Ken Dito To Join KTRB?

Unconfirmed -- the I's haven't been crossed and the T's haven't been dotted yet -- but I've heard from a couple of people that Ken Dito will be heading to reconstructed Xtra Sports 860 (KTRB) as sports director and morning show host.

Dito (photo, right) had been reporting sports on the radio at KGO, and is a veteran of KNBR, KSFO and KYA.

No word yet on when the show will start, but Dito's potential presence on KTRB would certainly offer an alternative to KNBR's morning program.

KTRB continues its significant effort in going from third or fourth-tier (and, in some cases, fifth-tier) talk programming to a sports-oriented format, centered around Oakland A's baseball, Sporting News Radio and Ron Barr's Sports Byline USA.

PHOTO: Ken Dito, from the Bay Area Radio Museum Archives, courtesy of Ken Dito.

KTRB Files For New Daytime Site

Pappas Radio's KTRB (860 AM), which has been operating with a directional 50,000-watt signal from the Livermore hills for the past few years, has filed an application with the FCC to move its daytime transmitter to the Hayward shoreline, where it would transmit a non-directional signal.

The move, if approved, should provide KTRB with one of the strongest AM signals in the Bay Area. Only KNBR (680 AM) operates a fulltime 50,000-watt non-directional signal in the Bay Area; KTRB would have a comparably equal signal from local sunrise to sunset.

Other 50,000-watt AM stations in the Bay Area, including KCBS and KGO, operate with directional signals, which limit their coverage in some parts of the region.

KTRB's new location in Hayward would have them sharing the existing KFAX (1100 AM) transmitter site. KTRB's signal would be transmitted through KFAX's current tower #3.

KFAX is owned by Salem Communications, which also operates KDOW (1220 AM), which has been working towards a power increase of its own for several years.

At nighttime, KTRB -- which re-branded itself as "Xtra Sports 860" recently -- would continue to broadcast with a directional 50kw signal from the Livermore site.

The technical exhibit, with all the details, may be reviewed on the FCC website.