Some 35 miles northwest of the Los Angeles metro area is the affluent bedroom community of Santa Clarita, located in the Santa Clarita valley. Santa Clarita is the third-largest city in Los Angeles County with a population in excess of 200,000 persons.
The mountainous southern California topography acts to block our Mount Wilson signals into the Santa Clarita Valley for KIIS, KOST, KRRL and KBIG — even though the community would be largely contained within the 54 dBu contours of those stations, were it not for the terrain.
We have addressed this lack of coverage in Santa Clarita with an on-channel booster, employing the very latest in 2015 broadcasting technology. The equipment list includes: Ubiquity ISM-band radio link and Gates Air (Intraplex) IPU-200 audio transport with GPS synchronization, in order to achieve precise, fixed transport delay; GatesAir Fax 150 transmitters, Inovonics 650 tuners (for a backup audio source), Worldcast FMB-80 RDS units, Omnia Audio and Orban audio processors as well as a Burk Arc Plus Touch remote control. Synaccess reboot units, APC 1500 UPS units, a Shiveley Star Combiner and an automatic power transport panel (custom-made to switch away from a failed UPS) round out the equipment complement.
Given the remoteness of the site, we made a concerted effort to provide granular remote control and automated switch to backup systems, wherever that seems appropriate.
This booster system will be the topic in a futureFacilities Showcasein Radio, and covered in great detail.
Dennis Sloatman is the market director of engineering for iHeartMedia Los Angeles. Opinions are his own, not necessarily those of his employer or Radio magazine.
