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AM Frequency of the week: 1300

cyberdad

cyberdad

Far northwest Chicago suburb..........

Days: WRDZ. The former Radio Disney from Chicago's southwest suburbs. 5kw. beamed primarily north. The result here is a weak, but listenable signal.

Night: WRDZ disapears into the slop. Occasionally it rises to to the top, but not all that often. Same goes for WOOD (Grand Rapids, MI), which used to be more common around sunrise before they reaised power and installed a "marble shooter" pattern aimed away from me to the northeast.

Other Location: KGLO in Mason City, IA covers roughly half of Iowa as well as parts of Minnesota with 5kw. Then at night, the 5kw is beamed north. This creates a monster signal (at least by "regional channel standards in the Minnesota and Wisconsin northwoods.
 
In the near north Chicago suburbs WRDZ has a fair daytime signal. At night it's much weaker with more noise. This station had a better signal many years ago when it was WTAQ. WOOD used to come through sometimes at night, but haven't heard it in a long time.
 
East Tennessee: Daytime: Semi-local WMTN, Morristown TN. Night: WNQM Nashville TN has a lobe pointed at me.

Retro/other: I could get WNQM at times in Ohio (particularly right after sunrise) sometimes splattering all over next-door WHIO.

Indiana SDR: Just now WLXG, Lexington, Ky.
 
Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: WRDZ with their Polish langauge programming from their 6-tower array in Alsip, IL.
Nightime: usually WRDZ, but as radioman148 notes above they used to have a better signal as WTAQ.

DX/RETRO: DX catches include KGLo (Mason City, IA), WERE (Cleveland, OH, WMVI (Mt. Vernon, OH), WPFR (terre Haute, IN), WKXi Jackson (FL), and WOOD (Grand rapids, MI).
 
Recent DX -- phase 2 here in NE Pennsylvania:
Daytime -- Hazleton PA is logged as just 'Hazleton'. They change their calls with the season. Spring is tomorrow, so they'll probably become some other identity.
At night, WJFK Baltimore (or whatever THEY call themselves now) is usually dominany.
One sunrise, a surprise was WQBK from Rensselaer NY (near Albany). I understand that students from that high school have to spell the town correctly on their final or they don't graduate.

* * * * *

One terrific 1300retro was on a February, back in 1973. En route to moving to Massachusetts from my beloved JFK-area neighbourhood, I and my trusty zenith slipped on the back porch ice and crashed at the bottom. DX instinct instantly had overcome any physical priorities.
I plugged it back in to see if it still worked. And there .... about 1:30 PM, was WKCY Harrisonburg VA. Solid. For at least a half an hour. Unfading. There was nothing from the closer WAVZ New Haven, or WRRC from Rockland County.

From a distance of some 310 miles in broad daylight, the reception must've been via the Mid-Winter Anomaly sort. I didn't know what that sort of effect was called then.
 
CADXER said:
Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:
Nightime: usually WRDZ, but as radioman148 notes above they used to have a better signal as WTAQ.
.
Click to expand...

Question to you and radioman... Do you guys think this has to do with the pattern that they installed when they increased to 4500/4000 watts (IIRC)? Or could it be something else? I ask because I've been in Crystal Lake since 1977, and the signal here strikes me as the same as during its WTAQ days. Weak during the day, buried at night. Off the top of my head, I'd think the current night pattern/power would be stronger at your locations today than previously.
 
cyberdad said:
Question to you and radioman... Do you guys think this has to do with the pattern that they installed when they increased to 4500/4000 watts (IIRC)? Or could it be something else? I ask because I've been in Crystal Lake since 1977, and the signal here strikes me as the same as during its WTAQ days. Weak during the day, buried at night. Off the top of my head, I'd think the current night pattern/power would be stronger at your locations today than previously.
Click to expand...

It's hard to say Cyberdad because today we're dealing with higher noise levels from all the electronics that are around us that we didn't have 30 or 40 years ago.
I'm guessing that the different variables in that regard must play some factor, but I'm far from an expert.
 
I am not an expert either, but I think the higher noise level these days is a factor in my opinion. Not sure about the pattern/power change. During the WTAQ days I used to live on the NW side of Chicago and nulling the station to DX was slightly more difficult than it is now at my current location in Wood Dale, IL (about 12 miles west of my original Chicago location).
 
Daytime: KGLO Mason City, IA
Nighttime: mostly KGLO. I've also heard WRDZ on occasion, as well as some Spanish-language station -- might have been WNQM Nashville. Can't recall if I've heard WOOD from home or somewhere nearby on the road.
 
radioman148 said:
I'm guessing that the different variables in that regard must play some factor, but I'm far from an expert.
Click to expand...

Thanks, guys for taking a stab at this one. The theory that its simply a combination of variables makes sense. Also, I'm thinking that the Disney folks may have moved the transmitter site farther south than it was when licensed to La Grange and operating at lower power. I'm not at all sure whether or not that happened, although the COL did change.
 
cyberdad said:
Also, I'm thinking that the Disney folks may have moved the transmitter site farther south than it was when licensed to La Grange and operating at lower power. I'm not at all sure whether or not that happened, although the COL did change.
Click to expand...

I believe the transmitter was moved. I thought that when the station was WTAQ they operated with 5kw during the day, but I could be wrong about that.
 
Not sure when they moved to their current site 6-tower array at 118th and Austin Ave (just off I-294) in Alsip, IL, but their original transmitter site was at Hwy 66 (Ogden Av.) & 45 in La Grange, IL.
 
radioman148 said:
I believe the transmitter was moved. I thought that when the station was WTAQ they operated with 5kw during the day, but I could be wrong about that.
Click to expand...

I don't remember them at 5kw. At least not in their WTAQ days. But I wasn't sure, so I randomly went to the 1965 Broadcasting yearbook on David's site. WTAQ is listed as 1kw day and 500 watts directional at night. Not sure when they upped their power....whether before or after Disney took over. I'd guess it coincides with the move that CADXER is talking about for the TX site move.
 
cyberdad said:
I don't remember them at 5kw. At least not in their WTAQ days. But I wasn't sure, so I randomly went to the 1965 Broadcasting yearbook on David's site. WTAQ is listed as 1kw day and 500 watts directional at night. Not sure when they upped their power....whether before or after Disney took over. I'd guess it coincides with the move that CADXER is talking about for the TX site move.
Click to expand...

OK, another memory failure for me. Not the first time :)
 
According to the History Card for WTAQ on the FCC web site the CP for 5 kW was granted in December 1965. Unfortunately FCC does not provide any data after 1979.

Here is a link to the History Card for WRDZ:

https://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/p...etimportletter_exh.cgi?import_letter_id=67382

I did some further checking on the FCC web site and found this document that states that the current WRDZ transmitter site was constructed in 1990. Here is the link to the document:

https://licensing.fcc.gov/cdbs/CDBS...?appn=101005886&qnum=5140&copynum=1&exhcnum=2

I would have to assume that they started using that site in 1990 or 1991. Radio Disney did not take over the station until 1998.
 
Last edited:
CADXER said:
I would have to assume that they started using that site in 1990 or 1991. Radio Disney did not take over the station until 1998.
Click to expand...

That sounds very plausible. I think you've unraveled the mystery. Nice work, thanks!
 
From NW San Antonio...

Daytime: Heavy splatter from local 1310 KAHL. On my sensitive radios that have good selectivity or sync, a weak KVET "The Zone" in Austin can be heard.

Sunset: KVET much more clearly through the splatter.

Night: Still some KAHL splatter, and XEP "Radio Mexicana" in Ciudad Juárez dominates. In its null I can sometimes hear KAKC "The Buzz" in Tulsa and less often KSYB, a gospel station in Shreveport. KVET drops from 5 to 1 kw, and I rarely hear it at night. Last week I caught a new station, WOAD in Jackson, MS. It briefly popped up with an ID and urban gospel music around midnight.

Sunrise: XEP still dominates, and KSYB is noticeably stronger. KAKC also comes up stronger when it goes to day power. I've also heard Spanish-language Christian KLAR in Laredo on a few occasions. One time I heard WNQM in Nashville with traditional gospel music and preaching.

Retro: Haven't heard XEXV in León since in a couple of years. It's probably another one migrated to FM.
 
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