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AM Frequency of the week: 1390:

cyberdad

cyberdad

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

Days: 1390 is a fair signal from WGRB, Chicago. 5kw directional to the north

Nights: WGRB's pattern tightens a bit, and the usual result is a signal that's still present, but not comfortably listenable. Most of the slop on 1390 is weak and unidentifiable, but I have heard the Youngstown, Ohio 1390 a few times as WFMJ.

Then, just this past week and again before dawn this morning, I've been hearing KCLN in Clinton, IA. As posted in another thread, they're 1kw day/91 watts night with a north-south figure eight pattern. I'm a little over a hundred miles away, and right in the null. But the thies past few nights, the signal has been mostly fair, yet steady with WGRB nulled. As I also said, I doubt that they're either directional or 91 watts, but I'm not sure what's going on. Could have something to do with storms that roared through the area last week and knocked down the tower of another Clinton AM station, KROS (1340).

Other Location: This past winter, I heard WGRB a few times on the Arctic SDR in Norway. Shows what 5kw aimed north on the upper end of the dial can do. WGRB also has a good nighttime skywave signal in Northern Wisconsin and the upper peninsula of Michigan.
 
Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: WGRB
Nightime: WGRB with average signal, but still over anybody else

DX/RETRO: Only two stations logged with WRGB (WVON, WGCI) on the air and nulled: KJPW (Waynsville, MO), WFMJ (Younstown, OH). All others heard with WGRB off: KLNT (Clinton, IA), WFBL (Syracuse, NY), WCSC (Charleston, SC)
 
In the near north Chicago suburbs WGRB has a pretty good signal during the day. At night WGRB is still easily on top, but sometimes some unidentified stuff can be heard underneath. In the past I have heard the Youngstown, Ohio station once or twice. Like Cyberdad I also have heard WGRB on the Arctic receiver during winter.

Retro: In the early 60s this station was WYNR playing Top 40 music. However, the signal in most suburbs was too weak to compete with powerful WLS.
 
radioman148 said:
Retro: In the early 60s this station was WYNR playing Top 40 music. However, the signal in most suburbs was too weak to compete with powerful WLS.
Click to expand...

Where I grew up in Wauconda, there'd be at least two or three holes in the WYNR signal during the one mile drive between the high school and the house where I lived.

After Gordon MacLendon (sp?) threw in the towel on WYNR as a music station, he changed the calls to WNUS and simulcast it on 1390 and 107.5. Thus pioneering the all news format in the Chicago market. The template was XETRA, which covered Southern California from San Diego to Santa Barbara on 690.
 
WLCM Holt, MI now uses a four tower slightly dogleg array with a 4.5 kW Night site. The Day site is still near the former Charlotte, MI COL. It was heard in Finland as soon as it signed on. It does cut in to the clear signal WGES/WYNR/WNUS...WGRB used to have in the Straits Area of Michigan during CH and the Nighttime hours. It is/was considered a DX "pest" in Scandinavia.
 
cyberdad said:
Where I grew up in Wauconda, there'd be at least two or three holes in the WYNR signal during the one mile drive between the high school and the house where I lived.

After Gordon MacLendon (sp?) threw in the towel on WYNR as a music station, he changed the calls to WNUS and simulcast it on 1390 and 107.5. Thus pioneering the all news format in the Chicago market. The template was XETRA, which covered Southern California from San Diego to Santa Barbara on 690.
Click to expand...

Closer in not too far from where I live now, WYNR was not great at night. You could actually hear some cancellation on their night signal.
I remember WNUS very well. They advertised themselves as the first all news station in the US. As XETRA was on the Mexican side of the border. BTW: WNUS started in Sept of 64. WYNR only lasted two years.
 
Interesting frequency.
East Tennessee: Pretty quiet during the day, with the closest being WYXI, Athens.
I've had some luck with winter daytime and sunset skip. WNIO, Youngstown, OH usually follows the winter daytime pipeline between Northeast Ohio and East Tennessee a few times a year. Also, WMPO, Middleport-Pomeroy (there buddy), OH with a sunset catch. I checked the Knoxville SDR this evening and found something with what sounded like Billy Graham with fire and brimstone preaching and I think WSPO.

Retro/other: Western Ohio. It was WTOO (now WBLL) weakly by day. The former WCSC (or whatever it was any given week after it stopped being WCSC) made it in frequently "back of the beam" so to speak. 1390, Chicago in the WVON years and subsequently. I remember being in Logansport IN and the station (I think WGCI at that time) managed to occasionally make it in at almost local quality.
 
West Central Georgia:

Days: Sometimes hear very weak WHMA Anniston AL 5000/1000 African-American Gospel

Nights: Most common is WMER Meridien MS 5000/101 Southern Gospel probably on day power
 
I remember WYNR from shortly after Gordon McLendon bought it. I was spending Thanksgiving, 1962 in Northwest Suburban Chicago. WYNR came in well there. I would switch back in forth between WLS and WYNR to hear my favorite songs, including "Big Girls Don't Cry"/Four Seasons and "Gina"/Johnny Mathis. Sometimes I would hear them twice an hour. WYNR "played" WLS in that short era, playing the songs right after they did to get tune outs to make people aware of the new format. If I'm not mistaken, one evening while I was there the late Chuck Harder was the fill in DJ on WYNR!
 
Orange County, TX Days nothing, Nights a mix of KULP El Campo, TX and KBEC Waxahachie, TX both country.
 
I just read up on this, and discovered that Gordon McLendon pulled the same stunt at XETRA 690 the previous year when he gained enough control to put on the all news format. Gordon McLendon had an interesting history, which even included accusations of being part of a Kennedy assassination conspiracy. Seems like he was somehow associated with Jack Ruby. And of course, he soon put WNUS on 1390.
 
radioman148 said:
I remember this also. Somebody posted an aircheck of the stunting a few years ago.
Click to expand...

I think there's an aircheck of WYNR's first day on Sound Cloud. Dick Kemp ("The Wild Child") is the jock. Its scoped, but you get to hear Kemp's old school high-energy approach along with some classic PAMS jingles (IIRC "leftovers" from the series 18 cuts running on WLS). There's also an aircheck of Yvonne Daniels on WYNR out there somewhere. ("The girl with the best figure in Chicago....1390")
 
cyberdad said:
I think there's an aircheck of WYNR's first day on Sound Cloud. Dick Kemp ("The Wild Child") is the jock. Its scoped, but you get to hear Kemp's old school high-energy approach along with some classic PAMS jingles (IIRC "leftovers" from the series 18 cuts running on WLS). There's also an aircheck of Yvonne Daniels on WYNR out there somewhere. ("The girl with the best figure in Chicago....1390")
Click to expand...

I do have an aircheck of Dick Kemp on WYNR's first day Sept 1, 1962. I thought I had the one from Aug 31, where he plays "Mopity Mope" all day long, but I can't find it. I wonder if it's online anywhere?
 
From NW San Antonio:

Day: Some splatter from my nearby DXing nemesis, 1350 KXTN.

Sunset: KBEC in Waxahachie and KULP in El Campo come up, with the latter being strongest.

Night: The KXTN splatter is gone, and KULP is the most steady. KBEC is heard less often. Aiming NW, a weak KENN in Farmington, NM, is usually there in/out, and I'll sometimes hear XEOR in Reynosa. To the east I'll occasionally hear WMER in Meridian, MS, popping up briefly.

Sunrise: Very similar to sunset.

DX/RETRO: I caught KBEC once during winter daytime skywave a couple of years ago. Also, I used to hear XEXO (Ciudad Mante) and XERW (León) before they were retired. One-time catches include KHOB (Hobbs, NM), KGNU (Denver), KFRA (Franklin, LA), as well as XETL (Tuxlan, Veracruz) before it was retired.
 
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