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AM Frequency of the Week - 780 kHz

B

Buckeyes2001

What can you get on 780 kHz?

Here in Vermilion, OH it is a very weak WBBM/Chicago days and a usually strong WBBM at night. Around sunset though I have heard an urban gospel/religious station come in over WBBM from time to time. If 780 is a strong local for you, what might come in if it were off the air or if you managed to null it completely?
 
At home it's always a strong WBBM day & night (near north Chicago burbs) but this week I'm in Southern California and it's a pretty strong KKOH at night.
 
So far, I've only got WBBM-AM Chicago in all of Chicagoland. I sometimes get splatter when driving along one of the bridges along Lake Shore Drive in downtown Chicago. I've never been able to hear a clear audio of the other station when driving on that bridge.
 
WBBM day and night in both Allendale and Manistee. Strong at night in both places and the day signal varies (usually stronger in Manistee with the direct water path to Chicago)
 
dave73 said:
I sometimes get splatter when driving along one of the bridges along Lake Shore Drive in downtown Chicago. I've never been able to hear a clear audio of the other station when driving on that bridge.
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Maybe WSGW, Saginaw, MI with a 5 kW (daytime) DA on 790 kHz -- with one of their major lobes directed toward metro Chicago? The high rises along and near Lake Shore Drive and Michigan Avenue might be a providing a rather good, localized shadow from WBBM.
 
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On some occasions WIIN Jackson, MS forgets to turn off the transmitter, and occasionally comes on the air before sunset. 5,000 watts. I'm surprised WBBM hasn't complained
 
rfry said:
Maybe WSGW, Saginaw, MI with a 5 kW (daytime) DA on 790 kHz -- with one of their major lobes directed toward metro Chicago? The high rises along and near Lake Shore Drive and Michigan Avenue might be a providing a rather good, localized shadow from WBBM.
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You're exactly right. I've heard WSGW during the day on Lake Shore Drive.
 
Akron, Ohio - WBBM Chicago during nighttime and sometimes a weak signal during the day... nothing else ever heard on 780 here.
 
Back in the 1960s, one of my relatives' friends was taking us on a tour of the nearly new Chicago Circle Campus, and we were talking about radio and it seems like there was an FM tower close by and I asked what it was and I think he said he thought it was WEFM. Is that correct? But he launched into a conversation about listening to PBP of a Hockey team on a Saginaw station. I was confused. At the time, I had no idea what WSGW's pattern was like and that it could indeed be heard near Lake Shore Drive where buildings cancelled WBBM and reinforced WSGW. Over the years I have heard numerous reports that that happens. I have heard WSGW near Racine, WI in the daytime, but that was before IBOC.
 
Here in Marysville, WA it's nothing in the daytime, mainly KKOH Reno NV at night. WBBM is a winter regular however at over 1,700 miles away with their IDs as "Newsradio 780 and 105.9 WBBM". I once logged them topping KKOH really good on one really good Eastern skywave evening. (Same evening, I logged Cuba for the first time - 670 Radio Rebelde).

Yakima, WA nighttime it's mainly KKOH as well but WBBM can pop up at times with a good signal. Roughly 1600 miles.

-crainbebo
 
Daytime - slop from nearby 770 WVNN
Critical Hours - when I null out WVNN, sometimes WWOL Forest City, NC and WBBM mix
Night - WBBM
 
Far northwest suburbs of Chicago....

I live 25 miles from their stick, so it's all WBBM all the time.

When I travel, WBBM usually....but not always... is the best Chicago signal. Case in point, the road trip I'm on this week. Last night in southern Illinois, WGN was the best signal. Tonight, I'm in Baton Rouge, Louisiana where WBBM is present, but WLS is better....even with the Cubans underneath.
 
cyberdad said:
Far northwest suburbs of Chicago....

I live 25 miles from their stick, so it's all WBBM all the time.

When I travel, WBBM usually....but not always... is the best Chicago signal. Case in point, the road trip I'm on this week. Last night in southern Illinois, WGN was the best signal. Tonight, I'm in Baton Rouge, Louisiana where WBBM is present, but WLS is better....even with the Cubans underneath.
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As you have found I also notice that WBBM these days has the best signal of the Chicago blowtorches, but back in the day it was usually WLS.
 
Used to get CFDR Halifax faintly in the day in Boston but when they went silent today it is splatter between WABC (770) and WPRV (790) daytime

At night WBBM is there but much weaker than years ago.

The most reliable Chicago AM nighttime signal in Boston today is WMVP (1000)
 
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For the last couple of years, southern Colorado has been getting KCEG 780 from Fountain, just south of Colorado Springs. With its diplexed partner KJME 890, the pair wipes out two of Chicago's former I-A clears, although they can be easily heard in the background outside of the main lobes of the new stations. 720 WGN is the most reliable Chicago clear these days, as 670 is duplicated by a Denver area station.
 
Usually nighttime I just get KOH, with a weak WBBM underneath it sometimes. KOH is the only one on 780 that cuts through the 770 KTTH splash, which can be considerable at my QTH. If I turn the radio E-W to maximise WBBM, the splash gets worse.
 
Andrew K said:
Akron, Ohio - WBBM Chicago during nighttime and sometimes a weak signal during the day... nothing else ever heard on 780 here.
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Same in Columbus.
When I lived in Houston, WBBM might have been the best Chicago skywave signal, but that far south it gets dicey. None of them were ever really loud down there, if they made it.
 
At my house west of Toronto it's WBBM from Chicago, Illinois. Most of the time (except for the very occasional skywave fading) it's almost as loud and clear as any local from Toronto/Lake Ontario shoreline. WBBM was one of many "blowtorches" that I heard when on vacation near Charleston, South Carolina at night this past summer. Never got a pure enough signal to decode any HD Radio sideband channels from any of them though.
 
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