It’s the end of an era, really. KRON-TV reported it first, saying Fry’s Electronics was going to close its doors soon. Then Fry’s made it official on February 24. All stores, including those in San Marcos and San Diego, were officially closed. They have an agent taking care of warranty service issues.

The stores had been limping along since they lost significant inventory in August 2019. They attempted to force consignees to supply all stock at no risk to Fry’s, but few took the bait. With empty shelves and buyers moving to convenient online purchasing, they joined a host of other big box dealers to their death.

It was fun while it last, though. Fry’s had something for everyone in their heyday, from computer parts to electronic components, movie DVDs to major appliances. You could lose an afternoon in the place. They ran attractive ads with real bargains that could attract huge crowds. Their stores were large enough to support a restaurant and product demonstrations.

It’s 7:00 PM. Do I hear an Amazon truck outside?

[Updated] The FCC in late February and early March granted Minor Modification applications for all of the iHeartMedia FM stations atop Mt. Soledad to consolidate at the historic KFMB-TV site, moving from KGTV’s antenna across the street. iHeart’s KMYI 94.1 and KIOZ 105.3 will join current master FM antenna partners KPBS-FM 89.5, KBZT (FM) 94.9, KXSN (FM) 98.1, and KFBG (FM) 100.7. The move will require a new 12-bay master antenna to handle the high input power. The current 8-bay antenna has been known locally as “Quadzilla.”

At the same time, EMF’s KLVJ (FM) 102.1 Encinitas will move its main transmitter from the UCSD tower site to the new master FM antenna.

iHeartMedia’s KSSX (FM) 95.7 Carlsbad will also move from KGTV to KFMB-TV, but their allocation requires a separate, directional antenna to be mounted on a tenant tower at KFMB-TV. The signal has some light reduction in signal toward Mexico to the southeast.

he FCC granted a Minor Modification application for iHeart Media to move K277DH, the KLSD (AM) translator on 103.3 MHz, from a KGTV-owned tower to the KFMB-TV tower. The CP specifies a vertically polarized Kathrein yagi with an east-west orientation at 250 watts ERP.

Since the KFMB Stations were sold to TEGNA, InSite has been managing the site for income and there have apparently been some reductions in site leasing costs. American Tower Corp. recently acquired all of the InSite properties and management contracts and will take over management of the KFMB-TV property.

Congratulations to Doug Alman for the renewal of his SBE Certified Broadcast Television Engineer (CBTE) certification in November 2020. 

Congratulations to Chairman Tony McDaid for having passed his Cisco Certified Network Administrator (CCNA) test recently. Tony said about the venture, “For the CCNA I attended evening classes at San Diego Continuing Education. I would encourage anyone in broadcasting to take the classes. I also used the Boson practice test simulator.”

It’s never a bad time to work on your own certification, whether for Cisco, SBE, or CompTIA. You make yourself more employable, learn new skills, and walk away with a real achievement. 

On Friday, December 11, the FCC granted a nearly three-year-old Minor Modification application by KFMB-TV channel 8 to increase power from 19.8 kW to 87.4 kW ERP. According to Rick Bosscher in 2017, the change was designed to help with over-the-air reception in households without external VHF antennas, a rarity these days. The change also used the limits of the existing transmitter and antenna systems. The FCC has been approving increases in VHF station power as long as interference zones are not greatly expanded.