AM Frequency of the week: 720

[cyberdad]

In deference to the Easter Bunny, we'll do this week's post a day early. Speaking of which.....I plan to be traveling during much of the period between the end of this month and mid June. Safety concerns permitting. This means some of my posts for this series could be a day or so late or early. Don't touch that dial!a

Far northwest suburban Chicago.....

Days: WGN with the killer signal you might expect from 50kw on a stick about 22 miles to my east.

Nights: Basically the same as days. On the rare occasions when WGN is off for maintenance, Cuba used to reliably come through, but this ended quite a few years ago.

Retro:/Other locations: The aforementioned 720 pest from Cuba used to trash WGN onnce you got out of the Chicago area traveling south or southeast. But that was quite a few years ago. The Cubans have either powered down, replaced it with a weaker signal, or removed it entirely. Then there's KDWN. They've also reduced night power, so WGN has become an easier catch on the west coast. Finally, there's CHTN from the tiny province of Price Edward Island. 10kw, IIRC.. I used to hear them under WGN east of Toronto. Mixing with WGN around Ottawa and Montreal. And on top of WGN around Quebec city. Format was oldies. They've now migrated to FM.

Bottom line for all of this is that, unlike most channels, 720 has become more open. Which is why WGN turns up on SDRs ranging from Northern Europe, Key West, Hawaii and various points in between.

 

[icybluelake]

I think we're going to have to ask WGN to leave the air briefly one night so we can all hear whatever we hear in its absence, and then talk about it.

 

[schmave]

WGN is almost always the most dependable night signal of all the Chicago 50Ks here in central Ohio, right there with WMVP which is directional this way. Station that's long been close to my heart as a lifelong Cubs fan, but I haven't listened all that much in recent years. When I was growing up, they also had the Bears, so I was a frequent listener when possible.
Daytime, the last traces of WGN make it to just northwest of Columbus on a normal day.
Unlike with then-WMAQ in the 90s, whatever Cuban station is on 720 never had an effect on WGN that I remember. The bigger pest in my experience has been WGCR from North Carolina, which is fully capable of wrecking WGN at critical hours around here and, I've read, as far west as central Indiana before leaving the air at nightfall.

 

[ente]

Picayune, MS:

Day: nothing
Critical hours: WGST "720 The Voice" Hogansville, GA occasionally is heard in winter
Night: WGN Chicago

 

[cyberdad]

.
Unlike with then-WMAQ in the 90s, whatever Cuban station is on 720 never had an effect on WGN that I remember.

Absolutely, the Cuban pest on 720 was nasty enough. But it was a pipsqueak compared to the neutron bomb the Cubans are now running on 670. The purpose of which, according to all of my understanding, is to totally prevent the Miami 670 from being heard on the island. WSCR is basically an "innocent bystander".

 

[radioman148]

In the near north Chicago suburbs it's all WGN day and night. I'm less than 20 miles from their stick.
Now that KDWN has powered down WGN can be heard at night in parts of the west coast and on the Hawaii SDRs especially during the winter months.

 

[DXBob]

From south Overland Park, Kansas:

Day: Splatter from 10 kW KCMO on 710 kHz.

Night: Once KCMO drops to 5 kW at sunset, WGN comes up and often overcomes any splatter from KCMO. Highly listenable here on a regular basis.

No other signals logged.

Bob

 

[schmave]

Absolutely, the Cuban pest on 720 was nasty enough. But it was a pipsqueak compared to the neutron bomb the Cubans are now running on 670. The purpose of which, according to all of my understanding, is to totally prevent the Miami 670 from being heard on the island. WSCR is basically an "innocent bystander".

I still hear that interference on 670 from time to time, but thankfully it is nothing like it used to be. In this era of streaming, though, my time listening to the actual 670 frequency is limited to occasional DX and my trips to Chicago.
No doubt the Cuban on 720 has annoyed others, but oddly enough I've never heard it here.

 

[gr8oldies]

East Tennessee: Daytime---WGCR, Pigsah Forest, NC weak but listenable. Sunrise/sunset, sometimes WGST--interesting iHeart warehoused those long-time Atlanta calls there (formerly WVCC) can make it in. Nights: All WGN all the time.

Retro/other: Echoing others, WGCR gets out and very likely isn't powering down to it's CH power. I've heard it doing a number on WGN in the car on the northside of Indianapolis, and on the Edinburgh IN SDR. I also have heard WVCC/WGST on the Edinburgh rig and back in Ohio.

 

[channel99]

In deference to the Easter Bunny, we'll do this week's post a day early. Speaking of which.....I plan to be traveling during much of the period between the end of this month and mid June. Safety concerns permitting. This means some of my posts for this series could be a day or so late or early. Don't touch that dial!a
...
Finally, there's CHTN from the tiny province of Price Edward Island. 10kw, IIRC.. I used to hear them under WGN east of Toronto.

CHTN had a very good signal in Massachusetts during the day. With absolutely nothing else on 720 during the day, the oldies were quite listenable on a car radio within 10 - 15 miles of the coast. The path was almost entirely over water.

 

[cyberdad]

CHTN had a very good signal in Massachusetts during the day. With absolutely nothing else on 720 during the day, the oldies were quite listenable on a car radio within 10 - 15 miles of the coast. The path was almost entirely over water.

Oh yeah, the oldies mix on CHTN was quite good. The only negative for me was that the satellite delivery and the voice tracking was super obvious. At one point, it was the exact same jocks that I was hearing on CHUM

 

[Oldie919]

Regarding the 720 frequency.......
Perhaps 20 years or so ago, someone applied for a 50 kw station on 720 for Lebanon, NH: this would make it the only 50 kw AM north of Boston and NH's sole 50 kw AM.....
IIRc, the applicant purchased a Harris MW-50 and 4-tower phasor unit from CKLW, rented a truck and picked it up....
With that purchase and delivery taken care of, now was a good time to approach the town of Lebanon for permission to erect 4 towers (each ~ 300 feet tall......) on a plot of land at the edge of town....
Well...the Zoning Board was very firm with its "NIMBY" (Not In My Back Yard) vote.....and the applicant's dream of a 50 kw "cooker" went up in smoke.....
Whether the MW-50 and phasor were eventually sold -- or are still being stored somewhere --- remains a mystery.....!!
Exact details of this episode have blurred over time.....Perhaps someone reading this can shed more light on the subject....?!

 

[WCJ]

Orange County, TX Days nothing discernible Nights WGN has been MIA for several weeks. Getting Spanish language on top of everything with Mexico Nat'l Anthem this morning at 6AM presuming it's XEJCC from Juarez at 25KW

 

[cyberdad]

Regarding the 720 frequency.......
Perhaps 20 years or so ago, someone applied for a 50 kw station on 720 for Lebanon, NH: this would make it the only 50 kw AM north of Boston and NH's sole 50 kw AM.....

II'sn't Lebanon a resort town? If so, that probably didn't help matters with the local NIMBY crowd. I'm also guessing any or all of WOR, CHTN, and CKAC might have squawked, Although with four towers they might have found a workaround.

 

[CADXER]

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

Daytime/Nighttime: WGN all day, all night

DX/RETRO: WGN being my second closest AM station at 5 miles away means that only when they go off the air I can hear anything on this frequency. WGN going off is quite rare these days. Last time that I remember them being off was in 2005. The only DX heard on this frequency besides the above mentioned Cuba includes two stations that are no longer active, CHTN (Charlottetown, PEI) and YVQE (Porlomar, Venezuela). The fifth station heard on 720 at my location is the still active XEDE (Saltillo, Mexico). As for the Cuban, the only one listed one these days is a 2.5 kW Radio Progreso outlet, but I am certain that the one we were hearing in the past was much higher power.

 

[gar hi]

From Mountain View, Hawaii ...

Daytime - nothing

Nighttime - Usually KDWN (a weak signal) with WGN sometimes there too.

 

[tvnut]

From the southwest suburbs of Chicago:

24/7: "WGN, radio home of millions throughout mid-America."

During a rare silent period way back: CMGN, Colon, Cuba, said to be 30 kW at the time.

And that's it.

WGN's regular silent period when those were standard was Tuesday morning, not Monday morning. In the early 1960s (I believe), WGN management decided at least one major Chicago station should be on the air at all times, so switched the SP by a day. I remember at least once WGN running an ad in the co-owned Tribune explaining as much.

 

[schmave]

Orange County, TX Days nothing discernible Nights WGN has been MIA for several weeks. Getting Spanish language on top of everything with Mexico Nat'l Anthem this morning at 6AM presuming it's XEJCC from Juarez at 25KW

I can count on one hand the number of times I heard WGN when I lived in suburban Houston. Each was during the "winter," or at least the cooler months, from October until maybe March. Felt like I was just a bit too far south, maybe by 100 or 200 miles if that, to hear many stations I take for granted in the Midwest.

 

[gr8oldies]

I can count on one hand the number of times I heard WGN when I lived in suburban Houston. Each was during the "winter," or at least the cooler months, from October until maybe March. Felt like I was just a bit too far south, maybe by 100 or 200 miles if that, to hear many stations I take for granted in the Midwest.

I didn't get any real MW DXing in last time I was in the Houston area, but something to check out if I make it back.

 

[Oldie919]

II'sn't Lebanon a resort town? If so, that probably didn't help matters with the local NIMBY crowd. I'm also guessing any or all of WOR, CHTN, and CKAC might have squawked, Although with four towers they might have found a workaround.

Nighttime power was to be something around 1 kw, with a tight null to the west and south.....
Oh, well, it was a nice dream --- while it lasted....!!