"D Peter Maus" wrote in message
...
David Eduardo wrote:
"D Peter Maus" wrote in message
news
David Eduardo wrote:
Why do you refuse to believe facts an entire industry is guide by?
Instead of examining the facts, you hurl insults.

Because he, like the rest of us, doesn't accept the premise that an
industry licensed "to serve in the public interest as a public trustee"
may unilaterally make performance commitments based exclusively on a
bottom line.

We are discussing where listening takes place. Not profitability.


Go back and read carefully, you asked why. I told you why.

I read what you said. There is nothing in my back and forth with Telamon
about listener service in the areas the FCC and our ability to serve
dictate. He has, repeatedly, sad that my facts, which are the industry
facts, about where listening takes place, is not true.

Radio stations can not serve much beyond the primary coverage areas due to
many factors such as the inability to physically go out to outlying areas,
the fact that there are local stations in areas that are fringe to us, etc.
So we try to find what we can do to truly serve the audience in the area
where our signal is truly usable.

One of the things mentioned often in this and past exchanges is the usage of
radio stations way outside its primary service area. Even though the FCC
does not require we serve these listeners (and trying to serve their
different interests would cause us to serve less our primary area) there
seems to be a sense of entitlement by some.

Example: KPFK in LA, the Pacifica Foundation station, is grandfathered at
very high power at a very high Height Above Average Terrain. But by FCC
rules, they are only protected from interference to the extent of a
conforming class B FM, 50 kw at 500 feet. Yet they have 110,000 watts at
nearly 3000 feet HAAT. The coverage is many times that of a conforming
station, but only the conforming contour is protected.

A number of years ago, Mexico licensed a co-channel station in Tijuana. It
wiped out the actual useful coverage of KPFK in San Diego. But the Tijuana
station was totally legal since it did not affect the protected contour. Yet
there are posters on many web boards who talk about the Mexican station,
XHLNC, as being a jammer, a pirate, etc.

That's the difference between the facts (the way the FCC deals with
grandfathered facilities and the way XHLNC was licensed) and what some
listeners perceive as their right.

Closer to home, KLVE had a significant fringe audience in Santa Barbara, and
actually showed in the ratings because, at the time there was no FM Spanish
service in the market. But KLVE is also grandfathered, and had no protected
right to the coverage there. A new station was given the adjacent channel,
and wiped KLVE out up there. We had no right to be protected, and the local
community gained in format diversity. At the same time, with the outsider
out of the fight, a local station switched to Spanish, giving local service
to that group... so two groups gained local service while the outside
station no longer had coverage of the area. The listeners, though,
benefitted because KLVE did not serve Santa Barbara. There is no way we
could. It's a 2 hour drive to start. And anything musical the listeners
there might want would not be possible to implement if it meant sacrificing
the ability to satisfy LA listeners. Just putting in phone local service
would have cost thousands a month at the time.

So when it comes to metro stations serving distant or rural or fringe areas
outside their market, there are reasons why this can not be done.
Fortunately, with 14, 421 stations on the air, not including translators,
there is hardly a populated area without terrestrial service and there is
always cable and satellite and web radio, too.

This is why... to better serve the listeners who will listen... that
stations are not interested in fringe areas where the audience does not
generally contribute to local ratings and revenue. Considering that from the
mid-50's till the last study in the mid-90's half of all stations are not
profitable, wasting resources where there is no gain that helps a station
thrive or survive, is not possible and does not make good sense.