AM Frequency of the week: 990

[cyberdad]

40-ish miles northwest of downtown, Chicago...

Days: Splatter from local blowtorch WMVP (1000)

Nights: WMVP goes to night pattern and sends less power my way. Signal is still good, but CBW blasts in with a good signal. WMVP thus sometimes goes from splatter-ER to splater-EE.

Other location: At our beach getaway spot near Pensacola. WGSO from New Orleans makes the 160-mile daytime hop via saltwater with only 600 watts. Weak signal with splatter from semi-local WRNE (980). Night is usually WNML from Knoxville, TN on top. I keep expecting CBW to be do-able, but keep coming up empty. I'm pretty sure I've heard it at least once or twice, but so far, no positive ID.

Retro: As a teenager, I tried repeatedly for WIBG. I never got so much as even a whiff. Knowing what I know now about WIBG's night pattern, I'm no longer surprised!

 

[radioman148]

In the near north Chicago suburbs daytime it's strong WCFL...er WMVP splatter. At night WMVP spatter is not as bad and CBW is there with a good signal.

Retro: Waaay back I also used to try for WIBG. I figured if I could hear WIP which was a semi regular here I could get "Wibbage", but it never happened.

 

[gr8oldies]

East Tennessee: Daytime: All local WNML, all the time
Night: Get into a WNML null, you might hear Spanish.

Retro/other: Ohio: In the 70s and 80s, we could get the last breath of the 6 tower directional top 40, WERK, Muncie, IN.
WNML does get out--I've caught them in Charleston SC, and in Dayton, Ohio, even with WONE next door. CBW still has a nice signal there some nights

 

[WCJ]

Orange County, TX Days-KZZB Beaumont, TX, Nights a weak KZZB but usually a "GY" mess with an unknown in Spanish usually on top. Have heard a weak KFCD Farmersville, TX a few times.

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

Chatham, IL (10 miles SW of downtown Springfield):

Day: RIP the original WCAZ Carthage, IL (forced to sign off Dec. 31, 2017 after the license renewal/non-renewal fiasco). Had a fair signal, especially on car radios. But the station was a blowtorch from NW Illinois to the St. Louis area, and into east central Illinois and probably all the way west to at least the I-35 corridor in IA/MO.

Little would I know at the time WCAZ would not be the only western Illinois AM which would disappear in the next year or so. Along with WKBF-1270 Rock Island, WOAM-1350 Peoria (which still uses their 107.5 translator as their main signal), and WAIK-1590 Galesburg. WIHM-1410 Taylorville, IL also had to go dark for a time last January due to transmitter problems (and applied for temporary silence from the FCC).

Now nothing--except MAYBE a whimper from WITZ Jasper, IN.

Sunset was formerly still WCAZ. Plus some WNML Knoxville, TN.

Night: CBW.

Hopefully the new, revived WCAZ which has taken the 1510 frequency from the former WKAI-AM/WLRB/WYEC Macomb, IL can somehow, some way get 990 kHz back to the mid-Mississippi Valley.

 

[kf4rca]

Here in Atlanta, it's WISK "La Brava" in Lawrenceville which is about 20 miles up I-85. I can often hear them at night even though they are a daytimer only.
Guess that's why they call themselves "La Brava."

 

[CADXER]

Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: WMVP splatter
Nightime: CBW Winnipeg dominates at night

DX/RETRO: others heard KNIN (Wichita Falls, TX), KRKS (Denver, CO with a DX test), WNOX (Knoxville, TN), WNYR (Rochester, NY), WBAX (Clare, MI), WYAT (New Orleans, LA), and XET Monterre, Mexico, which used to be more common back in 1980's.

 

[ksradiogeek]

Mason City, IA:

Daytime: Semi-weak KAYL/Storm Lake (the only Regional Mexican-formatted station in this part of the state, albeit based about 135 miles away)
Nighttime: Can somewhat pick up CBW, but a lot of it is hash (must be due to the RF cloud in town)

Central KS:
Daytime: KRSL/Russell
Nighttime: CBW

 

[icybluelake]

Daytime: nothing. Used to hear the now-defunct WCAZ from Carthage, IL, which has been off the air for a year or two.
Nighttime: CBW. Fairly reliable; occasionally absent, occasionally blasting in.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

From Laramie, in southeast Wyoming

At night: CBW winnipeg at least fairly listenable most times

Around sunrise: XECL La Rocola 990 Mexicali

After sunrise: KRKS 990 Denver

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

In the near north Chicago suburbs daytime it's strong WCFL...er WMVP splatter. At night WMVP spatter is not as bad and CBW is there with a good signal.

It still says WCFL on the transmitter building!

CBW has been coming in better the last few years. I think it has to do with the low sunspot activity reflecting lower frequencies better, and less geomagnetic weakening of the skywave.

As for WMVP, when I had a Field Intensity Meter loaned to me, I got skywave returns maxing out at 10 mV/m for WMVP in SE Michigan. There were places in the house, near the breaker box where all the wires come in, but upstairs, where it was probably close to 25 mV/m.

 

[RyanHoward]

Warminster PA(Philly 'burbs):
Daytime: local WNTP(Salem-owned talk station).
Night: same thing.

 

[cyberdad]

It still says WCFL on the transmitter building!

Yep....not to be confused with WSCR's transmitter building.festooned with the letters WMAQ. I know a guy who makes banners. Maybe he can crank out one that says both WSCR and WBBM to hang above the front door.

 

[CADXER]

cyberdad it's been several years since the WMAQ calls were removed from the transmitter building in Bloomingdale. You are right they should just place WSCR/WBBM calls on the building when WBBM starts broadcasting from there. And WLEY as well.