I tuned in to 1560 just after sunrise, and I received a terrible signal in Lower Manhattan. I could barely hear the piano keys, but I couldn't understand the words. The signal on 1560 is weaker than that of the aforementioned WCTC on 1450. I can confirm that it is WFME because I was listening to Family Radio via the Internet at the same time. At that time, Family Radio was playing "My Jesus, I Love Thee."
-
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
I checked for reception on 1560 while driving through Hudson & Bergen counties in New Jersey yesterday. Tuner is a Pioneer NEX head unit with one of the best tuners in the mobile aftermarket.
There was zero signal from WFME through Leonia, Palisades Park or Ridgefield. Farther south in North Bergen I could faintly hear some religious talk, way down in the static and mud. Nothing that anyone would listen to if they weren't trying to DX the station, and no radio would stop on such a weak signal doing a seek/scan in that area.
This was 2-3 miles west of Manhattan on Route 1&9 which runs north-south along the eastern edge of the NJ Meadowlands. If there's no signal there, it's most certainly not reaching any part of the five boroughs. I'd honestly be surprised if that 1 kw signal is getting 2 miles out from the transmitter site before becoming distant/fringe strength.
There was zero signal from WFME through Leonia, Palisades Park or Ridgefield. Farther south in North Bergen I could faintly hear some religious talk, way down in the static and mud. Nothing that anyone would listen to if they weren't trying to DX the station, and no radio would stop on such a weak signal doing a seek/scan in that area.
This was 2-3 miles west of Manhattan on Route 1&9 which runs north-south along the eastern edge of the NJ Meadowlands. If there's no signal there, it's most certainly not reaching any part of the five boroughs. I'd honestly be surprised if that 1 kw signal is getting 2 miles out from the transmitter site before becoming distant/fringe strength.
WFME is now playing a repeating loop announcing that they are testing the signal and inviting listeners to submit reception reports by calling Family Radio's 1-800 number or e-mailing [email protected].
Back in June, WFME filed a special temporary authorization for power "not greater than 12.5 KW." The fact they filed a new STA for power "not greater than 1 KW" suggests to me that any higher power testing has been completed and the maximum usable power at this transmitter location will be around 1 KW.
I, too, picked up (or rather DXed) WFME broadcasting their test loop from 200 plus (a half hour north of Boston) at night. This is within their former night pattern lobe so signals from other 1560s (and 1550s and 1570s) would be few. This was with a much more sensitive than average AM radio, i.e. with a tuned RF stage.
One kilowatt in northeast New Jersey may well reach more people than some of Family Radio's other seventy odd outlets do in their markets. But once WFME locks in at 1 KW (or even 12.5 KW) other 1560s may apply for power increases that would doom forever the creation of a new Class A station in the northeast.
I, too, picked up (or rather DXed) WFME broadcasting their test loop from 200 plus (a half hour north of Boston) at night. This is within their former night pattern lobe so signals from other 1560s (and 1550s and 1570s) would be few. This was with a much more sensitive than average AM radio, i.e. with a tuned RF stage.
One kilowatt in northeast New Jersey may well reach more people than some of Family Radio's other seventy odd outlets do in their markets. But once WFME locks in at 1 KW (or even 12.5 KW) other 1560s may apply for power increases that would doom forever the creation of a new Class A station in the northeast.
I doubt it. 1510 WMEX in Boston downgraded from 50 kW full-time to a Class D with 10 kW daytime and only 100 watts at night, and none of its nearest neighbors with little or no nighttime power (WRNJ, WXCY, WWSM, WPGR) have any construction permits to upgrade their signals.
I seem to recall reading that this setup was not designed to be permanent. More like something to keep the license warm while engineers considered something more long-term...such as a diplex at an existing AM site in NJ.
Why would anyone, today, want a new station above 1500 on AM anywhere?
The only viable reason would be to get a translator, but that would only require a minimally powered AM.
Appears they've restarted broadcasting the web stream again tonight after the lengthy test signal period, although they're still peppering in signal report requests.
Not great AM conditions but getting a poor but DX-worthy signal from my Yamaha TX-1000 tuner with a simple loop antenna . Getting a slightly better signal with the RADIWOW R-108. I'd say the signal strength sounds to the ear about 1/10th to 1/8th the strength of the former 50kW, but is almost listenable up here in central Ontario. Not bad for 1kW on a slant wire.
Not great AM conditions but getting a poor but DX-worthy signal from my Yamaha TX-1000 tuner with a simple loop antenna . Getting a slightly better signal with the RADIWOW R-108. I'd say the signal strength sounds to the ear about 1/10th to 1/8th the strength of the former 50kW, but is almost listenable up here in central Ontario. Not bad for 1kW on a slant wire.
As noted earlier, Family Radio bought the station for $12.95 million and sold the tower site for $51 million, so now it's been a year since they took a windfall profit of roughly $38 million on the sale of that tower site. As a non-profit organization, aren't they legally compelled to reinvest it? So what is this nonsense with a 1kw slant wire transmitter? They could buy land in the Meadowlands, put up a whole new antenna array and still end up with millions leftover.
I doubt many people are going to mourn the loss of an obsolete AM signal, even if it did have a storied history. And the disappearance of content on the air from this outfit is no great loss either. But is does beg the question, what kind of black hole has all that money disappeared into?
I doubt many people are going to mourn the loss of an obsolete AM signal, even if it did have a storied history. And the disappearance of content on the air from this outfit is no great loss either. But is does beg the question, what kind of black hole has all that money disappeared into?
They probably put the money into the organization elsewhere. Reinvesting it into the AM would be stupid. They'll get this back on the air permanently, somehow, at lower power and low cost.
The money has to be used for the organization, it can't be distributed to management or owners. There's no reason why the tower land money has to be used to buy more tower land, or even used for this particular station.
Wondering if anyone has noticed a possible weakening in WFME's AM signal out of NJ?
Since some time in late October here in Ontario Canada I have been regularly getting a fairly decent DX signal, fade ins and fade outs, but surprisingly robust for such a distance and wattage (1kW). However, for the last 4 or 5 nights I've noticed a marked decrease in the signal power. WGLB out of Milwaukee seems to be dominating the frequency now, even with the radio positioned in the WFME max reception position.
I know in their last STA that they stated they may have to reduce power if necessary, but I would assume a new STA would reflect an official change in power if it did occur. It's probably just atmospheric conditions, but was just curious if anyone a bit closer to the transmitter site may have noticed anything different.
Since some time in late October here in Ontario Canada I have been regularly getting a fairly decent DX signal, fade ins and fade outs, but surprisingly robust for such a distance and wattage (1kW). However, for the last 4 or 5 nights I've noticed a marked decrease in the signal power. WGLB out of Milwaukee seems to be dominating the frequency now, even with the radio positioned in the WFME max reception position.
I know in their last STA that they stated they may have to reduce power if necessary, but I would assume a new STA would reflect an official change in power if it did occur. It's probably just atmospheric conditions, but was just curious if anyone a bit closer to the transmitter site may have noticed anything different.
During these short, dark winter days, skywave can happen all day long, so that's probably what you're experiencing.
Yes, I should have mentioned that my best reception has been basically well after dark athough, amazingly, I did pick them up in my car sometime in early December around 1500 Eastern in daylight.
Last edited:
On June 27, 2022 the FCC issued a new STA for WFME, lasting until December 26, 2022, to incrementally increase power from the current 1 kW to 10 kW, consisting of a series of steps to "phase in the power increase from 1 kW to 10 kW by using 2.5 kW for two weeks, then 5 kW for 4 weeks, before increasing to 10 kW (provided that no interference occurs at the lower power levels)."
This STA grant information is at:
Overall, the FCC "Correspondence Folder" list for WFME (aka "Facility #29024) is at:
This STA grant information is at:
Overall, the FCC "Correspondence Folder" list for WFME (aka "Facility #29024) is at:
I think that the real reason for the Winter reception by daytime skywave has to do with less atmospheric noise and not "dark days".
On the other hand, my best daytime skywave instances were around the Spring and Fall solstices, with my best one being 4VEH from Haiti heard in Cleveland, OH, around 1 PM in late March.
On the other hand, my best daytime skywave instances were around the Spring and Fall solstices, with my best one being 4VEH from Haiti heard in Cleveland, OH, around 1 PM in late March.
Gotta go back a number of decades [1975] but sitting in my first car [near Akron, 1962 Chevy II Nova] dialing around and picked up KOA out of Denver, blowing what was than WJW out of the water. Same night also picked up two California stations, cannot for the life of me remember the call signs but one was out of L.A. and the other was from San Francisco. No FM radio in that car, but FM was just beginning to take off around that time. My second car had FM but could only pick up WDBN "The Quiet Island" whose tower wasn't that far away. First car I had that had FM was a 1972 Satellite Sebring Plus that I bought in '78 and that was just an FM convertor I added on. And about 20 years ago about the middle of WV coming off a mountaintop I picked up WMMS out of Cleveland.
Gotta go back a number of decades [1975] but sitting in my first car [near Akron, 1962 Chevy II Nova] dialing around and picked up KOA out of Denver, blowing what was than WJW out of the water. Same night also picked up two California stations, cannot for the life of me remember the call signs but one was out of L.A. and the other was from San Francisco. No FM radio in that car, but FM was just beginning to take off around that time. My second car had FM but could only pick up WDBN "The Quiet Island" whose tower wasn't that far away. First car I had that had FM was a 1972 Satellite Sebring Plus that I bought in '78 and that was just an FM convertor I added on. And about 20 years ago about the middle of WV coming off a mountaintop I picked up WMMS out of Cleveland.
In that same area, but east of The-Mistake-on-the-Lake, and about 18 miles from the WKYC transmitter I heard a 10 kw station on 1100 from central Venezuela. By turning my antenna, I could understand the Venezuelan station 100% just miles from the 50 kw Cleveland station.
This was on December 1, 1963 when Rómulo Betancourt was elected.
@ Theatre of Your Mind -- Perhaps a bit off-topic, but maybe of marginal interest :
One night I was driving north on that stretch of the Jersey Tpk you referenced. North Bergen, Ridgefield ........
The AM dial was an upside-down, inside out, clashing cacophony of whistles amd images and mixing spurs that was so horrific at one point that the racket completely turned WFAN silent for a quarter-mile. No audio on 660 at all.
I GTFOed from there fast, before I looked at my hands on the steering wheel to see if their bones were visible.
One night I was driving north on that stretch of the Jersey Tpk you referenced. North Bergen, Ridgefield ........
The AM dial was an upside-down, inside out, clashing cacophony of whistles amd images and mixing spurs that was so horrific at one point that the racket completely turned WFAN silent for a quarter-mile. No audio on 660 at all.
I GTFOed from there fast, before I looked at my hands on the steering wheel to see if their bones were visible.
- Status