On a recent trip to the southenrn part of our state, I got KBOI (boise radio) loud and crystal clear while in Ashland and Medford. Any ideas on how that reached? (and try to dumb it down if you can . . . I'm not exactly a technocrat)

50,000 watts gets around... I think I've even heard KBOI down here in Arizona! I know I used to pick them up when I lived in the Rose City, along with dozens more. At night, the earth's ionosphere reflects the AM skywave over hundreds of miles in some cases. Daytime doesn't work because the sun heats the ionosphere, and the signal just shoots out into space.

Enjoy it while you can...The AM "digital" service known as IBOC has been authorized for nighttime operation as of September 14th. Stations utilizing such technology will add excessive noise to the AM dial, likely making DX (distant reception) next to impossible.

IMHO it's a deficient and defective technology for AM...but the cat it just about out of the bag.

I likely won't get to enjoy KNBR 680's "Midnight Baseball" replay with Jon Miller's dulcet tones coming through the dark night sky from San Francisco...A pitiful shame...

IBOC will be another under-utilized technology and will have a short existence.....

Dewey will upset Truman.....

U.S. Navy catches and sinks Japanese Fleet near Hawaii as it prepares to attack....

Roosevelt fails in bid to remove U.S. from gold standard.

There are now reported to be 3 HD stations in Medford: 88.3, 89.1 and 1230.

Are you sure it wasn't KBOY Medford? How's that for dumbing it down.

If you're talking to me, only if they got the call letters and frequency wrong.

I've one radio that does not suffer from KEX at all! It's an older Delco car radio. Bandwidth is ~8Khz or so. I keep it around for DX, because it's just fantastic. Beats the GE III, which does reproduce the KEX IBOC in analog mode.

(Uses the old ferrite tuning system --looks kind of scary and is not light, that's for sure.)

KXL is sounding really great these days, BTW!

Clearly, radios can be made to deal with the IBOC stuff in analog operating mode. Wonder how many of them there are? Perhaps the DX'ers can start building a list of suitable radios?

No matter what anyone says, there will still be DX. It's just gonna get harder to do.

KBOY, last I knew , and I lived in Medford -Ashland for several years in the 70s...KBOY AM was a 5KW " single stick" daytimer and on 730khz, I think. Unless something has changed over the years?

KBOI is on 670khz. I used to come across KBOI lots of times in the Rouge Valley and around Shasta on I-5 as I did a lot of 'road work' in my 75 Oldsmobile back then. I know that there was an addition of a 610 AM in Medford in the early 80s (it used to be KYJC)which could also be an adjacent channel noise issue DXing KBOI.

Back in the day KBOI's top of the hour legal ID was :

"" Serving western America from Boise, Idaho. We are ...670 K B O I Boise..Nampa..Caldwell..its
10 o'clock ( beep )....NBC News sounder...

KBOY was a 1kw daytimer. It was 1 of the Top 40s that filled up the space while driving up and down I-5 when there wasn't much FM. After Eugene ran out, there was a short area, then 950 in Roseburg and when that was about over, in came 730. You didn't want to drive through there at night!

In those days 610 was clear in southern Oregon for DXing KFRC at night. Traveling through northern Cal in the daytime was a killer. Nothing but easy listening and MOR from about the Oregon border almost into Redding.

You know I remember driving from Medford to Portland long about 1973 in my AMC sportabout station wagon...for a meeting at the main office in Portland and listening to KBOY for much of the trip. I remember one afternoon hearing them in SALEM ! I had never done that kind of DX on them before !

And in the early 70s they had some good sounding people on the air at that station. And a real friendly format...MORish with a little top 40 and even country if it was a crossover type hit, new or an oldie...I liked that station then...a whole lot. KBOY FM at that time was automated AC and nightime with a top 40 lean. I wonder who owned them at that time?

As to the 'Southern Oregon 610 ! I worked for KYJC in Medford before they went to 610. In 79' they kept telling us that we were going to 610 and it was just around the corner..ha ha...fat chance...it took them 4 or 5 years later to do that one. I remember they left out thier frequency from all image components and all jocks were not to mention anything about being on 1260...

I found out years later , when working here in the tri-cities, where we have a 610 ( KONA ) and KFRC of course. Fought tooth and nail against the license grant for the Southern Oregon 610. The Engr at KONA was involved in this with Edison Broadcast Consultants out of San Francisco. Of course the BIG 610 KFRC took the point in all this and the 2 stations and Edison Engineering all ganged up on those folks in the Rouge Valley.

One time in 1985 I was flying thru Medford on my way to LA for a job interview ( thank god I didnt take it !)..and I wanted a dinner break and someway got the address to thier transmitter site..and went out there...seems to me it was 5 or 6 towers ! Ill bet that thing is difficult to keep tuned up !

1230 - kyjc (not 1260)

oh was it...well that figures we didnt use it at all when i was there...LOL...

I was reading this thread earlier and someone (can't find the post) asked who owned KYJC in the 70's:

KYJC was purchased by Mattco, Inc., Russell H. Mathias, President on March 1, 1974.

KBOY AM/FM was purchased by KBOY Broadcasters, Inc., Robert Este, President on December 24, 1974.

I also have a copy of the 1976 "73 AM KBOY, K-95 FM, Tourist Guide To Southern Oregon".

Thanks Craig....it was me 3 posts above...thats right Russ Mathias...owned KY ...he was a lawyer as I remember. And KBOY ..ok..Didnt know Robert Este..Ya , thats right it was K-95..KBOY-FM

I was doing mornings at KBOY in 1973/74. Robert Esty bought KBOY AM/FM from the widow of Ken Card in 1974. Bob Esty owned KRKT AM in Albany at the time. KBOY was top 40 and the the FM up to late 1973 was "Music with McMasters" broadcast in mono. Keeping the old IGM automation alive was the pet project of Ken Card...un-jamming carts, changing reels etc. After Ken passed away we simulcast the AM until sign off and then went into an album oriented rock format.

Ah...the real story from a person who knew and was there. I appreciate that. Were you the guy who sounded so good on the air? Must have been. Also, the midday guy I remember sounded real good too. Too bad about Ken Card, that name I do remember, must have been that IGM automation that did him in !

You guys got me hooked on an obscure hit by Tommy Roe " Working Class Hero"...it didnt chart real high , but was one of his blue collar donations to the music continuum. I believe KBOY was the only station I ever heard that played the song. Years later, when I worked for Fun Oldies AM 960 KALE I got to do a live Saturday show along with automated middays on a Cetec/Shaeffer 7000 automation..Anyway..I dug up a good copy of Working Class Hero and played it one Saturday. My PD called me up a few minutes later and said where the Hell did you get that from and isnt it Tommy Roe !! ? I never heard it before ! I got to play once in awhile on live shifts.

So you see how one little thing affects something or someone else years down the road.
Excellent station for a small market in the early 70s.

On a trip into California in the early 70's I remember trying to tune in KWSD 620KHz in Mount Shasta. I remember tuning it in before on my last 70's trip but this time it was off the air.

Then It Hit Me! It Was SUNDAY!

Most likely KWSD didn't broadcast on Sundays. Has anyone else run into this? A radio station off the air because it's Sunday, The Sabbath?

Now I would just say the automation screwed up and no staff were listening.....! but...back then I only remember some stations going off late Sunday nights for transmitter work etc... Seems like even KEX used to do that some.... Having worked in Christian radio as well, I know of no station that would go off on Sunday....prime time for the audience to hear music and sermons....

Totally unrelated to the thread, but to the last post...

I drove through Weed/Shasta about four or five years ago and heard play-by-play for some East Coast football team, (can't remember the school).
This was not a national broadcast, as they mentioned local sponsors. Does anyone have any idea what the heck I was listening to? A satellite error? An owner who wanted to hear his alma mater on the air? To this day, it is one of those baffling radio moments that I don't quite get.

Paul: I'm beginning to believe The Weed/Mt. Shasta area is The Radio Bermuda Triangle!

Next we'll hear that Bigfoot lives in a cave on Mt. Shasta but works at KWSD, except on Sundays when he's beamed aboard a UFO for his weekly medical exam!

Mt. Shasta's 620 became KMJC on 11/01/95, and is now a part of Jefferson Public Radio.

I always have considered the area between Mt Ashland and Mt Shasta to be mysterious and outworldly. Try driving through there on a full moonlite night in September about 12 midnight and you will know what I mean

Right on, Al! My oldest son and I did exactly that on our journey from the desert to Oregon City last Christmas. Amazing! And snow beside the road, too, to add to the effect!

speaking of medford. it was beautiful there today. i drove up from redding and stopped in medford to enjoy the wweather. we had a picnic in the park. beautiful.