KYDO

KYDO
City Campo, California
Broadcast area San Diego, California
Branding "Air 1"
Slogan "Positive Hits"
Frequency 96.1 (MHz)
First air date September 10, 1981 (in Brawley, CA)
March 9, 2010 (in the San Diego market)
Format Christian pop/rock
ERP 25,000 watts (main)
700 watts (booster) Santee
HAAT 31 meters (102 ft) (main)
Class B1
Facility ID 63471
Former callsigns KSIQ (1981-2014)
Owner Educational Media Foundation
Webcast Listen Live
Website www.air1.com

KYDO (96.1 MHz, "Air 1") is an FM radio station licensed to Campo, California, and broadcasting to the San Diego radio market. The station has a main transmitter site near Lake Morena, just west of Campo.[1] The station also uses a 700 watt booster transmitter on Mount San Miguel, and licensed to Santee.

KYDO is owned by the Educational Media Foundation, based in Rocklin, California. KYDO airs a Christian pop/rock radio format, carrying EMF's Air 1 network. KYDO is considered a "move in" station, because it started in Brawley in California's Imperial Valley before moving closer to San Diego.

History

KSIQ in Brawley, California

On September 10, 1981, the station signed on as KSIQ.[2] It aired a Top 40 format and was called "SI-96" (pronounced "SEE-96"), using the middle letters of its call sign. "SI" stood for the Spanish-language word for "yes." This was meant to attract the large Hispanic audience in the Imperial Valley and to have them interpret the name as "Yes-96."

The station was originally licensed to Brawley. The station's signal was heard as far west as Yuma, Arizona, and was also popular across the Mexico–United States border in Mexicali, a city of more than half a million people in the state of Baja California.

Move to San Diego Market

While KSIQ was successful in its home territory, the Imperial Valley is considered a small market in radio. In early 2010, KSIQ announced that it was moving to San Diego, a much larger market with the potential to increase KSIQ's advertising revenue. The only on-air DJs who moved with the station were morning host Tony Driskill and afternoon host Stacy Lynn.[3]

KSIQ had been broadcasting at 50,000 watts in Brawley, but the move to Campo required the station to drop its power in half. The station began broadcasting to the San Diego area from its new main transmitter and booster on March 17, 2010, continuing its Contemporary Hit Radio format. Its moniker at the time, "San Diego's New Q - Q96," referenced San Diego's legendary KCBQ, a popular Top 40 station in the 1960s, 70s and 80s. The main transmitter is located east of Lake Morena, just west of Campo. To better cover San Diego, a booster station was also set up, also on 96.1 MHz. It is located atop Mount San Miguel along with several other FM and TV transmitters, including those of television stations KUSI and KNSD. The booster is licensed for 700 watts effective radiated power.

Format change and sale

On November 1, 2013, Cherry Creek Radio announced its intention to sell KSIQ to the Educational Media Foundation, operator of two Christian radio networks, K-Love, which plays Contemporary Christian music, and Air 1, which leans toward Christian rock.[4] On November 6, at 6:00 pm, after approximately fifteen minutes of silence, KSIQ began airing programming from Air 1. The sale was finalized on January 27, 2014 at a price of $1 million. KSIQ changed its call letters to KYDO on February 2, 2014.

Booster site problems

The booster site went through a long period of non-operation and problems from late October 2010 through July 2011. On early morning October 22, 2010 the booster transmitter went silent, transmitting a dead carrier.[5] Cheery Creek Radio, the owners of KSIQ, applied to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for a Silent STA: A "special temporary authority" to retain their license despite not being on the air. The application stated that the T1 link to the booster transmitter failed, that troubleshooting was underway, and that they intended to return to the air as soon as possible.[6]

On Tuesday, November 16, 2010, KSIQ was heard in San Diego again.[7] But on January 24, 2011 the San Diego Radio blog reported that KSIQ's relay on Mount San Miguel was not operating, and the signal from the main transmitter in Campo was not reaching San Diego.[8]

On March 31, 2011, the station's management requested special temporary authority (STA) to operate the booster transmitter with temporary facilities from an alternate site. The site proposed was just west of Sweetwater Reservoir, about four miles west of the Mount San Miguel location. The STA request also included a significant increase in transmitter power for the booster, from 700 watts ERP to 5,000 watts ERP, but also noted that the new site would be at just 137 meters above sea level (compared to 785 meters for the booster site on Mount San Miguel) and that the new antenna's height would be nine meters below the average terrain.[9] This request was granted on April 5.[10]

The station intended to file an application for permanent use of the new site if it proved successful. However, the new site and increased power did not improve reception. The old booster site on Mount San Miguel resumed operation in July 2011 with 700 watts ERP.

On May 24, 2012, KSIQ's booster went off the air yet again. This was simultaneous with KPBS-FM's report that their transmitter, also on San Miguel, had lost power, apparently due to a brush fire that affected the incoming lines. However KPBS's signal was restored the next day, while KSIQ's booster was not back on the air until July 11, 2012, almost two months later.[11]

Owners

  • Kurt Leptich (1981–1984)
  • Stodelle Broadcasting (1984–1999)
  • Commonwealth Communications, LLC (1999–2003)
  • Cherry Creek Radio, LLC (2003–2014)
  • Educational Media Foundation (2014–present)

Program directors

  • Kurt Leptich (1982-1984)
  • Tony Driskill (1984–1993)
  • Dan Watson (1993–1996)
  • Tony Driskill (1996–2003)
  • Vincent "Toby" Salgado (2003–2008)
  • Tony Driskill (2008–2010)
  • Alejandra Torres (2010-2013)


References

  1. ↑ Radio-Locator.com/KYDO
  2. ↑ Broadcasting Yearbook 2009 page D-82
  3. ↑ Furguson, Chris (2010-01-17). "Q96 Radio Moves To San Diego This Weekend". Tribune Weekly Chronicle. Retrieved 2011-12-16.
  4. ↑ "EMF BUYS IN SAN DIEGO & SWAPS IN COLORADO". RadioInsight. RadioBB Networks. 2013-11-01. Retrieved 2013-11-06.
  5. ↑ Carmichael, Chris (2010-10-25). "Media Bytes for Monday, October 25, 2010". Retrieved 2010-10-25. KSIQ-FM at 96.1 is off the air, except the booster station on Mount San Miguel remains on. Just the carrier is broadcasting in stereo. The situation has happened since the last rain storm [...]. It is believed the main transmitter in Campo is off the air.
  6. ↑ "All Access Music Group". 2010-10-29. Retrieved 2010-10-29. The licensee says that the booster, which serves the heart of the population core in SAN DIEGO, went silent when the T1 link failed on OCTOBER 22nd, and that the station's personnel "are troubleshooting to determine the cause of this problem and to restore KSIQ-FM1's service as soon as possible."
  7. ↑ Carmichael, Chris (2010-11-17). "Media Bytes for Wednesday, November 17, 2010". Retrieved 2010-11-18. KSIQ-FM is back on the air. It is not known if the station is at full strength; but it was heard in Poway, Mira Mesa, and points east on I-8 freeway.
  8. ↑ Carmichael, Chris (2011-01-24). "Media Bytes for Monday, january 24, 2011". Retrieved 2011-01-29.
  9. ↑ Federal Communications Commission (2011-04-05). "FCC license database, FM Query Results for KSIQ". Retrieved 2011-05-07.
  10. ↑ Federal Communications Commission (2011-04-05). "Letter to counsel for CCR-Brawley IV, LLC, KSQIQ-FM1(FB)". Retrieved 2011-05-07.
  11. ↑ "KSIQ booster silent". Radio-Info.com Discussion Boards. Radio-Info.com. 2012-07-12. Retrieved 2012-07-19.

Coordinates: 32°40′44″N 116°31′01″W / 32.679°N 116.517°W / 32.679; -116.517

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