AM Frequency of the week: 590

[cyberdad]

What do you guys hear on 590?

Days: Here in the far northwest suburbs of Chicago, it's a very weak WKZO from Kalamazoo, MI.

Nights: WKZO completely disappears (I don't think I've ever heard it at night). What made me think of 590 for this week was one night about a week ago, I was hearing classical music. Never did catch an ID, but I assume R. Nacional fron Cuba. Very rare around here, but I've heard it a couple of time before. Not recently, however. Usually at night here it's KXSP from Omaha. That's a fairly easy catch, but not as listenable as it was during its prior life as WOW. WVLK from Lexington, KY also surfaces occasionally.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

Daytime Houston is a mixture of KLBJ Austin dominant on the frequency, with XEFD underneath.

 

[Icangelp]

Day: WVLK Lexington KY. Only 75 miles down the road, but most of their signal is sent south.

Night: WVLK, WKZO Kalamazoo, Cuba, and CJCL Toronto. I've also heard WDWD in Atlanta.

Sunrise/Sunset: WOW Omaha (SS)

cyberdad, have you ever caught WJMS in Ironwood MI? I've tried for them at sunrise, but have never heard them.

 

[radioman148]

In the near north Chicago suburbs it's a fairly good WKZO during the day & Omaha used to come in OK at night. Not sure what's there now at night.

 

[W7PAT]

KUGN Eugene by day
KQNT Spokane dominates at night

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

WKZO had a tower collapse a year or so ago and was operating on an STA at night. The request was unclear whether it would operate non-DA or DA, but I think it is supposed to be 1250 non-DA. I don't know whether they fixed it. The oldest 6 DAs in the state have all either been completely replaced or some calamity befell one or more towers. The replaced arrays have all been taken down. Don't know what WKZO did, put up a guyed tower, repaired the damaged self supporter, new self supporter, or what.

 

[joebtsflk1]

I used to like listening to the former WOW in the 70s in SE IA. Daytime some monkey chatter from adjacent WMT 600 Cedar Rapids meant only dedicated listeners would care tuning in to WOW, but otherwise it was easily received. Nighttime seemed like WOW was always doing battle with a Cuban. I wonder if the Cubans on the old class III regionals below 640 were running 100 kW or more back then.

These days in CO, 590 is the relatively junior KCSJ in Pueblo, having gone on-air back in 1947.

 

[davideduardo]

II wonder if the Cubans on the old class III regionals below 640 were running 100 kW or more back then..

The lower frequency regional channel Cuban stations that were the only Cuban on a channel ran Czech 120 kw transmitters starting in the mid-60's. The channels with multiple uses tended to be 30 kw or two tandem 30 kw transmitters.

 

[cyberdad]

cyberdad, have you ever caught WJMS in Ironwood MI? I've tried for them at sunrise, but have never heard them.

Actually, I may have heard them for the first time ever just this morning. 4am CDT. I landed on 590 looking to see if R. Nacional might be there. It wasn't, but I heard "classic country" on top and didn't know what it was. For the most part, the signal was fair, but with occasional fading. I never caught an ID, so I don't know for sure.

Before dawn this morning I had a really good path from the north (as I'll discuss in another thread). I see that while WJMS (1kw) has a small lobe to the south. That might have been just enough to make the hop, given the conditions at the time.

 

[icybluelake]

KXSP day and night. It's a tough frequency here since there is an adjacent powerhouse local on 600, WMT.

I've heard WJMS at night as far south as the corner of northeastern Iowa, but no further.

 

[crainbebo]

590 is KQNT Spokane daytime.
Nights is mainly KQNT, with KSUB Cedar City, UT under. Sometimes KID Idaho Falls. Rarely KUGN Eugene, used to be very common in western WA - they must have a straight N-S lobe. Even rarer, KTHO South Lake Tahoe, CA with a rare AM format, classic rock.

-crainbebo

 

[RyanHoward]

Warminster PA(Philly 'burbs):

Daytime: WARM Scranton PA(very weak)
Night: WARM(stronger), sometimes mixing in with a Boston station(was WEEI, forget what it is now)

 

[schmave]

Daytime Houston is a mixture of KLBJ Austin dominant on the frequency, with XEFD underneath.

I would like to read a reception report from the San Antonio area, more in the middle of these two stations. I remember a discussion or two of 590 when I lived in Texas several years ago, and I want to say someone wrote that KLBJ took interference from XEFD as close as southern Comal County.

 

[davideduardo]

I would like to read a reception report from the San Antonio area, more in the middle of these two stations. I remember a discussion or two of 590 when I lived in Texas several years ago, and I want to say someone wrote that KLBJ took interference from XEFD as close as southern Comal County.

I wonder what KLBJ will cover well once XEFD completes its migration to FM.

 

[gr8oldies]

East Tennessee:
Daytime: WVLK with that aforementioned south pattern
Night: assorted including Cuba and WVLK. I think Omaha a time or two

 

[cyberdad]

Veer alert!

Time-out to briefly move to a first adjacent channel. WSJS, Winston Salem NC. Never heard it before, but there it was two hours before local sunrise). Canned talk programming. Fair-good signal on top of WMT and everything else on the channel. 5kw with the night pattern aimed away from me. Which probably explains why I never heard it. Day pattern, however is favorable in my direction...which probably explains why I did hear it for the first time.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

I wonder what KLBJ will cover well once XEFD completes its migration to FM.

550 - 590 is the band of the regionals in the Houston area - you have KTSA 550, KLVI 560, KLIF 570, a very weak Mexican on 580, and the KLBJ XEFD battle on 590. Depending on where you live in the Houston metro area, one or more of them are almost like locals. KLBJ is ruined in the car by XEFD, because the car antennas are omnidirectional. Once XEFD is gone, KLBJ will be a welcome addition to people wanting to keep up with Austin affairs, such as college students home for the weekend, or people that have relatives, or friends, or activities up there. I know we check the station for traffic reports before going up - because traffic jams are long lasting and there are two main routes up, and several ways of getting around town. Saved us a lot of wasted time, and got our daughter to the rink in time for competition.

 

[schmave]

I wonder what KLBJ will cover well once XEFD completes its migration to FM.

I would hazard a guess that a fair amount of people will hear it for the first time, if they stop on 590 that is.
When I went to Galveston several years ago to see what I could catch, 590 was all XEFD. Nothing else. Where I worked in west Houston, maybe 15 miles west of downtown, 590 was a battle. Unfortunately for me, I never really monitored the frequency on several trips between Houston and central Texas to hear the back-and-forth for myself.

 

[joebtsflk1]

Heard the KLBJ/XEFD battle while on vacation 3 yrs ago in Corpus. Of course that far south, XEFD was on top.

What is the history of KLBJ and XEFD on 590, who was on the channel first and how on earth was the second station ever authorized for 5 kW omni, whichever one it was? I always thought the spacing between KXSP (WOW) 590 Omaha and WIBW 580 Wichita was a little close, but the 590 Tex/Mex mess redefines "mess."

 

[cyberdad]

I was in San Antonio last year. The hotel didn't really allow AM reception other than a few local signals. My recall from being in the car was that KLBJ was comfortably on top. But there was something....presumably XEFD....underneath. I didn't hang around long enough on the channel to investigate.