Re: [IRCA] KGA 1510 app

[Bill Harms <philcobill@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I hope the new owners don't do something really stupid and change KGA's 
callsign. Off the top of my head I believe it is in the top twenty 
oldest three-letter calls still in use on AM.

This is a copy of their original license.

http://spokaneradio.philcobill.com/kga/pics/19270204-kga-first-license.jpg

What is interesting is that in the 1920's, the owners of KGA wanted to 
have a coverage area that was equivalent to KHQ, but of course they 
found out that was impossible because groundwave propagates better on 
lower frequencies. Later in the 1940's when Louis Wasmer owned KGA, he 
installed a 50 kW transmitter and this brought the Daytime coverage of 
KGA on a par with KHQ, but they also discovered that KGA had a large 
coverage area at night. The various owners tried in different ways to 
capitalize on that fact, some more successfully than others. It is 
obvious that the current owners don't care.

For an account of KGA's 50 kW transmitter by an engineer who was familar 
with its installation see:

http://spokanetowers.philcobill.com/kga-moran2/fifty-kw.php

Bill Harms

Scott Fybush wrote:
> Mike McKenna wrote:
>> What is NOT part of the application -- is what Mapleton really paid
>> to the owners of KGA -- in cash.  Why doesn't KGA just move to
>> Bellevue or Seattle  ??? 
> 
> That's public record, too. The asset purchase agreement for the seven 
> Citadel stations in Spokane was filed under KZBD-FM, one of KGA's sister 
> FM stations.
> 
> Mapleton is paying Citadel $22.5 million for the three Spokane AMs and 
> four FMs, plus up to $1.5 million once the KPIG upgrade is complete ($1 
> for each new person in the KPIG nighttime contour, which will probably 
> amount to about $1 million.)
> 
> Considering Mapleton can then turn around and sell the Spokane cluster, 
> including the downgraded KGA, that's not a bad price at all. Here in 
> Rochester, which isn't that much bigger than Spokane, there's a single 
> FM on the market for $24 million right now.
> 
> Why not move KGA wholesale to Seattle? It wouldn't be impossible, down 
> the road, but as things stand right now, you'd have to get the 1540 in 
> Bellevue, the 1480 in Lakewood and the 1490 in Bremerton out of the way, 
> at a minimum. 1520 in Oregon City could be an issue, too. Better to keep 
> the application simple for now and look at a move later on, I suspect.
> 
> (Come to think of it, a move to Portland might be easier - it could even 
> be done as a frequency swap, with KGA continuing to exist in Spokane on 
> 1520 and Oregon City going to 50 days/5 or 10 nights on 1510...)
> 
> s

-- 
Bill Harms
Elkridge, Maryland

Check out the Spokane Radio History Pages
http://spokaneradio.philcobill.com

and the Spokane Radio Tower Pages
http://spokanetowers.philcobill.com
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