• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

AM Frequency of the Week: 1080

cyberdad

cyberdad

Moving right along, we go up the dial one position to a quieter place than last week (at least around here). So the question is what do you gentlemen hear when your radio dial stops at 1080?

Here in the far northwest suburbs of Chicago, it's a fair signal from semi-local rimshot WNWI day and night. WNWI is an ethnic station (Polish) that runs 5kw ND daytime from a site about 55 miles southeast of me. At night they drop to 2.6kw with a pattern aimed north-northwest that's somewhat favorable to me. For all practical purposes, the resultant day and night signals at my home location are equal in strength.

With the Chicago area being in nulls from both KRLD and WTIC, there's not much to stop WNWI's night signal around here. Which means WNWI is on top at least 90% of the time every might. As for the two dominant stations on 1080, KRLD is by far the more frequent nighttime visitor. Albeit weak. I've heard WTIC a couple of time on night pattern, but they're more common at sunrise/sunset. WOAP from the Saginaw, Michigan area...a 1kw ND daytimer...also shows up from time to time around sunrise.

Its worth noting that WNWI puts a good nighttime skywave signal into just about the entire state of Wisconsin. Its not a stretch to say they own the channel. As it happens, I have an overnight trip to Central Wisconsin later this week. So, as always, if anything of note turns up on 1080 or anywhere else, I'll report it.
 
Last edited:
In East Tennessee it's usually WKJK day and often at night, as even it's 1000 watt night pattern is aimed straight at me. Otherwise WTIC or KRLD.
 
In the near north Chicago suburbs it's WNWI day & night. The day signal is pretty good, at night a tad weaker, but still on top. Back in the day it was either KRLD or less often WTIC. Even though KRLD was usually stronger the first station I ever logged at night on 1080 was WTIC---waaaay back in the early 1960s.
 
No midday action here on 1080.

Sunsets and overnights the frequency opens up.
SSS loggings have been WRES KY, WKBY VA, WUFO Buffalo, WKGX and WKKE from NC (taped IDs from the last four)

WTIC Hartford is a steady nighttime signal despite the slight null.

On both widely publicized occasions when WTIC signed off for some transmitter work, KRLD came in here via the barefoot GE SR II. Those instances were several years apart. The first reception, 3-18-01, they came in quite loud.
I gotta chuckle here. A radio pal from Long Island tuned it in, thought it was WTIC, and didn't hang around for an ID! He half-jokingly started calling me things like SOB, and b@$+ard -- as if it had been my fault ?!?
During that later-years WTIC silence, KRLD was there, but not nearly as loud. I'm wondering if KRLD had gone omni for that first WTIC silence.
 
In Pittsburgh it is generally WTIC. On occasion KRLD sneaks in.

At one time the local daytimer on 1080 (then WEEP, now WWNL), had a CP to go to 24-hour
operation at 5kW. The pattern used something like ten towers, which never were built.
 
Last edited:
icybluelake said:
1080 is an odd one for me. Nothing day or night. KRLD used to be a somewhat frequent catch. I haven't heard it in years.
Click to expand...

During my college days in Southeast Iowa, what was left of KRLD would routinely get completely hammered by KAAY splatter.
 
Bay area: Daytime KSCO/Santa Cruz. Night KFXX/Portland, with maybe a little bit of KSCO sneaking through. Elusive KRLD still not logged here, but I think it'd be possible....
 
1080 is an interesting frequency in Charleston. Usually Johnsonville, SC weak daytime, or a weak Orlando. Johnsonville moved in a few years ago. Previously, it was only the weak Orlando. At night, it is usually Louisville, with KRLD or WTIC sometimes coming in, with foreign stations under it.
 
Houston - daytime - weak KRLD. Very weak, with some splatter from local 1070. Night, pretty much KRLD. So - what has happened to KRLD? I suspect they are still fooling around with HD-AM. That, or their transmitter site, in particular ground radials are badly degraded. KRLD used to be a weak, but steady catch in West Texas. It took a quarter wave longwire to bring them in with no static like a local. Midland had a local 1070 which gave some splatter there, but the radio I was using had excellent selectivity.
 
I will not normally post about stations that are local to me on this board, but this might be helpful to others, especially for those who are swimming east-northeast of Miami.
WVCG<WTPS<WMCU<WHIM is a Salem station with a Christian format branded, "The Answer 1080".
Their program schedule is not very helpful, but according to Wikipedia, they are divided as such:
14 hours per day in English
_3 hours per day in Spanish
_7 hours per day in Haitian Creole
 
Last edited:
During the daytime in San Antonio, it's a very weak KRLD. The station is always strong here at sunrise, sunset and nighttime.

The only other station I hear at night is XETUL in Tultitlán (part of Mexico City), which pops in and out of KRLD's partial null. The station fakes me out sometimes because its programming includes old Mexican and and American standards, talk, and sometimes classic American pop/rock.

Around sunrise I can usually briefly hear a weak KGVY in Green Valley, AZ, playing classic hits when it signs on for the day. Once at sunrise last fall I heard daytimer KSLL in Price, UT.

Once two years ago in the fall I heard Radio Cadena Habana at sunset.
 
rbrucecarter5 said:
Houston - daytime - weak KRLD. Very weak, with some splatter from local 1070. Night, pretty much KRLD. So - what has happened to KRLD? I suspect they are still fooling around with HD-AM. That, or their transmitter site, in particular ground radials are badly degraded. KRLD used to be a weak, but steady catch in West Texas. It took a quarter wave longwire to bring them in with no static like a local. Midland had a local 1070 which gave some splatter there, but the radio I was using had excellent selectivity.
Click to expand...

Interesting points, Bruce. After my post to start this week's FOTW thread, I was thinking that my semi-local (WMWI) is easy to null. And when I do that it's aimed directly SW-NE. In other words, directly at KRLD. And it's still not present as often as it used to be.
 
1080 days is usually a faint carrier, but at this time of year, KVNI Coeur D'Alene ID can actually be quite strong with their holiday music (and the rest of the year, soft rock/AC). KFXX Portland comes in some days, and almost every night with sports programming.When
Also heard on 1080 is KSLL Price, UT w/ classic country (and they have failed to sign off at night multiple times), and an occasional KRLD Dallas with news/talk. Whenever I do hear them, they are usually strong. KSCO Santa Cruz is also common during auroral conditions.

On the want list is KGVY AZ, but they are 1kw and down in Tucson. The only other plausible station to try for is WTIC Hartford.
 
Update: I was on an overnight trip to Wisconsin Dells, WI last night. About 160 miles northwest of Chicago. WNWI was fairly weak, but still strong enough to own the channel. No WTIC or KRLD.
 
1080 is usually a mish-mash here in central Ohio. WTIC was the first station I heard there years ago, and it used to come in much better in this region than it does now. On the occasions I do happen to check 1080, WTIC is deep in the mud if present at all.
I remember hearing KRLD here only once, on a rainy Friday night in January 2007. It was around sunset, certainly before their pattern change, and it was decently strong (maybe 4 on a scale of 1-to-10). When I tried later that night, it was gone and I am pretty sure I haven't heard it here since. I don't know how far southwest of me I'd need to go to hear it reliably at night. Guessing at least as far as around Memphis.
I heard Louisville here once, during an auroral event of all things back in the winter of 2004-05.
When I lived in Houston, KRLD came in very well every night. Listened to some Rangers games driving around on occasion.
 
Nowadays, I doubt that KAAY splatter is much of a factor at night on 1080 because that signal sounds so much weaker than it used to (and in those days I would often hear KRLD). KAAY is almost always there on 1090, but seldom if ever overpowering.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom