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AM Frequency of the Week: 1480:

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cyberdad

cyberdad

Far northwest suburban Chicago....

Days: 1480 has been blank at my location for quite some time. And the recent relocation of what used to be a semi-local signal on the channel has not changed matters. For years, a 1kw 1480, DA-2 (WGSB/WSPY/WFXW...and maybe one or two others) was licensed to Geneva, IL, about 25 miles to the south of here, with a resulting fair signal. Then at some point in the early 2000s, IIRC, their transmitter location was damaged, and they began transmitting from a long wire antenna. This STA resulted in a listenable range of about ten miles. If that. Then, finally, this past year, the station moved to a new COL about 20 miles southwest their former home, and began transmitting with 250 watts non-directional daytime. New call letters, WDYS. And new format, classic country. But so far, they're still invisible on my radios. Apparently just out of range.

Nights: 1 spent an hour two weeks ago on 1480, and another hour this past week on 1480 before sunrise. The channel is just a low rumble of very weak signals. On each occasion, absolutely nothing rose to top on. Certainly not WDYS, which drops to 10 watts.

(Note: WDYS' classic country format apparently is being simulcast on sister station 1550 in Morris, IL, as well as on two FM translators. I'm not 100% sure of that, since I'm also out of range from those, as well.)
 
Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: WDYS with weak signal from their new Somonauk, IL site, but not any better than their STA setup with the long wire antenna
Nightime: nothing dominant at night. WLMV Madison, WI most likely to surface to the top. No sign of WDYS with their 10 watt nighttime signal.

DX/RETRO: others heard in the past include WGVU (Kentwood, MI), WTHI (Terre Haute, IN), WHBC (Canton, OH), WDJO (Cincinnati, OH), WMQM (Memphis, TN), WAME (Charlotte, NC), WNKY (Neon, KY), WRSW (Warsaw, IN), WJBM (Jerseyville, IL), and WRCK (Remsen, NY) with a DX test.
 
Hartland, VT:
WCFR Springfield, VT, '80s and '90s classic hits, feeding translator W293BH 106.5 Springfield, which is not audible here.
 
East Tennessee: Days---Semi-local WJFC, Jefferson City, TN.
Sunrise/sunset/daytime skip: WHBC, Canton, Ohio
Nights: A hodge-podge with WDJO, Cincinnati breaking through
now and then.
Retro/other: Dayton, OH area. A weak WDJO, Cincinnati along with WHBC, Canton, OH, which with 15000 watts and a high band location, seemingly gets everywhere during the day (I don't know how its in-market coverage is.).
As iconic soul station WCIN in the 70s, the signal would make it to the Celina/St. Marys area easily around sunset. There was also (what was then) WTHI, Terre Haute.
Central Indiana SDR (Edinburgh IN): Primarily WDJO with WHBC in the background. It also used to get the former oldies station owned by Grand Valley State, WGVU, Grand Rapids.
 
WUNA - Ocoee FL - Programs in Kreyol - barely audible here (about 60 miles away)

1480 WVOI - Marco Island - Relevant Radio - closed in 2021

1480 WCHZ - Augusta GA - R&B/hiphop - closed in 2015 (ex-WRDW)

kw - Melbourne FL
 
Semi-local WISL Shamokin went dark over 10 years ago. From four sticks in a junkyard south of that city, they had been the only Top 40 area station for a while in the 60's (so I'm told) with WKBW conveniently a dial tweak away.
Some 11 years back, probably on daytime skip, WDJO was faint but alone one afternoon. Taped was meteorologist Heather Zayre (sp?) and her oldies 1480 outro. That was off the GE SR 2, in a basement I was painting. (As WCIN, they were a very rare catch back in Queens NYC.)
WCNS Latrobe PA was a SSS catch once here. So was WDAS as a Philly-Oldies station, and once there popped in CTListener's WCFR !
Long time back, WADR Remsen NY was there at night. The logbook said 19 watts.
Uh-huh.
Terrific frequency here. I have yet to ID a hometown station here in PA -- WZRC NYC, lol. They should visit here regularly during nighttimes
Generous frequency in these parts. Missing local stations on regional frequencues can be that way.
 
Wilmington Delaware

Semi local WDAS in Philadelphia currently airing Fox Sports. It puts in a fair signal during the day with 5KW then cuts it power to 1KW at night and swings its' antenna SE toward Philly and totally vanishes into a sea of other stations. WDAS was the voice of the African American community in Philly for decades when it was locally owned and I grew up listening to R&B, Disco, and Gospel on it then I Heart bought and ran it into the ground. It doesn't even appear on the monthly ratings so few people listen to it.
 
Forgot to mention the WGVU fromthe Grand Rapids area. I used to hear them from time to time at sunrise when they went to day pattern. I have not heard them, however, since they apparently went to new ownership recently, and changed call letters.
 
From the southwest suburbs of Chicago: As Cyberdad notes, 1480 is a bit of a dog's dinner. You never know what you're going to get.

Here, it all started with old WGSB Geneva, Ill., at least the 1 kW day portion of it. I don't think I heard the 500 watt night version. I do know that WMQM Memphis (reheard in 2020 as WBBP) and WHBC Canton, Ohio (in 2019) floated in.

WGSB was sold and replaced by WSPY, which I paid no mind to until I heard about (here) the longwire situation. New transmitter, new location (a back yard in Batavia), new interest. You had to work hard to catch that 125 watt blowtorch, and I did on 2/12/2020 during morning drive. It eventually changed calls to WDYS and was silent by 1/15/2022, thanks to the aforementioned move to Plano, southwest of Batavia. It was up and running with 250 watts and a bit easier to catch by 1/18/2022.

By then, news had come that WGVU Kentwood, Mich., was shutting down, and was hauled in for the first time on 1/5/2022, two days before it was shuttered. I have yet to hear the WSLI reincarnation. I presume it's the same tower.

Finally, on Tuesday (1/11) morning, searching for something to rise to the top of the stew, came a clear ID from WJBM Jerseyville, Ill. (just north of St. Louis), running 32 watts nighttime. So add it all up, and it's seven facilities, two of which are silent and a third which was for a while.

And a lot more interesting for me than next week's 1490!
 
cyberdad said:
Forgot to mention the WGVU fromthe Grand Rapids area. I used to hear them from time to time at sunrise when they went to day pattern. I have not heard them, however, since they apparently went to new ownership recently, and changed call letters.
Click to expand...
WGVU (and WGVS on 850) has been silent for quite some time, I don't know for sure if they've been reactivated as of yet.
 
Addendum......My home town station when I lived in the Lake Wawasee area in Indiana as a child was WRSW. Our radio then was mostly on WOWO, but I remember my grandmother carefully tuning in WRSW to hear a basketball game. It was 1000 watts day/500night. I had heard a barely perceptible signal in my Western Ohio home.
 
Chicago by the lakeshore:

Daytime: It used to be the norm that you'd hear a weak WGVU, especially right on the lake. They changed call letters to WSLI and are allegedly still operating on 1480. I drove up Lake Shore Drive yesterday and there was absolutely nothing audible on 1480. Take that as you will.

Critical Hours/Nighttime: Nothing stands out above the rest, but I've logged WHVO in Hopkinsville KY, WDJO in Cincinnati, and WJBM in Jerseyville, IL. These were all in my old place, so it's conceivable I'll find something new in my newer place...
 
MichaelTheZ said:
Chicago by the lakeshore:

Daytime: It used to be the norm that you'd hear a weak WGVU, especially right on the lake. They changed call letters to WSLI and are allegedly still operating on 1480. I drove up Lake Shore Drive yesterday and there was absolutely nothing audible on 1480. Take that as you will.

Critical Hours/Nighttime: Nothing stands out above the rest, but I've logged WHVO in Hopkinsville KY, WDJO in Cincinnati, and WJBM in Jerseyville, IL. These were all in my old place, so it's conceivable I'll find something new in my newer place...
Click to expand...
I don't believe the former WGVU is operating yet. They went silent when the University ended the oldies format.
 
tvnut said:
From the southwest suburbs of Chicago: As Cyberdad notes, 1480 is a bit of a dog's dinner. You never know what you're going to get.

Here, it all started with old WGSB Geneva, Ill., at least the 1 kW day portion of it. I don't think I heard the 500 watt night version.....
Click to expand...

Thanks for an excellent recap of "how the story of the Geneva area 1480 all went down". The main thing that I can comment on is that when I began DXing as a teenager in the 60s, in Wauconds (12 miles east of where I am now) WGSB had a decent signal both at 1kw days and 500 watts night. That night pattern was nulled towards the northwest and Madison, which resulted in a lobe aimed right at Wauconda to the northeast. Fast forward a dozen years, and I'm in Crystal Lake on the edge of that night lobe...getting weaker but still listenable. Albeit with other stuff sometimes in the background. What I remember about the latter days of that "incarnation" is longtime Chicago radio veteran Denny Farrell holding down evenings with a jazz and big band program.

If radioman is lurking, perhaps he can re-tell the tale of how he inherited a large portion of the WGSB record library in the aftermath of a format change.
 
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WMAX...WGVU...WSLI 1480 is back with an STA with just 100 watts from a location near Downtown Grand Rapids. There was talk of Grand Valley keeping WGVU but they decided not to late last year. Even though the Oldies was popular, apparently not enough money was generated. The Oldies Format is reportedly online. I think 10000 Oldies is too many. Maybe 2000. They did play deep tracks of Chicago, Southeast MI, and Western MI Garage Bands though. I think the folding of Cameo Parkway and other small labels and lack of promotion kept many songs from becoming big hits nationally.
 
Right now (8:28 a.m. CT 1/18), WHVC Canton, Ohio is in charge, with at least one playing country music (which turns out to be WDYS Plano, Ill. – though licensed to Somonauk, which is two towns away and even smaller) underneath. A relog.
 
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From the west side of Houston, TX:

Daytime it's local KLVL Radio Vida w/religious programs in Spanish.
Sunset, nulling KLVL, KNGO from the Dallas area is strong w/Vietnamese programming (sometimes, but not always, //KGOW 1560). I've also heard KQAM Wichita KS w/talk and XETKR from Monterrey NL w/regional Mexican music.
Nights, KLVL is easily nullable at 500 watts, and KNGO and XETKR are most often on top.
 
At my QTH, WJBM Jeresyville, IL dominates during the day. The station identifies both as 104.7 and 1480 AM. At night the frequency is a mix of signals.
 
From Rochester NY, daytime 1480 is a weak WLEA Hornell under splash from our local 1460. At night? Mostly WHBC.
 
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