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AM Frequency of the Week: 630

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cyberdad

cyberdad

40-ish miles northwest of downtown Chicago, 60-ish miles southwest of downtown Milwaukee.....

630 is basically splatter from WTMJ in Milwaukee (620), and more recently additional splatter from WMFN (640) in Peotone, IL. On rare occasions, I can sometimes get a whiff of KYFI from St. Louis. I know CFCO is sometimes heard during daytime in the Chicago area, but not by me. I'm evidently too far west.

Night: CFCO rules, With a fair signal. Sometimes, KYFI is present, and less frequently WLAP.

Retro: KXOK (KJSL/KYFI) used to be common qt night before CFCO raised its night power from 1kw to 6kw, and pumped it into a pattern more freindly to my location.

Finally, Until around the early '90s, CKRC also made it in from Winnipeg on a 2-3 occasions during most years. Only 10kw, IIRC, but with still competitive to Winnipeg's big boppers on 580, 680, and 990. Day aand night.
 
Two catches here so far* on 630. In the day it's a mix of WEJL Scranton and WSBN Washington DC. Both are ESPN sports. A mere six miles south of me, as the car radio flies, 'WMAL' starts to take over.
* Nighttimes now, after I'd put batteries in the GE SR II, turned off the rotary-switch attic lights and shut down the router -- all this the night before the first WBOB TEST -- the low end of the AM dial has come to more-then-acceptable life once more. WSBN is atop some other unIDs at night.

O/T a bit, if I may :
A long time ago, the National Radio Club issued a revival / DX News from the 40's. There was a quaint mention of a 'WQAN' in the musings. At the time, we were kids fooling around with one of those Part-15 AM transmitters. Needing calls for it, we looked in all the available logbooks and found no 'WQAN', so we cadged it (one ID went 'From Oknok Communications ..... This W Q A N South Ozone Park ...... for Great Jamaica Bay.').
A few weeks ago I got in the mail an FM Part 15 transmitter. It's the size of a pack of 100 millimeter cigarettes. Just for boogers and giggles I'll rebroadcast one of those internet Oldies stations and check 'the coverage'. The various DJs get a kick out of the 'hype'.
Anyway -- short story long -- 'WQAN-FM' is now up and at it at times.

Punch line : Some time ago we'd traced those original WQAN calls to their source.
WEJL Scranton.

Coverage map and rate card for WQAN-FM available on request, hi. EMail me.
 
In the near north Chicago suburbs daytime: Now a splatter squeeze from WMFN and WTMJ. On a good day with the right radio I can still get a whiff of CFCO which used to be easier to hear during the day at my location. I don't hear KYFI much anymore during the day. When it was KXOK I used to be able to get it by turning the radio away from CFCO.

Night: Mostly CFCO with KYFI and WLAP in sometimes.

Retro: WLAP used to be the station I heard most on 630 at night.
 
Out here in Cheyenne, WY:
It is 630 KHOW Denver all the time(87.9 miles away), the station featured on "The Shining", with the old duo of Hal and Charley. Nowadays, KHOW is a mix of conservative talk and infomercials.

Your reception will depend on your radio.
Daytime: On my vehicles, KHOW can be local sounding at times, whilst it is weak, but listenable on my portables.
Nights: KHOW is just slightly weaker at night, but I haven't been able to grab anything else.

Travel:
Those characters trying to reach the Stanley hotel wouldn't have any problems hearing KHOW, because I recieved it strong in Estes Park.

Much to my delight/surprise, KHOW survived the trip to Scottsbluff, NE during the day.

However, I couldn't really tell what stations I was getting at night on 630 when I went to Riverton, Sheridan, and Rapid City.
 
East Tennessee: Daytime--nothing, except WRJZ splatter.
Critical hours: Sometimes KFYI. Unlike the other 5000 water from Lexington, WVLK. WRJZ is completely nulled in our direction.
Night--not much of anything. I heard WMAL about 10 years ago.
Retro/other: Dayton, Ohio area, WLAP with a moderate signal. Further North in my old home town, we were on the WLAP/CFCO line. Lima seemed to have CFCO more solid (this was the 70s, I know CFCO's facilities have changed.
 
From west Houston Texas: daytime I sometimes get a very weak KSLR San Antonio. At sunset, KSLR dominates, but KYFI usually comes up to almost equal to KSLR when I turn the radio (they're almost at a right angle from San Antonio). Slightly later, XEFB Monterrey and KHOW enter the mix. At night, it's usually a mix of those 4, with KSLR usually strongest. I also heard Radio Progreso once in 2020.
 
From the southwest suburbs of Chicago ...

Before WMFN arrived in Peotone, you had a shot at KXOK St. Louis during the day, and likewise at night. Now, even my Sony ICF-2010 has trouble pulling out a legit KYFI signal there.

Over the years, along with KXOK, I've gotten WLAP Lexington, Ky.; CFCO Chatham, Ont.; CKRC Winnipeg; KHOW Denver, and what was listed as CMHQ Santa Clara, Cuba, 50 kW nights.

But no WQAN, drat!
 
Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: these days just WMFN splatter
Nightime: normally CFCO or KYFI (ex-KXOK)

DX/RETRO: KXOK and few times CFCO were heard during daytime. DX wise throughout the years include WLAP (Lexington, KY), KHOW (Denver, CO), WMAL (DC), WVVW (S. Mary's, WV), WBMQ (Savannah, GA), CHLT (Sherbrooke, PQ). Foreign catches include the pesky Cubans and Radio America, Honduras.
 
In Pickerington, Ohio, a very weak WLAP by day and nothing to replace it at night in my experience. In the bad old days when WTVN ran IBOC, 630 was a bunch of hash.
I've never heard CFCO in Columbus but I remember it always having a very good signal daytime in Toledo. Don't think I ever heard it at night. That's not to say it was never there, but I didn't hear it. It was oldies when I was in college and country today.
 
Retro, Minneapolis/St.Paul, 1995 or 96: The original 6 tower DA for what had been KDWB 630 St. Paul was sold for office park development. That site was adjacent to the intersection of I-494 and I-94 on the eastern edge of St. Paul.
 
joebtsflk1 said:
Retro, Minneapolis/St.Paul, 1995 or 96: The original 6 tower DA for what had been KDWB 630 St. Paul was sold for office park development. That site was adjacent to the intersection of I-494 and I-94 on the eastern edge of St. Paul.
Click to expand...
I assume they had a west directional pattern at night with that location.
 
radioman148 said:
I assume they had a west directional pattern at night with that location.
Click to expand...
CFCO was comfortably listenable in the Detroit area at night when they were running 1kw directional after sunset.....including at least the close-in Western suburbs. If memory serves (and it may not), I think CFCO at 1kw night was sending a small "spike" to the west southwest. My guess is that they were "threading the needle" between KXOKm CKRC, and perhaps even KHOW. I don't think they were obligated to protect KDWB.

What I do know for sure is that CFCO nighttime is now a much easier catch at my home location that it was with the old 1kw night pattern. (I also know for sure that CFCO did a great job with oldies, and they also seem to know what they'r doing as a country station. Most of their primary coverage area is rural.)
 
From south Overland Park, Kansas:

Day: A very faint KYFI, not listenable however.

Night: KYFI or nothing. I have tried.

Retro: Growing up in Peoria, Illinois, KXOK was a my favorite Top 40 station. Why? A broader playlist. I toured the station in 1966. KXOK had a unique audio quality, very warm. They added noticeable "plate reverb" to everything including the news.

The Story of KXOK

Bob
 
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DXBob said:
From south Overland Park, Kansas:

Day: A very faint KYFI, not listenable however.

Night: KYFI or nothing. I have tried.

Retro: Growing up in Peoria, Illinois, KXOK was a my favorite Top 40 station. Why? A broader playlist. I toured the station in 1966. KXOK had a unique audio quality, very warm. They added noticeable "plate reverb" to everything including the news.

The Story of KXOK

Bob
Click to expand...
KXOK was a very interesting station in the 60s. Unfortunately I couldn't hear it in the Chicago area as well as I would've liked.
 
radioman148 said:
KXOK was a very interesting station in the 60s. Unfortunately I couldn't hear it in the Chicago area as well as I would've liked.
Click to expand...
The night signal at my hone location was fair at best.. And not comfortably listenable.

At my college location in southeast Iowa. KXOK was weak but listenable by day. disappeared completely at night. We used to rebroadcast it on our carrier current campus radio station during daytime until late afternoon when we could begin or own programming. Which included a playlist barely distinguishable from what KXOK was playing.

"Break the knob on the radio, leave that dial on 6-3-0. KXOK in St. Louis"...PAMS custom "bluegrass" jingle.
 
Retro stuff back in Queens NYC .....

Quite a few MM's when the great WPRO Providence and a few other stations were off, we'd get KXOK. They were weak, but steady. Terrific station. Directional day and night with different patterns, at least back then.
 
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