Entercom, owners of KWFN 97.3 FM San Diego, commissioned GEO Broadcast Solutions to install a network of FM boosters for the station. The FCC in late May issued a license to cover the construction of a co-channel FM booster station for La Jolla (Bird Rock). They were also granted Construction Permits for boosters in Escondido, Romona, San Marcos, and Encinitas.

Entercom management hopes the five new boosters will help extend coverage and reduce multipath in the regions chosen for enhancement. Remember that KWFN swapped frequencies with KSON in November 2017 in order to give KSON’s country music fans greater coverage from Mt. Soledad. This left KWFN disadvantaged serving north San Diego County listeners.

KWFN-FM1 is atop a building on La Jolla Boulevard in the Bird Rock neighborhood. The FCC granted the license for this site May 15, 2019. JR Rogers, San Diego market Technical Operations Director, said, “The project in La Jolla is a piece of the ‘Grand Experiment.’ La Jolla was our test case and seems to be doing what we need it to do. We will be adding a few more to see if the system benefits or hampers us.”

In late May, the FCC granted four additional KWFN (FM) Construction Permits. KWFN-2 would be located on a cell tower near downtown Romona; KWFN-3 at the 92.1 facility near San Marcos that used to house KSOQ 92.1, the original and highly effective KSON booster; KWFN-FM4 Escondido at Black Mountain and aimed north-northwest to serve the I-15 corridor, an infamous FM reception strip; and KWFN-FM5 Encinitas at the I-5 Leucadia Boulevard exit to serve the I-5 corridor northwest toward Carlsbad and Oceanside.

GEO Broadcast Solutions installs GatesAir low power boosters that both synchronize their low power signals with the main transmitter signal and rebroadcast the HD signal. Synchronization can now be maintained to within ±2 µS. The boosters are fed by IP.

GEO asked the FCC late last year to allow booster station to originate some programming so that they could geo-target advertising (“ZoneCasting”) and emergency alerts as cable companies have long done. The FCC has not acted on that rule change.

KXST (later KPRI) 102.1 Oceanside experimented with boosters in the 1990’s to help extend their signal to geographically challenged locations to the south, like Mission Valley and Pacific Beach. However, they had no means to synchronize the signals, so the boosters tended to create significant interference zones with mobile reception sounding like multipath. The project was scrapped after a short time and the station changed its city of license to Encinitas in order to move the transmitter to Mt. Soledad.

Broadcast Company of the Americas, operators of XEPRS-AM 1090, XHPRS-FM 105.7 “The Max”, and XEPE-AM 1700 have formally shutdown their San Diego studio operations. Employees were told they needed to have their desks cleared, and all on-air and online broadcasts stopped.

CEO Jay Meyers told the San Diego Union-Tribune that “BCA was unable to come to an agreement the Mexican [station licensees] to continue broadcast operations. The company has been operating under lease deals that are not viable in the conditions that currently exist in the radio business, and attempts to find a suitable solution to fit today’s economics ended without success. BCA has suffered through years of losses and is no longer able to continue to do so. Because the company leases its broadcast signals rather than owning them, a reorganization such as the ones done recently by iHeart and Cumulus was not an option.

“It has been our pleasure to serve the San Diego listening community over the years on our three broadcast signals.”

Dean Imhof had been providing technical maintenance services for BCA. He continues working for Turning Point Ministry.

The closure of XEPRS-AM 1090 was just the latest in a series of withdrawals of the use of Mexican licenses to broadcast English-language programming targeted to USA audiences. XETV quit broadcasting CW network programs in May 2017. XHDTV discontinued broadcasting Fox’s MyNetworkTV in September 2018. Licensee Jaime Bonilla cut off XHPRS-FM 105.7 and XEPE-AM 1700 in February 2019 after lease negotiations with BCA broke down.

Local Media San Diego LLC continues to operate XHITZ “Z90.3,” XETRA-FM “91X,” and XHRM-FM “Magic 92.5.” as English-language, USA music outlets.

Mike Curran reports “I received a call from Jon Cook from Palomar Communications. He has received notification from the City of San Diego that the washed out road conditions on the road up to Mt. Woodson would be undergoing repair work starting on May 13th, and will last for approximately one week. These repairs will cause the road to be closed to all vehicular traffic. Accommodations for emergency engineering personnel to make repairs up on the mountain will be made by allowing us to park at the bottom of the hill and then be shuttled by golf cart up to the construction site, then the engineering staff will have to hand carry their tools over the construction site to another awaiting vehicle and be ferried up to the top of the hill to perform their duties. So the only thing you can get up to the mountaintop is what you can carry by hand.”

From the Southern California Broadcasters Association:

Two LA-based SCBA members have been robbed of all copper and copper connectors at their transmitter sites. Both crimes occurred within the past 30 days This was not the work of kids as all they were after was the copper, and knew to cut the video security cables.

L.A. police are not making this damage to a public service resource a priority, so we must.

If you have been robbed as well, please let us know ASAP.

If this is a ring targeting SoCal Radio station transmitter sites, none of our member sites are safe. If they are a ring, we want to escalate this crime to the FBI and the Mayor’s office. Having a number of break-ins makes our case for federal inspection, protection, and prosecution stronger.