9:45am UPDATE: 770 KKOB Radio is not alone. Here's more April Foolery from the world's media, according to Agence France-Presse.

Bob Clark is back as host of 770 KKOB's morning show and is inheriting the fallout from his fill-in host Pat Frisch's announcement last Friday that the powerful AM station would be powering down from 50,000 watts to 1,000 watts as of today -- April Fool's Day!

But those of you in Santa Fe, Grants and even Bosque Farms were able to hear from a new announcement about 20 minutes ago by KKOB program director Frisch that it was just a joke.

"But, boy, did a lot of you believe it," said Clark, sounding like a good sport and promising to play some of the four hours worth of voicemails that came into the station after Frisch's announcement.

Frisch also told us by e-mail Monday that more than 2,000 people signed on to support the station's online petition protesting the move.

We wonder how many of those people are laughing.

Clark says, "Don't blame me, I was on vacation ... It was Pat's idea!" 

11:55am 3/31/08 -- FCC Doesn't Know of KKOB Power Drop: Will radio station go from 50,000 watts of power to 1,000 on Tuesday?

We're still trying to get to the bottom of program director and fill-in host Pat Frisch's announcement Friday that 770 KKOB-AM had been ordered by the government to drop its signal from 50,000 watts to 1,000 watts on Tuesday.

Frisch tells us in an e-mail that the station has received more than 2,000 signatures of support on its online petition at www.770kkob.com (click on OUTRAGE!) and has logged more than four hours of voicemails from people who want to protest the alleged drop in power.

However, the Federal Communications Commission tells us that to change the signal would require a construction permit, and Huong Chau, an electrical engineer with the FCC's Media Bureau, Audio Division, tells us no such permit has been granted and there are no applications for such a permit.

What that means, we suspect, is that our original hunch may be correct -- that this appears to be an elaborate April Fool's Day hoax, since Tuesday is, after all, April 1.

Stay tuned.

9:05am UPDATE: We still haven't heard back from the FCC or from Milt McConnell, market manager of the seven Citadel Communications radio stations in Albuquerque, about this morning's announcement on 770 KKOB-AM that its signal will be cut on Tuesday from 50,000 to 1,000 watts.

KKOB program director Pat Frisch, who made the announcement this morning while filling in for regular Morning Show host Bob Clark, just told his listeners that McConnell told him the station's attorneys have asked that the station make no further comment at this time -- other than what has been posted on the station's Web site, www.770kkob.com.

8:05am UPDATE: We've got calls out to the Federal Communications Commission and Citadel Communications, which runs seven radio stations in Albuquerque, including 770 KKOB, but haven't heard anything yet about this morning's announced drop in power from 50,000 watts to 1,000 watts on Tuesday.

But we just heard from one of our more level-headed colleagues who reminds us that Tuesday is April 1 -- April Fool's Day!

Is it possible? Radio stations have been known to pull such pranks.

Tuesday also happens to be the day that regular KKOB Morning Show host Bob Clark returns from vacation. Will he find his voice seriously weakened? Or find himself with a lap-full of embarrassing complaints?

Just asking. 

7:20am 3/28/08 -- Will KKOB's Voice Be Weakened?: Fill-in morning show host says 50,000-watt signal to drop to 1,000 watts ... on April Fool's Day.

The powerful 50,000-watt Albuquerque radio station 770 KKOB, often heard throughout the Southwest late at night, has been ordered to drop to 1,000 watts as of Tuesday, KKOB fill-in host Pat Frisch announced this morning.

The "government" has ordered the step-down in order to accommodate other markets in the West on the same 770 AM frequency, said Frisch, who urged listeners to voice their protest by calling a special hotline set up at (505) 767-6778 and/or signing an online petition at www.770kkob.com (click on OUTRAGE!).

"We take offense to the need for other communities to grow at the expense of New Mexico," says the online petition.

Frisch said that it has been a long ongoing behind-the-scenes battle between station management and the government that is just now coming to fruition. 

Comments received by phone and online will be forwarded to Washington, D.C., on Monday in an effort to forestall Tuesday's planned power cut, Frisch told listeners this morning.

The station claims on its Web site to have, at 50,000 watts, the seventh strongest signal coverage in the United States, covering a 300-mile radius during the day, reaching 17 states during the evening and at night. 

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