SBE CHAPTER 40
NEWSLETTER
JANUARY 1998
SAN FRANCISCO
Roy Trumbull - Editor roy547@netcom.com
Bill Dempster -
Artist
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BABES/SBE LUNCHEON ON WEDNESDAY
JAN 28TH
This month our speaker will be Phil Kane from the
Communications Law Center who will explain how the "privatized" FCC/California
Broadcasters Association's self-inspection program works.
As usual our luncheon will be at Sinbad's. Sinbad's is just south of the
Ferry Building on the Embarcadero near the foot of Mission Street. Please
RSVP to Karen Prasek at Zack's: 408-324-0551 x126 asap; we've been running out
of tables and chairs. We meet at 11:30 and are seated at 12:30.
KDTV SHOWCASES
Media Twist(tm)
In December, Bob Wyatt gave SMPTE and SBE a tour of his new
facility on Fremont St. Great View of the city from their studios. Much of the
audio and all of the video monitoring connections were made with Belden MediaTwist(tm) which is a 4 pair
category 5 cable. The video circuits required a balun at each end with dc
continuity so that the frequency response would be adequate. As MT is solid core
wire there is some concern about strain relief and breakage but the performance
was excellent. Steve Lampen was there and looking good. My thanks to Charles
Hintz for knowing how to coax coffee out of their machine.
CES DEBUTS DUMPSTER TV We went over
to CES in Vegas because it was billed as the rollout of DTV. All we saw were
huge projection sets the size of dumpsters which no one anywhere has room for.
But, they were simple to build. The pictures are probably better that would be
possible with a CRT but don't go more than 30 degrees off center axis if you
want to see a picture.
The new picture frame size plasma displays looked great but they are only
standard definition. They should take over for the CRT if they can ever get the
price into range. I don't think people will have a problem paying a premium for
a clean bright display that is only inches deep.
TI did a demo of its mirror chip that is used for screen projection. What
they showed was medium definition using a 700K pixel chip. They did pass around
some chips to look at and one of them was 2000K, so HD is on the way. What we
saw was a very bright image on a large screen.
The various vendors were pushing DVD like crazy trying to get it off the
ground.
My overall impression of the show was a yawn. I'd always viewed it as the toy
show for the cel phone set. I didn't see much to get excited about. But then I
didn't get over to the Sands where the Adult Video vendors were.
FLY YOUR ANTENNA I had a call from
Lee Granlund who is arranging for Stephen McNamara of Stephens Communications to
come to town with his specially equipped airplane to fly the pattern of KOIT-FM for Randy Pugsley. While he's in town
he's available for more business if you're interested. As a big chunk of the
cost is just getting out here from Arkansas, you could piggyback for cheap. For
full details contact Lee Granlund at 501-821-5756 or 501-821-4464 fax or call
Randy Pugsley at 415-777-0965.
I sent the full text of Lee's info sheet to everyone on our Email list.
GABBERT THE PIONEER I haven't heard
anything on how the sale of KOFY to KNTV's parent is going, but seeing Jim in the
news again reminded me of a few things. Jim was the major force behind the
adoption of vertical radiation by FM stations. When he had K101 he applied for
the first on-channel booster for an FM station and pretty much, by his
persistence, opened up the booster and translator business.
To these wonders must be added that he ran the first FM station in the market
to make serious money back in the days when many stations signed on at 3 PM and
signed off before 10:30.
WEB PAGE The chapter 40 web page is
at http://www.lns.com/sbe.
EMAIL MEISTER The keeper of the
chapter 40 email address list is Warren Reese his address is radions@jps.net. Please note the new
email address.
Warren worked for the KPH in Bolinas which was one of the last coastal Morse
sites. He has photos of KPH on his web page at http://www.jps.net/radions.
WHO WERE YOU LAST WEEK? I was going
through a listing in the SF Business Journal of the top 25 radio stations and I
realized I no longer recognized many of the call letters.
106.1 was KFRC-FM which was sold for pocket change because FM had no future.
But 99.7? Was that KRON-FM or another station?
103.7 was originally KGO-FM; also sold for chump change. 102.9 was KRE-FM,
then KPAT, and KRE-FM again. 104.5 was KBAY which was an automated classical
station. The announcement tape rarely made it past 1 khz.
97.3 looks like the old KEAR frequency which was KCBS-FM. But the first call
was KXKX classical with a tower on Diamond Heights.
98.1 I think was KABL but long ago it was KAFE classical and Hal Cox ran it
the early 60s. The original owner was Dan Solo who is a font maven and a gifted
amateur magician.
DAVE EVANS DIES Back in November we
were saddened to hear that Dave Evans, CE of KALW, had been
seriously injured by a car while crossing the street. Dave was in a coma when he
died on Jan 17th. No services are planned although a memorial get together will
take place in the not too distant future. Details as we get them.
DAVID CARROL SHUTS DOWN The
headline is the story. Just heard about it a few days ago. No details.
CKg