• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

AM Frequency of the Week: 1080

cyberdad

cyberdad

Crystal Lake, Illinois.....

Day: WNWI from Oak Park, IL (southwest suburbs of Chicago). with a fair signal. 5,000 watts non-directioal from a distance of about 50 miles.

Night: WNWI drops to 2,600 watts, but with a pattern favorable to me, so the signal is similar to wat I get during daytime.

Retro: Before WNWI came on, KRLD usually came in with a weak, fade-prone signal at night. Occasionally WTIC would turn up around sunset or sunrise. WOAP from Owasso, MI was also an occasional sunrise visitor..

Other Location: On my road trip to Canada this past week, I heard WNWI on top at night in Sault, Ste Marie, ON. Weak, but alone.
 
Once upon a time, WNWI was a 250-watt daytimer in Valparaiso, Ind., and was barely receivable in the southwest suburbs of Chicago.

When it signed off, it was a nightly battle royale between WTIC Hartford and KRLD Dallas. WTIC was, of course, always the late-afternoon leader in the winter thanks to sunset times, often before WNWI signed off. The only other 1080 I pulled in during this time was WKLO Louisville, a 1 kW outfit.

Then WNWI was sold and moved to a Riverdale, Ill., transmitter location (the CoL is Oak Lawn). There went 1080 for DX, and 1070 and 1090 are no bargains either thanks to my proximity to the transmitter more bleedover than the 50 kW blowtorches here in town. Maybe they're using their entire bandwidth rather than the more standard NRSC standards common today.
 
East Tennessee: Daytime: WKJK, Louisville, with a signal aimed right at us.
Night: Still mostly WKJK with some WTIC and KRLD now and then.

Retro/other: In Ohio, WMVR was on the air at 1080 until a tower came down in the 00s (as I recall). The 3 tower directional was never rebuilt but the FM continues to do fine. WMVR was locked in tight, and literally could not be heard even with the towers in sight to the west. It was protecting WIBC on 1070 and others, but mostly them. Also pre-sunrise tied to WTIC.
 
From south Overland Park, Kansas:

Day: Absolutely nothing, not even any fading. An open frequency.

Critical Hours: KRLD comes early in the evening critical hours and leaves later in morning critical hours.

Night: KRLD, signal varies from quite strong to weaker with some fading. Unpredictable, at best. No other signals logged to date.

Bob
 
Chicago by the Lake Shore:

The local WNWI dominates this frequency. I was able to get WTIC in Hartford once by positioning myself in front of the lakeshore buildings. I have never gotten KRLD, one of the few remaining US clear channel stations I haven't gotten in either California or here.
 
nights/mornings before sunrise.. kOAN anchorage, 230 miles away.. but ive heard CRI and NewsTalk ZB here as well
 
Cheyenne, WY:
Day... Nothing, sometimes some bleedover from KMXA.
Night: KRLD Dallas, with moderate strength. Occasionally, the HD will flash, and I've gotten their callsign on the HDR-15. Does anyone know of WTIC is still on HD?
 
ZantennaG1 said:
Cheyenne, WY:
Day... Nothing, sometimes some bleedover from KMXA.
Night: KRLD Dallas, with moderate strength. Occasionally, the HD will flash, and I've gotten their callsign on the HDR-15. Does anyone know of WTIC is still on HD?
Click to expand...

KRLD turned the HD off when I lived in Laramie, as did KNX.... both owned by audacy

WTIC isnt listed in HD
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
KRLD turned the HD off when I lived in Laramie, as did KNX.... both owned by audacy

WTIC isnt listed in HD
Click to expand...
Good to know about WTIC. In my personal experience, I haven't gotten HD on KNX, although KRLD still appears to be on HD.
 
In the near north Chicago suburbs daytime is WNWI with a pretty good signal. At night WNWI is a tad weaker, but still there.
Underneath I usually hear WTIC or KRLD depending on when I tune in.

Retro: Before WNWI moved to their current location with stronger signal nights were either WTIC or KRLD depending on conditions.
 
Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: WNWI with decent signal
Nightime: mostly WNWI

DX/RETRO: WNWI used to be heard during daytime even when they were broadcasting from Valparaiso, IN. As tvnut mentions the switch to Oak Lawn, IL that happened on March 27, 1998 messed up the frequency. Prior to the switch the two reliable catches at night were WTIC and KRLD. This frequency was the best bet to hear Connecticut on AM in Chicago area. Other DX heard on 1080 are KWJJ (Portland, OR), WCII (Louisville, KY), WEKS (Marietta, GA), WKAC (Athens, AL), YVQJ (Barcelona, Venezuela), HJDZ (Medellin, Colombia) and 4VRD (Port au Prince, Haiti)
 
1080 has treated me very nicely here in NE PA -- better than back when I lived in Queens NYC, near JFK airport.

Daytime -- zillcho. Not even slop from WBAL 1090.
Sunsets -- WKGY VA, WKKE and WKGX from NC (all of those on tape) , and un-taped WRES KY and WUFO Buffalo.

Nihgttime -- WTIC Hartford. Do they still use that Beethoven's 5th time-beep at the TOH, by the way ?

I do remember here the loud and booming KRLD reception back from March 2001 from when it'd been widely announced that WTIC would be off the air for maintenance, or for spite, whatever.
And there was another, subsequent, publicized WTIC silent period. On that second occasion, though, KRLD wasn't as loud.

(IIrc, wasn;t WRSE KY formerly WKLO? I got them in Queens one sunset, despite their corset away from WTIC.)
 
Steve Green NEPA said:
Nihgttime -- WTIC Hartford. Do they still use that Beethoven's 5th time-beep at the TOH, by the way ?
Click to expand...
WDAF (610) in Kansas City used to do that. For a time followed by the voice of Paul Harvey giving the TOH ID. I thought that was extremely odd for a country station.....but it sounded absolutely great!

(@Steve....Love the Percy Dovetonsils avatar. Classic!)
 
Last edited:
From NW San Antonio:

Daytime: Nothing

Sunset: KRLD has a good signal. Aiming NW/SE I can null it out pretty well and hear Radio Cadena Habana coming up.

Night: KRLD is fairly strong, and I’ve received it in full HD a few times on my Sangean HDR-16. However, I have not seen any HD flashing from it - nor adjacent frequency HD sideband hash - in the last few weeks. I can sometimes hear XETUL in Tultitlán underneath KRLD, and I usually hear it in the NW/SE partial null. On rare occasions I’ll hear a weak Radio Cadena Habana mixing in with it.

Sunrise: XETUL is stronger when it goes to day power, but KRLD outlasts it.

DX/Retro: I heard KSLL in Price, UT, and KGVY in Green Valley, AZ, once each at sunrise about six years ago. A few nights ago propagation to the SE was really strong and Radio Cadena Habana was coming in unusually well. Suddenly WQOS in Coral Gables, FL, popped up for a few minutes with Relevant Radio programming - the only time I’ve ever heard it.
 
Last edited:
Daytime in eastern Iowa: nothing. Nighttime is sometimes a weak KRLD, sometimes a mess. KRLD is another signal that doesn't do nearly as well in my area as it did in years past. I suspect the reason is WNWI. I have still never heard WTIC here.
 
Depending on your direction vis-a-vis WNWI, Icy, can you null (or at least minimize) WNWI maybe :15 - :30 minutes or so before your local sunrise? Our northeast pest WTIC is 50K omni at that hour and the dial should be quieter by you. 73.
 
1080 has been a mushy frequency around Columbus as long as I can remember. I remember hearing WTIC back into the 80s, and while it was never strong it's even weaker now than I thought it was then. Now, of course, I know that's because of KRLD.
I've only caught KRLD one time around here, and that was about 15 years ago on a rainy day in early January 2007. This was probably around 6 p.m. our time, so before they went to the night pattern that nulls toward WTIC, and while the signal was never loud it was pretty listenable for 15 minutes or so. Later that night when I checked, nothing. Whenever I've checked since then, nothing.
Reports I've read here say KRLD is listenable as close to me as parts of Kentucky, so a few hundred miles southwest.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom