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AM Frequency of the week: 640

cyberdad

cyberdad

Here in the Chicago area, there's a "new kid on the block" at 640 on the AM dial. WMFN, which relocated from the Grand Rapids, Michigan area.

Days: "New Kid" WMFN is in with a fair signal. 4400 watts from 70 miles to my south-southeast. On a REALLY good radio, you sometimes might be able to hear WOI with WMFN nulled..

Nights: WMFN goes down to 1600 watts with a pattern slightly more favorable to my location than their day pattern. The result for me is that the signal at night is nearly as good as day signal. WOI is usually what's audible underneath. Or null WMFN, and WOI will be there with a listenable signal more often than not.

Retro: KFI was not exactly a regular for me, but it would be in with a listenable signal from time to time back in the 1960s and 70s. Later, when WOI was granted nighttime service, it was the usual occupant of 640 at night at my location. WHLO was an occasional visitor around sunset

When WMFN was located in Michigan, the day signal was weak. At night, WOI usually took over, but I'd still hear WMFN undernath from time to time.
 
East Tennessee: Daytime is WXSM, Blountsville TN. Daytime skip or sunset conditions will bring WGST, Atlanta.
Night: Radio Progreso in Cuba.


Retro/other: The Central Indiana SDR will bring the new WMFM by day, and formerly brought in WHLO, Akron. Radio Progreso is also the go-to night catch.

I can remember the short time WBOW, Terre Haute was on 640. It was a daytime regular in Lafayette.

I caught KFI in the early 80s very late at night with Cuba off the air in Mercer County, Ohio.
 
In the near north Chicago suburbs WMFN is pretty solid during the day. At night still WMFN in a bit of a crowd.

Retro/ Before WMFN I could hear WOI in the clear during the day and WHLO at sunset. I first heard KFI here in 1962. In the winter they were somewhat regular almost every night to some degree. In fact when KFI played CHR in the 70s and early 80s I could sometimes hear them on my car radio driving around at night. Before my local sunrise in the fall & winter is when KFI came in the best until the station in Oklahoma, then WWLS came on. I haven't heard KFI here in over 15 years due to WMFN.
 
KFi AM 640 for me.

I do hear a Spanish station underneath, when there in a pause in modulation.

KFi does fade in and out at times, but its 95% listenable at my location.
 
formula72 said:
KFi AM 640 for me.

I do hear a Spanish station underneath, when there in a pause in modulation.

KFi does fade in and out at times, but its 95% listenable at my location.
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From my experience back when KFI was on the Montecito Heights tower when the Buena Park one came down, either of the two Chihuahua 640 AMs could be what you are hearing. I used to get, depending on conditions, the Nuevo Casas Grandes or the Cd. Juárez station quite well in the KFI cancellation zone; both seemed to be oblivious to the requirement to reduce power at night.
 
When I moved from the south shore of Long Island in 1994 all the way out to the Far West here (NE Pennsylvania :) I took along WWJZ Mt Holly NJ the whole way, in a 1974 Nova and its stock radio.

https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WWJZ&service=AM&h=D

They were the Standards then. They later changed to Disney, then to religious programming.

The only 'dead spot' for their reception along the 180-or-so mile trip was along the Belt Parkway in Queens, where they got smothered and hashed by WFAN 660.

So, daytimes here it's WWJZ.

Nighttimes have brought in WHLO (as Contemporary Christian) ..... CHOG from some place in Canada (they're on tape here) .... WFNC NC and WGST in Atlanta.

For some reason I doubt I'll hear KFI here. It only came in twice back in Queens. We'd usually get CBN Newfoundland or the Cuban station. One night I heard YVQO (?) from Venezuela. 'Paraguay' on 645 is also listed in that old logbook. I suspect that WNBC 660 must've been off that overnight.
 
Funny how these posts can jog a fuzzy memory....

Yes, WWLS came on before before WOI added night operations. I want to say that was sometime around the early 1980s, and they were a pretty easy catch for me. And their appearance was the first "nail in the coffin" for KFI's night signal around here. I haven't heard the Oklahoma 640 for probably at least ten years around here, but I'm pretty sure that they're still on. My guess is they've switched to a night pattern that doesn't favor my area.

As for R. Progreso, they were never a regular for me at my home in the Chicago area, but I'd hear them from time to time. And, in fact, I still do. On the beach near Pensacola, they're audible 24/7, but during the daytime they're underneath or mixing with KTIB (Louisiana).
 
Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: solid WMFN
Nightime: weakened WMFN, but nothing noticed since their move to Peotone, since I pretty much gave up on the frequency.

DX/RETRO: KFI used to make frequent appearances back in the 80's and used to be the best bet to hear California in Chicago. It's now impossible to hear them. Before WMFN moved here I used to hear WBOW (Terre Haute, IN) during daytime mixing with WMFN's predecessor in Michigan. Others heard include WHLO (Akron, OH), WWLS (Moore, OK), WCRV (Collierville, GA), WGST (Atlanta, GA). As for foreign DX, Radio Progreso from Guanabacoa, Cuba used to be quite common. Also heard TGW Guatemala City few times. They used to be listed as 100kW, but I am not sure if that was the case. Finaly, back in the 80's managed to log (couple times) FR3 (Arnouville, Guadeloupe) with their 40kW transmitter.
 
Daytime - nothing

Nighttime - KFI with a good listenable signal most of the time.

Once, I tuned to 640 and there was Spanish station with no trace of KFI but that only lasted a couple minutes and KFI came back.

Still don't know what the station was.

One of my most memorable catches was back in the winter of 1977-78 in New Jersey where I was listening every night on 640 in hopes of hearing KFI because they were a powerful nighttime regular when I was staying in California the previous summer.

So one time and only one time, there it finally was.

I was hearing the song 'I Go Crazy' by Paul Davis and right near the end I hear "64 KFI".

The signal soon faded away and I never heard them again.

That would be impossible now with the south Jersey local on 640.
 
A few years ago we vacationed at my Folks' place, at The Villages in Florida. And despite the occasional grumpiness from the wifester, I found time to treat the tour and visit in the traditional manner, anyway.
DXing off the GE Superadio 2 in the garage. I managed to tape audio on all the AM frequencies up to 1630. That's as high as the GE SR 2 would tune.

That quest also included getting audio on both 630 (unID) plus 650 (WSM).

See, in 2000 AD, the burgeoning Villages bought a quite local AM station, from just out of town, to go along with their community channel 2 TV station and their own newspaper. Originally WHOF Wildwood, the old owners of WHOF featured charmingly schizoid programming. During the day they were the most tedious and monolithic stripe of backwoods fiddle-and-banjo bluegress rubbish you'd ever want to hear (or not hear). I mean, I've always liked C&W, but THAT style of C&W was too jarring for me. I'd swear they would play any available songs by the FATHERS of The Pioneers.
At night, the station went until dawn with an equally appalling racket of screaming Southern gospel. It was as though the old owners didn't want ANYONE to enjoy their station.
Evidently, the original owners were as crazy as swamp foxes, though. They grudgingly (sarcasm) allowed The Villages to take the place -- this 1000-watt omni moonshine shack -- off their hands for a mere $750,000.

The Villages renamed it WVLG, changed the fare to The Standards, and everyone was happy. Terrific low-band signal. And none of the Villages' residents ever heard those songs off the radio in stereo, anyway. So mono suited things well.

https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WVLG&service=AM&h=D

Anyway, in recent times the station eventually -- unavoidably -- evolved into Oldies. The average age of the newer retiree residents was screwing younger. As kids, they didn't groove to Eddie Fisher, let alone Toni Fisher. WVLG hauled out the Beach Boys and Chiffons and Beatles and Three Dog Night.

Well, a radio friend of mine from Long Island had moved down there and worked at WVLG. Big Ed Newlands was hailed as some sort of lauded free agent from the North who knew Oldies, from his days at WLNG. And so Big Ed was in the Air Chair at WVLG one night when I was doing the band-scan on the GE SR 2. Heck -- from my Folks' house I could *walk* to the new WVLG studios in 5 minutes, so he and I shared some laughs. 'What the (heck) are YOU doing down here?' .... 'No, what the (devil) are YOU doing down here?' Stuff like that.
So one night in the Folks' grand, screened garage I somehow managed to get a wicked null on WVLG and heard some Spanish-language station. Big Ed was on WVLG at the time. When I told him about the reception, he said something like 'You nulled out MY SHOW so you could hear (expletive) CUBA?!?'
 
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Steve, that's what my GE SuperRadio tunes, up to 1630. Seems like it will sometimes get close to 1640, don't know if it has to due with ambient temperature or what. If the capacitor plates contract, it would decrease C. There are also changes in dielectric properties with temperature.
 
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This is my first post but I am a long time AM DXer. I live in an area of high ground conductivity.

Daytime: WOI, Ames, IA.

Critical Hours: WCRV, Collierville, TN [morning and evening] when they are on 50kW non-directional power.

Night: KWPN, Oklahoma City can be heard nightly with fading and KFI, Los Angeles typically late at night after midnight. On occasion, I have heard what I believe is a Cuban station but I have yet to log a positive ID.

Bob
 
DXBob said:
This is my first post but I am a long time AM DXer. I live in an area of high ground conductivity.

Bob
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Welcome to the board, Bob. Great to have you here. I, for one, will look forward to seeing your posts. Keep 'em coming and pass the barbecue sauce!

What you're hearing in Spanish on 640 is likely Cuba's Radio Progreso. Widely heard in the eastern half of the country....and sometimes beyond.
 
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cyberdad said:
Welcome to the board, Bob. Great to have you here. I, for one, will look forward to seeing your posts. Keep 'em coming and pass the barbecue sauce!

What you're hearing in Spanish on 640 is likely Cuba's Radio Progreso. Widely heard in the eastern half of the country....and sometimes beyond.
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Thank you for the warm welcome! I certainly live in the land of great BBQ. This is my favorite: https://www.joeskc.com/pages/our-story And, they ship.

I appreciate the tip on Radio Progreso!

Bob
 
Its local WGST day and night here in Atlanta. But at times Radio Progresso overtakes them at night.
 
The Villages renamed it WVLG, changed the fare to The Standards, and everyone was happy. Terrific low-band signal. And none of the Villages' residents ever heard those songs off the radio in stereo, anyway. So mono suited things well.
Click to expand...

Surprisingly, WVLG was a very rare catch in Tampa.

Never even a trace of it during the day and it only showed up once in a while at night.

But right over at the Gulf on Honeymoon Island, it had a good signal in the daytime.


And welcome, DXBob.

Have you ever heard any of the big New York AM stations in Kansas?
 
From here in S.E. Arizona, I've been trying all week, but all I've had on 640 is KFI. During the day the channel is dead, but KFI shows up almost an hour before local sunset. Back in Florida, WMEN near West Palm Beach, was running 25 kW under an STA to clobber Cuban interference.

Jim
 
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