTN was the station to listen to, when they
broke new songs before KFRC did.

The power of programming cannot be overstated. It affects everything at
a station and can even improve its coverage area.

--
John Higdon
+1 408 ANdrews 6-4400
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