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Post by JamesAnderson on Aug 2, 2005 16:57:14 GMT -5
After many years of waiting, Community Wireless of Park City finally got another station in Evanston, WY.
The station will be on 88.1, and will have the calls KCWW. 'Community Wireless of Wyoming' is likely what it could stand for.
The last time I saw those calls was at a classic country station in Phoenix owned by Buck Owens, that was about the time he sold it off to a group owner.
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Post by SamSpade on Aug 2, 2005 22:38:15 GMT -5
Kudos to them! Hope it's a good compliment to Evanston's already local KEVA/KNYN combo.
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Post by Michaeljwyo on Aug 3, 2005 0:15:36 GMT -5
Not on the air just yet, but will be very soon! I've been working with Dennis Silver, their engineer, and helping him with things on this end. As a matter of fact, the transmitter is going into the same building that the old KOTB occupied for many years up on Medicine Butte. Made a trip up there tonight to get some tower measurements for Dennis. The remote control, phone line, and the antenna are already sitting inside the building. He said tonight that he's going to try to plan a get-together on Friday so that they can bring in the transmitter. Which as a matter of fact is indeed KCPW's previous transmitter that they were using before they bought the new one they have now. I'll be giving them a hand unloading the transmitter and setting up. Dennis said he'll probably schedule the tower guy for Saturday to go up the tower and mount the antenna. Chances are if something goes wrong with the station up here, I'm closest so I'll be the one to take care of it. Dennis also mentioned me possibly calling in once a day to take meter readings for the station. I don't know how much of a dent it will make on the Evanston FM dial. They'll need to get the word out that it's on up here. I think folks that are into NPR stuff already listen to the 93.5 translator here for KUWR-Wyoming Public Radio from the University of Wyoming. Otherwise it used to be just us (KEVA/KOTB, now KNYN) and then a translator or two. Now since the Humpy craze, Evanston's radio dial hasn't been the same. There are a LOT of people here listening to Jack, as well as the Eagle. And yes, the Hispanics here are listening to 102.3 and 106.1. The whole craze started with the Blaze at 102.3...the first humpy on the air....and it was hard rock....something that....well....the young people here appreciated. And of course with more Humpies coming, that only means that our little tiny pie up here is gonna be cut into even smaller pieces  Kudos and good luck to KCWW, though  I don't really count them as competition. I have a lot of admiration for "public radio" stations as life is a lot different than commercial radio. And they usually have a lot of unique content that you won't find anywhere else. Kinda wish it was K -PC- W that they were going to simulcast up here, though. KPCW tends to have some neat music programs and stuff like that, whereas KCPW tends to be more news and talk. At least I THINK that's what I remember Dennis telling me....that it's K-CP-W that they're going to rebroadcast. I could be wrong, though. Maybe it IS KPCW. I know I remember asking him about the 88.1 translator that's on Lewis Peak. Hmmmmm....now I'm confusing myself! Anyways...for all interested, I'll keep ya posted on the progress up here on the new KCWW....I'm sure I'll be one of the first to know when it hits the air....I'll probably be up there when Dennis flips the switch. Michael n WYO |
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Post by x on Aug 3, 2005 5:16:25 GMT -5
The predicted grade A contour of the Coalville translator (K201AE) ends almost exactly where the predicted grade A contour of KCWW starts. That doesn't seem like a coincidence, but it might be. K201AE translates K*PC*W.
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Post by rcvideo on Aug 4, 2005 9:50:49 GMT -5
According to the authorization, the new station is a satellite of KPCW Park City. The way that usually works is that someone there will be responsible to provide some programing of local interest to KCWW. What the station airs most of the time can be from almost anywhere.
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Post by Michaeljwyo on Aug 5, 2005 13:02:55 GMT -5
Okay folks....rc, you got it right. I spent some time up on Medicine Butte yesterday afternoon helping unload the transmitter and Dennis did confirm that it will indeed be K-PC-W that will be re-transmitted. They'll be using an STL to hop the signal from Lewis Peak over to Medicine Butte. There's already the 88.1 translator on Lewis Peak and they'll have a modulation monitor set up there that will "receive" the KPCW signal right from the translator at 88.1 and then the output of that will feed an STL transmitter aimed at Medicine Butte. We'll have an STL receiver up here. Therefore, the final product will be quite good coverage on I-80 at 88.1 from Coalville, UT all the way through Evanston out to almost Green River, WY. I can confirm this because KOTB, when it was at 106.3 for 10 years, was receivable on I-80 from Echo to almost Green River (basically...the LaBarge Rd exit on I-80 before the descent into Green River). KOTB at that time was 110 watts and was at the exact site, exact tower, that KCWW is going on.
Dennis is planning on hooking things up at our site today and I guess sometime next week he'll head over to Lewis Peak and get the STL hooked up over there. (I might try to talk him into tagging along since I've never been up Lewis Peak). He is also talking about doing a little tweaking to get the frequencies RIGHT ON and EXACT so that on I-80 around Echo where a person would be able to pick up BOTH 88.1 signals, it should be clean without that "growl" from the 2 stations fighting. He says if he can get the frequencies right on and exact between the translator and the transmitter here, he should be able to elminate it.
Anyhoo...they're up there hanging the bays on the tower as we speak. He asked for my help again today although I'm not able to make it due to other obligations.
Will keep y'all posted.
Michael n WYO
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Post by x on Aug 5, 2005 22:55:38 GMT -5
Thanks Michael. And congratulations on getting to hear the KPCW up there. Wondering if there's any chance of having the station available along the Wasatch Front. Maybe on one of the new translators being applied for? How to hop the signal down is a good question though.
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Post by Michaeljwyo on Aug 9, 2005 13:14:31 GMT -5
Oh I'm sure they'd hop the signal via a digital circuit (T1) or something like that. From what Dennis told me that's how they do KCPW. Plus I imagine if there's the possibility of translators for KPCW down there, then they'd still be sitting up on a hill or peak high enough to pick up the lewis peak translator or even KCWW and then rebroadcast it. Dennis hasn't mentioned any Wasatch Front possibilities. Not yet anyway. They're concentrating on their efforts up here. Status update...KCWW is on the air! I was up on Medicine Butte yesterday afternoon so Dennis could show me the functions of the transmitter and so forth. We ran into an un-forseen problem, however. When the transmitter is transmitting its full 100w or so, the signal is great......HERE it's great, that is. However there's a translator in Heber City for KPCW that listens for the 88.1 signal from Lewis Peak. When KCWW is on, the Heber City translator pukes all over the place because the thing picks up the 88.1 signal from us, and the 88.1 signal from Lewis peak and I guess it gets very confused, and the result is, the Heber City translator signal goes bad. For the moment, we'll be running KCWW at reduced power as to not interfere with the reception on the Heber City translator. Dennis says he'll work out the technicalities in the near future with the Heber City translator and possibly retune the antenna so that it receives KCWW only or something along those lines. Even at 25 watts, it's pretty nice and clear here. I will say that I miss stereo. They play some really good music at times and I like listening to KPCW. But like I said...I miss stereo. Last night they played a song from the Doors and it sounded really odd not hearing it in stereo because that song (Touch Me) has lots of great separation. But hey...that's just me I'm a stereo buff. Like we've discussed many times here in this forum, there's many reasons KPCW doesn't broadcast in stereo....mostly the fact that many people are tucked away in between mountains and stuff and the signal sounds much better in mono than it does in stereo when you're in a low-signal area. Not as much multi-path. Not that they don't have the capability to broadcast in stereo...they do. They can choose to turn it on any day. Maybe they'll change their minds once they've got enough translators and stuff to fill in the gaps. If that happens, we'll need another STL...the STL they're using right now for KCWW is mono anyway. As far as I can tell there's very little interference when I'm up on hills around town pickup up both the Medicine Butte signal and the Lewis Peak signal. IF the audio is quiet for a second, there might be just a slight "whizz whish..." that's WAY down there...you really have to turn up the radio to hear it. But that's it. So kudos to Dennis on that one. it's very very clean. That's the update for now. Michael n WYO |
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Post by x on Aug 9, 2005 23:46:57 GMT -5
If there was a translator in the non comm band, getting KPCW would be easy, but I don't think there's any room available. There are applications for a bunch, but I think they're all in the commercial band. Those would need to pick up something off-air. I'm still hopeful though. I've heard great things about KPCW's music programming, mono or not. (I listen to True Oldies on 1660 a lot, and that's mono to me. Do they even have the AM stereo turned on up there anymore?)
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Post by Michaeljwyo on Aug 14, 2005 11:54:09 GMT -5
Actually CA, they never had AM Stereo at KXOL. Never never ever. Brent Larson talked to me about it and I even got a hold of an AM Stereo exciter for him. But he decided not to do it. So that exciter now resides at KMER in Kemmerer, WY.
Simmons never had the interest in AM Stereo so they never bothered to go stereo or wanted to. And honestly, once Simmons got KUPI in Idaho Falls, they shut off the stereo there too. When KUPI was adult standards "KUPI 89 GOLD" it used to sound awesome. Ummmm....classic country sounds awesome in stereo too!!! Yet when Simmons got KUPI, they changed the format and turned off the stereo. I really wish I knew why they hate AM Stereo so much. I keep waiting for them to call up to KMER and tell them to turn it off there too.
....but I digress....
YES, KPCW's programming is nice. I've really enjoyed listening to a lot of their music shows lately. Since the new station's been on the air I've been listening more.
Also....one more update on that. Dennis called me yesterday afternoon to say that he re-oriented the Heber City translator to pick up KCWW. Therefore KCWW is now at full power (111 watts).
Michael n WYO
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I don't really count them as competition. I have a lot of admiration for "public radio" stations as life is a lot different than commercial radio. And they usually have a lot of unique content that you won't find anywhere else. Kinda wish it was K -PC- W that they were going to simulcast up here, though. KPCW tends to have some neat music programs and stuff like that, whereas KCPW tends to be more news and talk. At least I THINK that's what I remember Dennis telling me....that it's K-CP-W that they're going to rebroadcast. I could be wrong, though. Maybe it IS KPCW. I know I remember asking him about the 88.1 translator that's on Lewis Peak. Hmmmmm....now I'm confusing myself!