FCC Fines Pacific Spanish Network For Improper Mexican Broadcasts (Aug 3, 2004)

Back in November of 2003, PSN was given the approval by the Mexican government equivelant of the FCC to move XEKTT Tecate from a low-powered frequency on 1600 AM (low-powered to protect the co-channel station in Los Angeles from co-channel interference) to a frequency that was assumed that would cause no interference on AM 550. Problem? A station on 540 in Tijuana launched over a decade ago, and that station was being interfered with the new strong AM 550 adjacently, causing listeners who couldn't hear 540 clearly anymore to switch stations.

One month later, the Mexican government realized that they goofed, saying that for some reason, AM 550 wasn't allocated for broadcasting in Tijuana. They shifted XEKTT to AM 560 in early December.

"The change in frequencies occurred, but PSN President Jaime Bonilla failed to confirm with the FCC's International Bureau if the frequency change met the commission's muster."

The FCC, meanwhile, did not approve of any of the signal shifts from 1600 to 550 or to 560 in Tijuana. When it was on AM 550, broadcasters in Phoenix and Bakersfield complained about co-channel interference, especially when XEKTT was beaming in Spanish romantica music so strong to points north and east that it could be heard in the background of the co-channel stations KUZZ Bakersfield and KFYI Phoenix.

When it was on AM 560, it was a double-whammy for Clear Channel Yuma, which has KBLU on 560 there, and Clear Channel L.A.'s am 570, which caused many people in Orange and San Diego counties to not be able to hear the Laker telecasts or musical programming on KLAC without XEKTT bleeding into it, sometimes drowning it out altogether. KSFO San Franciso also complained to the FCC about co-channel interference from XEKTT.

The five affected stations filed a joint complaint with the FCC over co- and adjacent-channel problems XEKTT has caused, with listeners fleeing to other stations because of the problem.

PSN was fined by the FCC because they did nothing for over a month after they learned about the other radio stations complaining about the nearby station interference.

XEKTT has since moved to AM 1700.

PSN operates a station on 620 in Tijuana, XESS, since that moved from AM 780 two months ago after being told by stations in Los Angeles (KABC 790), and others that XESS was causing interference with the stations. Now that XESS is on 620, some listeners could be concerned that it could be causing alternate-channel interfernece with KOGO 600 and KFI 640 on some poorer-selectivity radios. At night, it clashes with KTAR in Phoenix. There's currently no word whether XESS is strong enough eastward to cause interference with KTAR.

XEUT 1630 Now Broadcasting AM Stereo Exciter (Aug 3, 2004)

BAJA CALIFORNIA NORTE AM NEWS:

XEUT/1630 is now operating their AM stereo exciter. Pleasant listening on those few radios (7-30-2004.)

Remember when X-TRA Music/690 ran sideband (Kahn-Hazeltine) AM stereo? It can be done again today. Tune one radio to the new XEDD/1030 and another to KURS/1040 when both run satellite pop tunes and discover discrete stereo as they are splitting the channels to each station. KURS was or may still be C-Quam AM stereo in its own right (7-31-2004.)

IBOC AM STEREO (Ibiquity)

These west coast stations have all been monitored:

KCBS/740     San Francisco
KMXE/830     Orange-Los Angeles
KXNT/840     North Las Vegas
KTNQ/1020    Los Angeles

73
Mark Nodine/KJ6MS

Editor: I remember XTRA 690 back in the XTRA Gold days of the 80's advertising on TV that you could get stereo by offtuning two radios, one radio to the left, and the other to the right, to get stereo sound. Very interesting.