• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

AM Frequency of the Week: 920

cyberdad

cyberdad

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

Days: A weak and increasingly unlistenable WOKY from Milwaukee. The 5kw day signal is nulled to the south in order to protect WBAA. The noise level on the band has now risen to the point where it overcomes what's left of WOKY. But if you go west, you get out of the null and the signal improves and you can hear it almost to the Mississippi River, With an occasional intrusion from WBAA during the early part of said journey.

Nights: WOKY drops to 1kw, but actually sends more signal in my direction. But after sunset, the issue becomes the channel itself being more crowded. So now WOKY gets swallowed up the mess. For the past few years, CFRY has been most likely to be on top. WBAA surfaces from time to time. KFNF less frequently, KARN less frequently still.

I hung out on 920 for about an hour last week, about two hours before my local sunrise. CFRY was comfortably on top with country music and minimal fading. No WOKY or anything else identifiable.

Retro: I listened to WOKY quite a bit as a teenager, I had a Peerless table radio in my room with a good sized loop antenna that did quite well with it. I think...but I'm not sure,,,,that WOKY had a slightly different night pattern back in the 60s that sent a bigger "spike" to the southwest. In those days, the interference problem was from the now-defunct CKCY.
 
In the near north Chicago suburbs daytime 920 is a weak but steady WBAA (if you can avoid the noise that cyberdad mentioned) Very rarely have I heard WOKY.
At night I've heard WBAA, KARN, and CFRY.

Retro: I used to try for WOKY often during their Top 40 days, but I rarely heard it here.
 
At my present receiving location in SE Michigan, before and when WFDF wasn't/isn't using IBOC, WOKY, CKNX, and WMNI come in Days, of course, without a direction finder, it's difficult to separate them. I've heard "The Sheep", WBAA, near Sunset. WMMN used to come in well when it was 5 kW at Night, and CKCY back in the day, and CFRY near Sunrise and Daytime Skywave.
 
Last edited:
From 25 miles SW of of downtown Kansas City:

920 kHz is dominated by KYFR in Shenandoah, IA which is directional 24/7 with lobes in my direction both day and night, 5 kW day and 2.5 kW night. No other stations have been logged to date. I also receive KMA from Shenandoah on nearby 960 kHz, 24/7. Both stations are important in the early history of AM radio.

Bob
 
radioman148 said:
Retro: I used to try for WOKY often during their Top 40 days, but I rarely heard it here.
Click to expand...

Welcome to the deepest part of the daytime null. Directly across the lake from you, WOKY is solid from the Indiana state line to Grand Haven....and beyond. To the west, it's listenable in and around Rockford (IL).
 
Out here in the northern burbs of Seattle- days, KGTK Olympia drifts in weakly with 1kW from 50 miles away. They are owned by a 2nd Amendment Rights group, so you know you are going to get quiet, well-reasoned opinion. When they first got the calls, the GTK literally stood for gun talk. They have since spread out to include other grievances as well. Though I think their main grievance should be the 7 watts they are allotted at night! LOL.

Nights around here are pretty much KXLY Spokane at 5k non-directional or nothing at all.
 
cyberdad said:
Welcome to the deepest part of the daytime null. Directly across the lake from you, WOKY is solid from the Indiana state line to Grand Haven....and beyond. To the west, it's listenable in and around Rockford (IL).
Click to expand...

Yes, I used to only be able to hear WOKY in the clear if I drove north of the Wisconsin state line. Otherwise WBAA dominated at my QTH.
 
It looks like the main reason WOKY couldn't go more to the NNE Days like the Night pattern, is WDOR 910 Sturgeon Bay, WI. Possibly WMPL and CKCY, but between border treaties and measured contours, I don't think it would have restricted it. It looks like when WOKY was 1 kW Daytime, it used two of the three in line towers. A lucky consequence is the Western Michigan service, but I doubt if it brought in much if any revenue.
 
West Central Georgia:

Days: WGKA Atlanta GA 14000/490 strong signal - conservative talk

Nights: Not much, occasionally hear WGKA on night power and probably WHJD Hazlehurst GA 500/35 with country music
 
Here in Reynoldsburg, Ohio, it's local WMNI, but with a relatively weak signal. Even daytime, WMNI is quite directional to the north over Columbus and beyond. Their towers are at the west corner of the 71/270 intersection in Grove City, about eight miles south-southwest of downtown Columbus, and WMNI is so directional that you can hear yourself going through the nulls on the other side of the interchange. It's truly impressive.
I once heard WMNI on the Ohio Turnpike between Toledo and Sandusky, Ohio, about 120 miles north of Columbus. Yet you can't get WMNI for any useful listening as close as 15 miles east of me.
At night, forget about WMNI. I rarely listen anyway, but the times I have tried to hear it, it's at best fighting to be heard and at worst buried in mud.
Best thing about their signal now is it's simulcast on 95.1 FM.
 
schmave said:
Even daytime, WMNI is quite directio. ,,,,, I once heard WMNI on the Ohio Turnpike between Toledo and Sandusky, Ohio, about 120 miles north of Columbus.
Click to expand...

Yep....I'll vouch for that. I used to go to Cleveland every 2-3 months during the late 90s, and that was the "zone" where WMNI came in quite well. But my usual listen on that stretch of the turnpike duringg those days was usually CFCO, if not WCWA (1230/Toledo). CFCO,,60s & 70s,,,was good all the way from Motown to Cleveland.
 
Here in Wood Dale, IL (near NW suburb of Chicago):

Daytime: both WOKY and WBAA can be received at my location using a loop antenna
Nightime: CFRY with country music a frequent visitor

DX/Retro: besides WOKY, WBAA and CFRY other catches include KDHL (Faribault, MN), KARN (Little Rock, AR), KYST (Texas City, TX), KLMR (Lamar, CO), WGHQ (Kingston, NY), WMMN (Fairmont, WV), WMPL (Hancock, MI) as well as a bunch of Canadians (CBO - Ottawa, ON, CKCY - Sault Ste Maria, ON, CFLS - Levis, PQ, CKNX - Wngham, ON)
 
A little late to this one.....East Tennessee-Days: The last breath on WPTL, Canton NC or sometimes WGKA, Atlanta. Night is a hodge-podge of signals with WGKA sometimes surfacing.

Retro/other: When we would vacation in Fremont, Michigan, one of my 2 daytime top 40 stations was WOKY, not the strongest but listenable. Dayton, Ohio area and the area north of there where I grew up was a mix of WBAA and WMNI. I also used to catch WMMN Fairmont, WV fairly often (once hearing it "like a local") driving through town.
 
24/7 here its local WGKA. Their transmitter is about 10-12 miles away. Believe this is Salem's flagship station. They're probably the #2 talker in the market. (WSB being #1.) And WGST (640) is #3.
 
From NW San Antonio:

Day: Splatter from local 930 KLUP.

Sunset: The splatter can be nulled a bit when aiming NE/SW, and KARN in Little Rock starts to come up.

Night: KLUP's splatter is reduced a bit with its night power/pattern. To the NE, KARN is usually most dominant with KYFR under or mixing in. A weak XERE "La Comadre" in Guanajuato sometimes pops up. To the NW, KQBU in El Paso is most dominant with CBS Sports. Sometimes I'll hear an echo as KLMR in Lamar, CO, also airs CBS Sports at night. KFLB in Odessa is sometimes heard as well. KYST in Texas City is occasionally in/out, especially when aiming straight E/W.

Sunrise: XERE is stronger to the SW. To the NW, KFLB is stronger, as is KLMR, which is back to airing news; also, KSVA in Albuquerque is occasionally heard. KYST is stronger as well.

DX/RETRO: I used to hear XEQD in Chihuahua some mornings before it migrated to FM and went off air.
 
here in Laramie, WY (SE corner of the state) KVEL Vernal, UT is the most common from just before sunset, on and off all night to just after sunrise

Anything else is somewhat kind of rare and usually fleeting in signal strength and time it hangs around
 
In west Houston, semi-local KYST in Texas City is dominant day and night with Spanish programming. At sunset, it's nullable and at right-angle to Texas City, KARN Little Rock can be heard. They are the Sports Animal, and I believe air CBS Sports overnight. Underneath both are a mix of Spanish and talk, possibly XERE and KQBU as jim_satx mentioned, but never ID'ed anything.

When I visited my aunt and uncle in El Paso as a kid in the 60's/early 70's KQBU was KELP, a great top 40 station owned by Gordon McLendon. Listening to them was a highlight of my visits there. Ironically, the callsign KELP is now on 1590 in El Paso, which was their top 40 competitor KINT back then.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom