The Cache Valley radio group
does have a commercial radio monopoly in Cache Valley! Prior to the 90's Reed Bullen owned KVNU and KVFM (now KVFX) while Kent Frandsen owned the rest of the stations. When the Bullen Family sold their stations the Frandsen's bought them and thus the birth place of a monopoly began.
Now Kent Frandsen and his radio conglomerate Cache Valley Radio Group are trying to make sure we have no other options when it comes to radio besides the stations they own, by getting repeater signals (translators) that are not needed in Cache Valley to block out signals from Salt Lake City and Southern Idaho. With 100,000 watts of power the original signal covers Cache valley fine. This is how it works. for example KBLQ Q92's original signal is 92.9, it is 100,000 watts strong and can be heard as far south as the Ogden area and as far north as the Pocatello,ID area. So there is no need to get a repeater signal right? well they did anyway. 102.9 re-transmits 92.9 in Cache Valley. The only reason they have 102.9 is so they can bleed on to KSL 102.7 and force Cache Valley Listeners to tune into their news talk station 610 KVNU instead. This is a twisted game played by the Cache Valley radio Group called get a repeater signal so close to the Salt lake signal that it bleeds on top of it thus making the Salt Lake station undesirable to listen to because of the crunchy sound that bleeds on top of it. In the case of the repeater signals in Cache Valley, CVRG takes advantage of one loophole the FCC has which is calling Cache Valley a \"Local\" area for the Cache Valley radio group. By calling it a \"Local\" area the FCC in some cases believes that Salt Lake stations do not reach Cache Valley and that Cache Valley is in someway it\'s own market. So they can get a repeater signal at 102.9 which normally, if they were not called a \"local\" station in a local market, they would not be allowed to do, because there needs to be a gap between stations so that KSL does not get bled on. For example 103.1 Jack FM could never be at 103.3 in Salt Lake because it would be right next to 103.5 the Arrow and bleed on top of it. Now all the Cache valley radio group has to do is say we live in such a mountainous valley that our signals get messed with by the mountains and are not the proper quality, we need a repeater signal for the valley and boom the FCC looks a their maps of Northern Utah and says according to our maps KSL does not reach Cache Valley with a local signal strength and they are granted a repeater at 102.9.Which is exactly what Q92 is saying on their station liners \"now you can hear us better in the south end of the valley at 102.9\". According to the FCC\'s maps KSL\'s 102.7 local signal ends at Brigham City. see map:
www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=KSL&service=FM&status=L&hours=U Even though you can hear KSL 102.7 in Cache Valley. So CVRG jumps in and places their 102.9 repeater as close to KSL\'s local signal ending area (Brigham City) as posible see the following map and you will see from Brigham City North into Cache Valley, 102.9 covers Brigham City all the way to about Hyde Park which is located below Smithfield only using 130 watts. See following map:
www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=K275AV&service=FX&status=L&hours=U And now as of June 26, 2008 Cache Valley radio group has been granted the signal upgrade they wanted for 102.9, which will make the 102.9 repeater signal 250 watts instead of 130, thus fully covering Smithfield and blocking out KSL 102.7 for the main populous of Cache County. see map:
www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=K275AV&service=FX&status=C&hours=U But Here\'s the thing, like I stated earlier: at 100,000 watts of power the original signal 92.9 covers Cache Valley fine. If someone from the FCC were to come to Cache Valley and listen to the signals received in the Valley they\'d see that you can get Salt Lake stations in the valley, repeaters are not needed for the Cache Valley Radio Groups signals and that a monopoly is taking place beneath their nose.
KSL is not the only station they\'re doing this to. Any Salt Lake station they consider competition gets bled on.
Heres the breakdown:
Original Cache Valley Signal:
KKEX 96.7 KKEX's Repeater Signal for Cache Valley:
101.3 Bleeds On:
101.5 The Eagle and KBER 101.1Original Cache Valley Signal:
KBLQ 92.9KBLQ's Repeater signal for Cache Valley:
102.9 Bleeds on:
KSL-FM 102.7 Original Cache Valley Signal:
KLGN-AM 1390 KLGN-AM's Repeater for Cache Valley:
103.3 fmBleeds On:
Arrow 103.5 and Completely blocks out Idaho Top 40 station KFTZ Z103.3 to portions of southern Idaho and Logan.
Not only has CVRG been bleeding on Salt Lake stations by placing a repeater signal next to them, but they have turned up (over modulated) their signals to the point where they bleed on competition, or they remove the filter from their transmiter. For example CVRG would turn KKEX KIX 96.7\'s signal so high it would bleed on KZHT 97.1 and KXRK 96.3 which is their sister stations (KVFX) competition. This is
illegal and I have spoken to the following SLC stations about this. Since speaking to the stations a few months back, the over-modulation disappeared and it looked like the Cache Valley Radio Group also turned down their 102.9 repeater for KBLQ because now I can actually hear KSL with very little bleeding.
As of (7-21-2008) to this day, KKEX 96.7 is again bleeding on KZHT 97.1. Its sad that CVRG doesn\'t want to let us the listeners choose what we listen to and instead tries to remove our options by bleeding on competing stations.
I hope I have somewhat enlightened you on the situation that is taking place in Cache County. I figured i\'d help get the word out there.
I hope I have somewhat enlightened you on the situation that is taking place in Cache County. I figured i\'d help get the word out there.