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AM Frequency of the week: 1340

cyberdad

cyberdad

Haloween week means a trip to the graveyard. If you go "trick or treating" on 1340 where you are, what comes out of your radio?

Here in the far northwest suburbs of Chicago, daytime, it's a battle between a weak WJOL (Joliet, IL) and WJYI (Milwaukee). WJOL gets the better of it, but not by much.

Nights, it's the usual graveyard mess.

I've never had the patience to hangout on the GY channels on a regular basis. But I did have a target on 1340 when I was in college. I was a fan of the Milwaukee 1340 during it's top-40 heyday as WRIT. So when I was away at school in southeast Iowa, I tried for it just about every Monday morning after midnight. This, of course, was when the nighttime limit for the GY channels was 250 watts. I went for more than a year with zero success. Then finally, on one early spring Monday, WRIT came rolling in on top. Stayed there for the better part of an hour or so (with several fades). I did hear WRIT once or twice since that first experience.

I guess it just goes to show that if you keep after it, eventually you should be able to snag just about anything within a few hundred miles of you on the graveyard channels. Crainbebo is the resident expert here on DXing the graveyard channels, so I defer to him on confirming that.
 
In the near north Chicago burbs during the day it's a weak WJOL over Milwaukee which I rarely hear. At night it's a mess and I don't have the patience to listen. My hat is off to Crainbebo who has the ability to snag the graveyard stations.
 
In the western parts of the Columbus, Ohio metro, WIZE from Springfield comes in pretty well. Not as much here in the eastern suburbs.
 
I just realized there are no stations from Hawaii on 1340 and when I referred to my nighttime bandscan video there was something there.

Wow. I'll have to see if I can get an ID now. That would be one heck of a graveyard catch.
 
hawaiigar said:
I just realized there are no stations from Hawaii on 1340 and when I referred to my nighttime bandscan video there was something there.

Wow. I'll have to see if I can get an ID now. That would be one heck of a graveyard catch.
Click to expand...

Have you caught any X-Banders yet? You should be able to get quite a few. The easiest for me was ESPN 1700 in the San Diego area.
 
The one from the San Diego area is a regular but the signal isn't strong at all.

I'm surprised because it's 10kw. (I think?) But I guess they are directional.

There's always a weaker talk station behind it too. KVNS?

If only they still had their oldies format, it would be so easy to ID.

I get Spanish music on 1660. Probably KTIQ Merced, California.

On 1640, I get a religious broadcast with a couple other stations way in the background. Probably KDIA from Vallejo, California.
 
hawaiigar said:
I just realized there are no stations from Hawaii on 1340...
Click to expand...

When I lived in Honolulu, I was surprised there was no local 1340. There was a 1270 (KNDI) and a 1380 (KPOI). The only thing between those two was a 1310 on Maui. Perhaps the nighttime limit of 250 watts in those days on GY channels had something to do with it. 1450 would have also worked then, given that the only other station higher on the dial than 1380 in Honolulu was 1500 (KUMU). I wonder if the FCC would have considered some sort of waiver for the GY channels. There was a 1490 on Kauai, but I think they were 250w fulltime.
 
I'm still trying hard to hear something audible from what I'm getting here on 1340.

It sure doesn't sound like a graveyard frequency does back in Florida or New Jersey with a mix of countless stations.


And I've always wondered. Why exactly are they called Graveyard frequencies?

I had assumed it was because so many stations could be heard at once that it sounds like ghosts in a graveyard. No?

Someone please let me know what it really means.
 
hawaiigar said:
I'm still trying hard to hear something audible from what I'm getting here on 1340.

It sure doesn't sound like a graveyard frequency does back in Florida or New Jersey with a mix of countless stations.


And I've always wondered. Why exactly are they called Graveyard frequencies?

I had assumed it was because so many stations could be heard at once that it sounds like ghosts in a graveyard. No?

Someone please let me know what it really means.
Click to expand...

I never thought about "why". I thought it had to do with the stations that occupy these channels don't travel very far (at night) before they "die".
 
If you look in American Radio History at old radio station lists, you'll see that the big majority of stations were on Local/Class IV frequencies in the earlier days of radio. As conditions and rules changed, and in particular, when DAs became practical in the late 1930s, and then greatly increased after World War II, many stations migrated to Regional and Clear Channels to get more power and better night service. If they are the only station on the Local frequency for hundreds of miles, the signals don't "croak" after a few miles. As you see, if they can be separated with Beverage antennas, North American Locals can be heard in Northern Europe. I don't know why that name is attached to them. It is a realtively new term for me, even though I have been DXing for around 50 years. I assumed it was because they ended up there because there was nowhere else for them to go.
 
Schroedingers Cat said:
If you look in American Radio History at old radio station lists, you'll see that the big majority of stations were on Local/Class IV frequencies in the earlier days of radio. As conditions and rules changed, and in particular, when DAs became practical in the late 1930s, and then greatly increased after World War II, many stations migrated to Regional and Clear Channels to get more power and better night service. If they are the only station on the Local frequency for hundreds of miles, the signals don't "croak" after a few miles. As you see, if they can be separated with Beverage antennas, North American Locals can be heard in Northern Europe. I don't know why that name is attached to them. It is a realtively new term for me, even though I have been DXing for around 50 years. I assumed it was because they ended up there because there was nowhere else for them to go.
Click to expand...

The former Class IV channels are so called because there are so many stations "burried" on them. The six channels have about 1000 total stations, and to a DXer the quantity of signals buried on each represents amazing DX opportunities and challenges.

The term has been used as long as I have been a DXer, and that is now going on 57 years!
 
In Knoxville, TN, it's WKGN, recently Spanish but now flipped to brokered sports with ESPN.At night there's graveyard hash underneath it depending where one is in town. Over in Sevierville I can get them along with WGRV (1340 The Grave? No, not really) which is only 60 miles away from Knoxville. They packed the graveyarders pretty tight down here with the poor soil conductivity.
 
Daytime, 1340 is nothing but a tombstone of heavy splatter from 5 kw, 3-miles-away KCOR on 1350. When stations can be heard at sunset/night/sunrise, tuning down a bit (and reducing bandwidth on my radios with that feature) is necessary because the KCOR splatter is still there, although a bit reduced.

At sunset, KVNN (news talk and sports) in Victoria and KOLE (smooth jazz and urban AC) in Port Arthur start coming in.

At night, 1340 is usually less of a jumble than the other graveyard frequencies here. XEDH "EXA FM" in Ciudad Acuńa is heard most often, with XEMT "Nostalgia 1340" in Matamoros and KOLE weakly popping in an out regularly. Less often I've heard classic country KAND in Corsicana, KKAM "SportsRadio 1340" in Lubbock, and KCRN (KCBI translator) in San Angelo.

Around sunrise, XEDH becomes steady, albeit weak, and KAND will occasionally pop up.
 
DavidEduardo said:


The former Class IV channels are so called because there are so many stations "burried" on them. The six channels have about 1000 total stations, and to a DXer the quantity of signals buried on each represents amazing DX opportunities and challenges.

The term has been used as long as I have been a DXer, and that is now going on 57 years!
Click to expand...

Thanks, David. Sort of along the lines of what I had been thinking, but your "official" explanation also articulates is better.
 
In your journeys back to old radio logs before 1941, if you don't already know, the Local Frequencies were 1200, 1210, 1310, 1370, 1420, and 1500. All moved up 30 kHz except 1500, which moved down 10 kHz to 1490.

Some radios actually had the call letters of more powerful stations shown on the dial along with networks, but I don't think that any stations less than 1000 watts are shown. All the Locals were mainly 100 and 250 watts, and a few were just 50 watts until 1941.
 
Schroedingers Cat said:
In your journeys back to old radio logs before 1941, if you don't already know, the Local Frequencies were 1200, 1210, 1310, 1370, 1420, and 1500. All moved up 30 kHz except 1500, which moved down 10 kHz to 1490.

Some radios actually had the call letters of more powerful stations shown on the dial along with networks, but I don't think that any stations less than 1000 watts are shown. All the Locals were mainly 100 and 250 watts, and a few were just 50 watts until 1941.
Click to expand...

Interestingly, the signatories to NARBA (Canada, USA, Mexico, Cuba, The Bahamas, The Dominican Republic) also adopted the local frequencies when the new allocations went into effect in 1941.

Some other countries have a similar concept of local frequencies with many stations on one channel. For example, Colombia and Venezuela kept maximum power at 1 kw above 1250. Brazil has some low and very low power channels for local service.
 
I went back to the 1935 Broadcasting Yearbook for an example. There were 19 separate allotment facilities in my home State of Michigan. 12 were Locals. I will look for a way to compute a more complete breakdown for the whole nation.

Further research shows that sparsely populated areas of the country had fewer Locals proportionately speaking. But the Locals have always been the most prevalent facility.
 
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Of course, 1340 is a jumble at night. Days, it's KJOX Kennewick, WA (ESPN).

Logs on 1340 (all time)
CINL Ashcroft, BC (Radio N-L)
CIVH Vanderhoof, BC (The Wolf)
KATA Arcata, CA (ESPN)
KOMY La Selva Beach, CA (News/Talk, was oldies)
KPYV Oroville, CA (SS Religion, was Fox Sports)
KACH Preston, ID (Adult Contemporary)
KXQZ Wendell, ID (was KTFI, has Catholic Religious programming)
KQJZ Evergreen, MT (Standards)
KYLT Missoula, MT (Fox Sports)
KCAP Helena, MT (News/Talk, now SILENT)
KTSN Elko, NV (News/Talk, now SILENT)
KLOO Corvallis OR (News/Talk)
KBNW Bend, OR (News/Talk)
KBBR North Bend, OR (News/Talk)
KIHR Hood River, OR (Country)
KWVR Enterprise, OR (Talk)
KWLE Anacortes, WA (Hot AC, now SILENT)
KZNW Wenatchee, WA (Fox Sports)
KUOW Tumwater, WA (NPR)

Would love to get: KPRK MT, KWOR WY, KXEQ NV, KCBL CA, KVGC CA, CFKC BC, and KYNS CA.

-crainbebo
 
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