AM Frequency of the week: 630

[cyberdad]

Discussion from last week's thread.....at least as pertains to WTMJ and CFCO....makes for a good lead-in this time around to 630. Here's the landscape for me far northwest suburbs of Chicago.

Day: All splatter from WTMJ with iboc.

Night: Iboc from Milwaukee ceases to be an issue, and CFCO pretty much owns the channel. Occasionally KYFI (ex-KJSL, ex-KXOK) St. Louis will sneak in. Less frequently WLAP from Lexington, KY turns up.

Retro: With WTMJ at 5kw and no iboc, KXOK could sometimes be audible daytime (mostly winters) on a good radio. Then at night KXOK usually dominated, although some nights, WLAP would be on top. CFCO at that time was only 1kw nights, and the only time I ever heard them was when they powered up at sunrise. Nowadays, their night signal here is usually very good. So much so that I'm wondering if either the night pattern is out of whack, or if they may even be "forgetting" to power down. CFCO here at night is almost always better than CKLW, which was rarely, if ever, the case when they first went to 6kw at night.

Sidebar point....FWIW: CFCO was one of three big-signal sticks I happened to drive by on my road trip the week before last. Other two were CFTR and WLS.

 

[schmave]

In Reynoldsburg, Ohio, it's a weak WLAP by day and nothing but mush at night. When WTVN ran IBOC, WLAP was not audible in this area. Luckily, that's been several years ago.
I remember CFCO always having a very good signal daytime in Toledo, but I don't remember hearing it much at night. That's not to say it was never there, but I didn't hear it.

 

[radioman148]

Here in the near north Chicago suburbs during the day 630 is mostly WTMJ splatter. At night mostly CFCO with WLAP and KYFI in the background.
Retro: Before WTMJ's IBOC depending on which way I oriented my radio, I could hear a weak CFCO during the day & KXOK. Both were weak, but could be heard here.
Like Cyberdad, KXOK was heard mostly on winter days. At night WLAP most often rose to the top.

 

[RyanHoward]

Warminster PA(Philly 'burbs):

Daytime: zippo, possibly a weak WEJL from Scranton PA.
Night: WMAL Washington DC(strong)

 

[rbrucecarter5]

Houston daytime - moderate signal from KSLR San Antonio. A long time ago, they were a pretty good CCM station.

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

Frackville PA: Daytme on the GE SR 2 is either WMAL Washington or WEJL Scranton. It depends on which way you spin the radio and from which direction is the static. Nighttimes it's WMAL.

Retro: The DX days in southeast Queens NYC yielded 11 loggings on 630. With a good radio and antenna, WPRO was the daytime regular of any note.
But one night I heard this loud Spanish station there. Local WVNJ 620 was off. I don't know much Spanish, but eventually I ID'd them as WQBS San Juan PR.
See, as was the wont of a few AN DXers, I called up Ernie Cooper in Brooklyn to ask him what the station was. And, naturally, par for the course, 'Lefty' Cooper left the phone and cord banging off the wall while he investigated.

What a GREAT jingle package WQBS had. I thought they were singing the sting 'Buenas Cadena', but then was informed that it was 'La Grande Cadena'.

 

[joebtsflk1]

southern Colorado: Day and night, KHOW 630 Denver...better in Pueblo than in Cañon City, fewer intervening mountain ranges.

Retro, summer 1994: seeing the crews chop down the original towers of St. Paul's legendary KDWB 630, which by 1994 had taken on the discarded calls of another Twin Cities top 40 legend, WDGY (1130). WDGY 630 was owned by Mid-Continent Media, which also owned 630's original FM partner 101.3 KDWB. Mid-Continent purchased the 630/101.3 combo in 1989 for $17.9 million, per 1993 Broadcasting Yearbook data (AmericanRadioHistory.com)

While KDWB kept churning out the hits on 101.3, by 1994 the 630 frequency was leased out to an independent operator. The land under the 630 towers was the real asset. Six tall towers near the interesection of I-94 and I-694 took up a lot of valuable real estate. So down came the towers. The tower crew said they were too far gone to climb after 35 years of neglect. (KDWB was built in 1959.)

So while K-Dweeb (in Minnesota-speak) ultimately won the top 40 battle, it did so by concentrating on its FM. The Weed-Gee calls still reside on 630, its signal sold off and today 630 is diplexed with another AM. We could argue the merits of 630's 5 kW-D/0.5-kW N against 1130's 50 kW-D/25 kW-N but that might be going too far off-topic.

 

[cyberdad]

While KDWB kept churning out the hits on 101.3, by 1994 the 630 frequency was leased out to an independent operator. The land under the 630 towers was the real asset. Six tall towers near the interesection of I-94 and I-694 took up a lot of valuable real estate. So down came the towers. .....

.....So while K-Dweeb (in Minnesota-speak) ultimately won the top 40 battle, it did so by concentrating on its FM. The Weed-Gee calls still reside on 630, its signal sold off and today 630 is diplexed with another AM. We could argue the merits of 630's 5 kW-D/0.5-kW N against 1130's 50 kW-D/25 kW-N but that might be going too far off-topic.

Aaahh....but Radio Drive (or Radio Road or whatever it is) still lives on! Its just that now there's no radio station, radio towers, etc. Just car radios these days on that street.

I always thought KDWB had a lousy signal. Back in the 80s when I was in the Cities every month or two, I had a customer in Lakeville and another one in Northfield. About 20-30 miles south of downtown Minneapolis respectively. By the time I got to either one, WOI would be splattering all over KDWB. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but IIRC, the 5kw day signal was designed to protect WOI, and maybe also CKRC (Winnipeg) and pehaps even KXOK.

At night, things got even worse. The 500 watts from east of Saint Paul didn't cover the metro adequately. Back Then, I used to usually stay in Bloomington near the airport, and KDWB was weak under the best of circumstances. And under the worst of circumstances, KDWB would be fighting it out with CKRC. WDGY with 25kw nights aimed right at the metro from Burnsville (by then programming country music) had a much better city-grade signal.

 

[radioman148]

I always thought KDWB had a lousy signal.

Indeed KDWB did have a poor signal. On my trips through the Twin Cities in the 80s I always thought the signal was quite poor.

 

[Schlep82]

Here in Cincinnati on the 630 dial.
Daytime : 630 WLAP A weak signal that can received in the daytime.
Nighttime : 630 WLAP reduce it's signal for less interference. Then a bunch of radio station signals just crowded the dial as a mixed scrambled up mess.
Most dials in My area will be a scrambled up mess. But I know some signals such as WFNI 1070 can make it through the radio stations as sounded like a 50KW station with the interference with other radio stations.
I know WFNI can reduce to 10KW at night and other small signals can interfere that signal at night.
I think that's it for the dial 630 on My area in Cincinnati.

 

[gr8oldies]

Knoxville-Sevierville TN: Slop from WRJZ days, no WLAP or anything of note to mention.
Night: I've gotten WMAL...I imagine with their changes it might not be so easy in the future.

Back in Ohio, where I grew up, if I turned the radio one way it was WLAP, the other CFCO. More toward Lima, CFCO dominated, south, WLAP. WLAP shot more signal Ohio-way compared to similarly powered WVLK-590.

 

[tomservo]

Here on the Alabama Gulf coast, it's pretty simple:

Daytime, nothing. I don't even recall hearing anything when I'm at the beach and have the Gulf of Mexico at my feet.

Nighttime, it's almost always KYFI St. Louis. Off and on, it's quite clear, too.

 

[icybluelake]

In east central Iowa:

Daytime: Nothing.
Nighttime: Pretty much all CFCO. KSLR San Antonio has made appearances on rare occasions.
Retro: I don't remember ever hearing KDWB from the Twin Cities (now WREY) or KXOK from St. Louis (now KYFI), although I know I tried to catch them. Nor KHOW, which I know I listed for also. I guess maybe this was kind of a dead zone for 630 at night before CFCO increased its power.

 

[charlestondxman]

In Charleston, 630 is WBMQ from Savannah. It has one of the best daytime signals of any station along the southeast coast. You can hear it pretty much anywhere from Wilmington, NC to Fort Pierce, FL daytime, and in Freeport in the Bahamas. It used to be a popular station, with University of Georgia football (Larry Munson), the Braves, and a couple of local talk shows.

Now, it is basically off the bird 23 hours a day (except for a couple local lifestyle shows on weekday mornings). They carry Imus, Clark Howard, Savage, and whatever Cumulus feeds them. 630 at night is usually WMAL or a mix of a few different stations.

 

[cyberdad]

In east central Iowa:

Daytime: Nothing.
Nighttime: I guess maybe this was kind of a dead zone for 630 at night before CFCO increased its power.

At our small college carrier current station in southeast Iowa, we couldn't staff until about 5 or 6 in the evening, so we came up with the bright idea of rebroadcasting KXOK from a receiver strategically placed near an iron pipe near the studio. That worked great until about an hour before sunset when KXOK would often get swallowed up in the mess even before they went to night pattern. Night was "dead zone" from the standpoint of no signal dominating, but there were plenty of stray ones. Southeast Iowa at night would have been in nulls from KHOW, CKRC, KXOK and to a lesser extent, WLAP. As previously CFCO and KDWB were not only nulled, but running just a killowatt and half-killowatt respectively. So probably what was "fighting it out" on 630 was some combination of any or all of those six along with KSLRSL.

@Tomservo....KXOK/KJSL/KYFI has been easy and reliable from New Orleans and points east on the Gulf for as long as I can remember (back to the '70s). When KTIB was on 630 I used to be able to hear them in New Orleans and on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. I don't remember hearing them on the Alabama Gulf Coast, however, until they moved to 640 (after being dark for some time).

@charlestondx... I was on Oak Island, NC for a week a year ago last month. About 30 miles southwest of Wilmington. There weren't many strong AM signals there during the daytime, but WBMQ was definitely one of them. Too bad about them reverting back to the bird. Reminds me somewhat of WMT in Cedar Rapids, which was part of our conversation here a few weeks ago. Once-proud big signal now cranking out canned "same old-same old".

 

[radioman148]

@Tomservo....KXOK/KJSL/KYFI has been easy and reliable from New Orleans and points east on the Gulf for as long as I can remember (back to the '70s).

Having relatives in New Orleans I spent alot of time there in the 60s & 70s and I can vouch for the fact that KXOK was a regular catch at night with a good signal most of the time.

 

[KenoGuy]

Kenosha, WI Days- It is quite possible to hear CFCO here in the daytime, especially since WTMJ has had their IBOC turned off lately.
Nights- CFCO is always on top. They are a rare AM music station (country) and are still in stereo. They sound great at night on my SRF-A100 Walkman. They also sound good in the Metro Detroit area. I have , at one time or another, heard WLAP, KYFI, KHOW, and WREY. WLAP would be the most common after CFCO.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

CFCO changed Day patterns a couple times. The Night 1 kW pattern was a dogleg three tower, close to in line but asymmetrical. The present 10 kW Day pattern has a large lobe to the West. The combined elimination of CKRC 630 in Winnipeg and KDWB 630 becoming a Daytimer for a short while allowed maximum radiation in that direction with 6 kW in the Night pattern. Not quite sure if that was negotiated or how it happened. Normally, it would just stay as a Class B allotment under treaty, and the NIF contour protected.

The five CFCO towers there were optimized into a 10 kW Day and 6 kW Night pattern the way I understand it. Four of the towers were kind of a nearly in line parallelogram. The tower in the middle of the parallelogram was part of the three tower dogleg.

 

[cyberdad]

The five CFCO towers there were optimized into a 10 kW Day and 6 kW Night pattern the way I understand it. Four of the towers were kind of a nearly in line parallelogram. The tower in the middle of the parallelogram was part of the three tower dogleg.

Good info, S.C. Thanks. The towers are a mile or two back from the 401 freeway. Clearly visible in the open farm country, but from the vantage point of driving along the road, I always thought they were in line.

 

[Schlep82]

Tonight, I just heard a positive ID for 630 WLAP. This is the first time receiving WLAP in nights. But in the daytime is also very ok to hear in Cincinnati. If I hear these kind of small stations, It's that they forgot to dive down on wattage or the signal just founded a way to be hearable in low wattage, Eh You tell Me. I really don't know why do these small stations are forgetting to do this at all nights they've and the other stations been through. For Example : 1290 WCHK, and 1550 WIGN.