Power 106.9FM

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NeFire242

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No more bob station in Plattsmouth, now it's Power 106.9


http://power1069fm.com/

KCTY (106.9 FM) is now "Power 106.9, Omaha's Hottest Jamz."

The change was made Friday at 3 p.m., when NRG Media pulled the plug on its "BOB FM" format on 106.9 FM and rebranded the Hip-Hop/R&B format of KLBR (97.3 FM) and its translator station, 107.7 FM. As of Friday afternoon, 97.7 and 107.7 FM were simultcasting KCTY's signal.

Of the former "Hot 107.7/97.3" on-air lineup of personalities, only three are listed on Power 106.9's new website: "Hot Boy" (9-10 a.m.), "Bizzy B" (10 a.m.-1 p.m.) and "Mista Soull" (6 p.m.-10 p.m.) No mention is made of "Russ Parr," "P Minor," "Big Alo," "Big Tigger," "Houston," "Pappa Gattor," "Walt Baby Love" or "Marcey Projex."

The station's "411" section reads:

"It was almost four years ago to the day that Hot 107.7 and 97.3 was born. One thing that held us back was power. We didn't have the power for everyone in the metro to hear what we were doing. It is a new day in Omaha - and as of now - we've got the power. Today, Hot 107.7 and 97.3 moves to 106.9 in honor of this new found power, we're introducing you to the new Power 106.9."

The station's on-line playlist includes music from artists such as E-40, Yung Joc, Lloyd Banks, Chop Suey, Lionel Richie, Shareefa, Manish Man and Johnta Austin.

NRG Media Vice President of Programming Mark Todd could not be reached for comment Friday afternoon. On Thursday, Todd said the BOB format was not resonating well with listeners and that Connisseur Media had taken out a permit to "construct" a new radio station on 107.7 FM.
 

red8

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What ever happened to good radio? I mean was there ever any radio stations that played any good music? I just don't understand rap and hip hop. Guess I'm just a redneck in a rock-n-roll bar.lol
 

realgeo

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A little history on 97.3/107.7/106.9/101.9

Good evening NeFire242 and all! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Well, doesn't this bring up an interesting situation?

Where do I begin? Lots of interesting stuff to talk about here, and I don't work for any of these companies! I am just interested in radio station history!

First of all, it's true about Connisseur Media's Construction Permit (CP) for 107.7 - it was granted by way of auction and is located at Pacific Junction, IA. With the grant of this CP for 107.7, NRG's current 107.7 MUST go away.

If you recall, the 107.7 signal was the original downtown translator for 101.9 when it was still broadcasting from the "dangerously dark" Eagle, NE tower. Mitchell Broadcasting purchased the 101.9 signal and proceeded to make it an "Omaha" signal. The only problem was that 101.9 couldn't provide a "city-grade" signal coverage in Omaha roughly east of 72nd St.

107.7 was put on the air in downtown Omaha to remedy this situation. By FCC definition, a translator can only rebroadcast its parent station by way of direct RF reception of the parent - no direct feed from the parent's studio, otherwise it would qualify as a new station.

Over the years and through ownership changes, the 101.9/107.7 pairing remained until Waitt Radio successfully moved 101.9 from Eagle to the KPTM tower at Gretna. Now 101.9 was supplying a very-good sounding signal to the majority of the Omaha metro, while still upholding its obligation of having Lincoln as its city of license.

However, the move of 101.9 to Gretna necessitated a major change to then Blair, NE station KISP, on 101.5. At this time, KISP Blair had just been purchased by Waitt Radio from Sunrise Broadcasting - former owners of KNCY-AM/FM in Nebraska City/Auburn. Through some FCC wrangling, 101.5 was moved to the Sioux City area, replacing KKYY 101.3, also a Waitt-owned property.

Now that any interference issues between 101.9 and 101.5 were resolved, Blair, NE was in need of a new frequency. Thus, a long-standing "silent channel allocation" at 97.3 was granted and the lonely tower just south/southwest of Herman, NE, on a ridge just west of HW75, was switched from 101.5 KISP to 97.3 KBLR.

Local programming continued on 97.3 as "Blair Radio 97-3", but it wasn't to last long. Soon, Waitt Radio lunched "Hot 107-7 and 97-3" for the Omaha market! A station that was trying to penetrate Omaha's geographically-diverse area with a 25kW transmitter located nearly 30 miles northwest of town and the same 250W 107.7 translator that helped 101.9.

HOWEVER, this time, there was a change in duties. Considering the significant terrain between Herman, NE and Omaha, Waitt/NRG decided to sell-off 107.7 to a third party, thereby absolving themselves of the FCC's translator requirement. Since a third party now onwed 107.7, 107.7 could be fed with a studio-direct audio feed, giving a clean signal.

But, the 97.3/107.7 "two-punch" still wasn't enough to successfully penetrate the target part of Omaha.

Now, fast forward to 1500 last Friday, when BOB-FM on 106.9 was replaced with 107.7/97.3's programming, modified somewhat, and re-branded as Power 106.9. With the 106.9 signal beaming into Omaha from high-atop a ridge just north of Glenwood, IA, NRG hopes to fill the gap that 97.3/107.7 couldn't cover.

How does 106.9 figure into this? Historically - 106.9 originally began life as KOTD-FM in Plattsmouth - home of the former KOTD 1020. Both stations were properties of Platte Broadcasting Company, owned by Charles Warga of Plattsmouth, NE.

Now, considering the above history and commentary, what will happen to 97.3?

I wonder if NRG would re-establish that as a Blair, NE radio station? Sure, it would be competition for NRG's Fremont properties, KHUB and KFMT, but maybe it has a place.

Who knows! It's a good item for conversation though!

73's
 

obijohn

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Hi George. Hope you had a nice x-mas. Tell me something...did they ever put up a bigger tower on that hill for the FM station-or is cheap charlie's tower still there ? I was expecting a bigger tower, but I guess there were issues with ERP to protect other licensees. That would be a honkin site with a 1000' tower, no? You figure out who I am yet?
 

realgeo

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Hey, "Obijohn"!

Yep - not a bad holiday, with the exception of having the flu for most of it! I hope yours was good, too!

Well, I have to admit to being a bit "dense" on being able to figure out who people actually are on this Board! With one or two more clues, I might be able to crack the nut! :)

When Waitt bought 106.9 from Charlie Warga, I believe that was their FIRST radio station in Omaha, as it was prior to the acquisition of Mitchell Broadcasting.

Waitt's 106.9 was moved closer to Council Bluffs, and was built upon a taller tower, but it wasn't a 1000' structure. The tower, as I remember it, might've been in the 200 to 300 foot range, but that would be a guess.

Since you're in the Eppley/Offutt airspace there, tower height is definitely an issue and consideration.

To my knowledge, Charlie's entire 106.9 FM transmitter site is still at the original location north of Glenwood. In fact, the KOTD-FM studio to transmitter link (STL) arrangement was kinda' interesting in that it used two frequencies to transport the left and right studio signals to the transmitter site, where they had the on-air processor and stereo generator.

In many setups today, the processed "composite" stereo signal is generated at the studio and then sent over a single STL channel to the transmitter site.

Either method is acceptable, but both have their perils, in my opinion. The dual STL suffers from the possibility of noise corrupting the signal before it gets "sweetened" by the on-air processor. The single STL suffers from the "single point of failure" situation where the loss of the single signal takes your programming off the air!

Quite honestly, I was surprised that Warga Broadcasting didn't win the 107.7 CP at PJ - it would've been a rudimentary change at the old 106.9 transmitter site and Plattsmouth would've had a radio station again.

I am very much against radio stations being "stolen" from their communities of license. In my opinion, 97.3 (formerly 101.5) was rudely stolen from Blair.

From the other side of the coin, I am sure that the people of Auburn, NE think the same thing about their former station on 105.5 - KAUB, then KCOE, and then KNCY-FM. Next was the temporary frequency change to 94.7, and finally to it's current home of 103.1.

Like NeFire242 said, it comes down to money. Unfortunately, local stations' service to the listeners often don't stand-up to the corporate balance sheet.

73's
 

realgeo

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To expand on a previous point....

.... I would also address the purchase of 1020AM by Waitt Radio from Warga Broadcasting.

Sure, Warga Broadcasting sold both 106.9 and 1020 to Waitt for business reasons - no questions asked there. Perfectly good transactions and done for good reasons.

BUT, with what Waitt tried to do with 1020 initially, was laughable.

When Waitt Radio took over 1020, they built a brand-new 7-tower directional AM array in a valley north of Glenwood. My father was part of the team that proofed the efficiency of the system in both day and night modes.

If memory serves, the array was two east-west rows of towers. The northern row had four towers and the southern row had three towers. The northern row's western-most tower was the "odd man out" as far as north-south symmetry is concerned. During the day, the northern row of towers transmitted, while at night the "odd man out" tower in the northern row is de-activated and the southern row and northern row of 3 transmitted, effectively providing a "stacked 3" configuration! :*)

1020 was re-branded "AM 10-20, The Source" with call letters KKSC - "Sarpy County's source". Steve Warga, Charlie's son, ran the station since sign-on and did a very good job of it, considering what he was asked to do. KKSC's goal, amongst others, was to provide total coverage of Sarpy County news, weather, sports, farm, and other information. In fact, KKSC's News Director was Barb Cortese who also worked at the Papillion newspaper.

Waitt, with their daytime-only, 50kW, westward-heading "blowtorch", wanted to literally un-seat KRVN/Lexington as the Farm Leader on the radio. No kidding - this was their plan.

Right around the same time, the Waitt Farm Network, now a part of the Brownfield/Learfield Network, came on-line and provided ag reports throughout the day. Emory Cleaven and Col. John Phillips anchored the network and did a decent job with the limited facilities they had.

Soon after finding out what kind of a problem Waitt had on their hands, the plug was pulled on AM1020 KKSC and it now plays Radio Disney! What started out as a Mickey Mouse idea is now playing music approved by Mickey Mouse! :*)

(I just couldn't avoid weaving that reference in!)

73's
 

NeFire242

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obijohn said:
...did they ever put up a bigger tower on that hill for the FM station-or is cheap charlie's tower still there

Yeah its the only tower that you can stand on the ground and change the red lights at the top. That thing is short.
 

NeFire242

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realgeo said:
I don't work for any of these companies! I am just interested in radio station history!

Are you in this field of work then? I don't know too much about many of the smaller stations around here or how they got started but it is neat how they get bought or sold or trade towers and locations.

You have yourself a good happy new year too, and hope you're feeling better.
 

oSutrooper

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NeFire242 said:
Are you in this field of work then? I don't know too much about many of the smaller stations around here or how they got started but it is neat how they get bought or sold or trade towers and locations.

You have yourself a good happy new year too, and hope you're feeling better.

is this the same bob fm that is in wichita ks?
 

realgeo

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Howdy, oSuTrooper and all!

Could very well be.

If you are hearing on-air personalities such as Chuck Denver and EmJay, then it's definitely "Bob-FM".

"Bob-FM" is a trademark name for a network-based radio programming format that Waitt Radio Networks (WRN), in Omaha, provides via Satellite to stations wanting to air it. WRN has 6 to 8 of these Formats, ranging from Country to Rock to Adult Contemporary to Bob-FM. Check 'em out on-line at http://www.wrnonline.com.

The talent, such as Chuck Denver and EmJay, pre-record their on-air voice bits and those voice tracks get sent over the satellite to the individual stations for playback at the right times during the hour.

WRN uses an autmation system called StorQ, which is very interesting in the way it works - http://www.storqautomation.com.

Hope this helps!

73's
 

realgeo

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NeFire242 said:
Are you in this field of work then? I don't know too much about many of the smaller stations around here or how they got started but it is neat how they get bought or sold or trade towers and locations.

You have yourself a good happy new year too, and hope you're feeling better.

Thanks, guy! I appreciate it!

I don't work in radio full-time. My fulltime gig is at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, in the fantastic world of Server Management.

My involvement in radio is part-time on the weekends and for local sports on KNCY-AM/FM in Nebraska City. My logon name here is my "air name" on KNCY-AM/FM - "The REAL Geo"!

Today should be my last day at home with the flu - THANK GOD! I have never wanted to get back to work so much in life!

73's
 

red8

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That's the trouble with corporate radio these days, they sit in some high rise office in New York or Los Angeles and they say that this what station so and so should play. I was radio when I was in highschool, and we played what the people wanted to hear. Formatted radio (radio groups owned by big corporations) do not do that anymore. That is what ticked me off about commercial radio.
 

NeFire242

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KCTY The City 106.9

kcty106.9.gif


I really enjoyed 106.9 when it was still The City.
 
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