Another Small-town, AM Station Bites The Dust: KNPT 1310, Newport, Oregon is going Off the Air; and some Australian Crawl

When I was a young teen, my Father and Mother discovered the idea of camping. Dad had just gotten a new Chevrolet truck, with a canopy over the back, and when Mom looked inside the canopy, she said "You know -- we could go camping in this!"

Dad thought it was a cool idea. So they got a camping stove, a large, metal cooler for ice (that could double as a seat), a large, plastic, square water container (it held maybe 5 gallons of water), and three sleeping bags. 

The next Summer vacation my parents took -- probably late in July or early August of that year -- we went camping. We took too much stuff, but we did OK, and had fun. Naturally, I always took my radio. We went to the Oregon Coast, an area my father always was interested in. He was a rockhound, and was always interested in going to places where you could find agates.

And Dad had read, or heard, that there were several places along the Pacific Coast, and Oregon Coast, where you could find agates. Japanese, glass fishing floats were another item he wanted to find. But agates were the thing.

We went to Fort Stevens, on the ocean near Astoria, Oregon (no agates); Agate Beach near Port Angeles on Washington's Olympic Peninsula (no agates there, either); and "Agate Beach" just off the Yaquina Bay estuary in Newport, Oregon (no agates there, either).

Although Dad did find a small, glass fishing float lodged near a piece of driftwood at Fort Stevens, and found a lot of interesting rocks, he found no agates. Unknown to Dad, the Cedar River, which runs maybe three blocks from our house here in Renton, has agates. :-) I have found maybe 20-30 of them of varying quality. I only discovered that my local river was an agate, jasper, and petrified wood location just 5-6 years ago.

It's ironic that Dad wanted to find agates so bad, and we journeyed to various places in the Pacific Northwest to find them, and yet they were just within 3 blocks (or a mile, if you go to the part of the river where they're more easily found) of the house. 

But, we spent a lot of time on the Oregon Coast. Nearly every summer vacation camping trip included the Oregon Coast. We camped at places like Fort Stevens State Park, Yaquina Bay State Park, Beachside State Park, Beverly Beach State Park, and Harris Beach State Park. We camped along the entire Oregon Coast, enjoying the mild weather; the rocky headlands; sandy beaches; sand dunes; the moor-like fields and misty bogs of Curry County; and the warm ocean water near Brookings, Oregon, at Harris Beach -- just next to the California border.

My dad loved Oregon.

And, invariably, whenever we went to the Oregon Coast, we went through, or stayed near, Newport, Oregon.

Newport is one of the larger cities on the Oregon Coast, and it's about halfway down. It's not far from the larger, inland cities of Salem, Albany, and Corvallis using US Highway 20 -- those cities being maybe a distance of 50-70 miles away, on the other side of the Coast Range. Newport has maybe 10,000 people. Lincoln City, a long, sprawling town maybe 15 miles north, has about 9,000 people and is a popular tourist attraction. Only the Oregon Coast cities Astoria and Coos Bay are larger in population. Newport has got a fishing port, a NOAA marine facility, and it's a popular tourist center, as many Oregonians pass through it to get to other parts of the Coast.

There are also many nice beaches in the Newport area, too.

And, up until recently, Newport has had a radio station, KNPT 1310. I remember tuning in KNPT when we'd drive down the coast. I don't remember if they played Top 40 or not, but there weren't a ton of AM radio stations on the coast at the time, and fewer FM stations. The inland stations from Corvallis and Salem didn't have great coverage over coastal areas at the time, either. FM was just kicking in at rural, non-metropolitan areas at the time, and most small towns and cities in the PNW still didn't have FM stations. They could just afford to support an AM station. And KNPT was one of these.

I haven't been to the Oregon Coast in over 20 years, but I have heard stations from the Oregon Coast while DXing the AM band, though. KDUN 1030, Reedsport, used to come in with strong signals, playing oldies, back in 2011-2014 or so. They went off the air, and then were bought by radio personality Delilah Rene maybe 2 years ago, and they're back on the air again. KAST Astoria, 1370, used to come in very well. The popular resort town Seaside's KSWB 840 was always audible at night in 2012, with their Classic Hits and oldies. KCUP Toledo, Oregon, on 1230, comes in now and then with classic hits, and maybe some talk and sports. 

Most of the stations from the Oregon Coast I used to hear 11 years ago are strangely difficult to hear or log today -- I think it's because MW conditions have been so mediocre since the last solar cycle flattened out in late 2016. There's no other reason for a station like KSWB, which was a nightly regular, and hasn't cut its power, to disappear completely for several years.

But KNPT Newport was always audible on 1310, with talk and some local programming, even during the Solar Minimum. They ran Jim Bohannon's show (later Rich Valdes), and other talk shows at night. I often would hear KNPT early in the morning, and hear the local announcers give the Lincoln County news and the weather reports. It would be 28 degrees F here in Seattle overnight and the KNPT weather report said it would be 50F or 60F in Newport that day. It was like a reminder of how things were when we'd travel there when I was a kid.

And KNPT seemed to have enough local advertisements that it looked like the revenue would be adequate for keeping the lights on, including spots for stores in Newport and nearby resort town Lincoln City. That's a combined, Lincoln County trading area of maybe 20,000-30,000 people. They seemed to have enough money to have a popular Seattle area voiceover guy (Joe Michaels) do their IDs and liners.

But the revenue being adequate was apparently not the case. Just as in the case of ESPN Yakima 1460, KRLC 1350 Lewiston, and KMED/KYVL Medford 1440, the recent downturn in advertising revenues -- especially for traditional media like radio, TV, and newspapers -- has socked it to yet another small town radio station. Even some big city AMs are gone. KZIZ 1560 in the Tacoma area of the Seattle-Tacoma metro went off the air last year. They were playing Punjabi programming. There was a rumor they were going to install an FM translator. That never happened. The pandemic, plus the travails of keeping an AM station on the air, did them in.

KMIA 1210 in Auburn, maybe 15 miles South of me, went off the air temporarily mid-pandemic, until a Spanish language religious organization took them over. KKPZ 1330 Portland, a religious station, pulled the plug during the pandemic. The religious teaching programs have been tightening their belts -- because their donors are tightening theirs. A lot of the religious programs are going online, and leaving radio behind.

It's tough to run a radio station that isn't a highly rated, FM music station in a major metro, and it's been a bit worse, even for them, post-pandemic. I've even heard some odd and bizarre ads on some highly rated, local FMers recently -- the kind of commercials that some radio fans make fun of, spots that they think only belong on late night AM radio. It's obvious that even some FM stations are going for whatever they can get, revenue wise. However, for small town media, largely dependent on small town businesses (who may be hard up for revenues themselves), it's apparent that the local advertising business model is in trouble.

And now KNPT is a victim of the changed economy for local radio, post-pandemic.

Recently it was announced that on January 1st, 2024, KNPT would be off the air, permanently. They announced that they are having financial issues, and no one wants to buy the station and take over operations. The announcement indicated that a couple other stations in the company's cluster of local stations would also possibly not survive.

When I listened to them over a couple nights in late December, an announcement said that KNPT's advertising revenue had dropped by over 50% since the end of the Pandemic, and with interest rates going up as they have been, they couldn't maintain financing to stay in business.

My trusty Penncrest (Penney's brand) radio, which I always took with me when we'd go camping when I was a kid. Later in life I'd take a Superadio when going camping. The Penncrest, amazingly, still works well.

'LIVE AND LOCAL', AND LOCAL RADIO IN GENERAL, IS IN DANGER

It's sad to see these smaller media outlets like KNPT disappearing, but it's a sign of the times. AM radio isn't as popular today as it was even 10 years ago. Local radio in general is losing out to national syndication, social media like Twitter (X), Instagram and Facebook, and national and worldwide internet entertainment.

Just like online news media, social media, and online classified ads killed local newspapers, the present online-based revenue and media model is killing other local media -- and it's decimating small town radio stations like KNPT. Big city radio isn't too far behind, actually. The internet is not going to stop with small town radio.

FM is having similar issues, for that matter, and TV's existence also is staring at the cliff. Younger people don't listen to "radio", nor do they watch "TV", much less read a "newspaper" (whether paper or online). Everything is internet videos, streams, and podcasts -- whatever you can get on your phone -- with very little of it locally based.

And the advertising revenue just isn't making it. The big advertising agencies, naturally, couldn't give a shit less about AM, or even FM in many cases. They definitely don't give a shit about small town media. In fact, there are huge swaths of demographics that the big advertising agencies, that are vital to radio, avoid: and those avoided demos are both age-based, location-based (i.e. rural), economically-based (i.e. poor), and ethnic-based. It's one reason that there are segments of the US population that have no radio stations that cater to them, unless it's an AM station, or maybe a public radio station -- and even those may be seeing some financial problems.

The big ad agencies have their favorite demographics, demos that their beloved research tells them is an easy sell, and that's all they want to reach.

The rest of the people can go take a hike.

However, it's not just their fault that radio, and local media, is in decline. The consolidation of retail and the movement of retail from the brick and mortar store to online has also taken its toll on radio stations. When I was a kid, you'd hear more spots on popular radio stations from local stores. Nowadays, many of those local stores are out of business, replaced by huge, national box store chains that don't often, if ever, advertise on local radio -- or, they've been replaced by online retail, which never advertises on radio.

It's like the perfect storm for small town stations like KNPT.

My Realistic DX-390, which for years I used to troll the SW broadcast and ham bands for all sorts of signals. I never used it for AM and FM, however. It's a great FM receiver, with good performance on FM. But it does surprisingly well on the MW/AM band -- you just need an external loop to bring in the distant signals -- at least in my location. 

The morning I posted this article I heard KNPT alone on the channel (1310), with readable signals. The station does get out. Sadly, it's not enough to keep them on the air anymore.

IT'S ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF RADIO'S PROBLEM IN GENERAL;

AND EVEN STREAMING CAN'T SEEM TO SAVE IT

It's odd. Just a few weeks ago I wrote an article about three PNW stations shutting down -- ESPN Yakima 1460, Medford's KMED/KYVL 1440, and Lewiston's KRLC 1350. But this particular station shutdown actually hurts.

If a station like KNPT, which is the main station in a city of 10,000, and which is the center of a trading area that maybe covers 50 miles of tourist beaches and other attractions -- and has an FM translator that covers all three cities in the trading area -- can't survive, what does that say for radio in general? 

There were also online streams available for KNPT, on TuneIn and Streema, and maybe a couple other sites. 

This stream for KNPT worked, at least in late December.

KNPT AM 1310 - KNPT - AM 1310 - Newport, OR - Listen Online (streema.com)

I couldn't get this particular stream to work, when I tried it in late December.

KNPT Listen Live - 1310 kHz AM, Newport, United States | Online Radio Box

Here is TuneIn's page for KNPT. In late December, when I checked it out, it showed the logo, and said "This Station Is No Longer Available."

KNPT, 1310 AM, Newport, OR | Free Internet Radio | TuneIn

The FM translator, located about 10-15 miles north of town, which covers basically the same area KNPT-AM covers, couldn't save KNPT. Obviously, FM translators aren't always AM station lifesavers.

And it looks like even the streaming didn't save KNPT. What does that say about streaming saving radio?

And then there are the memories. Dad always wanted to find agates. I remember he and Mom would slowly pore through the gravelly parts of the beach near the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse, searching for agates, and never finding anything but small, colored rocks, and maybe some sea-burnished quartz pebbles. They had fun doing it, though, and the Oregon Coast was always a great place to be. We'd have campfires at night at the state parks, and the weather was good enough to enjoy them without getting rained on. We'd also wade in the ocean, and sometimes collect seashells and driftwood.

I'd always have my radio on at night, seeing what was to be heard.

But years hence it seems that even a touristy area like Newport can't keep a local, news and talk radio station alive. KNPT had an FM translator in nearby Depoe Bay, Oregon -- just up the road a bit on Highway 101. But even that FM translator wasn't enough to keep them -- and a couple other stations in the cluster -- afloat.

For what it's worth, as I post this on December 30th, KNPT is still on the air. Just this morning, they were in on 1310 with a readable signal, even as late as 10 a.m., on my Realistic DX-390 and loop, fading in and out with nice, clear audio.

Small town radio is slowly going the way of the Dodo, folks. Get 'em while you can.

So long, KNPT. You gave the town of Newport and surrounding areas of Lincoln County 75 good years of news, information, weather, and entertainment. 1310 won't be any better off without you, and it definitely won't sound the same.

AUSTRALIAN CRAWL

I shall close this article with a high note, of sorts: a music vid. And what better music to raise one's spirits than some good Australian rock? After all, the best rock music in the world came from Australia.

The band here is Australian Crawl. They were a popular band in Oz in the very late 1970s and the 1980s. They apparently started out in the surf pubs of southern Melbourne, and then went national after developing a rabid following in their home metro. Their US compilation album, Semantics, which I got at a used record store in 1989 or so, was excellent -- and it had this song. The US Semantics was a compilation of maybe one or two Oz LPs' top tracks (most from their Oz LP Sons Of Beaches -- but re-recorded, I think) and all the tracks from their Oz Semantics EP, from which this track, The Night, was taken.

The kind of music Australian Crawl played was a curious mixture of reggae rhythms (like this track), surf rock, and Australian hard rock and pop-rock. The three guitarists all played Fender guitars -- adding to the surf-rock like feel. But this was way cooler than surf rock. It is definite Oz rock music -- i.e., kickass.

Singer James Reyne was a great singer. I never could understand his words, of course. I just thought it was because he was singing in a strong Aussie accent, and I'm an American. As a fan of Oz music, I can understand a certain amount of Oz accent, but sometimes when it's thick it throws me off. But it wasn't just me, not in this case. Most of the fans on YouTube who are Australian say they can't understand what James Reyne is singing, either.

Here is a track off Sons Of Beaches, their biggest selling LP in Australia. The song is Letter From Zimbabwe, with a catchy guitar riff, naturally played on three different Fenders. It's about an Oz friend of the singer's who went to Zimbabwe just after Rhodesia folded and the country was about to gain international acceptance. It might have something to do with the war there. Not sure -- after all, I can't understand half of what James Reyne is singing. :-)

Enjoy, and to all of my readers, Happy New Year's.

Peace.

C.C., December 30th, 2024.

Christmas Eve 2023 -- A Time for Reflection

My hawthorn "Christmas" (outdoor) tree from 2019. The string of lights burned out, and I didn't put up the ornaments this year because without lights no one would see them. In the stores this season the lights were mostly white, and overpriced. But as you can see in this pic, the ornaments looked nice when the lights worked. 

It's ironic: LEDs were supposed to drop in price, save electricity, and also last forever. 

LOL.

As I write this, it is 12:04 a.m., Christmas morning. I just spent 8 to 9 minutes on the phone hearing the same, annoying and lame recording on the local pizza delivery store's phone system on perpetual repeat -- after which I hung up. I'll get some pizza another time. 

The last time I ordered pizza it was a bewildering look into the New World of internet commerce, a world where you order first, and then you find out what you are getting and what you are going to pay for it.

The store -- which shall go unnamed -- has a website, with a "menu". Of course, the "menu" isn't like a real menu you get when you go to a restaurant, or see when you use a drive-thru window. Clicking on the item on this menu doesn't give you the ingredients or the price. It just places an order, so you're basically ordering in the blind. Awesome. 

You wonder just what are these folks thinking? Last time, when I ordered by phone, it wasn't all that much better: it was $102 for 2 large pizzas, a small one, and some pizza bread. Delivery charge was $8, and then the local and state governments get their ten bucks. 

Even more awesome. But, I'll admit -- the pizza itself was excellent. So there's that. :-)

Such is the state of business and commerce in the United States during the internet age.

But I digress.

These happy little guys decorated my yard from 2009, when I got them, until 2019, when I stopped putting them outside. I figured they were too vulnerable to theft. One can't, and shouldn't, live in fear, but one can't, and shouldn't, be stupid about things, either.

DANCING AROUND THE CHRISTMAS TREE

Right now it's Christmas, that time when all families gather around the Christmas tree, sing songs, marvel at the gaily wrapped presents beneath the tree's sweet and spicy, fir and pine scented boughs, ooh and aah at all of the beautiful ornaments, and then they all have dinner together, and maybe play a board game or card game before -- or after -- exchanging gifts.

Of course, there are candles above the fireplace, elves and Santas on the windowsills, and a big, beautiful wreath on the front door, perhaps made with real holly, and decorated with ornaments, too.

Yeah, right. For many of us, it's a lonely time. I am not afraid to admit it, especially as I've said before on this blog that most of my family is gone. It's just the way it is. I guess I should feel blessed that I am the survivor, and I am indeed thankful for that. But it makes it rather difficult to get all excited and yippity-yappity about yet one more holiday that seems like another Day Of The Dead, because most of them are. Christmas is a time when I have to block out the memories of the past holidays where family members were still very much alive and things were well. Otherwise, it becomes a time of sadness.

Santa and a Snowman decoration, looking cheery in the night.

Even the religious aspect of the Christmas holiday feels lost on me. It's hard to feel happy about Christ's birth when the greater world out there seems to be ripping apart with war, pandemics, people hating each other for what name they circle on a ballot, and other, similar stuff. I have several Bibles, but the only book in them I can read anymore is Solomon's Ecclesiastes -- the most realistic book of them all. Solomon, who lived quite a life, pulled no punches. Nearly all of what he said in that short book says all that needs to be said: Life Is Short.

So, anyway, I'm not celebrating.

I pet my cat, play my guitar, ride my bike, and do some writing. That is adequate.

Santa Mickey looks out on the 33F weather on Christmas Eve.

THE END OF THE YEAR, HOLIDAY SEASON

Overall, though, I'm doing as well as can be expected. My health is OK. I'm OK mentally and emotionally as well. But on holidays? Aside from Halloween, which is a time to connect with neighbors, I don't celebrate anymore, really. I don't imitate celebration with alcohol, either, as I stopped drinking alcohol in 2011, when I decided to concentrate on taking care of my health.

A pic of several boxes of Christmas holiday tea, most of which are not available in local stores anymore at Christmas season. Eggnogg'n is still apparently available online -- but they removed the Sledding Penguins cartoon on the cover. :-( 

Who doesn't like seeing Sledding Penguins?

As a half-Canadian, whose grandmother taught me to drink "Red Rose" brand black tea, I drink Tea instead. This evening? It's Christmas Tea. It's actually quite good. It's one of those boxes of special tea that sometimes are available every Christmas season -- until the stores around here quit stocking them. Bigelow's "Egg Noggin'" tea -- the box with the happy, sledding penguins on it -- is one of those brands. For maybe 8 years it would be available in the stores every Christmas season, and it was excellent tea. I would buy several boxes every Christmas season. 

Then they got rid of the sledding, cartoon penguins on the cover and stopped selling it in the stores. The Stash brand Christmas Tea (Holiday Chai) I'm drinking now is the same situation -- I bought the couple boxes of it in 2009 or 2010 so. It's not available in local stores anymore, except online only.

Great tea. Big seller. No longer available in the stores. You see a pattern there?

So, you eventually buy it online, or you learn to make your own. Just add vanilla, maple, allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon, and maybe some other spices. Ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

Another cheery display, with a Christmas dog, Candy-Canes, and a small Santa on the chimney!

SHORTWAVE RADIO ON CHRISTMAS EVE = THDDDDT

Anyway, I started this Christmas Eve late in the morning, just before noon, as I'd gotten home late from my aunt's place. My aunt (my late mother's sister) and my uncle have a big family, and there were a lot of them at her house on the night of the 23rd. I played my bagpipes for them, and also was able to reconnect with some second cousins (all Millennials and great people, including a couple veterans) and that was really quite cool. A couple of them are into the same style of music I'm into -- hard rock, metal, and Nu-Metal.

So we talked a little Slipknot, Korn, and Linkin Park.

After I got home I fed my cat and then went to bed. I slept maybe 10-11 hours.

When I woke up just before noon, I switched on my radio -- my Realistic DX-390 -- to tune around and see what was on the Shortwave bands, because -- as those of my readers who are radio aficionados know by now -- Shortwave is hoppin', because we're reaching the "Peak" of the current Solar Cycle. I then switched over to my DX-398, which has a bit more 'pull' on SW signals, especially on sideband.

It was El Deado.

This neighbor went all out. Brightening up the neighborhood.

Another view. Obviously, this neighbor likes Christmas!

It shouldn't have been, of course. After all, on the ham radio sites all of the guys with the massive G5RV's, 4 element Yagis and other big antennas with eight-foot ground rods and baluns; with their fancy Icoms and Kenwoods and the latest crap to go along with them, are all raving about how great this Sunspot Cycle is. Because, you know, they contacted someone in the EU a couple times and another guy in Japan, so obviously that means that shortwave conditions are awesome.

So, why do the bands seem so dead, when compared with 11-12 years ago? Especially on a holiday? Usually, holidays are times when the hams get on the air -- usually before or after their family functions. Sure, a lot of hams have other things to do on a holiday, but a lot of hams like to get on their radios on a holiday, too. I've heard a lot of hams on the air on 20 Meters and 40 Meters during holidays in the past. 

On Christmas Eve in 2014 I heard "Santa Claus" on my DX-398. This Christmas Eve I was treated to mostly static on mostly empty ham radio and SWBC channels.

YES, VIRGINIA -- SANTA WAS ON 20 METERS ONCE. FROM FINLAND

In 2014 or so, I tuned into the 20 Meter Ham Band on Christmas Eve afternoon. And Santa Claus was talking to little kids from Northern Finland (I think he was in Oulu). "Santa", a ham, would get other hams to get little kids on the mic, and "Santa" would talk to them. And one little girl in Chicago said "I love you, Santa!" 

I'll never forget hearing that. I can hear it right now, in my head -- the memory of it was so striking.

The rest of the 20 Meter band was packed that Christmas Eve afternoon, too.

This Christmas Eve, just after noontime, it was DEAD. There were maybe 2-3 QSOs (conversations) on sideband, and maybe two of them on CW (Morse Code) -- on 20 meters, which is the most popular ham band. 40 Meters was completely dead. 12 meters had one or two conversations -- which was cool to hear, as 12 Meters seems to be a fun ham band. The fading was rather severe, but I did hear a guy in Arizona talking to a guy in Colorado.

The CB band, which usually is crammed full of signals when propagation is good, was relatively sparse. The strongest signal was from a jammer, some guy who was trying to fry his CB radio's final transistors playing the same echoed snippet continuously for over half an hour.

Even the Outband (27415-27600 kHz or so) was mostly free of signals. In 2012 27455 would have had numerous Latin Americans from various countries in Central and South America, all saying "Hola Once!" ('Once' is the word for 'eleven', as in 11 Meters), in Spanish, with most of them readable most of the time. This time around? There were just 3-4 Mexican-accented (Spanish language) guys, with a handful of unreadable, weak signal Spanish Outbanders underneath. 

And this is the PEAK of Solar Cycle #25?

After tuning around, and noticing that the 25 and 21 Meter Shortwave broadcast bands were just as mediocre and mostly clear of signals, I switched the radio off. So much for the PEAK solar conditions.

Anyway, that was my introduction to Christmas Eve.

The Moon was nearly full this Christmas Eve, and the photo -- which I took with my Nikon L32 -- came out OK also. Night setting, telephoto slightly engaged.

Later on, I went for a bike ride and took a few pictures of some of the local Christmas lights, which was fun. Here and there you could tell that people were having family dinners, but a lot of the other houses looked buttoned up and quiet, as if the inhabitants were in my own situation -- facing the holiday alone.

So right now I'm going to check on my cat, and go for another bike ride before the temps drop below freezing. Last night -- the night of the 23rd (known as Lille Julafton in Scandinavia) -- it got down to 25F. I think that's minus 6 Centigrade. A bit cold. When I went out to get my mail from the mailbox my shoes were slipping on the black ice. So, last night I decided not to ride my bike before retiring... No point is risking a bicycle mishap on black ice. We don't get black ice all that often around here. But I wasn't about to risk a spill at midnight.

But so far this evening, it's a hair warmer -- around 32-33F, and no black ice. So I'll ride, then I'll make a cup of black tea, and I'll spice it up myself. Gotta have spiced tea. After all, it's Christmas.

My own take on Christmas. I left two of my electric Jack O' Lanterns out. The other ones had burnt out lights. These two just keep on chuggin'. As for the Jack O' Lanterns? Why not? It's just another holiday, after all.

And then I'll do some fiction writing after posting this article. In fiction writing, I can make up all sorts of stuff about holidays. I can create a scene where everything's awesome -- the tree is magnificent, and when you switch off the room lights the multi-colored twinklies from the tree fill the room with all sorts of reds, greens, and blue colors; and all 100 small, shiny, glass ornaments make it look like the tree is loaded with light.

When you write fiction you can make up stuff like this, and make it seem real. You can recreate all the good stuff that used to happen when you were a kid, and if you're good enough at describing it, it can become real to the reader. I suppose that is part of what makes those of us, who can, write fiction. We design, with words, the world we want to live in. It's an escape for the writer as much as it is an escape for the reader.

I hope everyone has a good holiday. If you don't do Christmas -- and that is understandable -- I hope you're doing OK. Keep the head up. Every day above ground is a good day. That was my grandfather's philosophy on life. I think it fits.

I'll close this with the US 1960's rock group The Byrds' Turn, Turn, Turn. The song was written by folksinger Pete Seeger, and The Byrds souped it up a bit. It's from 1965, and it was a #1 hit. The song is a take on the book of Ecclesiastes, mentioned previously. There is a cool stereo version of Turn, Turn, Turn that I managed to copy from where I used to work, but it's not on YouTube.

And here is Eight Miles High. The massive hit that never happened, because some influential radio programmers thought it was about drugs, when it was actually about the Byrds' first foray to the UK, where they weren't treated all that well. So, many radio stations in the US did not play it. On both of these tracks (like most Byrds' tracks), Roger McGuinn's Rickenbacker, electric 12-String guitar is heavily compressed, which gives it an extra shimmer to the sound of it on the record. Gene Clark helped write this song -- he came up with the title. I think it's the last Byrds track he sang on before leaving the group.:

Fun fact: the 12-String electric guitar parts during the verses were recorded backwards.

Listen closely. You'll hear it. You read about it here first, too, as I've never read anywhere else that the 12-String was recorded that way.

Merry Christmas everybody.

Peace.

C.C., 24th of December, 2023. I dug up a few of the boxes of Eggnogg'n Tea, and two other Christmas Tea flavors, and took a pic, and added it on January 3rd. Eggnogg'n Tea -- it's great, if you can get it. :-)

So Long ESPN Yakima, 1460 AM -- And What It Means For Radio

What's on the radio? There is still a lot to hear, but with each year, there seems to be less and less stations on the airwaves.

As I write this, we here in the Seattle area are experiencing a slight respite from the freezing weather we had for the last two weeks. It seemed that since the last half of November every time I went out onto the porch to check my thermometer was 25 degrees F (-6C or so) outside. And that cold snap seemed to continue through most of December as well.

We're now in Solstice, the shortest day of the year, and -- consequently -- the longest night of the year. In theory, this is the best time for MW/AM and SW distance listening. The reality is not quite so rosy, but there still is a lot to hear on your radios. You just gotta turn them on and tune around!

But the cold! 25 degrees F is Brrrrrrrr! cold.

That said, I have been doing a considerable amount of DXing over the past few weeks, and there have been some changes to the MW dial here in the PNW at night.

The changes haven't been all positive. And looking at some of the changes, once again I feel the need to opine on the state of the industry that once put food on my table: the Radio industry.

But first -- the changes!

CKJR Wetaskiwin, Alberta -- about 30 miles from Edmonton, has good coverage of the Edmonton metro, and some sports talk hosts in the area decided that Edmonton still needed a sports radio station.

SPORTS TALK COMES BACK TO EDMONTON!

The first major change concerns Edmonton, Canada -- my mother's birthplace. After Bell Canada got rid of Edmonton's sports talk station CFRN 1260 early in the year, when they got rid of 6 or 7 AM stations, another radio company has decided to deliver Sports Talk to Edmonton!

CKJR 1440, which was an oldies and Punjabi station for a few years, has been flipped to Sports Talk. They are now a Fox Sports station, and they apparently have at least a couple local Edmonton shows, too. One of the people behind CKJR's move to sports was a CFRN talk host, who thought that Edmonton still needed a sports talker in their market.

Although CKJR is located in Wetaskiwin, a smaller city maybe 30 miles / 40 km south of Edmonton, at 10KW they do get out OK, and hopefully Edmonton sports nuts will tune in and listen. CKJR does come in well here in Seattle during the night, especially if conditions are good from Canada.

Here at my location CKJR usually dominates the 1440 channel, although KVON, Napa, California is often heard behind them with an interesting mix of Spanish language AC music hits (AC is a radio format that is a combination of pop and soft ballads, and the Spanish language market has their own variety of such hits).

KMED's last logo where they promoted their AM station on 1440. When they were KYVL they didn't have a logo that I am aware of. KYVL, which simulcasted KMED after KMED went FM only, just lasted a couple months at best.

SO LONG KMED AM 1440

KYVL / KMED, Medford, Oregon, which used to dominate 1440, has been MIA. Although the station is, or was, officially KYVL, they were known as KMED for almost 100 years.

I understand that the signal was permanently taken off the air. The Wiki on KYVL 1440 says it is "Silent". That's too bad, because it was fun to hear Medford on my radio. The only other Medford station I can usually hear is KRTA 610, which plays Regional Mexican music (often called "ranchero" by DXers).

I really like the area of Southern Oregon where Medford and Ashland are. It's one of the reasons I enjoy hearing stations from that area. One of the better ones is KAJO, 1270, Grant's Pass, Oregon, a decently large city on the Rogue River maybe 20 miles from Medford. The weather in the Rogue Valley is moderate -- a lot drier than Seattle, but greener than the Eastern halves of Washington and Oregon, which are desert-like. It's a really nice place to visit, and being that they're further south than Portland or Seattle, the cities of Medford, Ashland and Grants Pass get a lot more sun, because it's higher in the sky.

KRLC's last logo -- the LC stood for "Lewiston-Clarkston"

Another AM station that's had its plug pulled is KRLC, Lewiston, Idaho, which used to dominate 1350 kHz. I noticed that it wasn't present in local 1360 KKMO's ranchero splash several nights in a row, which was unusual. Then I went online and found out that the owners had pulled the plug.

Lewiston is a nice area. It's on the Snake River, and there are a lot of orchards there, and it's near the Palouse wheat region in WA and a similar wheat region just south of Lewiston in Idaho. Right across the Snake River is Clarkston, in Washington -- it's Lewiston's 'twin' city. The climate is somewhat desert like, and it's an interesting place, with maybe 40K people in the two cities combined. For those oldies music enthusiasts, the song "Hot Rod Lincoln" was written about a real hot-rod race that took place in the 1950's on the switchbacks on Highway US 95, just north of town. You can see some of the switchbacks in the pic below.

Lewiston, Idaho from the north hill on US Highway 95. Clarkston, WA is to the right side of the pic, in the distance. Photo from Wikipedia.

By Iidxplus, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2452755

KRLC used to be a Top 40 station back in the 1960's and 70s, and then went Classic Country. I used to hear it nearly every night when I got back into MW DXing in 2011, and even during the crap DX conditions after late 2016 I would hear KRLC most nights.

Now it's off the air forever -- another AMer that can't pay the bills to make it worthwhile to operate apparently.

Some celebrate this sort of thing. Even some MW DXers online celebrate this 'culling' of the band. I never have.

ESPN YAKIMA 1460, R.I.P!

Recently, there has been yet another station that used to dominate a MW channel here, 1460, that is no longer on the air: ESPN Yakima, KUTI. ESPN Yakima was generally a friendly standby -- a station I could hear nearly any night, and a couple times I could even hear them during the daytime as well. About two weeks ago I noticed they were MIA. Every night I'd tune in, and I would hear nothing but a very weak KION, Salinas, California, and maybe a little bit of the ranchero station that broadcasts out of Santa Rosa, California, KRRS.

Now, I like hearing California at night, especially when it's cold weather time here in Washington state. But I wondered what was going on with ESPN Yakima? Their Wiki said they were still on the air. The website seemed to still be intact, also.

Earlier this week another DXer online, who lives in Central Washington, informed me that ESPN Yakima is off the air permanently. I guess they don't care much for national sports in Yakima? Sports radio generally does well, and the sports stations don't need much in ratings to sell advertising. But the radio advertising revenue is not what it used to be, and I suppose the owners just decided to pull the plug on KUTI.

Checking out ESPN Yakima's website, it still exists, but there is no streaming button that I can see. It's a page with a table full of news, sports-news, and some infotainment story thumbnails. 

Here is a link to their website:

1460 ESPN KUTI – Yakima's Sports Station – Yakima Sports Radio (1460espnyakima.com)

There is a link to download their app. What their app does, I wouldn't know. Maybe it's the ESPN radio app. It claims to play 1460 ESPN Yakima. They also promote their Alexa stream. Which begs the question: what about commuters in cars and trucks? The ones who apparently use radio the most?

I suppose they are either going to use the app, connect their phone to their soundsystem via Bluetooth, or you won't hear ESPN Yakima.

This is an indication of the future of radio: it's heading online.

PERSON TO PERSON, VIA THE RADIO -- A DECLINING TREND

The demise of 1460 KUTI is sort of sad, because when Mt. St. Helens blew up in May, 1980, I remember listening to this station that night, when the Yakima region was covered in several inches of volcanic ash. A DJ on the station (then called KMWX) was telling the listeners not to despair. "We can beat this thing!" he said. Of course, he was right. But it was interesting hearing the DJ encouraging the listeners to keep the chin up -- there might have been ash everywhere, but all was not lost.

It was a case of radio being used, person to person, live and local communication. Something the radio industry no longer values, because -- according to their beloved research -- the listeners no longer value it. Of course, research shows that listeners no longer value radio all that much, either -- especially the younger demographics, under age 30. The internet has changed everything to a form of 'content.' 

Some of the radio people out there treat the demise of stations like ESPN Yakima with a yawn, like "so what else is new?" Some even have a smug, 'good riddance' attitude towards this station, and other similar stations' demise. They refer to AM stations like ESPN Yakima and the former KMED/KYVL 1440 Medford as "dogs", stations that companies want to get rid of.

And these same experts seem to embrace streaming to a bizarre extent, almost viewing it as being this pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, that -- compared to modern day OTA radio -- will be just like pulling the arm on a slot machine and getting nothing but jackpots. There will be no transmitters, no antennas to deal with, no STL's, less hardware -- you'll just curate playlists, put them online, and make tons of money!

American author John Steinbeck's seminal novel The Grapes Of Wrath. The book was set in the 1930's, when the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression wiped out family farms in places like Oklahoma. Poor farmers, kicked off their land, drove West to California in old, teetering jalopies like the one pictured on the book cover. The poor farmers thought that California would be a land of dreams, but for many of them it was a place where they were either used, left to go hungry, or otherwise were not wanted. The book is a must for anyone who wants to understand how the Great Depression affected a lot of Americans. The 1940 movie of the same name, even though it is in black and white, is a classic.

NO POT OF GOLD, NO ENDLESS JACKPOTS EITHER

It's almost like reading John Steinbeck's Grapes Of Wrath, a classic American novel about the plight of Oklahoma Dust Bowl refugees seeking work and a new life in the agricultural areas of California in the 1930s. Early on in the book the grandpa is enthusiastically talking about how awesome it would be once they get to California, where he's going to eat grapes all the time and even splash in a tub full of them. Of course, the reality in the story turns out much different. The grandpa dies before they even get to California, and the family starts to starve (because the California farmers at that time treated Okies like trash), and the oldest son, Tom Joad, ends up on the run from the police. The ending of the book is quite dim. 

Reality often doesn't turn out to be the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

In the same way, the reality that hits radio, once it goes 100% online, will be different also.

The majority of radio experts I read and/or interact with seem to be out of touch about this. These guys obviously know radio. There is absolutely no doubt about that. But online streaming is not radio. Online streaming is digital, internet-based audio content distribution. It's a completely different animal. It's a completely different industry, really, and the market dynamics are different, too.

So, even though many in the radio industry embrace the demise of AM stations like KUTI, KRLC Lewiston, and KMED/KYVL Medford as "dogs", just junk, yesterday's trash radio to be discarded, soon enough, it will happen to all of them. AM, FM, TV, Satellite -- it's all headed in the same direction: Online Content. 

And thousands of radio (and TV) people will eventually lose their jobs.

Actually, all of them will.

I don't give the radio industry much more than 20 more years.

Streaming on your radio, the old fashioned way. Back in 2014 -- when I took this pic -- I used to stream several different online radio stations on my Sangean PR-D5, using the AUX IN jack. I listened to KBRE the Bear, NRK's Norsk Folkemusikk and P3 channels, and a few others. It was fun. It was like tapping into the future of radio.

Then I lost interest. Some of the online platforms, like TuneIn, would have dead links, thanks to geo-fencing, and I just tired of having to lug my tablet or phone around and plug it into the radio. I never got into the earbuds / phone thing, either. Either way, this method of streaming -- using a device to stream a radio station's website, has taken second fiddle to just using an online playlist app like Spotify or Pandora. It's a brave new world for what we call "radio".

THE RADIO INDUSTRY LEADERS SIMPLY DON'T GET IT

I hang out at a lot of radio forums, some of which are populated by radio professionals. These are the guys who run the stations, run the networks, fix and install the equipment at the stations we listen to. They also are involved in the business side. They are very knowledgeable people.

Many, if not most of them know the listenership stats: a 50% drop in listeners ("persons using radio") overall since 2008, when the Portable People Meter was introduced. In 2000 the percentage of "persons using radio" was around 18 to 20%. When the more accurate PPM was introduced in 2008, that percentage dropped to 12%, and it's 5% now -- barely 16 years later. 

Here's an article on how one radio personality lost audience due to the introduction of the PPM. The article talks about some of the controversies surrounding the use of the device to measure radio audiences.:

The Queen of FM Fights for Her Throne (bloomberg.com)

LOSING AUDIENCES, BUT WHAT NEXT?

The experts definitely understand the writing on the wall. They all have seen the numbers, and are aware of radio audience research.

Yet, they seem to have their heads in the sand when it comes to radio's actual future. On one hand, they admit that the internet is the future. Everything audio is headed for streaming. Streaming is already the dominant music consumption model, and increasingly it's becoming the dominant non-music, audio delivery model. The experts all know this, and admit that this is happening. In that they are correct.

But what they don't understand is that once your content is completely internet based, you instantly have infinite competition for the same couple of device screens. And you also have nearly infinite competition on whichever streaming platform you are using to deliver your audio entertainment. 

Indie book authors already deal with this effect on just the one or two dominant retail platforms they use to sell their books. Once you put a book up for sale, your new book is instantly in competition with 5-6 million other books on the platform, with thousands of new books being added daily -- all dependent on search algorithms, and all of them competing for screen time. As an author, you may have over 5-10K competing books in your own genre. And -- as said before -- you are also dependent on the platforms' search algorithms.

In one of my book genres, I have at least 5K other authors I am competing against. Maybe 2-3K of them are no longer active. But that leaves maybe 1000 authors whose works are competing with mine. Most of them probably have more than one book out there. Many have 30-50 books or more.

That's in just one genre. 

This is how it is when you are an online content creator / marketer. Your competition is MASSIVE.

You are competing with thousands of other creators. And you are completely dependent on search algorithms. And EVERYTHING is Visibility. In the case of radio, of course, they're not necessarily content creators -- they are also music curators, but the same basic rules apply. 

They are the middleman. Right now, because people still listen to FM and AM radio, they can still make money as middlemen.

But who needs the middleman anymore? Record companies are discovering that fact already. Musicians bypass the middleman. Curators? Gatekeepers? Who needs them?

But -- ignoring that trend, let's look at the next 10-15 years from the standpoint of your average radio company.

If you are running a radio company, and you already have your own dedicated streaming radio website, or channel, your streaming site is already in competition with a gazillion others, worldwide. And what is keeping your station's streaming website visible is your Over-The-Air station, which is sending listeners to your streaming site.

Remove the Over-The-Air station, your visibility is going to drop. You'll be dependent on whatever big tech platform's search algorithm pushes or dodges -- or ignores -- your content channel. Good luck on that. Chances are high that you will be as vital locally as your local #2 or #3 newspaper that maybe went online in the 2010's. I.e., a massive drop in viewers / listeners, lots of clickbait to try to bring in some revenue, etc.

Even if you try to market your own 'streaming app', you are already in competition with a gazillion other apps people will load on their phone's tiny little desktop screen, and then instantly forget about, or move aside, once they load the next one.

Today, if you have a radio station, you maybe have 10-20 competitors in your market. Once you're online-only, you have competition from every other form of internet audio and visual content available -- millions of channels, from all of the channels on Spotify and Pandora, to YouTube channels, to Instagram, to X content 'channels', and even to the thousands of content 'channels' on sites like OnlyFans -- the choices are literally infinite.

And they are all competing for the same one or two screens.

While it's true that -- in a sense -- Radio is already competing with these other, internet based media, once the antennas and transmitters disappear, all bets are off. Your prime source of visibility promotion is gone. You are now completely dependent on the platform, and many stations are already dependent on big platforms for their streams -- TuneIn, IHeart, Audacy, etc.

I've been in convos with some of these expert radio guys about this particular aspect of "radio's" future, and they just don't seem to get it -- they don't seem to be taking the negatives of online-only seriously. 

They seem to think that 'you just build it, people will come' (a paraphrase from the movie Field Of Dreams). But this isn't a baseball fiction movie. This is internet business. And Visibility Is Everything. 

The Radio folks see the future implications, to a certain extent, but the negatives to what remains of the Radio industry are not on their radar screen. They're all caught up in the exciting new technology, but the marketing aspect of it -- i.e., facing all that internet competition -- is not apparent to them. Not yet.

Maybe they don't need to: by the time everything goes 100% online, those guys will be long retired.

But I fear that radio's days in general are numbered. If Dereg 1996 slashed radio jobs by 50% or more, as some seem to think, the move from Over-The-Air radio to online-only will finish off the other 50%. Right now, a lot of stations have their streaming websites, but by 2050 there won't be many, if any, of those radio sites active. They will be reduced to some 'channel' on a large streaming website, and the revenue simply won't support them. The ad revenue really isn't supporting them enough now. Subscription rates only can go so high before people balk at paying for them. And digital music royalties aren't going down. 

Right now, the big streaming sites are still mostly in the red. If they can't make money now, how is podunk online radio going to in a few years?

RADIO: LOOKING AT THE CLIFF

So the entire industry is looking at a cliff, and the movers and shakers, who apparently haven't dealt with online content marketing to the extent that I have, as an indie author, really are in for a rude awakening when they go all online and pull the plug on their AMs and FMs completely -- which the experts admit eventually will happen, sometime later this century. I would say 2040-2050 -- when the older Millennials start to "age out" -- will be the breaking point for that to occur.

They're all going to lose their jobs. The revenue won't support them.

Some of the experts on the radio forums disparage AM stations for running what they think are wonky and questionable ads -- for ED medications, gold and hard assets investments, insurance, timeshare removal, alternative medicines, etc.

But take a listen to your local FM station sometime. You'll often hear the same sorts of ads. I even hear them on highly rated, local FMers -- spots for ED meds, timeshare removal, alternative medical procedures, hair transplants, dental implants, pay as you go cell service, etc. At least two highly rated local FMers run these sorts of ads. It's not just for AM talk radio anymore.

Radio in general, even today, is desperate for revenue. I don't think the online model is going to save the industry in the future. It will be nails in the coffin once the antennas come down and the transmitters are recycled into beer cans.

Even so, as a MW DXer and radio fan, and as one who worked in the industry for nearly 20 years, it's sad to see stations go off the air. 

A bird's eye view of Yakima, Washington -- sometimes known as the "Palm Springs of Washington" because of its generally sunny and dry climate, especially during the Spring, Summer and Autumn months. Photo from Wikipedia.

By Cacophony - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:YakimaWashington.jpg, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1374302

250K PEOPLE ISN'T ENOUGH TO SUPPORT A SPORTS STATION?

Back to ESPN Yakima: the situation seems to beg the question -- can't a market of over 200 thousand people support a network sports station? KUTI seemed to be a station that might have a decent enough audience to keep the lights on and the signal on the air. The Yakima market is a metro of around 250K people (98K live within Yakima itself). You'd think there would be enough sports fans in a 250K market to support the station. 

I guess that wasn't the case.

So now that station is 'lost' to the airwaves. So long, KUTI/KMWX/KIMA. You had a long run.

GET 'EM WHILE YOU CAN

I'll end this article on the most positive note I can think of right now: Get 'em while you can.

If you're a radio fan, enjoy what you can hear on your radio before that radio becomes as useful as a paperweight or doorstop -- or, for that matter, as useful as that electronic calculator in your drawer, or that flip phone that no longer works on the cell system but you didn't throw away. Maybe you've got a digital snapshot camera you don't use. You've replaced it with your smartphone's camera, so you can post grainier, semi-HQ and lossy looking pics of your meals on the internet. Even though the old device may still work, it's just too old-school for you.

OK, that happens.

Tech seems to make a lot of devices redundant over time, and radios eventually will be made redundant. I don't like the idea at all, but it's inevitable. Give radios maybe 20-30 more years before all bands -- AM, SW, FM -- are nothing but hiss and static. The revenue eventually won't support the Over-The-Air infrastructure. It's that simple.

Bob Dylan once wrote a song called The Times They Are A Changing, and they always are.

Sometimes you've got to appreciate what you have now, because you never know when it's going to vanish. It's just a part of life.

So, if you're a radio fan, switch it on, throw on the headphones, tune around, grab a book, and just listen. If you're a DXer, enjoy the sound of the distant signals, allowing you to travel hundreds, and sometimes thousands of miles, without leaving your chair.

Appreciate what you've got. MW curmudgeons, please quit bitching about what's on the air at night. Would you rather hear nothing but static?

And if you work in the Radio industry, hopefully you get at least ten more years of employment before they slash your job. Not trying to be negative here, but the media business isn't exactly kind to people. The radio industry wasn't always known as being kind to its workers, but it's even less so now. And as the march of audio/internet tech progresses, and "radio" continues to gravitate towards the online model, the radio / TV industry is going to shed jobs that will make Dereg 1996 look like a birthday party.

Keep your wits about you, guys. 

Peace.

C.C. Solstice, December 21st, 2023. Picture of Steinbeck's book Grapes Of Wrath and accompanying description added on Christmas Eve -- December 24th, 2023.