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AM Frequency of the Week: 1190

cyberdad

cyberdad

Northwest Suburban Chicago Area.....

Days: Moderate splatter from WSQR (1180) and WRTO 1200.

Nights: The splatter issue pretty much vanishes, and 1190 is relatively empty. A weak WOWO is most likely to rise above a mixture of even weaker signals. Occasionally, KDMR from the Kansas City area takes over.

Sunrise/Sunset: WOWO and KDMR each become stronger....and easier.

Retro: WOWO used to be a very weak daytime regular. With the exception of occasional daytime skywave events, I haven't heard WOWO here during daytime in at least 10-15 years....if not longer. At night, WOWO used to be a slightly easier catch than it is now at 9800 watts. For several years, the Saint Louis area 1190 was fairly common at night....until the FCC pulled the plug on them.

Other Location: A few days before New Years 1965 on the Big Island of Hawaii's Kona Coast, KEX (Portland) became my first mainland catch during my junior year at McKinley High School in Honolulu. I remember the signal as fair, but steady, We were spending a few days on the big islaand during the Christmas break. Mainland catches (in the shadow of the volcano) were tough. But the Honolulu stations blasted in via salt water path. KPOI sounded like a local 24/7 on 1380....from over 150 miles away.
 
From the southwest (15.0 conductivity!) suburbs of Chicago:

Days: Splash from WRTO 1200, which isn't far from me, batters 1190 continually.

Nights: WOWO Fort Wayne drops in more often than not, though not like the 50 kW era. It's better during critical hours. Other visitors over the years: KLIF Dallas, WHMT Humboldt, Tenn., KQQZ Fairview Heights, Mo. (probably on 650 watts day power even though it was mid-evening), KDMR Kansas City, Mo., and another likely day-power after dark surprise, KJJI White Hall, Ark., on 2/19 this year.
 
Chicago by the lakeshore:

Daytime: WOWO is there but weak.

Nighttime: Again WOWO is often there but weak. Others have broken through too. I've heard KDMR in Kansas City more than once. I also have logged KQQZ Fairview Heights IL (near St Louis) and WNWC in Sun Prairie, WI. I don't even remember logging the last two so I'm guessing they were one-time events.
 
In the near north Chicago suburbs daytime WOWO is tough and hit with alot of splatter from WRTO. At night
WOWO can be heard and is weak and sometimes I hear KDMR in the background.
Retro: Before WRTO came on WOWO was OK during the day at my location and back in the day I'd listened to it sometimes
with their pop music format.
 
East Tennessee: Daytime--splatter from 1180 whatever its calls are this week. If/when it's off, WAFS can make it in.
Night: There are a few possibilities, but it's still mostly WOWO, where much of the 9800 watts goes southeast (even making it to the Key West SDR site). After sunrise and before sunset, WOWO can be strong. Others would have included WLIB and the late KQQZ.

Retro/other: I grew up in WOWOland, in the strong day and night signal area. Bob Sievers may have been the first voice I ever heard on the radio. Until I was 10 we lived between Warsaw and Elkhart, Indiana, then it was to West Central Ohio. Occasional night splatter from WHAM, otherwise all-WOWO all the time in the 50kW days. In places like Logansport or Lafayette IN, WOWO disappeared at night. I received it in Nashville, Minneapolis, Mid-Michigan and Sarasota at listening levels (when it's 70 in Sarasota and 10 in Fort Wayne, that made me glad to be in Sarasota that February.)

Otherwise I can remember getting KDMR, Kansas City in Lafayette IN at sunset and in Quincy IL during the daytime. A station heard after Fort Wayne sunset in Lafayette with jazz I later found to be Atlanta. This was the 90s.
 
From DFW, Texas:

Daytime: Local talk KFXR

Nighttime: Local KFXR fades into the rubble, even though, I'm only 19 miles from the transmitter. 1000 khz to 1200 khz are particularly noisy at my location. Most often heard evenings is XECT Monterrey to the southwest and WMEJ Bay St. Louis MS with Urban Gospel to the southeast (listed as a day timer, but on evenings). I have also heard KJJI White Hall AR with Classic Rock pop in occasionally.

Retro: In the 70's in FL, it was all WOWO, one of the stronger signals with KLIF a regular catch also.
 
From Cheyenne, WY: (8.0 mSm of ground Conductivity)
Daytime: KVCU Boulder, somewhat weak but listenable.

Nighttime: Still KVCU, but sometimes disappears into a flurry of stations. I do want KEX, and I thought I snagged it once
 
Just WOWO here in SE Michigan. They used to blast in here, now they're just kind of "There", beneath 1st adjacent slop from 50/15KW local WMUZ. It's a shame 😔

WOWO was one of the first "DX" stations I received when I was very young (Probably 6 or 7 years old). I distinctly recall sitting on the floor in my bedroom with a portable radio excitedly tuning around for new stations to log. WOWO was an easy one though, and could even be heard during daylight hours from my childhood home about 30 miles NW of Detroit. I'd even listen to WOWO on my clock radio as a child before going to bed.

Good memories.
 
From Pickerington, Ohio ... a weak WOWO daytime and a lot of mush at night, although WOWO sometimes can be heard at about a 1 on a 1-to-10 scale. Remembering what it was even in the late 80s and early 90s, it's not worth much listening anymore considering most anything they carry can be heard anywhere else.
When they were the full 50K, the night signal varied greatly here because of cancellation. Sometimes it would be fairly loud, other times it would be clobbered by WHAM slop.
My mom's hometown is very close to where gr8 spent some of his childhood, and I'll attest that then and now, WOWO is among the best 24/7 AM signals day and night in that part of Ohio even with the drop in power. When it was 50K, the signal was crystal clear, or at least that's how I remember it. Now, get even 10-20 miles east of the St. Marys/Celina area and there is an appreciable drop in strength.
 
Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: WOWO with weak signal
Nightime: usually WOWO

DX/RETRO: KQQZ used to be common fighting it out with WOWO, but now they are gone. Others heard include KLIF (Dallas, TX), KWMB (Wabasha, MN), KPHN (Kansas City, MO), WSVC (Dunlap, TN), WLIB (New York, NY), WHMT (Humbolt, TN), CFSL (Weyburn, SK), HJCT (Barranquilla, Colombia). In 2021 I also heard KJJI (White Hall, AR) on several occasions with classic rock format.
 
K8PLW said:
WOWO was one of the first "DX" stations I received when I was very young I'd even listen to WOWO on my clock radio as a child before going to bed.
Click to expand...
Same here. WOWO and Fort Wayne struck my pre-teen self as "the other side of the world".

And @CADXER....You mentioned CFSL and jogged my memory. I've heard that one here a few times, but not recently.
 
CADXER said:
Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: WOWO with weak signal
Nightime: usually WOWO

DX/RETRO: KQQZ used to be common fighting it out with WOWO, but now they are gone. Others heard include KLIF (Dallas, TX), KWMB (Wabasha, MN), KPHN (Kansas City, MO), WSVC (Dunlap, TN), WLIB (New York, NY), WHMT (Humbolt, TN), CFSL (Weyburn, SK), HJCT (Barranquilla, Colombia). In 2021 I also heard KJJI (White Hall, AR) on several occasions with classic rock format.
Click to expand...
I forgot to mention that I also sometimes get WLIB at night.
 
Both CFCL and WLIB have not been heard by me recently, but I am not really trying.
 
South Mississippi:

Day: WMEJ Bay St Louis, MS. 5kw daytimer
Night: KFXR Dallas, TX, KJJI White Hall, AR, and WOWO Fort Wayne, IN. WMEJ occasionally stays on at night.
 
From NW San Antonio:

Day: Splatter from local 1200 WOAI

Sunset: XECT "Contacto" in Monterrey and KFXR come up amidst the splatter. Later a weak WMEJ appears before signing off.

Night: XECT dominates when I aim NE/SW. On rare occasions a very weak KFXR will pop up for a bit. Aiming to the NW/SE, I sometimes hear XEPZ "Radio Centro" in Ciudad Juárez underneath or mixing in. (Since reporting my presumed reception of XEPZ in the "Post Your Latest DX" thread, I've heard the station ID with location.)

Sunrise: XECT still dominates, but KFXR and later WMEJ are back when they go to day power/sign on. Later KXKS "The Answer" in Albuquerque comes up from the NW with a fairly good signal when it goes to day power (by which time XECT is fading).

DX/Retro: Retired stations I've logged include XEWK in Guadalajara and KQQZ in Fairview Heights, IL. One-time loggings in recent years include KJJI at sunset and Spanish-language talk station KNUV in Tolleson, AZ, at sunrise.
 
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Daytime (east-central Iowa) is a weak KDAO from Marshalltown, IA, kind of amazing since it's 65 or 70 miles away and I think only 250 watts.
Nighttime these days is usually KDMR from Kansas City. Other stations that have showed up include KLIF Dallas (long ago), CFSL Weyburn, Saskatchewan, and WOWO.
 
Many eclipses ago here in my new PA digs, the daytime regular was 'Bay Country 1190' (WANN) Annapolis. They put out a daytime-only signal that looked like an inert 3-propellor fan. We're closer to the Maryland border than to the NY state border, so a lot of those Chesapeake stations came in.
WANN's history reveals that for decades they'd been the first and only R&B / Black audience music station licensed to Annapolis -- a strict daytimer. This honky heard them in 1993 as Country, though. S'sposedly the owners also possessed WAGE 1200 Leesburg. Now the facility is called WCRW and is on the opposite side of Washington DC.

WLIB NYC now at night, wobbling with WOWO Ft Wayne. Of course, WOWO used to be the bomb here before they were bought out.

One SSS in 1994 brought a (?) 'WSNL' (?) Friedensburg (?) . No clue as to whence. Probably some Carolinian or Virginian.

Best of the New Year to you great folks and fellow insomniacs !
 
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