Radio & Records Feb 22, 2007
OREGON

KFIR-AM/Sweet Home
PRICE: $500,000
TERMS: Asset sale for cash
BUYER: Radio Fiesta Network, LLC, headed by Member Michael Astalis. Phone: 323-462-0903. It owns no other stations. This represents its entry into this market.
SELLER: Shae Enterprises, Inc., headed by Owner Robert Ratter. Phone: 541-367-5115
FREQUENCY: 720 kHz
POWER: 10kw day/184 watts night
FORMAT: Country
COMMENT: Shae Enterprises, Inc.'s KFIR-AM/Sweet Home, OR to Radio Fiesta Network, LLC for $500,000.

$500,000 seems like a lot for an AM with such a poor night-time signal.

Going to become spanish:
http://www.radiofiestanetwork.com/

Great retirement package for Bob and family...congrads!

As bad as the station sounds, I'm sad to see it go. It was my starting point, and it looks like the format will be switched to hispanic. The country store will be no more.

B&B Ratter have Mickey Moused that place for years, and treated their employees like sh*t. All the good people moved on because of it, and the people they have working there now are unemployable anywhere else ( trust me on that one!) It's sad all the way around to see whst once was a good sounding local, hometown station crumble into what it has become, and now sold to a company that will probably automate a hispanic network feed. sad, sad, sad.

great place for bilingual board ops to get their start though......

It is sad to work at a station that could be & do so much more but no one care's to fix a thing or pay there talent worth keeping a fair wage to keep them.That being said I think it is better that it belong to someone who will breath life back into the little station that could if only someone would care.I will wish the new owner all the best. Tim you are doing great keep going I respect your stand at ksnd as I was there before you & know the good bad & the ugly!! to all a good night in Radio land (stay positive!) Dusty Lyn

Agreed on all points. It looks like this company, Radio Fiesta, is snagging KFIR to either turn it Hispanic, or sell it to Bustos, who is on the prowl. Another local station might bite the dust.

When I first started my career back in 1971, I sent a tape to the then 1370 AM KFIR and got an interview. Didn’t get the job, though.

13-70 ... Plays more country ... KFIR

Have these guys changed the format yet?

Does anyone know when KFIR will switch the format?

Probably when they boost to 10kw days.

Thanks

I was told by an engineer friend of mine, that KXL has recieved complaints when KFIR was testing out the 10K.

KXL may receive complaints of interference but they'd be limited to an area that doesn't protect them in the vicinity of Sweet Home. I seriously doubt if KXL has any real listeners there. It's a long way from their interference free, 25mv/m contour. That's not to say that some dxer out in the country isn't upset because the station is no longer clear with a longwire antenna.

Point taken, however, you can't be splashing all around the AM band. If they were spalshing on KXL, they could also EASILY be splashing on local stations, aswell.

If it's not all over the dial and within KFIR's 25mv/m contour, it isn't a splash. It's just a strong, protected signal.

I Know several people in the Sweet Home area that listen to KXL for Lar's and Fox News and more.Same complant, Lots of interfearance from KFIR when they are testing at 10K, all over the band, have tryed differant radio's and locations from foster lake to Brownsville, and Cascadia, not much differants, They need to clean up there signal and there second harmonic is horriable. splattering all over the AM band, sounds like bad engineering, we know bad want'a be dee-jays and owners who don't care....

Are there other stations being splattered on besides KXL? What in the world are they going to do about far flung listeners of KKMO Tacoma when KRKO Everett gets its 34kw nondirectional going and that's only 20Khz away, not 30?

How far is it between Tacoma and Everett? I think it's far enough not to be an issue as far as legal protection goes...

(Where is that field strength meter anyway?)

It isn't a matter of legal protection but rather making KXL interference free 80 miles away in the Cascade Range! If this is a problem in Sweet Home, it's bound to be a bigger one in Seattle!

who bought the station