On Monday night, I could hear the transmission clearly on 13th Street in Newhall. I pulled off the road at about 4:58 p.m., hoping to hear a station identification. After a few minutes of listening to a sermon and then several minutes of Christian contemporary music, the radio station identified itself as KSRD out of St. Joseph Missouri. Bewildered, I continued to listen. A few minutes later, the station said it was part of the Horizon Broadcast Network and that one of the network's affiliates was KWDS 89.9 in Kettleman City, California, a small city near Visalia on Interstate 5. I managed to grab a recording of the transmission as it interfered with KCRW/NPR's All Things Considered broadcast shortly after 5 p.m. Armed with this data, I hopped on the FCC website, Googled KWDS and KSRD, and found that KWDS was recently permitted to broadcast on 89.9. This email from an FCC engineer shows that the Central California radio station received permission to "operate at an effective radiated power of 50 kw ERP," about the same time I started noticing interference on 89.9. According to the FCC's website and KSRD's own website, the radio signal out of Kettleman City does not even reach Bakersfield, but somehow listeners are still hearing it here in Santa Clarita. It's possible that someone in Santa Clarita or a neighboring community is listening to the KSRD transmission online and rebroadcasting it on 89.9, however. The station identification, normally done on the hour, did not occur until about 5:03 p.m., perhaps indicating a delay typical of internet re-broadcasts of FM radio. In any event, I found some contacts from Horizon Broadcasting and fired off an email to them. I've copied it below.
Gentlemen: Since late October, my favorite radio station, KCRW 89.9 (Santa Monica, California) has been difficult to hear in Santa Clarita California due to interference from a Horizon Broadcast Network transmission also on 89.9. Santa Clarita is a large city just north of Los Angeles, but south of Bakersfield. I write to inform you that somehow listeners in my town are receiving your broadcast on what used to be a fairly clear radio channel occupied by KCRW 89.9. After browsing your website, I realized your KWDS Affiliate in Kettleman City California could possibly be responsible for the interference. Though I agree it is unlikely that the 50kw FM signal from KWDS could be heard in Santa Clarita, I often hear the KSRD broadcast while driving through town, and have even managed to record the station while it interfered with KCRW. Attached in .wav format is a recording of the interference. KSRD's music broadcast can be heard overlapping KCRW's NPR broadcast. Is there anything your station or network can do to reduce the interference in Santa Clarita? Can you shed any light on this matter? Thank you for your time and consideration. Regards, --------------- JeffSo that's where I'm at right now. I've received a few emails from other Santa Clarita KCRW listeners after I posted the first article, and I hope to hear back from Horizon's engineers. I also copied Santa Clarita's amateur radio club in hopes that they might become interested and perhaps validate where this signal is coming from. KCRW Interference update