AM Frequency of the Week: 1690

[cyberdad]

40 miles northwest of downtown Chicago.....

Day: Weak WVON from a stick diplexed with WGRB (1390) on the south side of Chicago (48 miles southeast of my location).

Night WVON at 1kw becomes even weaker. Occasionally either WMLB from the Atlanta area or WPTX from Lexington Park Maryland overtakes it It may be my imagination, but I think the WVON signal has degraded since it signed on (as WRLL) in the mid 2000s:

Retro: When WRLL first signed on and had 1690 all to itself, I was still travelling frequently. I used WRLL's day and night signsl to educate myself on how propigation behaved on the far uoper reaches of the AM band. I discovered that daytime skywave was not uncommon for distances of 150-200 miles. Sometimes farther. At night with 1kw...Distances of 300-500 miles were generally the upper limits for reliably good reception. Specifically, this meant places like. Minneapolis, Toronto, Memphis, and Kansas City.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

WMLB in Atlanta has been off the air more than it's been on the last few years. In fact, the situation was noticeable enough to the FCC that they granted renewal for WMLB's license for only one year instead of the ordinary eight years.

 

[CADXER]

Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: nothing but WVON Berwyn, IL with good signal.
Nightime: still WVON but weaker and also nullable. When I null WVON I usually hear CHTO with Greek language programming.

DX/RETRO: prior to WVON taking over the frequency WPTX (Lexington Park, MD) and KDDZ (Arvada, CO) used to be common. The Georgia station also used to be easily heard. The only other station that I managed to hear on this frequency was the weather forecast TIS (WPUA401) from Aurora, IL

 

[radioman148]

In the near north Chicago suburbs WVON has a "decent" signal during the day. At night it becomes terrible and I usually hear stations behind it. WPTX and CHTO mostly and a couple of times Colorado.

Retro: In the days when they signed on as WRLL I was an avid listener as I love Rock & Roll oldies. Lujack & Edwards in the morning were hilarious. Problem was in the winter months until they went to full power, the station was very difficult to hear.
I've mentioned this story before, Lujack and Edwards would often read mail from great distances. They had a listener in Australia and they'd often say "we can be heard in Australia, but not the northern suburbs."

 

[wildthangjim]

In west Houston, nothing during the day. At sunset, KDMT in Arvada CO is usually on top, with WVON heard occasionally. I had a tentative reception of WMLB a year or so ago, but haven't heard it since.

 

[kenglish]

I heard something on 1690 last night, on the University of Twente (Netherlands) SDR. It was very weak. It could have been WPTX, since they don't use that frequency in their neighborhood.

 

[tvnut]

In the southwest suburbs of Chicago, never heard nothin' but WVON (first as WRLL). Their stick at 86th and Kedzie packs a punch locally.

 

[MarioMania]

Carmichael, CA

Day & Night: KFSG Roseville

 

[gr8oldies]

East Tennessee: daytime---when it's on the air, the Atlanta station weakly. Otherwise not much of anything. Sunrise/sunset or winter skip. Either WVON or WPTX. During the total solar eclipse from our viewing point, WVON came booming in just after totality. WPTX popped in later. Night, either WPTX or WVON. Retro/other: The good old days of WRLL heard often in Dayton, Ohio and even better one cold day in Lafayette Indiana

 

[cyberdad]

As posted in the "Post Your Latest DX forum", I just snagged WPTX/1690 on the Warrington, England SDR. Details in that form.

 

[jim-satx]

From NW San Antonio:

Day: Usually blank. Last winter I heard KDMT in Arvada once during very strong daytime skywave conditions.

Sunset: KDMT starts coming up.

Night: KDMT is even stronger and can sometimes still be heard when I aim the radio NE. In that semi-null I hear a weak jumble with WVON surfacing from time to time. Occasionally WMLB and WPTX will pop up briefly and at even rarer times CHTO as well.

Sunrise: KDMT has a very listenable signal.

DX/RETRO: One night during the fall of 2014 I logged what I presume was KFSG. My radio was aimed NW and I briefly heard Russian talk and instrumental Christian music mixing with Radio Disney (KDDZ, which is now KDMT, Relevant Radio).

 

[dxsphere]

Moses Lake, WA

Day: Blank

Night: KFSG Roseville, CA and KDMT Arvada, CO are the two that I receive at night, with KFSG being the stronger signal most of the time.

 

[ente]

Picayune, MS:
Day: nothing, WMLB during critical hours. I once heard WVON with Chicago weather and traffic while crossing the Bay St. Louis bridge in late afternoon.
Night: WMLB Avondale Estates, GA, WPTX Lexington Park, MD has also been heard a few times.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

Nights: KFSG near Sacramento from my QTH in Alaska

 

[kf4rca]

For me, its WMLB 24/7. Their transmitter is about 10 miles away. They are now the only oldies station now that WAZX (1550) is OFF again.
They play the song Stranded In The Jungle by the Cadets from 1956. That song might be politically incorrect these days. I'm sure someone would complain if they knew who to complain to.

 

[cyberdad]

I've got "Stranded in the Jungle" on a couple of my Spotify playlists. I can't remember the last time I heard it on terrestial radio. I'm sure most oldies stations....whatever is left of them.....don't want to touch it.

"Great ooma-booga. GEt me out of here!"

 

[radioman148]

I've got "Stranded in the Jungle" on a couple of my Spotify playlists. I can't remember the last time I heard it on terrestial radio. I'm sure most oldies stations....whatever is left of them.....don't want to touch it.

"Great ooma-booga. GEt me out of here!"

Very true. I have to listen to very old airchecks to hear when it was played on the radio.