AM Frequency of the Week: 860

[cyberdad]

Crystal Lake, IL.....

Days: A very weak WNOV from Milwaukee. 250 watts from about 65 miles to my northeast. This was all but impossible during the more than five decades when our now-defunct Crystal Lake local was operating on 850.

Night: All CJBC from Toronto. Usually with a good signal. I've told the story before that my daughter became fluent in French starting with listening to CJBC on an old Radio Shack Realistic portable that I gave to her when she was a teenager.

Sunrise: WSON from Henderson Kentucky (Evansville, Indiana Market) is a frequent visitor. Supposedly now only at 500 watts, but they still are capable sometimes of trashing CJBC.

 

[radioman148]

In the near north Chicago suburbs: Daytime WNOV weak. When I first heard this station in the early 1960s the calls were WFOX.
Night it's all CJBC with a good signal.

 

[gr8oldies]

East Tennessee: Another frequency where not much is happening. Daytime is blank, I had something around sunset last week which I think was WGUL, Dunellon FL and otherwise, nights belong to WGUL.

Retro/other: WMRI (formerly WGOM), Marion, IN gets all over Indiana and Western Ohio

 

[MichaelTheZ]

Chicago by the lakeshore:

During the day, there is usually a very faint WNOV Milwaukee. At certain locations and times, WMRI in Marion, Indiana will come through. In the right situation it can actually be quite listenable.

At night, CJBC Toronto rules the airwaves. After CFZM it is the strongest Toronto station where I am.

 

[DXBob]

From south Overland Park, Kansas:

Day: A very listenable 10 kW non-directional KKOW in Pittsburg, Kansas. However, when they switch to their 5 kW 3-tower directional nighttime pattern - poof! They are gone.

Night: CJBC is at times listenable. However, usually nothing identifiable.

Bob

 

[cyberdad]

From south Overland Park, Kansas:

Day: A very listenable 10 kW non-directional KKOW in Pittsburg, Kansas. However, when they switch to their 5 kW 3-tower directional nighttime pattern - poof! They are gone.

I totally forgot about this one. I used to hear it on a semi-regular basis during its days as KOAM. Only a handful of times as KKOW...and only once recently (this past winter).

 

[ente]

South Mississippi:

Day- nothing
Night- usually KKOW. WSON Henderson, KY, KONO San Antonio, TX, and CJBC sometimes can be heard

 

[WCJ]

Orange County, TX Days-from nothing to a very weak KSFA Nacogdoches, TX, Nights KONO San Antonio and KKOW, Pittsburg, KS when each are nulled

 

[CTListener]

Meriden, CT:

Days: WSBS Great Barrington, MA, weak but in the clear with an old-fashioned full-service AM format when live, chatty and nostalgic.
Nights: CJBC, strong in French.

 

[CADXER]

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

Daytime: WNOV with weak signal
Nighttime: CJBC usually with good signal

DX/Retro: despite CJBC dominating the frequency some good DX can be had under the right conditions. Some of my catches include KKOW (Pittsburgh, KS), KONO (San Antonio, TX, KSFA (Nacogdoches, TX), KVAA (Phoenix, AZ), KNUJ (New Ulm, MN), KWRF (Warren, AR), KOSE (Osceola, AR), WEVA (emporia, VA), WACB (Taylorsville, NC), WTZX (Sparta, TN), WSON (Henderson, KY). WMRI (Marion, IN) is a frequent visitor. Bunch of the foreign stations logged on this frequency are no longer active (Radio Metropolitana, Cuba, Radio Tecana, El Salvador, Radio Caribe, Mexico). Radio Clarin from Santo Domingo used to be fairly easy catch both on 860 and on SW. Still active stations that are possible are XEMO, Tijuana, Mexico and Radio Reloj, Cuba.

 

[gr8oldies]

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

Daytime: WNOV with weak signal
Nighttime: CJBC usually with good signal

DX/Retro: despite CJBC dominating the frequency some good DX can be had under the right conditions. Some of my catches include KKOW (Pittsburgh, KS), KONO (San Antonio, TX, KSFA (Nacogdoches, TX), KVAA (Phoenix, AZ), KNUJ (New Ulm, MN), KWRF (Warren, AR), KOSE (Osceola, AR), WEVA (emporia, VA), WACB (Taylorsville, NC), WTZX (Sparta, TN), WSON (Henderson, KY). WMRI (Marion, IN) is a frequent visitor. Bunch of the foreign stations logged on this frequency are no longer active (Radio Metropolitana, Cuba, Radio Tecana, El Salvador, Radio Caribe, Mexico). Radio Clarin from Santo Domingo used to be fairly easy catch both on 860 and on SW. Still active stations that are possible are XEMO, Tijuana, Mexico and Radio Reloj, Cuba.

I din't think I ever heard Clarin on 860 but definitely 4850, and they had an English tourism hour with Rudy Espinal Jeff White eventually bought an hour for his "The World" and had Espinal do a segment called "This Is the Carribean"

 

[drt]

Saint Petersburg,FL (33701) 860 is Salem's "the answer" licensed to Dunedin,FL (tower is in nearby n.w. Clearwater. 5,000 watts days (DA) and 1,500 watts night (DA with tighter null to the north than day daytime directional pattern). Anyone receiving WGUL north of 31º latitude at night, is making me come to the conclusion that WGUL is not going to their nighttime power and tighter directional pattern consistently. (only occasionally have I been able to hear the Toronto 860- CJBC in the background at night).

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

I have't listened daytimes here that much recently, but 860 has been pretty good in total.

Used to be a faint WWDB Philly in the day. That's from back when the AM dial was clear as crystal.
Sunsets have brang WBGR from metro-Baltimore MD (long ago they were WAYE) and WACB from NC.

Nighttimes it's CJBC -- except once.
For some reason I'm sure made sense when we began the vigil of listening exclusively to CJBC every 12-24 before and after midnight-at-whatever-church services . See, Linda and I are of vastly different religions -- Lutheran and Catholic, lol. So we go to any church with its lights on at midnight.
Well, our kitchen's Hamilton Beach can-opener / AM-FM radio came with the house. For years now it's been tuned to 860, and only used on Christmas Eve as some form of 'pilot' for CJBC reception. One night I heard an ENGLISH speaking station, real faint, under their pauses.
Instantly I dashed to the living room and its GE Superadio 2 and the loop. Somehow I managed some bizarre cardioid null of CJBC between the two antennae. There was a faint but clear ID from WAMO in Pittsburgh.

@ Cyberdad : Tell your daughter 'Way to go' on her French fluency. Despite a surfeit of French ancestry here, I only learned how to count to 59 off of CHU. Nobody on both sides of the family spoke French -- only 'Brooklyn'.

@ drt : I was in Florida vacationing, around 1981, when I stopped by that 860 for a visit. The guy on the air was playing fabulous pop music. He gave me a WAZE cigarette lighter with their slogan 'Tampa Bay's 86 WAZE'. I asked him who was doing the music ; it was that good. He shrugged and told me, 'Just me. This is my last day on the air. Tomorrow the station changes to a Spanish format'.
As well, After CJBC and the other CBC things used to sign off, R. Clarin was an outright pest back near JFK Airport in Queens.

 

[drt]

I have't listened daytimes here that much recently, but 860 has been pretty good in total.

Used to be a faint WWDB Philly in the day. That's from back when the AM dial was clear as crystal.
Sunsets have brang WBGR from metro-Baltimore MD (long ago they were WAYE) and WACB from NC.

Nighttimes it's CJBC -- except once.
For some reason I'm sure made sense when we began the vigil of listening exclusively to CJBC every 12-24 before and after midnight-at-whatever-church services . See, Linda and I are of vastly different religions -- Lutheran and Catholic, lol. So we go to any church with its lights on at midnight.
Well, our kitchen's Hamilton Beach can-opener / AM-FM radio came with the house. For years now it's been tuned to 860, and only used on Christmas Eve as some form of 'pilot' for CJBC reception. One night I heard an ENGLISH speaking station, real faint, under their pauses.
Instantly I dashed to the living room and its GE Superadio 2 and the loop. Somehow I managed some bizarre cardioid null of CJBC between the two antennae. There was a faint but clear ID from WAMO in Pittsburgh.

@ Cyberdad : Tell your daughter 'Way to go' on her French fluency. Despite a surfeit of French ancestry here, I only learned how to count to 59 off of CHU. Nobody on both sides of the family spoke French -- only 'Brooklyn'.

@ drt : I was in Florida vacationing, around 1981, when I stopped by that 860 for a visit. The guy on the air was playing fabulous pop music. He gave me a WAZE cigarette lighter with their slogan 'Tampa Bay's 86 WAZE'. I asked him who was doing the music ; it was that good. He shrugged and told me, 'Just me. This is my last day on the air. Tomorrow the station changes to a Spanish format'.
As well, After CJBC and the other CBC things used to sign off, R. Clarin was an outright pest back near JFK Airport in Queens.

After the that last Spanish format; (believe that lasted about 3 years; could be wrong); it became WGUL, with SeaGULs sound in the background of many of their liners and it was an easylistening/nostalgia format and in AM stereo and that lasted about a decade or longer; then the local owners sold out to Salem; at that point I quit listening, except to check the frequency from time to time when doing a AM dial scan. If my current plans go through, I will be in Warwick RI about 6 days and I'm sure that the 860 from Toronto will either be strong at night or at least there.

 

[drt]

Steve, you were lucky to get that private tour, of course that would be next to impossible today. Glad you were able to do that and get the WAZE 860 souvenirs! Were their studios in Clearwater at that time, or just north of Clearwater in Palm Harbor?

 

[cyberdad]

, I will be in Warwick RI about 6 days and I'm sure that the 860 from Toronto will either be strong at night or at least there.

Safe bet. I spent about 20 years working for a company with U.S. HQ in suburban Boston, and CFZM....which is diplexed with CJBC...routinely blew out WJIB there at night. 860, however, was another matter due to having a local 50kw flamethrower adjacent on 850. In Rhode Island, however, CJBC should be in the clear....and strong.

 

[schmave]

Pickerington, Ohio ...
Daytime: Nothing, although a very close listen sometimes can pick up WKNR slop, especially during the winter.
Nighttime: All CJBC, usually with a strong signal akin to fellow Toronto blaster CFZM.

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

GRT : My 1981 memory is understandably vague, but I *do* remember the WAZE studios and the three towers being all alone in some sandy field of land. It looked like the set in the 1955 movie Tarantula, only with more palm trees and no mountains. That may have been the site you reference. ?
I somehow conjure the memory of WAZE having four sticks in a line, somewhere near the intersection of U.S. 19 and Gulf-To-Bay Boulevard. Although those might've been the towers of one WSST Largo, on 800. You'd probably know.

Those same WGUL calls were from an even EARLIER trip to Florida -- 1970 ? They had their lone stick on the east side of the same US 19, broadcasting on 1500 (day only) and their 105.5 FM. Back 52 years ago, Route 19 went through towns that looked like the backdrop for 'High Noon' Lots have changed. 105.5 later became that tragic ratings failure WDUV.
Kidding, of course.

 

[drt]

GRT : My 1981 memory is understandably vague, but I *do* remember the WAZE studios and the three towers being all alone in some sandy field of land. It looked like the set in the 1955 movie Tarantula, only with more palm trees and no mountains. That may have been the site you reference. ?
I somehow conjure the memory of WAZE having four sticks in a line, somewhere near the intersection of U.S. 19 and Gulf-To-Bay Boulevard. Although those might've been the towers of one WSST Largo, on 800. You'd probably know.

Those same WGUL calls were from an even EARLIER trip to Florida -- 1970 ? They had their lone stick on the east side of the same US 19, broadcasting on 1500 (day only) and their 105.5 FM. Back 52 years ago, Route 19 went through towns that looked like the then backdrop for 'High Noon' Lots have changed. 105.5 later became that tragic ratings failure WDUV.
Kidding, of course.

WAZE's towers at the time of your visit was indeed near the intersection of Gulf-to-Bay (aka SR 60) and US19; it was probably about 5 or 6 blocks north of that intersection on the east side of US19; I was never able to figure out whether there were 3 or 4 towers; going one way on US19; it looked like 3 towers and going the other way, it looked like four; I know there was a small building near the towers and that was apparently the studio you visited. WSST (aka WWBA this week) 880 towers are in Largo, about 5 miles sw of the 860 tower site; just south of Ulmerton Rd and about 6 or 7 blocks east of 66th St N.

WDUV had even greater ratings across the board (age wise) in the 1980's when they were at 103.3FM and ran 100,000 watts; then there was a frequency swap to 103.5 then 105.5 and now their tower in on the Pasco/Pinellas county line in Holiday Florida and instead of 100,000 watts, they are now 35,000 watts, so their coverage area is diminished. If I'm not mistaken, WDUV's prior tower site was on Snead Island (west of Palmetto), just south of the Sunshine Skyway.

 

[tvnut]

From the soggy southwest suburbs of Chicago:

Night: CJBC Toronto, more often than not. So often, I don't check out 860 too much, but...

Over the years, HILR Radio Clarin from Santo Domingo has come through, probably after CJBC went off for the night in the old days. Other catches: WQZM859, the old TIS for Midway Airport, a real pest when it was there; WNOV Milwaukee, KOAM Pittsburgh, Kan., WGOM Marion, Ind. (9/23/1992) and most recently, daytimer WTZX Sparta, Tenn., with 1 kW at 12:17 a.m. Go figure.