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AM Frequency of the week: 740

cyberdad

cyberdad

(Launching this week's thread a little earlier than usual due to travel.)

Far northwest suburban Chicago....

Days: Blank, except for some light to moderate splatter from WGN (720).

Nights: CFZM. Strong, reliable, and usually alone. However, during fades KRMG sometimes surfaces.

Retro: CFZM has made it in on daytime skywave on a few occasions. Not recently, however.

Other Location: In the zone between southern Midwest and into the upper reaches of the southeastern states, CFZM mixes with and eventually gives way to KRMG.
 
Days...KCBS all news 740 ( San Francisco )

Nights...KCBS...Absolutely nothing underneath this station, even when nulled by 50%
 
East Tennessee: Days: Lincoln Memorial University's Americana station, WCXZ, Harrogate (on the TN/KY border).
Night: A combination of CFZM and KRMG, with CFZM usually (but not always) dominant.

Retro/other: Ohio and Indiana. WNOP, the long-time jazz station and current Catholic station, still has a signal that goes forever during the day, and gets to at least Middletown by night. I've received WNOP in North Central Indiana (but not Lafayette that I remember). Getting north of Dayton I've picked up CFZM in the winter as early as 2:30pm. CFZM also makes it barely to Sandusky, Ohio during the day.
 
In the near north Chicago suburbs days just some splatter from WNDZ which has their signal pointed right at me from NW Indiana.
At night all CFZM, formerly CBL when I first heard it is strong. I've heard KRMG a few times.

@Cyberdad, have you ever heard WRPQ daytime at your QTH?
 
This is one of the more interesting frequencies out there, IMO.
As for my local reception return from Reynoldsburg, Ohio ...
* Daytime: A weak WNOP from Cincinnati. 2 or 3 on a 1-10 scale.
* Nighttime: Always a very strong CFZM. This has been the case ever since I can remember, and I've rarely if ever heard anything under it.

Used to live in suburban Houston and where I was, KTRH peeled paint, but I know you don't need to be too far north of Houston for it to be a completely different story. I've heard it at times in suburban Dallas, but most of the time it's nowhere to be found. The directional qualities of the stations in Tulsa and Texarkana make for interesting reception in that part of the country.
I've never heard KRMG here in Ohio but I know you don't have to be too far to my south to start hearing it. I have heard it in Memphis.
The farthest from Houston I've personally heard KTRH is Panama City Beach, Florida. It was a regular nighttime visitor on the couple trips I've made there, though relatively weak. I don't think it would be heard too much farther to the east of PCB, or for that matter all that much farther north.
 
From the New Britain, CT area, southwest of Hartford:

DAY - very weak signal from Long Island, NY. I think it's 740 AM from Greenport, NY?
NIGHT - CFZM-AM 740 of Toronto, a.k.a. "Zoomer Radio". Used to listen to them quite often a couple of years ago. Fun station, especially with the more risque content at midnight on weeknights.
 
From the New Britain, CT area, southwest of Hartford:

DAY - very weak signal from Long Island, NY. I think it's 740 AM from Greenport, NY?
NIGHT - CFZM-AM 740 of Toronto, a.k.a. "Zoomer Radio". Used to listen to them quite often a couple of years ago. Fun station, especially with the more risque content at midnight on weeknights.
 
740 here is a weak Orlando, FL (sports) in Charleston. It often gets overshadowed by splatter from our local 730. At night CFZM is the dominant, even all the way down here in South Carolina.
 
Yakima WA

Nothing daytime. Once in a while I can hear CBX Edmonton (CBC Radio One) in the dead of winter.

Nights is a different story. KCBS San Francisco (News) is the strongest signal on this channel, with CBX Edmonton not far behind. However, KNFL Fargo ND (ESPN) at 940 watts is common as dirt nowadays. Always surprised by this one. Some nights they are on top of the channel with KCBS phased. CFZM Toronto (Standards) is not far behind, either.

Still a lot of wanted stations nevertheless:
KBRT Costa Mesa CA (Religion) I've never heard this day or night. 50KW in the day with most power going south to the Pacific, but some power does go towards me. But I still have to get through the behemoth KCBS.
KTRH Houston (News/Talk) Had them tentatively with news-talk programming under CBX and KVOX a few years ago, never confirmed.
KVOR Colorado Springs (News/Talk) 3.3KW day power goes north, should be possible on a good sunrise session.
 
radioman148 said:
@Cyberdad, have you ever heard WRPQ daytime at your QTH?
Click to expand...

Once. At sunrise on day power. Probably about a half dozen years ago.

If you drive through the Wisconsin Dells area on I-94 at night, you can get about 10 or 15 minutes of WRPQ. Always under CFZM, IME.
 
Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: nothing
Nightime: CFZM with Zoomer Radio

DX/RETRO: speaking of WRPQ, I did hear them during daytime on few occasions back in 1980's. Also WVLN (Olney, IL) at around the same time. CFZM dominates at night, but KRMG and KTRH are also heard on regular basis. Other DX includes KVOX (Fargo, ND), WSVQ (Harrogate, TN), WCWY (Tullahoma, TN), CBX (Edmonton, AB), Radio Liberacion, Cuba and Radio Maracaibo, Venezuela.
 
West Houston, pretty boring with KTRH 24/7.

Back in the 70's in Tulsa, KRMG was, of course, all I could normally hear. However, they were off on, IIRC, Sunday mornings (the good old days...) and I could hear the old CBL Toronto and occasionally KCBS.
 
Daytime here is a weak WVCH Chester PA.

Not sure; perhaps someone here will go back that far: Was WVCH always religion ?

And @ Ryan Howard : Did that WVCH stop using that quaint sign-off 'WVCH now concludes it's 105,622nd broadcast day' *before* they were issued that blowtorch 6-watt nighttime license?

Sunset catches here in NE PA have been WRNR WV, WMBL NC (both taped) and WNYH from Long Island. The last one was at the time several years ago when WNYH was suspected of accidentally not lowering their power for a few weeks. There had beena proposition floated about moving WNYH west a bit. Like to Mt.Olive NEW JERSEY! Nothing came of it. Word was that they wanted to send a signal into Manhattan. I suspect that the eight or so towers they'd need was a bit out of the budget.

(Blush) I have Toronto logged here as 'CBL'. It was that far back. But yeah, it indeed the fun CFZM here L&C at night as well. Did they get rid of that 'Seven four-TEE' jingle yet? And weren't the calls between CBL and CFZM something else in between those two?

* * * * * * *

Retro/Long Island DX days provided 15 loggings on 740, most of them nighttime. The best was KCBS in CA. WKIS Orlando was another. The dial was a lot freer then. KRMG Tulsa was another catch, I never heard KTRH Houston, though.
 
Last edited:
From the Valley of the Jolly Green Giant (Le Sueur, MN)

daytime-WDGY Hudson, WI (5kw daytime only)
nightime-CFZM

Its always cool to hear WDGY "sign off" the AM signal by telling folks to tune to 92.1 or 103.7 (FM translators) then the program dramatically changes as CFZM comes in.
 
740 is a real challenge for me. WSB's (750) transmitter is only 5.3 miles from me. But with my Select-A-Tenna I can pull in CFZM in the early evenings with only a little splatter from WSB. Later its KRMG. Days its nothing but splatter from WSB.
But lately WSB has been having trouble with their new Harris DX50 transmitters and are off the air.
 
CADXER said:
Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: nothing
Nightime: CFZM with Zoomer Radio
DX/RETRO: speaking of WRPQ, I did hear them during daytime on few occasions back in 1980's.
Click to expand...

If R-L is any guide, I'm guessing that WRPQ's physical plant may have degraded. Of course, I could be wrong. But I would expect to hear them from time to time on winter days. Then at night, what I've experienced my past few times in the Wisconsin Dells area has been seemingly less range than I would anticipate.
 
crainbebo said:
Yakima WA

Nothing daytime. Once in a while I can hear CBX Edmonton (CBC Radio One) in the dead of winter.

Nights is a different story. KCBS San Francisco (News) is the strongest signal on this channel, with CBX Edmonton not far behind. However, KNFL Fargo ND (ESPN) at 940 watts is common as dirt nowadays. Always surprised by this one. Some nights they are on top of the channel with KCBS phased. CFZM Toronto (Standards) is not far behind, either.

Still a lot of wanted stations nevertheless:
KBRT Costa Mesa CA (Religion) I've never heard this day or night. 50KW in the day with most power going south to the Pacific, but some power does go towards me. But I still have to get through the behemoth KCBS.
KTRH Houston (News/Talk) Had them tentatively with news-talk programming under CBX and KVOX a few years ago, never confirmed.
KVOR Colorado Springs (News/Talk) 3.3KW day power goes north, should be possible on a good sunrise session.
Click to expand...

You definitely would have heard one more in your area if Pamplin Broadcasting had followed through on their 740 plans. They had a CP in Redmond/ Seattle for 50/20 directional then eventually 10/10 omni before they finally realized they didn't want to be burdened with the expense. Now they are completely out of radio.
 
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