Nielsen has issued a notice to subscribers that a pair of Houston translators were being used improperly, leading to misattributed estimates in recent Houston/Galveston market surveys.
Nielsen said that Regional Mexican “La Mejor 104.5” K283CH Houston had been encoding as 880 KJOZ and Spanish AC “Power 99.5” K258DA Houston and K258BZ Sugar Land were encoding as 1540 KGBC, but in reality neither station’s programming aired on those signals.
The translators, all owned by Centro Cristiano de Vida Eterna, have been known in the market to have been originating their own content for multiple years. K258DA and K258BZ are licensed to rebroadcast Hector Guevara Ministry Corp’s 850 KEYH Houston, but that station is carrying the programming of Spanish Christian “Radio Vision Latina” to feed SDK Franco’s 105.3 K287BQ Houston. K283CH is licensed to rebroadcast Hector Guevara Ministry Corp’s 880 KJOZ Conroe. That station has been noted silent for the past couple of weeks after most recently airing the programming of Primera Iglesia Evangelica de Apostles y Profetas’ leased “Tejano 106.1” K291CE Houston. In all, five translators in the market are licensed by the FCC with KJOZ as its parent signal.
KGBC, owned by Siga Broadcasting, in reality simulcasts Patrick Broadcasting Conservative Talk 700 KSEV Tomball.
Nielsen also said it was not able to determine when the encoder misuse began, and is working with station management to rectify these issues on a going-forward basis.