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AM frequency of the week: 1090.

cyberdad

cyberdad

Far northwest Chicago suburbs.

Day: Moderate splatter from semi-local WNWI (1080)

Night: KAAY. As discussed previously, not as good as during it's top-40 heyday. But significantly better during the past several months since they "rebuilt the signal. The other night, they even tripped the scan button on the car radio.

Sunrise-sunset: Occasionally WBAL. Less occasionally WKBZ, a 1kw daytimer (ND) from Muskegon, MI

Retro: Daytime used to be a weak WGLC from Mendota, IL, 250 watts from about 60 miles to my southwest. Now dark.
 
Near north Chicago suburbs daytime is a weak, but readable WKBZ. At night KAAY with a good signal. Not as powerful as in their Top 40 days.
Critical hours WBAL especially in winter.
 
On and near Lake Shore Drive in Chicago:

Daytime, I've gotten WFCV Fort Wayne and WKBZ Muskegon. The signals are never particularly strong but I can usually hear one or the other.

Critical Hours: I sometimes hear WBAL Baltimore. One time I also heard WAQE in Rice Lake, WI right before they signed off at sunset.

Night: It's sort of jumbled but KAAY Little Rock comes in the most.
 
From Laramie, WY (SE corner of the state)

KMXA Denver by day
Sometimes KAAY Little Rock at night, otherwise a mush of garbage
Right before sunrise, XEPRS Rosarito/Tijuana
 
East Tennessee: (Knoxville/Sevierville): Daytime: Maybe a whiff of WENR, Englewood, TN.
Sunrise/sunset: WKFI, Wilmington, OH is one I've heard both after sunrise and before sunset. It's part of the WBZI/WEDI/WKFI classic country trimulcast, originating in Xenia, OH
Night: When the pattern was out of whack, KAAY was a more frequent fire and brimstone visitor. Not so much now.

Retro/other: Growing up in West Central Ohio, daytime was the present-day WFCV (then WFWR I believe), but we'd get a strong hor or so of KAAY's top 40 format before their pattern change.
 
I think I read that KAAY was rebuilding their directional array.

The 50% Skywave extends to the Yucatan Peninsula, and to Minnesota almost to the Canadian Border.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QSUkUa5JHDg/Sq-EC2K7qyI/AAAAAAAAAO0/TuheovbWZ4c/s400/image001.jpg
 
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Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: WKBZ occasionally
Nightime: mostly KAAY, WBAL occasionally

DX/RETRO: WGLC (Mendota, IL) used to be a common at daytime but they are gone. Some of the DX include KEXS (Excel Springs, MO), KMXA (Aurora, CO), WFCV (New Haven, IN), WISS (Berlin, WI), WMYD (Rice Lake, WI), WILD (Boston, MA), WHGG (Kingsport, TN), CHRS (Longievil, PQ), XEPRS (Rosarito, Mexico), HJOM (Cartagena, Colombia)
 
From 25 miles SW of downtown Kansas City:

Day: KEXS, Excelsior Springs, MO. 10 kW daytimer, directional [protects KAAY, Little Rock, AR]

Critical Hours: KEXS until sign off, then KAAY is already there.

Night: KAAY, now strong again. Very listenable, seldom fades.

Retro: In the late 60s and early 70s, in both Peoria and Macomb, IL., KAAY was the most consistent Top 40 signal at night except for when I lived in Peoria and could listen to local WIRL. WLS was a fadey, phasey mess at night in both locations, especially in Peoria. During my college years in Macomb, we often listened to Beaker Street and Clyde Clifford late at night. I still remember the background sound of the 50 kW transmitter picked up his microphone during his show.

Bob
 
West Houston days is semi-local KULF with CRI (Mandarin) programming. After they're off the air at sunset, it becomes a jumble. I once heard KVOP up in Plainview TX, but haven't caught them recently. I've heard Spanish music, possibly XEWL in Nuevo Laredo, but again not recently. At night, the newly improved KAAY is usually on top with a fair to good signal. I've not caught XEPRS from here

Back in Tulsa in the early 70's KAAY was a good, but not great, signal at night. I loved Beaker Street. I also heard XERB on occasional Monday mornings.
 
With those narrow lobe DAs like KAAY, the side of the lobes, like the one that grazes Chicago, usually are inconsistent in field strength over time and have a lot of phase distortion.
 
Here in Bremerton, WA that would be KFNQ from Seattle, with transmitter on Vashon Island. Sports radio station formerly known as "The Fan", it's now "1090 KJR", despite the legal call letters. It's an extension of Sports Radio 950 KJR.
 
Orange County, TX Days-a weak KULF Bellville, TX while nights brings KAAY & at times a weak KVOP Plainview, TX underneath.
 
Schroedingers Cat said:
With those narrow lobe DAs like KAAY, the side of the lobes, like the one that grazes Chicago, usually are inconsistent in field strength over time and have a lot of phase distortion.
Click to expand...

Yeah....that's the current version of the KAAY night signal around here these days. When it locks in, it sounds really good. Complete with very good audio. But there's lots of "fading and phasing". Nowhere near as listenable as in its top 40 days, but definitely better now than immediately before the recent rebuild.
 
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