KCOH Radio moving to 1230 AM
December 14, 2012
By Cindy George
The Houston Advocate
KCOH, now at 1430 AM, will move down on the dial, but its legacy as the voice of Houston's black community will endure.
Tom Petrizzo, majority owner of the station, announced the change on air Friday. The station's sale to a Catholic foundation remains in process, he said, and KCOH will bounce to 1230 AM under a lease agreement.
Businessman Jesse Dunn, who had tried to buy KCOH outright, has an agreement with the owners of 1230 AM to continue the current KCOH programming at that frequency.
Another deal will let Dunn lease the "looking glass" studios on Almeda and the legacy station's call letters for the new KCOH 1230 AM.
Billed as the state's oldest black-formatted radio station, KCOH signed on at 1430 AM in 1953 and moved into its Third Ward studios in 1963. Once black-owned, too, the majority of the station's shares have not been controlled by black individuals or families for many years.
The Midland-based La Promesa Foundation plans to relaunch 1430 AM in February as part of the Guadalupe Radio Network. Petrizzo said the KCOH switch will happen around the same time.
Listeners elated
Friday morning callers to "Person to Person" hosted by Michael Harris expressed jubilation that the KCOH format would continue in Houston.
Dunn, a black businessman who could not be reached for comment Friday, made two offers over the years but could not secure financing, Harris said.
Later Friday, U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, held a "Save KCOH" news conference with Enos Cabell, a former Houston Astros player who is now a special assistant to the team's general manager, to explain continuing efforts by black investors to acquire KCOH and all of its assets.
John Stanford and Michael McCall (who is KCOH personality Wash Allen's son), have been trying to buy the station since 2009. Cabell said he joined the investing group after learning of the sale announced in mid-November. The partners made a verbal offer larger than the reported sale price to Petrizzo and his radio broker, John Saunders.
"I thought we could make money in the station but also, we could save it and have it grow," Cabell said.
A bank letter sent Wednesday to Saunders confirmed the cash offer, but Cabell said the investors have not received a response.
On Thursday, Jackson Lee and five other members of the Congressional Black Caucus sent a letter asking the Federal Communications Commission to adopt proposals addressing the decline in black radio ownership that would "ensure that a situation like KCOH's never happens again."
The congresswoman said the black investors and their supporters want "to have the historic building in the same hands, all of the equipment plus the tower at 5,000 watts."
Broadcast power
Jackson Lee, Cabell and callers on the radio Friday voiced concern about the reach of the new KCOH. The current frequency is a 5,000-watt station, but the 1230 dial position has 1,000 watts. Power depends on multiple factors including signal quality and strength as well as processing equipment.
"Radio stations often don't operate at their full capacity. A station that's 5,000 watts doesn't necessarily have more power than 1,000 watts. There may be some who hear no perceivable difference," said Ernie Jackson, a former vice president and general manager of Majic 102 and 97.9 The Box. "In general, if all things are equal, the 5,000-watt is going to be heard farther."
Harris rejected assertions that "there was an attempt to deny the black community" ownership of KCOH and criticized the group of black investors for making a verbal offer.
Even through a lease, Dunn will still have the ability to save KCOH in its current format, he added.
"His commitment to the cause, his persistence - winning people over - has given him the opportunity to have this new signal and the call letters," said Harris, who has worked at KCOH since 1975. "The negotiations may be done politically in the news, but people don't want their business done like that.
December 14, 2012
By Cindy George
The Houston Advocate
 |
White exterior trimmed in blue, stripe canopy. The KCOH building has 7,000 square feet of space on an 11,000 square foot site.
|
KCOH, now at 1430 AM, will move down on the dial, but its legacy as the voice of Houston's black community will endure.
Tom Petrizzo, majority owner of the station, announced the change on air Friday. The station's sale to a Catholic foundation remains in process, he said, and KCOH will bounce to 1230 AM under a lease agreement.
Businessman Jesse Dunn, who had tried to buy KCOH outright, has an agreement with the owners of 1230 AM to continue the current KCOH programming at that frequency.
Another deal will let Dunn lease the "looking glass" studios on Almeda and the legacy station's call letters for the new KCOH 1230 AM.
Billed as the state's oldest black-formatted radio station, KCOH signed on at 1430 AM in 1953 and moved into its Third Ward studios in 1963. Once black-owned, too, the majority of the station's shares have not been controlled by black individuals or families for many years.
The Midland-based La Promesa Foundation plans to relaunch 1430 AM in February as part of the Guadalupe Radio Network. Petrizzo said the KCOH switch will happen around the same time.
Join Don Sam on Memories and More!
Listeners elated
 |
| KCOH executives pose with one of their star DJs. From left, program director Paris Eley, disc jockey Gladys 'Gee Gee' Hill, general manager Mike Petrizzo and operations manager Travis Gardner. (Houston Chronicle) |
Friday morning callers to "Person to Person" hosted by Michael Harris expressed jubilation that the KCOH format would continue in Houston.
Dunn, a black businessman who could not be reached for comment Friday, made two offers over the years but could not secure financing, Harris said.
Later Friday, U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, held a "Save KCOH" news conference with Enos Cabell, a former Houston Astros player who is now a special assistant to the team's general manager, to explain continuing efforts by black investors to acquire KCOH and all of its assets.
John Stanford and Michael McCall (who is KCOH personality Wash Allen's son), have been trying to buy the station since 2009. Cabell said he joined the investing group after learning of the sale announced in mid-November. The partners made a verbal offer larger than the reported sale price to Petrizzo and his radio broker, John Saunders.
"I thought we could make money in the station but also, we could save it and have it grow," Cabell said.
A bank letter sent Wednesday to Saunders confirmed the cash offer, but Cabell said the investors have not received a response.
On Thursday, Jackson Lee and five other members of the Congressional Black Caucus sent a letter asking the Federal Communications Commission to adopt proposals addressing the decline in black radio ownership that would "ensure that a situation like KCOH's never happens again."
The congresswoman said the black investors and their supporters want "to have the historic building in the same hands, all of the equipment plus the tower at 5,000 watts."
Broadcast power
 |
| Wash Allen visits with listeners during his radio show at KCOH studios on Sept. 13, 2001. (Houston Chronicle) |
"Radio stations often don't operate at their full capacity. A station that's 5,000 watts doesn't necessarily have more power than 1,000 watts. There may be some who hear no perceivable difference," said Ernie Jackson, a former vice president and general manager of Majic 102 and 97.9 The Box. "In general, if all things are equal, the 5,000-watt is going to be heard farther."
Harris rejected assertions that "there was an attempt to deny the black community" ownership of KCOH and criticized the group of black investors for making a verbal offer.
Even through a lease, Dunn will still have the ability to save KCOH in its current format, he added.
"His commitment to the cause, his persistence - winning people over - has given him the opportunity to have this new signal and the call letters," said Harris, who has worked at KCOH since 1975. "The negotiations may be done politically in the news, but people don't want their business done like that.
0 comments:
Post a Comment