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AM Frequency of the week: 1370

cyberdad

cyberdad

At my location on the northwest fringe of the Chicago metro, "the 1300s" are probably the quietest part of the daytime dial. And 1370 is one of the quietest of the quiet. On a good radio, I can usually hear a very weak WLTH from Gary, IN. 1kw ND from about 60 miles southeast of me.l

Night: WSPD from Toledo is fairly reliable. KDTH from Dubuque, IA also turns up on top of the channel from time to time. But then, just this week, a new one with a positive ID. KWRT from Boonville, MO. An hour or so before sunrise on Monday morning. Supposedly 84 watts. I'm going to go out on a limb and say it was probably 1kw ND day power. They were comfortably on top for about ten minutes and then faded. (Classic country music).
 
East Tennessee: Knoxville-Sevierville. Days: A weak WRGS, Rogersville TN. Sunset/nights. WXCT, Chattanooga also is a possiblilty.

Nights: Various but WSPD is usually there one way or another.

Retro/other: SDR in Central Indiana: WGCL, Bloomington, IN, WSPD at night
 
In the near north Chicago suburbs WLTH can be heard during the day with a fair/good signal. At night WLTH can still be heard, but weaker.

Retro/other: Way back in the late 60s WLTH, which had previously been known as WGRY, had a Top 40 format and was a good listen. Former WLS, WIND & WGN personality Steve King was the afternoon jock at WLTH back then. I believe Kris Eric Stevens worked there also. I actually had a car radio button set to WLTH.
 
radioman148 said:
I Way back in the late 60s WLTH, which had previously been known as WGRY, had a Top 40 format and was a good listen.
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Reminds me that the first time I heard WLTH back when I was a teenager, the song was Beatles' "I Wanna Be Your Man". I believe they were a daytimer in those days.
 
cyberdad said:
Reminds me that the first time I heard WLTH back when I was a teenager, the song was Beatles' "I Wanna Be Your Man". I believe they were a daytimer in those days.
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Definitely a daytimer. I started listening to the station before they became WLTH and were known as WGRY. Good Top 40 music, and R&B. A nice alternative to WLS & WCFL if you had a good car radio and could hear them well enough. Good jingles too.
 
WGRY is now Roscommon MI whereas WJMK is now Bridgeport, MI, WBKB is now Alpena, MI, and WGRT is now Port Huron, MI. Oh, WLXT (once Channel 60 Aurora) is now Petoskey, MI. There are more but can't think of them right now. WLTH day tower is next to the railroad track by the expressway, not too far from the WIND towers.

If you look at the ARSA site, you'll see that WLTH and WNWC were early add Top 40 stations, often influencing WLS and WCFL to add songs sooner than they otherwise would have. I think you have to sign up to ARSA with a screen name now to get all the information. We had a lot of early add stations in Michigan. "Brown Eyed Girl" broke first on WTAC, WTRX, and WAMM at the same time, so we've been hearing it longer than almost anyone except Van Morrison.
 
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WNWC was another good station and I think was the first station certainly in my area that played Top 40 on FM. I used to go over to their studios fairly often with a friend of mine and hangout with the DJ who was on at night. A real nice guy. His name was John Terry. They later changed their calls to WEXI.
Needless to say I was quite unhappy when they dumped the format in 1970 for "beautiful music".
 
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Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: WLTH
Nightime: WSPD the most common catch at night

DX/RETRO: In the past this frequency was probably the best bet to hear new Hampshire in the Chicago area. WFEA (Manchester, NH) heard twice. First time was in 1982. Other DX on this frequency include KDTH (Dubuque,IA), KWTL (GHrand Forks, ND), WGTC (Bloomiongton, IN), WDEF (Chattanooga, TN), WLOP (Jesup, GA), WGHN (Grand Haven, MI), WMGO (Canton, MI), WCVCN (Neillsville, WI) and two stations thanks to DX Tests: WMGO (Canton, MS) and WCOA (Pensacola, FL).
 
Reynoldsburg, Ohio ... WSPD occasionally makes it here at night and is sometimes strong enough to be listenable without straining, but that's rare in my experience. Daytime, it's not all that listenable until you get 30 miles or so north of Columbus. Strength increases dramatically between Delaware and Marion.
Daytime signal in northwest Ohio is really solid. It is the best AM signal by far from Toledo, and I quantify that only because WJR is every bit as good throughout the Toledo area as WSPD (and, in some areas, better), as is CKLW daytime.
Radio Locator does not show it, but I remember when I attended college in Toledo, WSPD's night signal would fall off fast in western Lucas County. Definitely has its trouble spots around Swanton and Sylvania, but is solid in most other directions. I also don't remember hearing a noticeable null going down 75 toward BG and Findlay as Radio Locator indicates, but this also was 15-20 years ago.
 
DXing The Dearly Departed: KLBA 1370 Albia which sparked to life about 1978, was southern Iowa's first and last DA operation, with 500 watts daytime into four towers that pointed NW to protect 1st adjacent KCII 1380 Washington, about 55 miles ENE of KLBA, as well as co-channel KDTH. Problem with the pattern was that it put a barely listenable signal into Ottumwa, the only population "plum" of sorts, just 20 miles away to the east.

When KLBA received a license for a 25 kW C3 FM (96.7) in the early 90s, the four tower DA on 1370 had a date with the Circular Carbide Saw of Death shortly thereafter. Or, if we want to put it into inventory accounting terms, KLBA was an example of LIFO, Last In, First Out. As a standalone AM, KLBA was a rather flaky operation, with its home county only accounting for a little over 8000 population. Needless to say, KLBA-FM is a much healthier entity.
 
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joebtsflk1 said:
DXing The Dearly Departed: KLBA 1370 Albia which sparked to life about 1978, was southern Iowa's first and last DA operation, with 500 watts daytime into four towers that pointed NW to protect 1st adjacent KCII 1380 Washington, about 55 miles ENE of KLBA, as well as co-channel KDTH. Problem with the pattern was that it put a barely listenable signal into Ottumwa, the only population "plum" of sorts, just 20 miles away to the east.

When KLBA received a license for a 25 kW C3 FM (96.7) in the early 90s, the four tower DA on 1370 had a date with the Circular Carbide Saw of Death shortly thereafter. Or, if we want to put it into inventory accounting terms, KLBA was an example of LIFO, Last In, First Out. As a standalone AM, KLBA was a rather flaky operation, with its home county only accounting for a little over 8000 population. Needless to say, KLBA-FM is a much healthier entity.
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I didn't know Albia even had an AM, let alone one with a four-tower DA. DA or no, I'm guessing KCII wasn't sorry to see them go, My memory of them from my college days was that they had a pretty nice signal with clean audio. They seemed to have their act together pretty well, although their 4pm "after school" top 40 show could be unintentionally rather hilarious!

My Albia experience: I went there once with my college roomate to pick up a chair from a girl who was chasing him (unsuccessfully). KIOA ruled there with whatever there was of the college crowd, even though their pattern didn't exactly favor the place.
 
I'll add one other retro event: Quincy, IL, I pulled the Bloomington IN station (whatever call letters they were using in 1985-86) there.
 
1370... 1370.... hmm, not ringing a bell as to anything I would hear on that channel... ;)
 
Chatham/Springfield, IL: Semi-local WLLM Lincoln, IL, now a religious station (formerly WPRC back in the day, IIRC).

I think WLLM could be heard reliably up I-55 almost to Joliet, and to the St. Louis area to the south.
 
In the 'newer' DX digs here, NE PA, with the log totals set back to 000 for a few years .....

Daytime it's WPAZ PottsTOWN. That town is about 45 miles southeast of PottsVILLE, where the loud daytime local WPPA on 1360 is next door on 1350. The next-door WPAZ puts a pretty presentable daytime signal here for its 1000 daytime omni watts.
At night, their 52 watts are inedible. The usual dominant nighttime 1370 is WXXI Rochester (the station whose ID escapes Scott Fybush, hi). But WFEA was a nighttime catch there.
(In the Long Island days, those two stations often would battle. WFEA was quite the Top 40 station and would often blare in clear on a good transistor, much the way WMEX 1510 would, from Boston. WXXI was known as WSAY in those days).

One sunset log -- taped -- was from a WVMR, from the questionably-named Frost West Virginia. You see, at sunset WPPA 1360 cuts back power to 500 watts and sends most of it south. I gotta get more into that SSS DX. My old favorite 5AM-Monday-sign-on cornucopia doesn't exist in the delightful way it used to do before every station went 24/7/365/eternity.
 
Glad I provided some amusement for Steve!

It's worth noting that the 1370 signal out of Rochester is a little different these days as WXXI from what it was years ago as WSAY. Same transmitter site, same 5 kW day and night, but we moved one of the towers in the 1990s to shift the southern lobe of our figure-8 night pattern. Instead of aiming due south, the lobe now bends a little east. It puts more signal down the I-490/NY 96 corridor into Victor and Canandaigua, important southeastern suburbs with a lot of population growth. It also makes us really, really good into Trenton at night. (Hi, Trenton!)

On the rare occasions when we're down for maintenance at WXXI, we hear a little of WSPD (and more rarely WFEA) here; it's also a good test to see which of the Pennsylvania daytimers are using day power at night. WKMC Roaring Spring/Altoona was doing that quite a bit in the mid-00s, and I've heard WWCB Corry more often here than I should.
 
fybush said:
Glad I provided some amusement for Steve!

we moved one of the towers in the 1990s to shift the southern lobe of our figure-8 night pattern. Instead of aiming due south, the lobe now bends a little east.
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And, naturally I ASSUME you have "before and after" pictures of the tower that was moved to document that! :)
 
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