I smile when I see those old Class IV stations (1230, 1240, 1400, 1450,
1340, and 1490), During the 1960s and early 70s most of them were rockers or
top 40. These formats take a LOT of skill in production and air in order to
sound halfway decent.

There were a few in the Bay Area that did this, KOMY Watsonville, KTOB
Petaluma, etc., but these were stations in the midst of hefty metros. Even
running 1kw, these stations still reached good-sized metro audiences. But
hot about KATA?

The other week when I was up in the Eureka/Arcata area I drove past the KATA
transmitter. Long abandoned for studio use, it's just a graffiti-strewn
transmitter site. I remember the day when it was a stand-alone running
top-40.

Well, lo and behold, I found an aircheck from KATA from 1970, and sure
enough, they had TIGHT production and TIGHT on-air presentation.

KATA was located in a college town of 8,000 (at the time), in a metro of no
more than about 20,000, and its 1,000 watt signal couldn't have covered all
of it, BUT YET KATA put out a VERY professional sound.

For your amusement, here's an aircheck from KATA:
http://radiodiscjockey.homestead.com...KATA-17min.mp3



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On Thu, 11 Sep 2014 17:05:28 EDT, "David Kaye"
wrote:

KATA was located in a college town of 8,000 (at the time), in a metro of no
more than about 20,000, and its 1,000 watt signal couldn't have covered all
of it, BUT YET KATA put out a VERY professional sound.

For your amusement, here's an aircheck from KATA:
http://radiodiscjockey.homestead.com...KATA-17min.mp3

You're right. This is great. Listening to the whole thing now. Big
city pro sound. A great place for talent to get up and get going for
their pro future. Now these places are mostly cookie cutter
satellite.

Unless someone didn't know what they were doing - 1000 watts - daylight - is enough power to cover about 30+ miles..
I don't think you know what you are talking about.

The amount of transmit power is irrelevant, it is the height of the stick and the location of the stick that counts!

Check this out -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KQV

http://user.pa.net/~ejjeff/jeffkqv2.html

Line up of Dj's at 14 KQV

Jim Quinn

Rod Roddy

Jeff Christie

Chuck Brinkman

Gary Gears

George Hart

Fred Winston

Bob Wilson

Oh ya - remember the Rock Group - The Beatles?
14 KQV played their new songs for a whole week before anyone else had access to the music - even the record companies!

At night - you could listen to their signal while sitting on the beach in Daytona Florida and everywhere in between...

"Channel Jumper" wrote

Check this out -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KQV

But my point was not what ABC with a boatload of money could do with KQV; my
point was that a tiny station such as KATA in a tiny market, Arcata,
population about 11,000 in a market of no more than 30,000 people could pull
off a BIG CITY sound. THAT is what was impressive. KQV doesn't impress me.




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"Channel Jumper" wrote

Unless someone didn't know what they were doing - 1000 watts - daylight
- is enough power to cover about 30+ miles..
I don't think you know what you are talking about.

First, I got my First Phone at age 14, one of the youngest people ever to do
so. In fact, when I went to the FCC to take the exam, the clerk thought I
was the son of someone who was there to take the exam.

Second, 1340 is what was called a "graveyard channel", one of 6 AM channels
set aside purely for local use. Under terms of its license it's only
protected from interference in its immediate market area. The graveyard
channels are 1230, 1240, 1340, 1400, 1450, and 1590. There are hundreds of
stations on those channels, making most stations using them buried in much
just a few miles out of town.

Third, whether or not KATA could carry 30 miles is irrelevant here because
the entire MARKET within 30 miles isn't much more than about 30,000 people.
The AMAZING MIRACLE of KATA was that they were able to put out a
professional big-city sound with what must have been a tiny cash flow.

Fourth, even if KATA was running 50kw people tend to listen and buy only in
their local marketplace. Take the case of KGO, a 50kw signal that reaches
clearly from Canada to Mexico. Their money base is STILL local SF Bay Area.




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