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AM Frequency of the Week: 1190

cyberdad

cyberdad

Far northwest suburban Chicago....

Days: Mostly splatter from WSQR (1180) and splatter from WRTO (1200)

Nights: 1190 is fairly open....KQQZ from the Saint Louis area is most likely to rise to the top. WOWO sometimes in the mix.

Retro: Before WSQR and WRTO came on, WOWO was always very weak but reliable daytime. A couple of years ago, KQQZ had a more robust night signal here. I'm not sure if they were running day pattern (which wouldn't favor me) or if something else was going on. Whatever it was. they appear tp have toned it down.

Other Location: KEX on 1190 was my first mainland catch during my junior year of high school in Hawaii. (On the big island).
 
Laramie, WY:

By day, splatter from 1210 KHAT thats only 1 1/2 miles away

At night, KVCU Boulder, sometimes CFSL Weyburn Sask
 
In the near north Chicago suburbs during the day it's a weak WOWO with splatter from WRTO. Before WRTO came on the air WOWO was fair during the day.
At night it's mostly a weaker WOWO mixing sometimes with St Louis' KQQZ.

Retro: Back in the day before WOWO got neutered, WOWO had a better signal during the day and even at night when the pattern didn't favor my location.
 
In SE Michigan, before WCHB/WMUZ 1200 came on, and now with IBOC, WOWO was quite strong in the Daytime, and one of the three strongest AM BC skywaves at Night, often approaching 10 mV/m, along with WCFL/WMVP 1000 and WCKY 1530 after pattern change.

Making WOWO downgrade to 9.8 kW Night stands out in my mind as one of the worst chapters in Broadcasting History. The FCC should have put the brakes on it. The Class As were, and still are, a useful radio service to rural areas of the US. Very few local AMs and FMs outside major markets provide the level of service that WOWO did.
 
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in Chicago by the lakefront:

WOWO comes in pretty decently during the day, especially right near the lake. At night it's more of a jumble, but WOWO still is the most likely to come out on top. One time near sunset I also picked up WNWC in Sun Prairie WI (near Madison) before they powered down for the night.
 
Nowadays in central Ohio, it's a weak WOWO daytime, just like always.
Nighttime, WOWO might sneak through, but if it does it's probably no stronger than 3 on a 1-to-10 scale. Most of the time, it is considerably less than that. Even back in the 50K days when it blanketed the eastern part of the U.S., it wasn't always a powerhouse night signal here (about 160 miles southeast of Fort Wayne) because we were too close to get great skywave and too far for solid groundwave. Up around Bellefontaine, Ohio, the groundwave kicked in traveling northwest and in my mom's hometown of St. Marys, Ohio, a straight 60-mile shot southeast of Fort Wayne on U.S. 33, WOWO remains one of the two or three strongest AM signals at all hours. For those of her generation (growing up in the 50s and 60s), it was the station every listened to although CKLW later grabbed some audience in that area.
 
radioman148 said:
I agree.
Click to expand...

I wasn't happy about it when it went down. But I suppose the argument is somewhere along the line is that WOWO's listenership in the area that got "neutered"...(perfect description!)...is more than offset by the potential additional service available on Long Island.
 
cyberdad said:
I wasn't happy about it when it went down. But I suppose the argument is somewhere along the line is that WOWO's listenership in the area that got "neutered"...(perfect description!)...is more than offset by the potential additional service available on Long Island.
Click to expand...

I didn't like it when it happened. WOWO was a good station in the late 60s & 70s. I had a button set to it in my car. They played some good music at the time. Things changed and the owners of WLIB wanted greater coverage.
 
Thanks for that WOWO map, Schroed. If it isn't just an artist's perception but based on actual data, there's a chance that at one time WOWO had more nighttime listeners along the east coast that the similarly-signalled WKBW. 'KB's huge nighttime beam was situated farther east and missed some populous places and states.

On the daytime here on 1190 when I first moved to NE PA, WANN Annapolis put in a pretty decent signal. 'Bay Country 1190' had a directional pattern like a three-bladed propellor, and thus sent some our way. But the station doesn't exist anymore. They either moved the whole thing to Leesburg or that 1190 was new. Leesburg used to be on 1200 since, iIrc, they firstsigned on.

WOWO was *it* at night, naturally. Great car radio fare.

WLIB NYC was the most recent grab on 1190, at night. That was after WOWO dropped their nighttime wattage.
 
That is the actual coverage map from my experience with skywaves and curves. It could be before the new skywave prediction method was used. Under the old model, the skywave went farther. The WKBW Map from the "Rats In My Room" video was a "Scattergram" of listener reports.

Here's the new model 0.5 mV/m 50% Skywave link for WWKB.

https://www.fccdata.org/?facid=&call=WWKB&ccode=1&city=&state=&country=US&zip=&arn=&party=&party_type=LICEN&latd=&lond=&lang=en

Here's the WOWO Groundwave Map, 0.5 mV/m and 0.1 mV/m.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qRIe7FGEQNc/TjMiHVA4kiI/AAAAAAAACNA/aMmYBn-fPCI/s1600/wowo_daytime_coverage_map.png
 
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Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: WOWO with weak signal
Nightime: WOWO, but lately KQQZ is more common

DX/RETRO: others heard include KLIF (Dallas, TX), KWMB (Wabasha, MN), KPHN (Kansas City, MO), WSVC (Dunlap, TN), WLIB (New York, NY), WHMT (Humbolt, TN), CFSL (Weyburn, SK), HJCT (Barranquilla, Colombia)
 
West Central Georgia:

Day: Good signal from WAFS Atlanta business radio (25kW days, 2.3kW critical hours)

Night: Pretty good signal most nights from WOWO

Dusk: Occasionally hear WSDQ Chattanooga TN country music (5kW day, 1KW critical hours)
 
Always an interesting frequency.
East Tennessee: Daytime: If anything, WSDQ Dunlap TN if WKCE is off the air.
Night: WOWO still dominates with WLIB and others. Much stronger once they power up in the morn
Retro/other: I grew up in early childhood about 50 miles NW of Ft Wayne, and later child/teenage-hood 50 miles SE of Fort Wayne. WOWO was a blaster day and night both places. Probably the strongest signal on the dial. During our visits to Fremont, Michigan, I could still get the last breath of WOWO during the day, and of course much, much stronger at night. I got WOWO everywhere I ever was in the east and southeast-even other areas Minneapolis and Nashville. There was something about being in Sarasota, FL where it was in the 70s and hearing that it was 10 degrees back home. When I moved to the Lafayette IN area it was a different story, WOWO was gone at night, No sign of them in Quincy IL either, unless it was after Ft Wayne sunrise or before their sunset. I had a mystery station I had heard there on 1190, playing jazz (not smooth) after WOWO pattern change. Best guess was Atlanta on late.
 
This thread is making me realize how much I miss WOWO.

The REAL WOWO that used to boom into our house in Pennsylvania with 50,000 watts and a signal
stronger than most of the locals. So many hours spent listening to Bob Chase call Komet hockey games.
 
FreddyE1977 said:
This thread is making me realize how much I miss WOWO.

The REAL WOWO that used to boom into our house in Pennsylvania with 50,000 watts and a signal
stronger than most of the locals. So many hours spent listening to Bob Chase call Komet hockey games.
Click to expand...

WOWO was a very good station back in the day. I had a preset for it on my car radio and I was over 150 miles away.
 
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