Talk:KFAR

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Radio Stations

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Year for move to 660 KHz?

Where did you find the information that KFAR "moved to 660 kHz in 1956"? An article in the Oct. 11, 1948, issue of Broadcasting shows KFAR at 660 then. See "KFAR, KENI Join MBS" on page 81 here. Eddie Blick (talk) 02:25, 12 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I wondered about this, too. As I recall, an IP or several IPs added like information to a bunch of radio station articles a while back, not only of this nature but also added categories reflecting first air date. While some of it was accurate, a whole lot of it wasn't. As I possess a copy of Tewkesbury's Who's Who (published 1947), it was easy to find Midnight Sun Broadcasting's advertisement heralding the arrival of KENI. That ad listed KFAR as being at 660. But wait, there's more! If you haven't perused them, the FCC history cards are a great resource. According to that source, the original construction permit application in 1938 was to broadcast at 610 with a power of 1,000 watts. It appears that in 1942, they obtained or were in the process of obtaining a new transmitter, and applied to change the frequency to 660 and upgrade power to 10,000 watts. It looks like the FCC approved this in late 1943 after initially denying the change. Despite the minuscule notation, it suggests that the change was a contentious process. Remember that this was during WWII and the military exerted lots of influence on the operations of media outlets at that time. Biographical sources related to Cap Lathrop bears this out.

While I'm here, a couple of other things. First, Michael Dukes left last fall and is now the morning drive host at KBYR, so the article could stand to be updated. My inclination towards doing all the work in what is supposed to be a collaborative environment continues to further decline, so perhaps another time. Also, in this day and age when it's a rarity for stations to not air 24 hours per day, this may come as a surprise to some. When I was a kid, there were only four stations in town, so I listened to KFAR all the time more or less by default (though I did listen to KFRB quite a bit, mostly because J. R. Forsmo sounded like a really cool dude, not necessarily for the music). I remember Bill Walley doing his show one day and announcing that KFAR would temporarily be on the air 24 hours a day due to the temperature. As a prolonged spell of −40 °F (−40 °C) or so temperatures were forecast, they were afraid that the transmitter would freeze up were it to be shut off and they would find themselves off the air. RadioKAOS / Talk to me, Billy / Transmissions 22:02, 10 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]