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AM Frequency of the Week: 1050

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cyberdad

cyberdad

Far northwest suburban Chicago....

Days: WLIP from Kenosha, WI. 250 watts non-directional with a fair signal. Distance is 27 miles. One of the more notable facts about WLIP is that it was once owned by WLS disc jockey, Dex Card.

Nights: WLIP stays at 250 watts non-directional, but disappears into the slop, and 1050 sounds almost like a graveyard channel. BUT, I actually got a couple of new catches on 1050 this past week, as I was prepping for today's post. A Spanish language was on top before sunrise a few mornings back. i wasn't able to ID it, but with help from a few of you guys, I think we narrowed it down to thee possibles, with XEG is the prevailing guess. Then this morning, I was getting a strong signal with country music. That turned out to be KLOH from Pipestone, Minnesota (southwest corner of the state). This was about 4am CDT. I got several positive IDs, but the mystery that remains is whether they were on 9830 watts day power with a pattern that doesn't favor me, or 432 watts night pattern with a major lobe aimed right at me. Hmmm..... Either way, distance is 428 miles.

Otherwise, the most likely station to rise to the top is CHUM, but it usually doesn't stay on top for long.

Retro: In the 1960s, I used to hear WHN/WMGM from New York from time to time. More recently, in the 90s and early 2000s, I was hearing CKSB from Winnipeg on a semi-regular basis. That was a now-defunct French language station the usually turned up around sunrise. Even more recently, I've heard WDZ from Decatur, IL a few times. Not sure whether at 1kw non-directional day power, or 250-watt non-directional night power. 173 miles.
 
In the near north Chicago suburbs: days it's WLIP with a fair signal. At night 1050 sounds pretty much like a graveyard channel here too. The stations I used to hear were XEG, CHUM, and WHN. Now that NYC is WEPN I almost never hear it. CHUM is heard once in awhile. WDZ has also been heard here.
 
Chicago by the lakeshore:

Daytime: WLIP in Kenosha can be heard right on the lake. In my apartment it barely comes in at all.

Nighttime: CHUM in Toronto is the most likely. I've tried for WEPN in New York City several times to no avail. I've also heard WVXX Norfolk VA a few times, probably when they were using daytime power.
 
West Houston, it's local daytimer KCHN (Chinese M-F, Indian on weekends), then XEG takes over at sunset. In my time here I haven't ID'd anything else on this frequency.

In Tulsa in the 70's, after the local daytimer signed off, XEG was in at almost local strength. I also remember catching CHUM on an early Monday morning. Very cool Canadian Top 40.
 
Daytime in Cheyenne, WY: Nothing
Nightime: the only thing that moderately comes in is KTBL Albuquerque, however XEG is on my bucket list. There are at least 2-3 others on 1050 that are muddy and hasn't yet risen up so I could ID it.
 
East Tennessee: Daytime--splatter from WJBE. In the absence of WJBE, it's nearby WFSC, Franklin NC. Night----more or less a hodge-podge.

Retro/other: Ohio--1050 in Cincinnati has hosted religious formats with several calls including the current WCVX. I first remember it as WZIP in the 70s. The tower, on the Brent Spence Bridge is one of the most unusually placed I'm familiar with. Nighttime in the 60s and 70s was CHUM and WHN coming in together and beating each other up. I could note how similar CHUM's processing was to CKLW. There was a CKLW to CHUM and back DJ train at the time.

I never heard WLIP but I had friend who worked there and I talked to Dex Card about a job, which., no I didn't get.
 
Dex Card truly was his given name, Dexter Card.

Clark Weber was a little less obvious, Clarence Weber.

Both settled between Evanston and Racine.
 
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Kenosha, WI- Guess what I get? The Mighty WLIP, about 3 miles southwest of me. They signed on in 1947 with their tower atop the 6-story Kenosha National Bank building downtown; the tower was quite the landmark, and being 6 blocks from Lake Michigan their 250 watts gave them a killer signal up and down the lakeshore. They moved to their current 500' tower in Pleasant Prairie about 1984 along with 95.1FM, currently WIIL. They still have a very good signal for 250 watts. !n 1987 they went full time.

I can still get enough of a null for some stuff to be heard underneath. In the past I have heard WHN (WEPN) New York, WDZ Decatur, IL, WJOK Kaukauna, WI, WDVM Eau Claire, WI, WPAG Ann Arbor, MI, and of course CHUM Toronto. CJIC Sault Ste. Marie used to be a nighttime regular; they have been off the air since the early 90s.
 
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1050's been a busy spot on the dial here in the southwest suburbs of Chicago. More or less in order:
WHN New York (now WEPN), occasionally making it in (like 1130 WNEW/WBBR).
WPAG Ann Arbor, Mich.
CJIC (later CFYN) Sault St. Marie, Ont.
CKSB St. Boniface, Man.
XEG Monterrey, Mex., when it was 150 kW (I think it's 100 kW now).
WLIP Kenosha, Wis., by no means a regular.
CHUM Toronto
and the most recent arrival: WNES Central City, Ky., 1 kW near sunset on 6/18/2020, pulled in on the ICF-2010 with the Tecsun AN-200 loop.

WDZ Decatur is eagerly wanted.
 
Dex Card also owned WRJN 1400 Racine, now owned by Dave Magnum, as Magnum Communications. Magnum Communications also owns WDLS 900 Wisconsin Dells, the station that precluded WLS from moving to Addison, IL without going Directional.
 
1KW VTR 350khz only 2 miles away puts a nice strong signal here 24/7.. but i can hear KTCT or CJNB under it sometimes and sometimes Romania on 1053
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
1KW VTR 350khz only 2 miles away puts a nice strong signal here 24/7.. but i can hear KTCT or CJNB under it sometimes and sometimes Romania on 1053
Click to expand...
So does a third Harmonic of a LW beacon make it hard to Dx underneath?
 
ZantennaG1 said:
So does a third Harmonic of a LW beacon make it hard to Dx underneath?
Click to expand...
Sometimes. We had a beacon nearby that had a harmonic. It was UIZ Berz Macomb on 215 kHz. If you were close enough, there was a sixth harmonic on 1290 kHz. The Airport has been gone for 15 years or more, and is now a subdivision. They wanted to make it into a larger regional airport, and the NIMBYs did everything possible to get rid of it before that happened. The harmonic interfered with CJBK 1290 London and WLBY 1290 Saline near the Airport.

Airfields_MI_Detroit_NE_htm_7fca033b.jpg
 
Schroedingers Cat said:
Sometimes. We had a beacon nearby that had a harmonic. It was UIZ Berz Macomb on 215 kHz. If you were close enough, there was a sixth harmonic on 1290 kHz. The Airport has been gone for 15 years or more, and is now a subdivision. They wanted to make it into a larger regional airport, and the NIMBYs did everything possible to get rid of it before that happened. The harmonic interfered with CJBK 1290 London and WLBY 1290 Saline near the Airport.

Airfields_MI_Detroit_NE_htm_7fca033b.jpg
Click to expand...

interestingly enough, i have NEVER heard VTR's 2nd harmonic... and the only thing there is a 50kw 230 miles away
 
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Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: WLIP with a decent signal
Nightime: CHUM most likely

DX/RETRO: Until about 10 months ago WDZ was a no show in my log book, but it was not because of lack of trying. Finally logged them in December 2020. Agree about XEG. Used to be a regular log, but not heard in a while. Same applies to WEPN/WHN. They are not as common as they used to be. Others heard on this frequency include KMIS (Portageville, MO), WPAG/WTKA (Ann Arbor, MI), WGRI (Cincinnati, OH), CFYN (Sault Ste Marie, ON), CKSB (Winnipeg, MB), CMLL Radio Victoria, Cuba
 
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