Thursday, March 13, 2008

Will the 'Big O' be slain in the 'Spirit'?

The Omaha City Weekly's "Media Watch" blog reports that the local Catholic FM station is looking to let the light shine over a lot bigger chunk of Nebraska and Iowa than what it can reach with its present underwhelming signal on 88.9 FM:
Omaha Catholic radio station KVSS (88.9 FM) is making plans for a multi-million dollar expansion that will increase its broadcast reach to nearly 1.2 million people.

The nine-year-old station currently reaches 662,000 people within a 50-mile radius of Omaha. The planned expansion is expected to cost $3.5 million - of which $1 million has already been raised.
THE BLOG ITEM is pretty vague stuff when it comes to how KVSS plans to do that. The non-commercial station can't go up to 100 kilowatts at 88.9 FM because of its proximity to the audio signal of Channel 6, and because it also has to protect a Jimmy Swaggart FM translator on the same 88.9 frequency in Beatrice.

Also, the are few to no open frequencies in the eastern Nebraska / western Iowa area, particularly when you're talking about trying to shoehorn in as powerful an FM signal as the law allows.

SO, HOW IS the local Catholic peashooter going to manage to play in the big leagues of FM radio?

Well, it looks like they're going to buy. The
Spirit Catholic Radio website has this to say in an all-out appeal for fast cash:
One million dollars has already been raised in Omaha to cover some of the costs associated with the project. KVSS and Kolbe Media face a deadline of May 26 (just 81 days) to work out the details and raise another $2.5 million dollars. “Yes, it’s a large sum of money needed in a short period of time, but we are undaunted because this mission of evangelization over the airwaves is just too important”, said Msgr. Peter Dunne, spiritual director for KVSS. “God has all the money we need, it’s just in people’s pockets. We invite people from throughout eastern Nebraska and western Iowa to come forward and join in this important work of the Church.”
AND THE SIGNAL CONTOUR MAP posted by KVSS, perhaps unwittingly, offers a good clue as to what they may be up to in the purchase department -- speculative though any educated guess here might be.

Your Mighty Favog's two cents say Spirit Catholic Radio is going to be telling The Big O (KOOO, 101.9 FM) that it has to go. And if that's the case, book it that the KVSS fund-raisers are going to be hitting up the faithful for a lot more than the $1 million they already have and the extra $2.5 million they want before May 26.

Here's the signal map posted by KVSS, with the inner circle representing the 60 dBu (city grade) signal the new, improved Spirit Catholic Radio will have:


YOU'LL NOTE that the transmitter is located near Springfield, Neb., the city-grade coverage boundary cuts right through Seward, Neb., and that the signal is nearly perfectly non-directional, with a little bump north of Red Oak, Iowa.

Now we take a look at the signal map for The Big O,
found in the Federal Communications Commission database:


NOTICE THAT the transmitter is located near Springfield, Neb., the city-grade coverage boundary cuts right through Seward, Neb., and that the signal is nearly perfectly non-directional, with a little bump north of Red Oak, Iowa.

Coincidence? I think not. Then again, it's not like anything has been confirmed. This is just a process of compare and contrast . . . and a process of elimination.

Speaking of comparing and contrasting, here's the signal-contour maps of some other 100,000-watt Omaha signals that conceivably could be candidates for a sale. First, contemporary-Christian station, KGBI.

First off, the KGBI transmitter is at the Crown Point tower farm in north Omaha, not in south Sarpy County. And the city-grade signal doesn't even reach to Lincoln.

I had read that Salem Communications, corporate owner of KGBI, has been looking to sell off some of its properties nationwide -- for example its station in Milwaukee, The Fish.

But by looking at the maps, it would appear that Salem's Omaha FM is still "Safe for the Whole Family" . . . or at least safe from the Catholics.

SO, HOW ABOUT another candidate, 100,000-watt, non-commercial KIWR, The River over in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Looking at the map, you'll see that its transmitter also is at Crown Point in north Omaha -- and that it's not non-directional:


AND HERE'S the contour map for Clear Channel's KQBW, The Brew. Again, not a match, though a purchase by KVSS at least would get rid of 96.1 FM's stomach-turning "dancing shirtless fat man" ad campaign.


AND, FINALLY let's take a look at KSRZ, Journal Broadcasting's Star 104.5. Yet again, the maps don't match:

ONCE AGAIN, I could be all wet. KVSS could be working a deal for another station, as well as a sweetheart deal for cheap rent on the Springfield tower, assuming they could get FCC approval to move transmitter sites and have the cash to cover the expense of a move.

Then again, the Catholic station's need to raise money quickly may have led the station to unwittingly announce more than it wanted.

Stay tuned.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You might want to look at 102.7 proposed contour for Papillion/Omaha. The move-in station from Lincoln.

The Mighty Favog said...

Nah, the KFRX move-in to Omaha will be at Crown Point, and the proposed contour dosent cover all of Lincoln with a city-grade signal, much less make it to Seward.

KVSS is wanting to cover all of the Omaha metro, all of the Lincoln metro and a fair chunk of western Iowa.