Help Needed: Outdoor TV Antenna Connection

[ea56]

Ralph,

I don't know a whole lot about tv antenna's other than we used to use them before cable tv. But as a life long resident of the greater Bay Area I can safely state that KGO always had the weakest signal, no matter where we lived, even when we were just across the Bay in El Cerrito. There was always more interference on channel 7. Sometime's I even remember that when we were using rabbit ears one of us would have to hold one of the rabbit ears to get 7 to come in clear. Yet we could get KCRA from Sacramento clear as a bell and it was about 80 or more miles away. Seems like an ABC affiliate would have had a more powerful transmitter.
Eddie

 

[sudsmaster]

Sale of KCSM?

Ralph,

That's bad news. I enjoy the jazz (music only) station 60.3, as well as the France24 (Fraaaance-van-cat) continuous coverage.

Oh, well, there's always internet streaming...

France 24 Live Stream

 

[rp2813]

Eddie, thanks for confirming that KGO has always been quirky.  I sort of recall it being ghosty in the olden days when other network affiliates were fine, even though most were broadcasting from the same general area before Sutro tower went up.  The other station that tended to come through less than perfectly was KTVU channel 2.  I remember on our 1951 Capehart, 2 was always a bit snowy.  It improved when we got our '62 Airline, but with rabbit ears on other sets, 2 was more compromised, and 7 (KGO) always needed adjustments.

 

I read many, many years ago that the reason so many ABC stations are found on channel 7 is because there was a rumor or concern in the early days of TV (cold war era?) that the FCC or whatever agency might claim the use of the lower VHF frequencies for government use, so by snapping up all of the channel 7 frequencies, ABC would essentially be the first viewable channel on the dial.  In the days before remote control, that was a strategic position.   I don't know if there's any truth to this legend, since ABC was late to the TV party behind NBC and CBS anyway.   In the end, ABC landed downstream from NBC and CBS, which in major markets can usually be found somewhere in the range of channels 2 through 5. 

 

Rich, it gets worse re: Channel 60.  In that same story I mentioned above, it was reported that the jazz station KCSM (91.1 FM or 60.3 on TV) has cut staff and live programming and is now running some shows prerecorded out of Chicago.  A source at KCSM didn't exactly confirm or deny rumors that the radio station is up for sale (presumably ours is a hot market for radio and there's no shortage of potential buyers), so we might be saying goodbye to jazz in the Bay Area for good this time, as there probably isn't anyone willing to step in like KCSM did to fill the void left when KJAZ was sold quite a few years ago.

 

[sudsmaster]

Ralph,

Thanks to corporate chain ClearChannel, local radio has become a wasteland of sorts.

Gone: KKSF, which played great "smooth jazz" for a few decades, and had an equally great annual "Sampler for Aids Relief" CD release with the best smooth jazz hits of the year.

Gone: KDFC, the area's sole remaining classical music station, albeit it returned last year as a low power public station, with limited reception and the usual interminable pledge breaks.

For a while digital HD radio seemed to be picking up some pieces, such a digital branch of KISS-FM picking up the smooth jazz format. Sadly, they dropped that format in favor of mass produced hip hop dreck last year, so even that work around for the dearly departed KKSF has gone under.

At work I find I'm listening mostly to live streaming of KDFC on my Bluetooth headphones. It works well enough since the desktop system has a powerful enough bluetooth capability, except for the aforementioned pledge breaks. It is perhaps the direction that a lot of quality radio is going - dropping broadcast or having limited, low power broadcast capability, in favor of internet audio streaming.