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| Broadcast area | Greater Houston |
|---|---|
| Frequency | 1560kHz |
| Branding | Viet Radio 1560 |
| Programming | |
| Language | Vietnamese |
| Format | Full service |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| KFNC | |
| History | |
First air date | September 1, 1961 (1961-09-01) (as KGULPort Lavaca) |
Former call signs |
|
Call sign meaning | "Gow" |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 17389 |
| Class | B |
| Power |
|
Transmitter coordinates | |
| Repeater | 1480KNGO (Dallas) |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | vietradio.com |
KGOW (1560AM "Viet Radio") is a Vietnamese-languagefull service radio stationlicensd toBellaire, Texas, and servingGreater Houston. While the station is owned by Gow Media, LLC, KGOW's programming schedule is leased to a third party group to air Vietnamese focused programming for southwest Houston and areas in southwest Harris County where 1560's signal is strongest. Much of Viet Radio programming issimulcast with 1480KNGODallas. The studios are inUptown Houston one block fromThe Galleria.
The daytime transmitter site is located inLochridge, Texas, across fromBrazos Bend State Park. The nighttime transmitter site is in westernHarris County, halfway betweenKaty, Texas andHockley, Texas. KGOW used its nighttime authorization at 15,000watts around the clock, as the 46,000 watt daytime site was damaged by floodwaters in 2016 and again duringHurricane Harvey. TheFederal Communications Commission has granted KGOWSpecial Temporary Authority (STA) allowing it to operate at reduced power until the daytime site can be repaired.
The stationsigned on the air on September 1, 1961.[2] Its originalcall sign was KGUL, based inPort Lavaca, Texas. The station was adaytimer, powered at 500 watts and required to go off the air at night.1560 AM is aclear channel frequency reserved for stations in New York City andBakersfield, California. So KGUL had to protect them from interference. KGUL was, at one time, asister station to 95.9 (nowKHMC) and 93.3 (nowKNAL).
In 1995, 1270 KIOX, licensed toBay City, Texas, through the ill-advised actions of Don Werlinger, its owner at the time, loaded the transmitter on a flatbed truck and moved KIOX from Bay City toStafford, Texas, without proper FCC permission. It wanted to capitalize on the money that could be commanded from having the signal closer to the Houston market, especially the high-income suburbs of Stafford, Missouri City, and Sugar Land. The station then applied and was granted a call sign change to KFCC. After the Federal Communications Commission investigated the illegal move, KFCC's license was deleted, and the facility wentdark.
After it was clear that KFCC was permanently deleted, the principals secured a front "real party in interest" to take the KGUL Port Lavaca facility to Houston instead. It switched its call letters to KILE, originally operating with 800 watts from just south of the 610 South Loop, then later 5,000 watts on a simple directional system, retaining the 800 watts for nighttime operation. KILE featured an ethnic format, broadcasting in many languages. This format remained in place until August 1, 2007. That's when its owner, Gow Media, was ready to begin transmission testing from a new facility transmitting with 46,000 watts daytime and 15,000 watts nighttime.
It began airingclassic hits on KILE for the testing purposes. After testing concluded, asports andhot talk format debuted on KILE (now as KGOW) on August 20, 2007, under the name of "1560 The Game". It became theflagship station of an all-sports network, "Sporting News Radio." After a few months on the air, KGOW dropped the hot talk portion of the format and focused solely on sports talk and live play-by-play for sporting events around Houston.
The sports format ended on September 30, 2017. The former "SB Nation 1560" was moved to FM, on relay translator K231CNHouston as "Sports Map 94.1". K231CN was fed by KGOW'ssister station, 97.5KFNC'sHD2 subchannel, though some doubted KFNC was actually broadcasting an HD2 channel.
KGOW began leasing its 1560 AM facility to ethnic broadcasters. Most of the programming comes from "Viet Radio", aVietnamese language radio service that is also heard inDallas on 1460KNGO.
KGOW is aClass B station, broadcasting on aclear channel frequency reserved forWFMENew York andKNZRBakersfield. KGOW must use a complicateddirectional antenna to avoid interference.
During daytime hours, KGOW transmits from nearRosharon, Texas, SSW of Houston, with 46,000 watts. At night, KGOW transmits from nearCypress-Katy, NW of Houston, with 15,000 watts. The highly directive nature of both the daytimeantenna array (six towers, with high efficiency) and the nighttime antenna array (nine towers, with standard efficiency) means that the apparent power towards Houston is greatly in excess of the licensed power, about the equivalent of 857,000 watts days and 197,000 watts nights (when compared to the 1,000 watt non-directional reference antenna for this class of station, Class B).
This effect is shared by a number of other Class B stations in the Houston market. Houston has no Class A stations. The only Class A stations in Texas are 1080KRLD inDallas, 820WBAP inFort Worth and 1200WOAI inSan Antonio.
