SAN LUIS OBISPO, CALIF. — If you’ve ever spent time in Santa Barbara, a 90-minute drive south of the wineries and hills surrounding the city of San Luis Obispo, you’ll know that tuning to FM signals that share the same frequency as a station based in distant San Diego or in Baja California, Mexico is not an easy task.
For years, tropospheric ducting has made life challenging for Class A facilities such as Alternative KJEE-FM at 92.9 MHz, and even Class B KDSC-FM at 91.1 MHz in Thousand Oaks, which uses an Ojai transmitter and according to contour maps is supposed to have city-grade coverage of Santa Barbara. In reality, XHFZO “Amor Mio” — a station with a focus on Ensenada and Rosarito — can be heard in higher elevations of Santa Barbara County. Instead of KDSC, it is Local Media San Diego’s XETRA “91X.”
Then, there is 89.5 MHz. With just 50 watts, Central Coast Public Radio has attempted to serve Santa Barbara with its unique blend of Americana music in morning drive, along with NPR spoken word programming. But, its same-signal status with the main NPR station serving San Diego has been regularly problematic. Now, Central Coast Public Radio is giving up the fight.
