Chapter 36 is organizing a tour of the recently completed renovation of the KPBS TV and FM facilities, architectural as well as audio and video. You’ll get an insider’s look at the technical infrastructure.
Join us Wednesday, August 13 at 12:00 noon at 5200 Campanile Drive, San Diego. Arrive early to find parking. There is limited street and SDSU parking, paid and free. You can park free at Trader Joes for up to 44 minutes, but at 45 minutes, you’ll be charged $1000 per minute plus your first born (not advised). Alternatively, arrive by trolley. Hey, at least classes aren’t in session yet.
You will need to register for this event, and there is a participant limit of 25, so reserve now. RSVP via email. You may bring one guest.
FCC rules just went into effect allowing FM stations to originate programming on boosters, effectively giving them the right to target ads to certain segments of their coverage area. The rule was approved in November 2024 but adopted in late July.
In San Diego, Audacy’s KWFN 97.3 has a system with a main transmitter in Southeast San Diego and four independent boosters, each with HD capability. They could sell ads unique to booster coverage areas in La Jolla, Carlsbad, San Marcos, or Romona. The new rules allow up to three minutes per hour of independent broadcasting.
One limiting factor is with mobile receivers. When moving between coverage zones, a listener in an automobile would hear an ad being interrupted by a different ad. And with terrain shielding, as is likely in North County, these switches could occur frequently as one signal dominates another with movement. KWFN would have to file with the FCC to allow this operation.
GeoBroadcast Solutions introduced the geotargeting concept, proposed the new rules, and developed the concept with several broadcasters, including KWFN. I was involved in helping to set up the boosters in 2021. Precise timing with GPS helps to make synchronized boosters viable. Terrain helps isolate the booster from the main signal, but hills in the booster coverage area can make mobile reception tricky. Also, using boosters in a metro area like San Diego can be hindered by adjacent channel reception, especially when trying to maintain a digital HD sideband signal.
The Society of Broadcast Engineers has announced the recipients of the 2025 SBE National Awards, which recognize outstanding achievements by individual members, local chapters, and Sustaining Member companies. Among the organization’s highest honors are the Robert W. Flanders SBE Engineer of the Year and the James C. Wulliman SBE Educator of the Year awards.
Doug Irwin of Burbank, CA
Doug Irwin, CPBE, AMD, DRB, of Burbank, CA, a member of SBE Chapter 47 Los Angeles, has been named the 2025 Robert W. Flanders SBE Engineer of the Year. With nearly four decades of experience on both coasts, Irwin manages one of the most complex and influential radio operations in the country. His career has navigated the challenges of industry consolidation and evolving technologies, yet he remains deeply committed to advancing engineering standards and mentoring the next generation of professionals. As one Chapter 47 member stated, “Doug exemplifies unwavering dedication and genuine passion for broadcast engineering.”
Matthew Wilson Anderson, CSRE, staff engineer at iHeartMedia, was named SBE Chapter 47 Los Angeles Engineer of the Year. Matt was formerly with San Diego State University, KPBS, and iHeartMedia in San Diego before moving to Los Angeles. He’s been a chapter leader for years.
I’ve had the privilege of working with both Doug and Matt as Event Frequency Coordinators in the NFL and can tell you they make critical tasks look easy and have interpersonal and leadership skills second to none. Both Doug and Matt were instrumental in helping build the iHeart infrastructure with redundancy that allows for high reliability with a low staff level, lower stress, and free weekends.
Read here for more winners of the 2025 SBE Awards Program.
No, neither did we. After the powerful earthquake off the coast of Kamchatka, Russia, on July 30 (local Russian time), scientists warned of tsumani waves threatening the west Pacific Coast of North America. These waves were predicted to transit the ocean and strike Southern California beaches and harbors by 1:30 AM on July 30 and were observed to create stronger waves at that time, but no surface damage was reported. Erratic waves were measured between 1:00 AM and about 2:00 PM at San Diego’s Broadway and Scripps Piers.
John Dumas of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, said, “The only area in California to get a tsunami warning was the Crescent City area. That would trigger EAS. We had a Tsunami Watch which was transitioned to an Advisory in SoCal which does not trigger EAS.”
Damage estimated at $1-million was done to the harbor at Crescent City, California on the Oregon border, a town known for its vulnerability due to its low elevation.
Several San Diego area engineers confirm that Tsunami Warnings were neither received nor issued by the radio and TV stations they maintain.
Exactly what triggers EAS codes for tsunamis? NOAA has a protocol and operates two warning centers but what triggers codes for what regions is complex.
Scottie Rice reminds us that the radio station known as KOGO began broadcasting on June 30, 1925, and that makes it 100 years old. According to Wikipedia, the station started as KFWV on 1220 kHz, likely an alphabetically-issued callsign. It operated out of the U.S. Grant Hotel in downtown San Diego.
1933 KFSD Stamp, from the Eric Shackle Collection, Radio Heritage Foundation
According to FCC documents, in 1926, the callsign changed to KFSD. In 1927, the station was granted a change to 680 kHz at 500 watts power. In November 1928, KFSD moved to 600 kHz with 1 kW output power days and 500 watts nights.
In the 1930s, the station was owned by the Airfan Radio Corporation. It became an NBC Red Network affiliate in 1931.
In 1948, KFSD moved its studios to Emerald Hills, east of downtown San Diego, at the site of a former country club, and increased power to 5 kW day and night. The facility housed KFSD’s studios, transmitter, and offices. That same year, San Diego’s first FM station, KFSD-FM 94.1 MHz (now KMYI), signed on from Emerald Hills.
In 1961, the station changed its callsign to KOGO at the same time the AM, TV, and FM properties were sold to Time Life Broadcasting, where the stations shared studios at what is now KGTV near the intersection of I-805 and CA-94. In 1972, KOGO-AM was sold to Retlaw Enterprises, owned by the Walt Disney family (Retlaw is “Walter” in reverse).
KOGO went through a number of changes in ownership, callsigns, and formats, but settled into a talk format in April 1994 with Par Broadcasting. Par sold the station to Jacor in 1997, which later merged with Clear Channel Communications, becoming iHeartMedia in 2014.
KOGO moved to colocate its transmission site with KGB 760 in November of 2024. With the shorter towers (69°), the output power is now 9 kW (10kW night) and is directional to the southwest. The old Emerald Hills site is due to be abandoned, but some FM broadcasters must still move to the KGB-FM site before the towers are destroyed.
I heard a couple of stories about KFSD in the late 1920s from an elderly neighbor named Art Nolan who lived nearby us in North Park in 1992. As a young man, he was assigned the evening shift at KFSD downtown. He told me he got a complaint from an avid listener of KFI 640 that KFSD was interfering with their signal. Sure enough, when he measured their frequency with a wavemeter, KFSD had wandered from its assigned channel to near 640 kHz, and Art had to adjust the frequency to bring it back. The FCC began requiring stations to use crystal frequency control shortly thereafter.
Art told me he was fired from KFSD when he was caught signing off the transmitter a few minutes early so that he could catch the last ferry of the day to his home in Coronado. His career didn’t suffer greatly. He worked as a navigator for Pan American Airlines on their trans-Pacific routes.
