WCEV AM 1450 to close down

[CADXER]

According to Robert Feder, WCEV AM 1450 licensed to Cicero, Illinois will close down on January 20, 2020. WCEV shares the frequency with WRLL and is on the air betweeen 1:00 PM - 10:00 PM Monday - Friday.

https://www.robertfeder.com/2020/01...xpand-newscasts-saturdays-sundays/#more-24055

Will be interesting to see what happens with the frequency. I am assuming that WRLL will take over the frequency on 24 hour basis.

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

Back in the Kennedy Airport DX days, I never heard the station, then known as WVON. There was always too much WOL Washington and WENZ Richmond, plus a few other stations closer to us which would often stay on Monday mornings.... Atlantic City, Bridgeport, Poughkeepsie, et al.

WVON must've been quite the thing, though, from the late 50's - late 60's, eh ? God bless 'em. They had quite a run.

One minor asterisk. Feder has been doing this chore for 40 years, and doing it wonderfully. But I can't see how he managed to describe this ....

https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WCEV&service=AM

as a 'suburban' station, hi. That address at 3350 S. Kenzie has been the station address for the longest while, through various station logbooks.

 

[radioman148]

I wonder if WRLL will take up WCEV's programming?

 

[FreddyE1977]

I'm a bit stunned to learn that one of these frequency sharing arrangements
is still in existence in 2020.

 

[CADXER]

I am sure Feder was using the city of license which is Cicero, Illinois as a reference.

The 3350 S. Kedzie, Chicago location is where the antenna tower for both WRLL and WCEV is located. WCEV studios are at 5356 W Belmont Avenue in Chicago.

The closure of WCEV means the end of shared frequency arrangements in the Chicago area for good.

 

[seattlesarchiebunker]

I'm a bit stunned to learn that one of these frequency sharing arrangements
is still in existence in 2020.

They are the new "in" thing for the FCC when there is more than one equally qualified applicant for non-commercial and LPFM frequencies.

I can think of a few here in Northern California (one share-time class A FM in Sutter Creek, numerous LPFMs in the Bay Area). Theres also KPHF in Phoenix, a C1 sharing time with another station...signed on in the early 90s.

The "old school" AM sharetime agreements are almost non-existent now. AFAIK, after WCEV, I think there are only two AMs left with share-time agreements. One I think in Minnesota, the other in Kansas (maybe?)

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

They are the new "in" thing for the FCC when there is more than one equally qualified applicant for non-commercial and LPFM frequencies.

I can think of a few here in Northern California (one share-time class A FM in Sutter Creek, numerous LPFMs in the Bay Area). Theres also KPHF in Phoenix, a C1 sharing time with another station...signed on in the early 90s.

The "old school" AM sharetime agreements are almost non-existent now. AFAIK, after WCEV, I think there are only two AMs left with share-time agreements. One I think in Minnesota, the other in Kansas (maybe?)

I think the only shared time am left is 1240 in decorah, iowa

college has one license, a commercial operator holds the other

 

[Gregg.]

For a long time in Chicago, there was another shared time arrangement on 1240 kHz. It was a three-way deal, with WSPC, WCRW & WEDC all spending some time each week on the air. But that apparently ended in the 1980s or 90s. Now it's just WSPC occupying 1240.

In the NYC area, as I was growing up, WEVD and WPOW shared 1330 kHz. WEVD had mostly Jewish programming with some other ethnic broadcasts. It was owned by the Jewish Daily Forward. WPOW was a Christian station. I happened to listen to WEVD because comedian Joey Adams had a weekday morning show at 7:30 a.m. for just 30 minutes. At 8 o'clock, the stations would switch. I remember occasionally WPOW would step on WEVD if Adams didn't get off the air on time. WEVD also had a fulltime FM station with different ethnic programming, at 97.9 MHz. The AM eventually took over 1050 kHz full time after WEVD-FM was sold off, with the newspaper keeping some good profits. Then the AM was also sold.

To this day, NYC has a shared time agreement between two universities at 89.1 MHz. WNYU (New York University) has weekdays from 4 p.m. to 1 a.m. WFDU Teaneck (Fairleigh Dickenson University) has all the other hours of the week.

 

[CADXER]

As posted by JJSPC in the Chicago forum, WCEV applied for STA with FCC due to financial reasons. This basically means that they are not giving up their license yet. They will just go silent for now.

https://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/w...xt=25&appn=101814577&formid=910&fac_num=42137

Might be a good chance for local DXers to hear something new on 1450 kHz, when they are off. The WCEV hours are:

1:00 PM - 10:00 PM (Mon-Fri)
1:00 PM - 8:30 PM (Sat)
5:00 AM - 10:00 PM (Sun)

Let's see if they will go off on Monday as reported.

 

[CADXER]

WCEV promptly went off the air at 10:00 PM last night. Frequency is wide open for local DXers to take advantage of their absence. So far the one dominant station that I am hearing in their absence is KMRY, Cedar Rapids, Iowa with classic rock format.

 

[Pat3]

WCEV promptly went off the air at 10:00 PM last night. Frequency is wide open for local DXers to take advantage of their absence. So far the one dominant station that I am hearing in their absence is KMRY, Cedar Rapids, Iowa with classic rock format.

Do these shared frequency stations share the same transmitter and tower? It looks like they could share the same studio also and simply switch when it was the other stations turn to broadcast

 

[CADXER]

They do share the same transmitter/antenna which is located at 3350 S. Kedzie in Chicago, but I believe they have separate studios.

 

[fybush]

They do share the same transmitter/antenna which is located at 3350 S. Kedzie in Chicago, but I believe they have separate studios.

That is (was) correct. WVON/WRLL had studios at the 3350 S. Kedzie location for most of its existence, but in recent years had sold (or leased out) the building and moved to 800 S. Wells. WCEV's studios were at 5356 W. Belmont (with entrance around the corner on Long Ave.)

 

[davideduardo]

That is (was) correct. WVON/WRLL had studios at the 3350 S. Kedzie location for most of its existence, but in recent years had sold (or leased out) the building and moved to 800 S. Wells. WCEV's studios were at 5356 W. Belmont (with entrance around the corner on Long Ave.)

At one time... back in the 60’ at least... didn’t each one have a separate transmitter site? I recall there were brief pauses as each one signed off and the other came on. And if one had not synchronized it’s clock, local DXers sometimes had a few moments to hear other stations on the channel.

 

[KeithE4]

At one time... back in the 60’ at least... didn’t each one have a separate transmitter site? I recall there were brief pauses as each one signed off and the other came on. And if one had not synchronized it’s clock, local DXers sometimes had a few moments to hear other stations on the channel.

The three stations on 1240, WCRW, WEDC, and WSBC, always had separate transmitter sites. WCEV and WXOL/WVON did for awhile, but I believe both used the original WVON site on S. Kedzie in recent years.

 

[CADXER]

The history of the 1450 kHz in Chicago area is quite old and complicated.

The first broadcast on 1450 started in 1941, when WHFC moved there 1420 kHz. At that time they were broadcasting from a transmitter on Cermak Road in Cicero, Illinois. In 1950, WHFC moved their transmitter to the 3350 S. Kedzie Avenue in Chicago, which remains the transmitter site for the current stations on 1450 until now.

In 1963 WHFC changed calls to WVON. In 1975 the owners WVON moved the station to 1390 kHz (present day WGRB). As a result of this move the 1450 kHz became silent. In September 1976 WMFT was allowed to simulcast their 98.7 FM station on 1450 kHz while FCC evaluated applications for 1450.

In late 1979 WXOL and WCEV were licensed by FCC to use the frequency on time sharing basis. Both stations continued to use the same transmitter site on Kedzie Avenue, but only WXOL had their studios at that location. WCEV had their studios at 5356 W. Belmont Avenue in Chicago. In 1986 WXOL changed their calls to WVON and then in 2006 to WRLL.

Here my picture of the antenna on 3350 S. Kedzie: http://www.nationalradioclub.org/pictures/WVONWCEV.jpg

 

[WCJ]

The sharing frequencies, I guess, would also apply to the D-FW area in the '50's when my father would listen to 570 & 820. He got me into dx-ing at an early age with his old GE, Philco and Westinghouse wooden table radios, which I still use as well as a Knight Ranger which my uncle built from a kit, I believe from Allied. WFAA & WBAP would swap frequencies at some point during the day, I don't remember what time it occurred, and I don't remember ever hearing dead air at the change over. Later I discovered that WIBW and a college station shared 580. I'm sure this has been discussed on other posts on this board. Someone in the Metroplex and Topeka areas could expound on this.

 

[DXBob]

From 1929 until 2002, WIBW in Topeka, KS shared 580 kHz with KKSU in Manhattan, KS located on the campus of Kansas State University. The stations did not share broadcast facilities and they had separate transmitter sites. They both broadcast at 5 kW power. KKSU was only on the frequency from 12:30pm until 5:30pm each day. The remainder the airtime belonged to WIBW.

Bob

 

[radioman148]

The sharing frequencies, I guess, would also apply to the D-FW area in the '50's when my father would listen to 570 & 820. He got me into dx-ing at an early age with his old GE, Philco and Westinghouse wooden table radios, which I still use as well as a Knight Ranger which my uncle built from a kit, I believe from Allied. WFAA & WBAP would swap frequencies at some point during the day, I don't remember what time it occurred, and I don't remember ever hearing dead air at the change over. Later I discovered that WIBW and a college station shared 580. I'm sure this has been discussed on other posts on this board. Someone in the Metroplex and Topeka areas could expound on this.

This went on at least until the early 60s as I remember DXing 820 from the Chicago area and hearing both WFAA and WBAP depending on when I tuned in.

 

[cyberdad]

I remember WFAA and WBAP sharing 820. With the local Chicago 820 off at night, the Metroplex 820 had a good night signal here. Maybe it was my imagination, but I always thought WBAP had slightly better audio.