I work in Sunriver, and on the drive out from Bend, after listening to the news on KBND (which celebrates 75 years tomorrow), I generally will listen to ESPN Radio 940 KICE. I like getting a bit of sports news and commentary before I go to the office. Generally, I can hear it fine all the way to Sunriver.
In the evening when I drive home, however, it’s a totally different story. The station is impossible to understand, getting blown over by a Spanish-language station, even when I get back into Bend. I finally e-mailed the folks at the Bend Radio Group, who manage KICE, as it was driving me nuts. Like many stations, KICE goes into lower power mode at night. In this case, they run 10,000 watts during the day, but only 60-100 watts at night, according to the FCC database. Which would be fine if there wasn’t something else interfering (KPOV runs on just two watts and I can hear them fine nearly all the way to Sunriver — and yes, I know FM and AM signals travel and bounce around differently, so we won’t go into that discussion as it’s all voodoo magic to me anyway).
So I asked them if they knew what the station was that was interfering, and they told me it was some Spanish-language station out of Fresno. After checking into Fresno Radio on Wikipedia, I found that it was KWRU KYNO, which runs Radio Vida Abundanta content (which is apparently Spanish language Christian programming) talk radio at 50,000 watts day and night. So despite Fresno being over 600 miles from Bend, we’re still getting interference from that station because it runs so strongly (I’ve been able to listen to other Northern California AM stations at night before, but only from as far south as Sacramento — never from Fresno).
Personally, I wish KICE would simulcast on an FM frequency that’s less susceptible to the interference (like KBNW does), but 940’s been an AM station here as long as I can remember (along with 1110), so I don’t envision them changing frequencies anytime soon. It’d be nice to hear Beavers Sports without interference.
I also wish they’d get rid of Jim “I’m a heck of a guy” Rome as he (and his fans) drives me nuts. Cowherd‘s far more entertaining and less of an arrogant jerk.
Updated: March, 2011 With some more-up-to-date links/info as some call-letters and station content have changed, but the frequency and wattage is still the same.
Comments
…speaking of KPOV…
I know that you support KPOV. our Bend
Community Radio Station.
Did you know about FESTIVUS this TUESDAY?
http://festivusforthejestofus.blogspot.com/
~Rondo
Insert tag here. 🙂
Interesting. FWIW, AM stations go into low power mode at night because the ionosphere is more refracting at night. Ionospheric refraction can cause AM signals to go huge distances, as you’ve seen. Seems odd that the FCC allows that Fresno station to broadcast nighttime AM signals at that power.
FM signals are not refracted by the ionosphere. FM signals also give you less interference and greater dynamic range and frequency response but at the cost of less diffraction. Diffraction is what allows long wavelength radiation to “spread” around obstacles. FM signals are mostly line-of-sight. It’s why FM signals tend to disappear behind mountains and big buildings and under bridges. It’s also why FM towers are often much taller than AM towers or placed on top of mountains and tall buildings. AM towers are usually much easier and cheaper to site.
Ric has it right. FM broadcasting is more or less line of sight from transmitter to receiver, whereas AM acts more like a mushroom cloud. Much of the signal gets eaten up in the ionosphere, but at night there is much less interference from the sun. It’s all waves, you know. Radio waves, light waves… when the sun sets, AM signals can really travel.
FM stations have one consistent wattage they broadcast at, whereas most AM stations have two – day and night.
– KICE, Bend –
Daytime Power: 10,000 Watts
Nighttime Power: 60 Watts
– KWRU, Fresno –
50,000 Watts
It’s safe to assume the Fresno station is quite old which would explain why they’re grandfathered in to such high power at night.