Three new low power FM stations coming to Santa Barbara

October 24, 2015

Three new low power FM stations coming to Santa Barbara

This is the cupola of the Casa de la Raza building in Santa Barbara. The attached tower on the right holds aloft the KZAA/96.5 antenna. I shot this in 2019, and believe it hasn’t changed since, though KZAA has been off the air for a while.

[Update on 29 March 2026—KGSB and KVSB never happened, and KZAA was there for a few years, then went dark (its antenna was still on Casa De La Raza building the last time I looked). There are also now twelve translators serving Santa Barbara, one of which (KCLU/102.3) gets great ratings. You can find all the signals accessible in Santa Barbara listed here at Radio-Locator.com.]

I can’t help but notice — since I follow these things — that the FCC has issued construction permits for three low-power FM (LPFM) stations in Santa Barbara:

KGSB/92.3, with a 100-watt signal radiating from one of KZER-AM/1250’s two towers east of the airport, and licensed to ST. RAPHAEL SCHOOL, 160 St Joseph Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93111-2367.
KZAA/96.5, with a 100-watt signal radiating from roughly the corner of Calle Cesar Chavez and Montecito Streets, and licensed to La Casa de la Raza, 601 E. Montecito St., Santa Barbara, CA 93103.
KVSB/96.9, with a 100-watt signal radiating from a corner of Salinas and Lou Dillon Lane on the east side of town, and licensed to:SOUTH COAST COMMUNITY MEDIA ACCESS CENTER, 329 South Salinas Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93103.

That’s a lot for a town this size. I’ll be interested to see how those go. Also the new FM translators for AM stations in the market:

WTYD/990am is already radiating dim-sounding audio on 105.3fm from a 10-watt translator aimed at the west side of town from West Camino Cielo, up on the Santa Ynez mountain ridge.
KVTA/1590am has a construction permit for a 250-watt translator on one of the oil platforms off the coast of Carpinteria.

This completes our test of interest by anybody in stuff like this.

Thank you for listening.

Broadcasting, radio

“Santa Barbara”, LPFM, radio

Posted by:

Doc Searls

One response to “Three new low power FM stations coming to Santa Barbara”

David N

October 25, 2015 at 2:45 pm

Mr. Searls;
YVW. I live in Santa Maria, beyond the range of these stations, but admire that you also find radio and interesting topic. I grew up with radio as our audio entertainment, we didn’t have many LPs or anything else.
So when I asked at a Macworld when they were going to put a radio feature in the iPod, they kind of had brain block and were incredulous that anyone would want to listen to radio. Over time, I’ve discovered lots of music I like that I wouldn’t have otherwise, and felt a personal connection to DJs, and even called stations to make requests and win prizes.
Perhaps not much radio left with personality these days. I listen to WBGO via iTunes stream. I used to be a member when living full time in Cliffside Park, and now am rebuilding our finances so will join again in future, but I do appreciate that they still have DJs who care about listeners, and about music, and put some thought into what the broadcast. I’ve flown by the tower many times, where they made the first FM broadcast. Sigh…

Reply

Doc Searls Weblog

Three new low power FM stations coming to Santa Barbara

One response to “Three new low power FM stations coming to Santa Barbara”

Leave a Reply Cancel reply