NYC AM signals

[Ai4i]

Could someone make a list of all the NYC AM radio stations in order,
from strongest to weakest coverage?
Use the weakest of their combined daytime and nighttime signals.
In other words,
If a station is weak toward Phillie on one pattern,
but weak to the north or west on the other pattern,
consider only the area that is covered by both.
In other words, stick value with no consideration of ratings or sales.

 

[luperm]

Somewhat subjective and very non-scientific, but here goes...

Best: 880, 660 and 770
Good: 710, 1010, 1130
OK: 570, 1050, 1560, 1660
So-so: 1280, 1050, 1190, 930
Not so good: 820, 970, 1380, 1430, 1480, 1600
Awful: 620

 

[benale]

West of New York 770 and 710 are the strongest. 1130 and 880 are next. To the North and South 660 and 880 are the strongest. I received them some 650 miles away in the middle of the day in Bar Harbor,Maine. 1010 and 1050 are also 50,000 watts but are highly directional.

 

[benale]

660 is also on the same level as 880 and 1130 to the West. 970 is 50,000 watts during the day,but is highly directional and 1560,also 50,000 being so high on the dial is not nearly as strong as the other stations. Next strongest at 5,000 watts is WMCA and at 570 is about as strong as 1560 during the day.

 

[HippieGuy]

I am in Atlanta, GA. Very often, WCBS-AM comes in clear as you drive thru downtown Atlanta. I live 30 miles north of Atlanta, where the Blue Ridge mountains begin, and I am able to get it on my Bose AM FM clock radio as well, but not as good as in Atlanta.

I use to get 770/WABC...lately, I have not been able to get that.
As a transplant NYorker, it was always nice to hear.

 

[FreddyE1977]

Here in Western PA 1130 will often start booming in at mid-afternoon this time of year.
660 and 880 are sure catches at night. 770 used to be, but has been less so in recent years
(it seems WVNN in Huntsville, AL will often forget to power down).

 

[KML0224]

My strongest NYC AM stations here in central Connecticut, as one might expect, are WFAN-AM 660 and WCBS-AM 880. It definitely helps that those transmitters are in the High Island section of The Bronx. That's helped by the salt water from the edges of Long Island Sound, plus it being the single closest part of NYC to Connecticut.

WINS-AM 1010 is a struggle here at night. It always mixes with CFRB-AM 1010 from Toronto. WEPN-AM 1050 is almost non-existent lately.

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

The little VU meters on here might help, a141 .....

http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/locate?select=city&city=New+York&x=0&y=0

Many, if not all of those former 'regionals' used to send as much signal through Columbus Circle or Times Square as they could manage.
WINS, WWRL, WOR, WBBR, WSPN, 1480, 1380, WPAT, 970, WMCA, WLIB, WADO (and maybe one or two I missed off the top of my earphones) all had directional transmitter sites in North Jersey. Those big major lobes to the east and south varied to some extent, thus would naturally make for varying signal strengths for listeners in other directions.

 

[Ai4i]

I see that WLIB is still pretty directional away from the west even after WOWO's downgrade, or maybe they are also directional away from KFXR in Dallas? Is there any nickname for a station that is much stronger at night than in the day, such as WLIB or especially KFMB, San Diego.

 

[frankberry]

Could someone make a list of all the NYC AM radio stations in order,
from strongest to weakest coverage?
Use the weakest of their combined daytime and nighttime signals.
In other words,
If a station is weak toward Phillie on one pattern,
but weak to the north or west on the other pattern,
consider only the area that is covered by both.
In other words, stick value with no consideration of ratings or sales.

You are asking someone to do a great deal of research for you.

You can download daytime and nighttime AM station patterns here:

http://radio-timetraveller.blogspot.com/2013/04/us-mediumwave-pattern-reference.html

 

[Ai4i]

You are asking someone to do a great deal of research for you.
You can download daytime and nighttime AM station patterns here:
http://radio-timetraveller.blogspot.com/2013/04/us-mediumwave-pattern-reference.html

Not really, I can ramble off the top of my head, in order, the best to the worst signals in Miami,
and I am sure that many people think about these things in their home markets.

Some of this is really opinion. I can think of one station (WINZ) at night that, because of its power and pattern, has a bold, full quieting signal throughout most of Dade and Broward counties, but other stations that are not as penetrating where the population is (WQAM and WIOD) are receivable farther inland.

 

[frankberry]

ai4i,

Go for it!

"Use the weakest of their combined daytime and nighttime signals.
In other words,
If a station is weak toward Phillie on one pattern,
but weak to the north or west on the other pattern,
consider only the area that is covered by both."

 

[radiowizard101]

Back in the day, before KTNN in Window Rock, AZ signed on, I was able to hear WNNNNBC (660 AM) in Tucson on a clear night. This was around 1979 - 1980. I picked up WCBS (880 AM) once, when KRVN in Lexington, Nebraska went off the air one early morning. That was also in Tucson. It sure was a cheap thrill.

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

Perhaps not specific to ai4i's OP, but germane to the theme of his question ......

As an illustration, Ill use our swell regional Oldies station,
http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WLSH&service=AM&status=L&hours=D

We are due north of Pottsville, and virtually equidistant to Hazleton.

The four loudest locals in the day here, in order of loudness, are WPPA 1360, WEEU Reading, WAEB 790 Allentown and -- when they're on -- WPAM 1450 Pottsville.

My point is that NONE of those four stations are listenable at night here.
The stations are THERE, alright. But to a non-DXing daytime civilian in our fair borough they're not on the air.
The first three either drop power at night or spin the patterns away from here. The fourth (WPAM 1450) is a 'graveyarder' -- a local-only signal that starts to get chewed up by the myriad 1450 signals even before sunset.

This NYC-oriented inquiry CAN get real complicated, ai4i. Couldn't you've started with a market like, oh, say, Beckley WV, lol?

 

[Ai4i]

This NYC-oriented inquiry CAN get real complicated, ai4i.
Couldn't you've started with a market like, oh, say, Beckley WV, lol?

I think I might have answered my own question when I mentioned about the subjectivity involved.
How does one compare one station with a BOOMing signal throughout the metro, but then stops, with another one that fades in and out everywhere, but is quasi listenable for a long distance away?
If WMCA were not so directional away from Phillie and other places, it would be the later, whereas WINS is probably a serious metro-blaster.

 

[gr8oldies]

This is an interesting topic, maybe worth exploring on the DX board for other markets.

 

[deepstblu]

Perhaps not specific to ai4i's OP, but germane to the theme of his question ......


This NYC-oriented inquiry CAN get real complicated, ai4i. Couldn't you've started with a market like, oh, say, Beckley WV, lol?

Or maybe Atlantic City, where every AM in the market is a graveyarder or a Class D, all of them are nondirectional, all are at frequencies higher than 1000 kHz and only one goes over 1000 watts. (And you can make the argument that the strongest daytime signals just run in order from the lowest frequency to the highest.)

 

[rbrucecarter5]

Texas:
880 strongest - WCBS was a regular as far West as Lubbock before KRVN came on the air. Now a very tough catch - haven't heard it in years.
770 used to make it into Houston, interference from KOB / KKOB makes it difficult in areas to the NW of Houston. KAAM in Dallas is new and adds to the problems. But then - its no longer musicradio 770 so the few listeners in Houston who used to hear Cousin Brucie now listen on satellite.
660 has never made it into Texas, with the best equipment I can muster, not even to the Dallas area after KSKY signs off.
WOR has never made it to Texas, because of regional powerhouses KGNC and KEEL, not to mention a 710 in Kansas City. But I DO have an interesting side note: I could hear WOR IBOC sidebands on 720 and 700 very clearly in Houston one night. I even got out a military grade compass and verified the null direction to WOR when the sidebands cleared up. Which leads to the very intriguing possibility of HD DX of WOR in Texas! At least Houston - although I never pulled it off.

When I lived in Daytona Beach Shores - 660, 770, and 880 were clearly listenable in the DAYTIME, because of the high ground conductivity (a barrier island). Not a trace of WOR.

Receivers in all described scenarios - GE Superadios - unmodified but well maintained and aligned.

 

[davideduardo]

Texas:
880 strongest - WCBS was a regular as far West as Lubbock before KRVN came on the air. Now a very tough catch - haven't heard it in years.
770 used to make it into Houston, interference from KOB / KKOB makes it difficult in areas to the NW of Houston. KAAM in Dallas is new and adds to the problems. But then - its no longer musicradio 770 so the few listeners in Houston who used to hear Cousin Brucie now listen on satellite.
660 has never made it into Texas, with the best equipment I can muster, not even to the Dallas area after KSKY signs off.
WOR has never made it to Texas, because of regional powerhouses KGNC and KEEL, not to mention a 710 in Kansas City. But I DO have an interesting side note: I could hear WOR IBOC sidebands on 720 and 700 very clearly in Houston one night. I even got out a military grade compass and verified the null direction to WOR when the sidebands cleared up. Which leads to the very intriguing possibility of HD DX of WOR in Texas! At least Houston - although I never pulled it off.

When I lived in Daytona Beach Shores - 660, 770, and 880 were clearly listenable in the DAYTIME, because of the high ground conductivity (a barrier island). Not a trace of WOR.

Receivers in all described scenarios - GE Superadios - unmodified but well maintained and aligned.

Bruce,

Why, when the subject is the ranking of NYC stations on their ability to cover the local market day and night do you introduce freak DX reception which is of no interest in the local NYC market?

WOR, by the way, was originally built to cover New York and Philadelphia with their directional pattern. At that time, the noise levels and noise tolerance of listeners was very different than today.

The rest of the stuff is content for the DX section.

 

[Ai4i]

WOR, by the way, was originally built to cover New York and Philadelphia with their directional pattern. At that time, the noise levels and noise tolerance of listeners was very different than today.

I remember reading that story.
Two questions:
When did they give up on Phillie?
And, is this why they have always been directional?
(they surrendered their signal to the west and then new stations out west came on that they had to protect)

When I lived in DC, I remember the 99.1 was precisely located to cover DC and Baltimore,
and a 99.9 used to cover both Orlando and Jacksonville (both, Florida), but not competitively well, before they moved into Jacksonville.