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AM Frequency of the week: 1080

cyberdad

cyberdad

Far northwestern Chicago burbs.....

Day: WNWI from Oak Lawn IL, 5kw ND from about 50 miles to my southeast. Fair signal

Night WNWI reduces power to 2,600 watts. However, the pattern favors me, so the signal is about the same as when on day pattern. And given that 1080 at night around here is otherwise relatively open, WNWI manages to remain reliably on top of the channel....although there's usually stuff audible
undereath.

Retro: Before WNWI came on in the late 60s, I used to sometimes get a whiff of WPOK from Pontiac, IL. 1kw daytimer. I believe they simply moved to FM At night, it was the battle of two giants....WTIC and KRLD, But by the time those signals got here it was actually a battle of weaklings. KRLD usually getting the better of it (exacept for WTIC at just around sunset),

Sunrise/sunset: WOAP, a 1kw ND daytimer from Owasso, MI was a relatively common visitor.
 
East Tennessee: WKJK, Louisville KY's southeast aimed pattern makes it mostly dominant day and night. It's possible to snag WTIC or KRLD.

Retro/other: 1080 was the one-time home of WMVR, Sidney, Ohio which continues as an FM and is a second or third generation family operation (owner Dean Miller appeared in the 50s TV sitcom "December Bride" and he would always remind anyone he met of that fact). WMVR was a 3 tower directional with a super tight pattern that went north and east, but a sharp null toward Indianapolis made it unable to cover parts of its own county. It couldn't make it to Dayton to the south. Its partial Pre Sunrise authorization was tied to WTIC's sign on (there were several of those operations-daytimers on eastern clears-in that part of Ohio.
 
In the near north Chicago suburbs during the day WNWI has a fair/decent signal. At night it's there also with usually some weaker signals underneath.

Retro: When I first started DXing in the early 60s, WTIC was the first station I heard at night on 1080. The next day I learned that another DXer who only lived a few blocks away heard KRLD the same night I heard WTIC. Later on, in my experience I found that KRLD usually rose to the top better than WTIC. I also heard a weak WPOK during the day back then.
 
I don't get anything on 1080 at night. It's very strange. It seems like not that long ago that KRLD was fairly regular. Now I never hear it. Nothing daytime either.
 
Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: WNWI with decent signal
Nightime: mostly WNWI, but nullable

DX/RETRO: WNWI used to be heard during daytime even when they were broadcasting from Valparaiso, IN. The switch to Oak Lawn, IL happened on March 27, 1998. Prior to the switch the two reliable catches at night were WTIC and KRLD. This frequency was the best bet to hear Connecticut on AM. Other DX heard on 1080 are KWJJ (Portland, OR), WCII (Louisville, KY), WEKS (Marietta, GA), WKAC (Athens, AL), YVQJ (Barcelona, Venezuela), HJDZ (Medellin, Colombia) and 4VRD (Port au Prince, Haiti)
 
From the far SW Kansas City metro:

Day: Splatter from near local KEXS, Excelsior Springs, MO. on 1090 kHz. [10 kW daytimer, directional and protects KAAY, Little Rock, AR]

Critical Hours: KRLD, D.allas, TX

Nighttime: KRLD is typically quite listenable but can fad out at times. Not as strong as WBAP at night at my location.

Bob
 
In west Houston, daytime is all KNTH 1070 splatter. At night it's all KRLD.

Back in the 70's in Tulsa KRLD was there day and night, slightly weaker at night. I remember when they were off for maintenance on Monday (?) morning, I sometimes heard WTIC sign on.

At some point in the early 70's, KRLD had a progressive rock show on at night. Their signal was local-strength in west Texas and was my cousins' source for album rock. Out where they lived, they had pushbuttons set for KRLD, KOMA, and (later) X-Rock 80. Those skywave signals were a lifeline to them.
 
1080 is usually a mish-mash here in central Ohio. WTIC was the first station I heard there years ago, and it used to come in much better in this region than it does now. On the occasions I do happen to check 1080, WTIC is deep in the mud if it's present at all.
I remember hearing KRLD here only once, on a rainy Friday night in January 2007. It was around sunset, certainly before their pattern change, and it was decently strong (maybe 4 on a scale of 1-to-10). When I tried roughly three hours later, it was gone and I am pretty sure I haven't heard it here since. I don't know how far southwest of me I'd need to go to hear it reliably at night, but I'm guessing at least into western Kentucky if not Memphis or Arkansas.
I heard Louisville here once, during an auroral event of all things back in the winter of 2004-05.
My experiences when I lived in greater Houston were the same as wildthangjim. I could hear KRLD weakly daytime if I was out in the Katy area but at night, it was much stronger. They carried the Rangers then and it was easy to listen to those games driving around after dark.
 
Since I moved here to PA some 20 years ago and set my AM catches list back to '000', the 1080 frequency has treated me well.

Daytime : Nohting. Now, you have to DX with that kind of enthusiasm.

Sunsets: WRES from Kentucky, WKBY from Virginia, WUFO from Buffalo, WKGS from NC and WKKE, also from NC.
I only have WKBY taped.

Nighttimess it's WTIC, of course.
But there were two occasions -- heralded alerts in some DX sources -- when WTIC was off the air for some manner of transmitter painting or new refrigerator magnets. On BOTH instances, KRLD came in here on the barefoot GE SR II.
The first time, KRLD was an absolute bomb*. The second time they were pretty weak.

Ha -- the first instance of KRLD reception, a buddy of mine on Long Island also heard them .... decided that it was WTIC .... and tuned out without an ID. He called me all sorts of names when I told him it was KRLD, not WTIC.
 
When WOAP had a CP to go to 50000 watts Day, and 4500 watts Night, from the "Waverly" CDP COL, WTIC was ordered to go DA at Local Sunset, rather than Sunset at KRLD. That may explain why you hear less at Night on 1080.
 
Schroedingers Cat said:
When WOAP had a CP to go to 50000 watts Day, and 4500 watts Night, from the "Waverly" CDP COL, WTIC was ordered to go DA at Local Sunset, rather than Sunset at KRLD. That may explain why you hear less at Night on 1080.
Click to expand...

I vaguely remember when WOAP had designs on becoming the "mouse that roared". As it is they have a good signal already. Of course not 50KW wprth of "good", but they do pretty well for a 1KW daytimer.
 
Days::::KSCO out of Santa Cruz comes in pretty good.

Nights::: Much different story here. KSCO is very weak, with at least 2 stations overlapping it. I'm thinking they are KFXX out of Portland, and KRLD out of Dallas ( unconfirmed ). Even though the station is quite close to me, it's just not clear modulation. Most of KSCO 5KW signal is directed west, out to the Ocean.
 
Mason City, IA:
Daytime-generally nothing except maybe KOAK/Red Oak in the off chance
Nighttime-KRLD

Central KS:
Daytime-usually splatter from KFTI next door
Nighttime-easily KRLD
 
In Atlanta, it's WFTD Marietta, a Hispanic programmed station. Its 50KW days, 10KW critical hours and signs off at night. All they play is music. I've never heard any spots. Probably just a computer playing in a closet. I don't see how they pay the electric bill.
 
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