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AM Frequency of the Week: 790

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cyberdad

cyberdad

(For those who might be new to this thread, note that our current thread takes in what used to be known as "regional" channels, As well as "graveyard" and X-band channels. Thus we jump from 630 to 790, Next week will be 910.)

Far northwest suburban Chicago....

Days: 790 is splatter from WBBM (780), which transmits from a site 24 miles southeast of my location. On the very rare occasions when WBBM is off, I've heard WSGW come through a couple of times on 790.

Nights: More WBBM splatter. Nulling it is difficult, but typically if I do, 790 is just a mix of weak unidentifiable signals.

Retro: I used to hear CKSO from Sudbury, ON before they migrated to FM. I'd describe CKSO as a "semi-regular". (North of here it was definitely an easy catch). I also heard R. Reloj a few times.

Other Location: At the beach place where we stay on the Alabama-Florida state line on the Gulf, 790 daytime is 1kw WPNN, Pensacola, fair signal from a distance of 23 miles. At night WPNN powers down and disappears, and R. Reloj is usually on top of the mess.
 
East Tennessee: Days: From the Tri-Cities market, it's WETB with a weak signal. Sometimes Korean formatted WQXI.

Nights: A hodgepodge of WQXI, WNIS and Radio Reloj (mostly just the "RR" part)

Retro/other: West Central Ohio, WAKY would come in around Sunset and splatter CKLW (which was also taking hits from WKEE.). WTAR (then on 790) was frequently in at night, and on Saturday nights had an oldies show (this was early 80s). I finally got to hear it "like a local" on a visit to Virginia Beach.
 
Middays here, WAEB Allentown is the third-loudest AM signal. They *are* sort of omni with their two day sticks. One day I used them to callibrate all the levels on the sound equipment.
At night, they're gpne.

Radio-Locator.com

Radio Station Search Engine
radio-locator.com radio-locator.com

Their nighttime replacement is often CIOF from Canada. And then there's the ever-faithful
.-. .-. at times, really handy when it's time to callibrate the egg-timer made in Cuba.
One SSS I caught WLKW from Rhode Island. No idea how that happened. Long ago they were 'WEAN'.
 
In the near north Chicago suburbs daytime: Mostly WBBM splatter, but several times when driving in the city I can hear WSGW especially when driving on Lake Shore Drive. The buildings attenuate WBBMs signal to some degree and WSGW comes through.
At night I've heard WNIS previously WTAR when I first heard it years ago. I also have heard WMC a few times.
 
In west Houston, it's local KBME "Sportstalk 790" 24/7, located about 12 miles from me. Last month I noticed them off the air one night. There were quite a few stations in the mix, but the 2 I ID'd were WMC and Radio Reloj. Reloj was quite strong and dominating the frequency.
 
Here in Pickerington, Ohio, it's country WHTH from Newark/Heath, about 30 miles to my east-northeast, daytime and nothing at night. They have a pretty deep null in this direction at night on top of dropping to just 26 watts ... although that power reduction never hurt their reception when I lived in Thornville, about 12 miles south of their tower farm.
I echo wildthangjim's observations on KBME. At both places I lived in Houston, first in the Inwood Forest area and later right on the League City-Friendswood border, I was straight in front of their primary lobe at all hours. In the League City area, I was far enough from their towers that the Reloj tones were audible but extremely weak.
I've noted before, and so have others, about KBME's formidable nighttime null to the southwest. I remember almost completely losing them on Highway 6 between Missouri City and 288, then they pop right back in east and west of the null.
 
wildthangjim said:
In west Houston, it's local KBME "Sportstalk 790" 24/7, located about 12 miles from me. Last month I noticed them off the air one night. There were quite a few stations in the mix, but the 2 I ID'd were WMC and Radio Reloj. Reloj was quite strong and dominating the frequency.
Click to expand...
As recently posted in another thread, I used to hear the Houston 790 regularly at my college location in southeast, Iowa. In those days it was KTHT "Demand Radio 79" which reflected their "all request" format. Im not sure about the all request stuff, but it was a pretty good listen.
 
South Mississippi:

Day: nothing
Night: mix of Sportstalk 790 KBME Houston, The Bet 790 WMC Memphis, and Radio Reloj.
 
cyberdad said:
(For those who might be new to this thread, note that our current thread takes in what used to be known as "regional" channels, As well as "graveyard" and X-band channels. Thus we jump from 630 to 790, Next week will be 910.)

Far northwest suburban Chicago....

Days: 790 is splatter from WBBM (780), which transmits from a site 24 miles southeast of my location. On the very rare occasions when WBBM is off, I've heard WSGW come through a couple of times on 790.

Nights: More WBBM splatter. Nulling it is difficult, but typically if I do, 790 is just a mix of weak unidentifiable signals.

Retro: I used to hear CKSO from Sudbury, ON before they migrated to FM. I'd describe CKSO as a "semi-regular". (North of here it was definitely an easy catch). I also heard R. Reloj a few times.

Other Location: At the beach place where we stay on the Alabama-Florida state line on the Gulf, 790 daytime is 1kw WPNN, Pensacola, fair signal from a distance of 23 miles. At night WPNN powers down and disappears, and R. Reloj is usually on top of the mess.
Click to expand...
Here in Cheyenne, WY:
Days... A very weak KXXX Colby, Kansas (236 miles away) can be heard on a vehicular radio, or my R-108 if I go outside and away from the RFI noise.

Nights: Usually hard to tell, but probably KGHL Billings since I've heard country music on 790 at night before.

I'm sure @SomeRadioGuy probably wants to know if I can recieve his show on 790 AM. In general, no, because KXXX powers down when you are on the air. But, if the transmitter ever does misbehave, I look forward to hearing you, Paul!

Travel: In Riverton, I was in a too noisy environment to make out anything on 790, however something was noted in my Rapid City bandscan (again, probably KGHL), but it was weak and unidentifiable.
 
schmave said:
Here in Pickerington, Ohio, it's country WHTH from Newark/Heath, about 30 miles to my east-northeast, daytime and nothing at night. They have a pretty deep null in this direction at night on top of dropping to just 26 watts ... although that power reduction never hurt their reception when I lived in Thornville, about 12 miles south of their tower farm.
I echo wildthangjim's observations on KBME. At both places I lived in Houston, first in the Inwood Forest area and later right on the League City-Friendswood border, I was straight in front of their primary lobe at all hours. In the League City area, I was far enough from their towers that the Reloj tones were audible but extremely weak.
I've noted before, and so have others, about KBME's formidable nighttime null to the southwest. I remember almost completely losing them on Highway 6 between Missouri City and 288, then they pop right back in east and west of the null.
Click to expand...
I thought WHTH moved from 1000 to 790 for night power, but that was before flea power. Did they knock towers down?
 
Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: WBBM slop
Nightime: usually a mix of stations. WMC, WAAY or Radio Reloj common catches

DX/RETRO: others heard on this frequency include KFGO (Fargo, ND), WSGW (Saginaw, MI), WNIS (Norfolk, VA), WETB (Johnston City, YN), WKRD (Louisville, KY), WNTC (Ashland City, TN), CIGM (Sudbury, ON). One station that makes an appearance once in a while is WQXI (Atlanta, GA) with Korean programming. I suspect they make it to Chicago area on occasions when they forget to switch to night power.
 
gr8oldies said:
I thought WHTH moved from 1000 to 790 for night power, but that was before flea power. Did they knock towers down?
Click to expand...

I don't know about that. WHTH has been on 790 ever since I've been aware. Radio Locator says 26 watts, but they've always sounded better than that to me even in the nulls they throw over Granville and off to the southwest.
As far as I know, their three towers still stand right off 16 on the west side of Newark. I haven't driven by the array in a couple years, but one of my best friends lives right near the site.
 
CADXER said:
Nightime: usually a mix of stations. WMC, WAAY or Radio Reloj common catches
Click to expand...
Have you heard WAAY before or after they started running 123 watts non directional at night. I'm curious because when they were 5kw fulltime as WEAQ, the night pattern was a very tight figure eight with a very deep null toward Chicago.. I tried repeatedly, but never heard them.
 
cyberdad said:
As recently posted in another thread, I used to hear the Houston 790 regularly at my college location in southeast, Iowa. In those days it was KTHT "Demand Radio 79" which reflected their "all request" format. Im not sure about the all request stuff, but it was a pretty good listen.
Click to expand...
I was DXing from Tulsa in the early 70's and KTHT was the dominant station on 790. Your mention of WEAQ reminds me that I heard and QSL'd them from Tulsa one Monday morning back then. 790 was a good frequency to check on Monday mornings in the early 70's - in addition to WEAQ, I heard WAKY, WQXI and WFUN back then.
 
cyberdad said:
Have you heard WAAY before or after they started running 123 watts non directional at night. I'm curious because when they were 5kw fulltime as WEAQ, the night pattern was a very tight figure eight with a very deep null toward Chicago.. I tried repeatedly, but never heard them.
Click to expand...
I heard WAYY few times in 2021. I wonder if they were running on day power. Have not heard them since 2021.
 
I am but 4 miles from the 5/1 2 stick array of KGMI Bellingham WA. Though there is about 1800 feet of solid basalt between us, and though I am in what I would call a soft null, there frankly aren't any other stations close enough to ever interfere. At least on most nights- though a few times I have faintly heard something in the background- maybe KJRB Spokane?

I bring up these call letters for a few of the old timer operators here. KGMI was the brainchild of the same guy who brought us IGM (International Good Music.) IGM automation units were quite popular in the 60s and 70s, and some of you likely worked with them. (Or tried- they could be cantankerous.) IGM also provided at least three different taped music subscriptions to play on the automated systems. The IGM units were hand built at the KGMI studios, then later down the street. My first exposure to automation was with two IGM units, one fully automated for the AM and a "live-assist" on the FM. By the time I got there in '82, IGM had shut down their music syndication and ours came from Drake-Chenault.

The KGMI/IGM guru, Rogan Jones, told our station manager that the systems were being "used too hard" by us- they were designed to run genteel beautiful music or classical selections, with low commercial loads and lots of space between elements. We of course were running Rock 40 on the FM and new country on the AM, with lots of elements and lots of spots and no gaps. It could be a real nightmare. A good day was when we had fewer than a dozen error codes or silent sense alarms. The FM was famous for trying to play two reels of music at once and occasionally all 4. The AM would sometimes just shut itself off after Paul Harvey "news" at noon. (Maybe it was lulled to sleep??)
 
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