AM Frequency of the week: 840

[cyberdad]

Hmm… I'd not noticed anything in particular, but I don't go out of my way to sample the station. Doing a quick check here right now the signal is surprisingly the strongest thing on my dial (other than WHEP which is practically next door — by radio standards), and I don't recall it ever being quite that robust. Usually 660 is my biggest non-Foley AM signal, followed by 1330 and 870. (1000 is off the air, probably for good.)

So, yeah, maybe they did something recently. It's still the same crap low quality low bitrate audio, though.

660 is still the strongest Baldwin County daytime signal at the beach on the state line, but 840 wasn't far behind on our most recent visit. (I don't recall of hand if their stick is in Baldwin County or on the other side of the bay). WHEP does reasonably well (their translator also makes it in, but even six floors up, a lot of antenna fiddling is required to get a listenable signal). And, yes, WWL (870) and WEBY (1330) are still the overall strongest AMs at our usual "happy place".

1000 was fair at best on that stretch of the beach. I noticed that they were off. But I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that nobody will miss it. Always sad when a station goes dark, however.

 

[charlestondxman]

As Ryan Howard does, Steve Green does, hi, from some place maybe 80 miles north of his den.

Day -- a weak WVPO.
Night -- WHAS.

* * * * *

Retro days near JFK Int'l : In the day on the average, super-selective house-radio Atwater-Kent or American Bosch -- the everyday household owned one, of course -- we would null out WNYC. They were on 830 at the time. But reception actually varied, dictated by which side of the STREET you lived. I would null WNYC and hear a faint WVPO. My buddy Vinny, four short blocks West, would null out WNYC and get WRYM from New Britain/Hartford. There were four of us DXers, alternatively situated. Those on the East side had predominately Philly-South Jersey stations on top. Those on the West side of the street heard the Connecticut stations atop -- even with longwires.
690, 740, 800, 1340, 1400, 1450, 1490 : The scroll of conflict went on. We'd have to use each other's radios in different houses to 'log' a catch.

* * * * *

WHAS had a tremendous, singing TOH legal ID in the mid-90's. I had only heard it otherwise done -- same melody and essence -- on the unlikely WRUF 850 Gainesville FL. And since a few pals got an LPFM station licensed for Girardville PA, I suggested that they investigate that jingle; that company. I told them that there is nothing to top a catchy, jaunty, dynamic, check-the-hour identifier than a TOH statement like that.
But we never found out who did those WHAS hour-openers. Perhaps someone here knows.....

Talking about WHAS, here is a montage of jingles and production from the 80s and early 90s. JAM did some of it. http://www.lkyradio.com/audio/WHAS80sJinglesAndIDMontage.mp3

Joe Donovan’s show was probably the last regular music show on a clear channel, if you don’t count those trucker shows (lasted all the way into 1997). That same site has some Joe Donovan airchecks from that era. He was still playing 50s and early 60s songs.

Much different from WHAS now, which sounds like 20 other iHeart news-talk stations except for a couple extra local shows.

 

[cyberdad]

Talking about WHAS, here is a montage of jingles and production from the 80s and early 90s. JAM did some of it. http://www.lkyradio.com/audio/WHAS80sJinglesAndIDMontage.mp3

Joe Donovan’s show was probably the last regular music show on a clear channel, if you don’t count those trucker shows (lasted all the way into 1997). That same site has some Joe Donovan airchecks from that era. He was still playing 50s and early 60s songs.

Much different from WHAS now, which sounds like 20 other iHeart news-talk stations except for a couple extra local shows.

Great stuff. Thanks for posting. I do remember some of those jingles. And you're absolutely right, today's WHAS is a cookie-cutter clone of dozens....if not hundreds...of canned programming, "anywhere USA news talk" stations. As a music station, for a while it was just about as good as it gets anytime of day. Of course Donovan (Illinois native) was in a class by himself.

As for music on clear channel stations, there's still CFZM, which sounds a little like a slightly lower-energy version of what WHAS used to sound like.

 

[icybluelake]

Nothing daytime. WLW shows up on daytime skywave with surprising frequency, and I've always wondered if I could hear WHAS, but I've never caught it during the day. Nighttime, of course, is all WHAS.