In March, a Class A FM owner petitioned the FCC for the right to move its facility to another frequency. Why? It’s tied to an upgrade it wants for a station some 60 miles to its north, just to the north of Pahrump, Nev., within the Las Vegas DMA.
With no counterproposals or other comments filed in response to a Notice of Proposed Rule Making issued by the Commission on the matter, Audio Division Assistant Chief Nazifa Sawez granted Shamrock Communications’ wish.
As such, an upgrade of KRZQ-FM 105.9 from a Class C1 facility to a Class C FM at 106.1 MHz is being done for the Tecopa, Calif., based station. For this to transpire, a vacant Class A allotment for 105.5 MHz is changing to a Class A FM at 99.1 MHz, per Shamrock’s request.
Shamrock happens to be the original proponent of the Tecopa allotment, but it was not the successful high bidder in the FM auction. The eventual licensee put KMKK-FM on the air. However, it operated for under 12 months and due to a revenue shortfall went dark. Its call letters were subsequently deleted and the station’s license was erased.
Shamrock believes the KRZQ shift to 106.1 brings to the station a potential new audience of 1.335 million people.
