KSN
Wichita-based NBC affiliate covering central and western Kansas. www.KSN.com
When you think of radio, you think of programming. After all, the reason you tune in to 89.1FM is to hear the programs. We all know that there are program producers who decide what stories will be covered and what music we will hear. But we often don’t think about what it takes to get those programs into your living room or your car.
FM radio broadcasts can only be received via “line of sight”. For instance, you can pick up KMUW programs on your car radio until you drive far enough away from the antenna location that the curvature of the earth interferes with your car radio’s signal reception. The higher we can mount our antenna, the farther away our signal can be received.
KSN TV has spent a considerable amount of money (over $2.5 million in Wichita alone) installing new transmitters, digital transmission equipment and towers as part of their HDTV conversion. When we found out that KSN had space available on their new tower, we started working with the KSN engineers to see if we could put our antenna 925 feet up on their tower. This is more than twice as high as our old antenna location at 450’ of elevation and expands our coverage area significantly.
Our Chief Engineer worked with the KSN engineers for many months to come up with the best way to bring KMUW programs to the broadest possible coverage area. We had to contract with a company to generate special structural reports to confirm that KSN’s tower could support our antenna and transmission lines. Based on another contracted study, the KSN engineers had to confirm that our transmissions wouldn’t interfere with their broadcasts. In addition, close coordination is required between KSN and KMUW to ensure the safe installation of our equipment on their tower with minimal disruption to KSN programming.
Finally and not insignificantly, our General Manager found KSN to be a reliable partner as lease terms were negotiated for the KSN tower. Tower space is at a premium in a world filled with electronic transmissions of every sort. KSN’s willingness to establish fair and reasonable lease terms will help KMUW’s operating budget for years to come.
KMUW’s Three Programming Streams…
Coverage Maps
