WCKG 1530 missing one tower

[CADXER]

If you drove on I294 in recent days near the Elmhurst, IL area as I did this weekend you would have noticed that one of the two WCKG AM 1530 towers has been removed. Only one of the towers is still standing.

I checked the FCC site to see what is going on and found out that WCKG was granted an STA to operate with a 140 foot long wire antenna at the currently licensed site in Elmhurst. Apparently the Illinois tollway has exercised eminent domain, and the station is unable to use its licensed antenna system as a result. It should be noted that the WCKG transmitter site is located right next to I294 and there is a major road work being done on the section of the highway near the WCKG towers.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

You would think that FCC would have domain over the Illinois Department of Transportation. Consider that when they built I-80, they had to reroute US 45 completely around the whole WLS Radial Field. Look at the old maps. US 45 was straight North and South before that. Look at the WLS site on a Satellite Map and you'll see how it was circumvented. It does look like at some point they chopped off the Southwest corner of the property, perhaps when they added an exit ramp to the interchange. But it looks like the radials would have been spared by the radial field being round and the property being square. Of course, WLS was considered a vital part of Civil Defense communications then. In retrospect, maybe they should have tried to move it up to Addison then, before the station in Wisconsin signed on 900.

 

[rfry]

You would think that FCC would have domain over the Illinois Department of Transportation. Consider that when they built I-80, they had to reroute US 45 completely around the whole WLS Radial Field.

Yes, those were the days when the FCC had more good broadcast engineers on staff, and fewer politicians making engineering decisions.

 

[cyberdad]

If you drove on I294 in recent days near the Elmhurst, IL area as I did this weekend you would have noticed that one of the two WCKG AM 1530 towers has been removed. Only one of the towers is still standing.

Do you know when this started? I checked 1530 a couple of hours after sunrise about a week and a half ago, and it was all WCKY. But that;s not exactly unusual at my location. Today I was just over the state line in Wisconsin around mid-morning.. 1530 wzs a mix of two or three unidentifiable signals, but, that wasn't a surprise either. I'll keep checking it.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

Too bad they didn't get the WCKG 4 kW CP built. At least they could have run 1 kW STA. The first few times I passed those towers, I didn't recognize it as an AM array, due to the short unpainted unlit self supporting towers.

If you hear some kind of Classic Rock on 1530 during Daytime Skywave, it may be WLCO Lapeer, MI, simulcasting WQUS 103.1, and identifying as US 103 except for the TOH ID.

 

[CADXER]

Do you know when this started? I checked 1530 a couple of hours after sunrise about a week and a half ago, and it was all WCKY. But that;s not exactly unusual at my location. Today I was just over the state line in Wisconsin around mid-morning.. 1530 wzs a mix of two or three unidentifiable signals, but, that wasn't a surprise either. I'll keep checking it.

I don't know. I drove on that stretch of I294 last Friday (3/26). That's when I noticed the tower missing. I don't know when the STA started, but they applied for the STA with FCC on March 16. The STA was granted by FCC on March 22.

Here is the STA approval by FCC: http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/getimportletter_exh.cgi?import_letter_id=97735

I checked yesterday and today during daytime. I have a fair signal here in Wood Dale, but than again I am just 7 miles away from their transmitter site.

From what I understand parts of their ground aerials were always located on land owned by the Illinois Tollway Authority, while the two towers were located on land owned by DuPage Radio. The Tollway Authority used the eminent domain to acquire the land where one of the towers was located. That is the reason why the tower was removed.

As a result of all this, their FM translator W272DQ on 102.3 FM is also off the air.

 

[cyberdad]

I don't know. I drove on that stretch of I294 last Friday (3/26). That's when I noticed the tower missing. I don't know when the STA started, but they applied for the STA with FCC on March 16. The STA was granted by FCC on March 22.

Here is the STA approval by FCC: http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/getimportletter_exh.cgi?import_letter_id=97735

I checked yesterday and today during daytime. I have a fair signal here in Wood Dale, but than again I am just 7 miles away from their transmitter site.

From what I understand parts of their ground aerials were always located on land owned by the Illinois Tollway Authority, while the two towers were located on land owned by DuPage Radio. The Tollway Authority used the eminent domain to acquire the land where one of the towers was located. That is the reason why the tower was removed.

As a result of all this, their FM translator W272DQ on 102.3 FM is also off the air.

Wow! I didn't get a chance to check 1530 today, but I doubt if 190 watts from a longwire is exactly going to light it up here in Crystal Lake.

 

[asugeorge1]

You would think that FCC would have domain over the Illinois Department of Transportation. Consider that when they built I-80, they had to reroute US 45 completely around the whole WLS Radial Field. Look at the old maps. US 45 was straight North and South before that. Look at the WLS site on a Satellite Map and you'll see how it was circumvented. It does look like at some point they chopped off the Southwest corner of the property, perhaps when they added an exit ramp to the interchange. But it looks like the radials would have been spared by the radial field being round and the property being square. Of course, WLS was considered a vital part of Civil Defense communications then. In retrospect, maybe they should have tried to move it up to Addison then, before the station in Wisconsin signed on 900.

I see that with regards to US 45 (La Grange Road) and I-80 at the WLS tower site. Must be a lot of fun staying at that Hilton Garden Inn or eating at the Jumbo Crab right next to the WLS tower!

 

[PTBoardOp94]

You would think that FCC would have domain over the Illinois Department of Transportation.

Why would you think that?

Consider that when they built I-80, they had to reroute US 45 completely around the whole WLS Radial Field. Look at the old maps. US 45 was straight North and South before that. Look at the WLS site on a Satellite Map and you'll see how it was circumvented.

I don't know what exactly happened here, but I can assure you the FCC didn't stick its nose in. More likely the ownership or top management of WLS was politically connected in Chicago... this is Chicago after all.

 

[tvnut]

Wow! I didn't get a chance to check 1530 today, but I doubt if 190 watts from a longwire is exactly going to light it up here in Crystal Lake.

It's barely audible in the southwest suburbs of Chicago as well. Even at this time of year, WCKY can dominate into mid-morning. At mid-afternoon, it should be all WCKG. Not now. It hits 3 to 4, going back and forth, on the meter on the Sony ICF-2010 and comes up to a steady 7 with the outboard Tecsun AM-200 loop. But with poor audio in either case. I've heard clearer pirates.

 

[cyberdad]

I did a quick check of 1530 at about 2:30pm CDT while waiting in line at a drive-thru. Once again the channel was a mix of unidentifiable stuff. I presume WCKG was one of them, but normally more than 4 hours before sunset in April, it would have been a fair signal on top, if not alone. The saga continues.

 

[radioman148]

WCKG is very weak in the near north suburbs, when I can hear it.

 

[cyberdad]

I checked again this morning about an hour after sunrise. 1530 was just about the same as previous. Nothing identifiable.

 

[cyberdad]

Update: Yesterday, 4/9/21. 2:30pm CDT, four and a half hours before local sunset. WCKY was comfortably on top of 1530 and solid with a couple of uninteligible very weak signals underneath.

 

[Koolmotor]

WCKG-1530 still on the air with one tower, with continuous oldies and no sports programs during the week. They were running Dan Patrick in the morning and Jon Zaghloul for an hour in the afternoon up until recently. I also heard the W272DQ-102.3 translator while driving on the Tri-State Sunday August 1. The 1530 signal is fair during the day in NW Chicago, but I can't here the translator here.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

As I said a while back, it's too bad they didn't build the 4 kW CP. They could have been 1 kW nondirectional during non-CH hours. The LIC is 760 watts DA, so the CP is just 190 watts.

 

[CADXER]

WCKG-1530 still on the air with one tower, with continuous oldies and no sports programs during the week. They were running Dan Patrick in the morning and Jon Zaghloul for an hour in the afternoon up until recently. I also heard the W272DQ-102.3 translator while driving on the Tri-State Sunday August 1. The 1530 signal is fair during the day in NW Chicago, but I can't here the translator here.

Koolmotor, they are on the air using a long wire antenna ever since they lost the second tower. From what I read they got paid fairly well for the land they lost to the Illinois Tollway Authority. I drove by their tower yesterday and they were on with the oldies format you mentioned. I heard the translator as well on 102.3 FM. At home just 7 miles away their AM signal is fair, but the translator is not audible at all. Just WXLC out of Waukegan. They do have a CP for their translator to be located on Willis Tower, but I have a feeling they have no intentions to ever build that one. Probably using it as an incentive for prospective buyers of their AM station. They had a CP for the translator to be located on the Trump Tower, but they let that one expire.

 

[rfry]

Below is a NEC4.2 analysis of a 1530 kHz transmit system maybe similar to the one being discussed in this thread....

 

[CADXER]

Looks like WCKG is back on the air from their new STA antenna. Heard them yesterday with fairly good signal at my home, which is around 6 miles away. The new STA is 190 Watts using a long wire antenna. The location is near the intersection of I88 and Roosevelt Road using a cell phone tower as support.

No sign of their FM translator on 102.3 FM, which is from a different location.

 

[CADXER]

First one tower was removed now the second one is gone too. For a while the licensed WCKG site was left with one tower, however they did not use it since they are on using the STA with the long wire antenna. Not sure when the tower was removed but noticed it missing about weeks ago when I drove past it on I-294. Who knows if they are actively looking to build a new permanent site or if they plan on extending the STA indefinitely.