Howdy, Rich, and welcome to the Nebraska discussion board! We talk about some pretty good topics here - both on radios/scanners and other non-RF-related topics!
Interesting subject you bring up, about 102.7KFRX and there's an interesting story behind it. Read-on, but be warned that the story is somewhat involved!
Prior to now, "102.7 KFRX" and "95-Rock" were licensed to Lincoln, NE and were owned by Three Eagles Communications of the same city.
Recently, Clear Channel's Lincoln group divested itself of all of its radio properties, and some were picked-up by Three Eagles Communications. In the radio business, the FCC limits the number of radio stations any one group can own in a particular market, and Three Eagles' acquisition of some additional stations pushed them over the limit for the Lincoln market.
Because of the limit, Three Eagles needed to divest itself of two (2) stations and they were sold to a "brokerage" company by the name of Chapin Enterprises, owned by long-time Nebraska radio pioneer Dick Chapin of Lincoln.
Mr. Chapin has filed with the FCC to change the "City of License" of KFRX from Lincoln to Papillion, and to move the transmitter to KETV's new tower on North 72nd street here in Omaha. KFRX will be Papillion's FIRST "local station", per the FCC rules.
It's thought by some that this move of KFRX to the Omaha market will allow KFRX to continue to provide a "city-grade" signal to most of Lincoln, but will also allow Three Eagles to establish a presence in the Omaha market. Other theories suggest that Clear Channel-Omaha will gobble up these two stations, and still maintain the rest of their stations, as well.
Now, here's the interesting part of the story!
An application has been filed to move KRKR (95-Rock) into the Omaha market as well, however the story with KRKR is a bit more complicated. The KRKR application seeks to change the "city of license" for KRKR from Lincoln, NE to Valley, NE and to move the KRKR transmitter to a tower around 180th and Dodge. KRKR would be Valley's FIRST "local station", just as KFRX is for Papillion.
The REAL issue, however, is that KRKR is currently on 95.1, which is adjacent to KCSI, which is on 95.3, in Red Oak, IA. KCSI is a family-owned, full-service community radio station owned by Jerry Dietze in Red Oak.
Recently, Chapin Enterprises and Mr. Dietze have filed to change KCSI's "city of license" from Red Oak, IA to Treynor, IA, which is northeast of Red Oak and much closer to Omaha.
As with KRKR and KFRX, KCSI's new location makes it Treynor's FIRST "local station". However, this move of KCSI is thought by many to be a severe reduction in coverage for the Red Oak area, an area that 95.3 has provided COMPLETE radio service to for many years.
Moving KCSI into Treynor and KRKR into Valley requires one of the two stations to move to a different frequency, as the adjacent channel interference would destroy both stations' signals.
The KRKR application seeks to change KRKR's frequency from 95.1 to 94.9. This change in frequency for KRKR allows KCSI to move to Treynor and KRKR to move into Omaha, both at either 3/4 or full power levels.
The result? KRKR (94.9) and KCSI both move into the Omaha market as "rim-shot" stations and KFRX moves into the Omaha market as a full-power station.
I call a process like this "chess", because everything being done is for strategic purposes and the current ownership configuration is most likely very different from what it will be at the conclusion of the process!
I hope this answers your question about KFRX! If you have further questions, I'd be glad to try to "speculate" on the answer! I am not involved in any of the transactions, but have seen quite a few of these take place with the people involved!!
Have a GREAT day!
73's
