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AM Frequency of the Week 640

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cyberdad

cyberdad

Far northwest Suburbs of Chicago...

Days: All WMFN from far south suburban Peotone, IL. About 70 miles to my southwest, Pattern is somwhat favorable to me. Resultant signal is fair-good. Sometimes WOI is fainly audible underneath with WMFN nulled.

Nights: WMFN drops from 4,200 watts down to 1,600 and slightly tightens its pattern (aimed north-northeast). The result here is a weaker signal that's fair at best. WOI is underneath more often than not, but usually not strong enough to get on top,

Retro: Before WMFN moved to its current location, it broadcast from the Grand Rapidw, MI area. Very weak but audible daytime.

At night, back in the 60s, 70s, and early 80s, KFI was sometimes doable. I wouldn't say it was a regular. but it did turn up from time to time. More common were WHLO (Akron, OH), and eventually (then) WWLS from Oklahoma City. Finally, WOI from Ames, IA (30 mi north of Des Moines) was authorized for night operations with 1kw aimed east. That made WOI a relatively easy nighttime catch around here.

I've also heard CFOB from Fort Frances, ON (across the river from International Falls MN) a few times before they migrated to FM. 1kw ND. Their tower site/transmitter shack was still there as of my last visit a couple of years ago, but not the tower itself.
 
Hartland, VT, and Meriden, CT:

WNNZ Westfield, MA, with NPR news/talk programming. Decent daytime signal in Meriden, just above the noise level in Hartland.
 
Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: WMFN with good signal
Nighttime: WMFN blocking the frequency for any skywave DX

DX/RETRO: until WMFN signed on from Peotone on October 2017 the frequency was open for DX. WMFN moving from Zeeland, MI to Peotone, IL ended any chance of hearing KFI or any other DX in Chicago area for good. KFI used to be the best bet to hear California in the Chicago area. Prior to WMFN Peotone, daytime reception also included WBOW (Terre Haute, IN) and WMFN (Zeeland, MI). other DX logs include WHLO (Akron, OH), WOI (Ames, IA), WWLS (Moore, OK), WCRV (Collierville, TN), WGST (Atlanta, GA). This frequency also used to provide a good reception of Radio Progreso from Cuba. Prior to 1982/1983 the Cuban on this frequency used to be Radio Liberacion CMQ, but then they switched to Radio Progreso. I have two other foreign stations logged on this frequency, but both of them are no longer on the air: FR3, Guadeloupe and TGW Radio Nacional, Guatemala.
 
From DFW, Texas:

Daytime: KWPN Moore, OK with fair to good signal - ESPN 640.

Sunset: WCRV Collierville, TN sneaks in with Christian programming, as well as Radio Progreso from Havana, both with KWPN nulled more or less E/W.

Nighttime: KWPN and R. Progreso are the regulars, but I have heard XETAM Ciudad Victoria, TAM., KTIB Thibodaux, LA, and WBIN Atlanta, GA.

Prior to Sunrise, KFI Los Angeles is heard on a fairly regular basis with a weak to fair signal.
 
A solid WHLO here around Columbus, Ohio by day and nothing at night. I might have heard a weak WHLO at some point but I can't remember. We're much too far east to catch KFI.
 
East Tennessee: Days: WXSM, Bloutville, TN in the Bristol/Johnson City/Elizabethton market. Sometimes WBIN (WGST) on daytime skip or near sunrise/sunset. Nights Radio Progreso or a mess of stations.
Retro/other: Dayton and Western Ohio. WHLO, Akron and I remember the L1 (Limited time) days when they would stay on through L.A. sunset. Radio Progreso on 640 was more powerful than today in the 80s, but it apparently signed off overnight for awhile because I had reception of KFI several late nights in a row (2am ET hour).
Central Indiana SDR: WHLO until WMFM signed on, now they are under WMFM. When I lived in Lafayette IN, WBOW' Terre Haute's 250 watts still made it.
 
From the southwest suburbs of Chicago ...

In the glory days before the clears were broken down, it was a nightly opportunity to get KFI most nights two hours-plus after sunset, as long as the radio – a six-band Radio Shack Patrolman – was rotated properly. Then the LA powerhouse would be a pretty regular beacon, great for a kid who wanted to listen to Vin Scully call Dodgers games or, in winter, hear Jiggs McDonald do the same with the Kings. As CADXER said, it was the top pick to receive California. To me, it was amazing to hear a station that far away, and discover that it was only an NBC affiliate, the network often rebuffed in quest of owning the only clear-channel station in Los Angeles.

But swing the radio 90 degrees and there was CMQ (so it was listed in the old logs) Havana, boasting of Castro's exploits. I preferred Vin and Jiggs. I think the call is CTOM1 these days. Last picked it up in 2021.

Other catches were WHLO Akron, Ohio, and WOI Ames, Iowa late in their day patterns. WOI was almost there days in the winter with a sub-audible het. Later came WWLS Norman, Okla. (and relogged as KWPN in 2021), and in 2017, WCRV Memphis/Collierville, Tenn., early in the morning with their 50 kW day broadcast.

But most all the fun ended when WMFN moved from Michigan (oddly not in my log, but I suspect I heard it) to Peotone, south of Chicago, with a squarish four-tower array (and the towers aren't especially tall) along Interstate 57. It's been on since late Oct. 2017, first with Spanish music and promos to buy air time, more recently as a BIN affiliate. The only DX on 640 since was a night when WMFN was running an open carrier and I caught the KWPN calls.
 
tvnut said:
... when WMFN moved from Michigan (oddly not in my log, but I suspect I heard it) to Peotone, south of Chicago, with a squarish four-tower array (and the towers aren't especially tall) along Interstate 57. It's been on since late Oct. 2017, first with Spanish music and promos to buy air time, more recently as a BIN affiliate. The only DX on 640 since was a night when WMFN was running an open carrier and I caught the KWPN calls.
Click to expand...
WMFN flipped from Spanish several months ago to the Black Information Network, A service provided by iHeart. I think iHeart may actually be running WMFN, but I'm not sure about that. There seems to be ongoing debate as to whether WMFN;s signal is strong enough in Chicago proper to be competitive with other Black-oriented stations.

You and others here are certainly correct about WMFN's move from Michigan effectively blowing out any opportunity locally to snag KFI. In my own experience, I actually hadn't heard KFI for quite a few years before WMFN moved in.

In my travels, KFI is reliably listenable at night until about Omaha....which is in WOI'S nighttime null to the west.
 
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cyberdad said:
WMFN flipped from Spanish several months ago to the Black Information Network, A service provided by iHeart. I think iHeart may actually be running WMFN, but I'm not sure about that. There seems to be ongoing debate as to whether WMFN;s signal is strong enough in Chicago proper to be competitive with other Black-oriented stations.

You and others here are certainly correct about WMFN's move from Michigan effectively blowing out any opportunity locally to snag KFI. In my own experience, I actually hadn't heard KFI for quite a few years before WMFN moved in.

In my travels, KFI is reliably listenable at night until about Omaha....which is in WOI'S nighttime null to the west.
Click to expand...
Birach owns it but iHeart has an LMA to program it.

Agreed on KFI. WOI's going nighttime really crippled the signal here. I suppose some really fancy longwire antenna system could have been devised to improve chances for it, but not by me.
 
schmave said:
A solid WHLO here around Columbus, Ohio by day and nothing at night. I might have heard a weak WHLO at some point but I can't remember. We're much too far east to catch KFI.
Click to expand...

I heard KFI only once and never again in New Jersey for a few minutes in the winter of 1977-78 after having listened for it for countless hours.

I'll never forget how I was hearing the song 'I Go Crazy' by Paul Davis and at the end was the station ID "64 KFI".

I usually heard WHLO on 640 but it timed out just right where they faded and KFI was able to break through.

Hearing KFI in New Jersey today would be impossible because of WWJZ in Mount Holly.

Here in Hawaii at the same distance from Los Angeles, KFI is a nighttime regular but of course that's due to the ocean and no other stations in between.
 
gr8oldies said:
Correct me if I'm wrong. WBOW in Terre Haute became WMFM in Michigan which danced itself into a Chicago suburb.
Click to expand...

That's not the case. In 1994 the owner of WBOW was convicted of sexual crimes. As a result of this the FCC cancelled the WBOW license. WBOW kept appealing the FCC ruling but eventually lost and in 2001 the station left the air.
 
CADXER said:
That's not the case. In 1994 the owner of WBOW was convicted of sexual crimes. As a result of this the FCC cancelled the WBOW license. WBOW kept appealing the FCC ruling but eventually lost and in 2001 the station left the air.
Click to expand...
True, but the absence of WBOW cleared the way for WMFM to move south to Chicago. Otherwise, there would have been interference to the WBOW signal in fringe areas.
 
cyberdad said:
Far northwest Suburbs of Chicago...

Days: All WMFN from far south suburban Peotone, IL. About 70 miles to my southwest, Pattern is somwhat favorable to me. Resultant signal is fair-good. Sometimes WOI is fainly audible underneath with WMFN nulled.

Nights: WMFN drops from 4,200 watts down to 1,600 and slightly tightens its pattern (aimed north-northeast). The result here is a weaker signal that's fair at best. WOI is underneath more often than not, but usually not strong enough to get on top,

Retro: Before WMFN moved to its current location, it broadcast from the Grand Rapidw, MI area. Very weak but audible daytime.

At night, back in the 60s, 70s, and early 80s, KFI was sometimes doable. I wouldn't say it was a regular. but it did turn up from time to time. More common were WHLO (Akron, OH), and eventually (then) WWLS from Oklahoma City. Finally, WOI from Ames, IA (30 mi north of Des Moines) was authorized for night operations with 1kw aimed east. That made WOI a relatively easy nighttime catch around here.

I've also heard CFOB from Fort Frances, ON (across the river from International Falls MN) a few times before they migrated to FM. 1kw ND. Their tower site/transmitter shack was still there as of my last visit a couple of years ago, but not the tower itself.
Click to expand...
Near north Chicago suburbs days wmfn with a good signal. Night whlo and wmfn. I havent heard Kfi in years but in the 60s and 70s I heard them often on A good radio.
 
A day or so before I moved from Long Island to here in NEPA, I found a loud-ish signal on 640 playing the standards. It was the new WWJZ Mt. Holly NY. On the car radio move to here, they came in clear and readable all the way except for a mile or so on the Belt Pkway when WFAN spitefully splashed on it. WWJZ remains the 640 daytimer here. The 640 loggings here are all mid-90's.
One late SSS brought in WFNC from NC.
Nights here gave me a tape of CHOG, and ID's from WHLO and WGST Atlanta.

Lol -- retro, back in Queens: We tried often for WALI Farmingdale L.I. many times. 640 was vacant enough. None of us four ever heard them. WALI was a carrier-current station, peculiar and limited to some college.
 
From west Houston TX, daytime is only slop from local KIKK 650. At sunset, KWPN, Radio Progreso, and WCRV most commonly come up. XETAM is usually in there as well, along with KTIB occasionally. At night, it's KWPN and Progreso generally on top. At sunrise I've heard all of those plus WBIN, XEJUA, and KFI.

In midwinter, there is a window between Havana sunrise and my sunrise I can hear KFI. I've never heard KFI at any other time.

When I first started DXing in Tulsa in the early 70's, KWPN was WNAD, a daytimer owned by the University of Oklahoma and easily heard in Tulsa. After they went off at sunset, the Cuban was in the clear. After LA sunset I could null Cuba and hear KFI pretty easily. The good old days...
 
Tyler, TX

Daytime yields nothing. I am just outside of the farthest reaches of KWPN's 5kW, but at sunset it comes up pretty well. At night, it's mostly KWPN, with KTIB and the Cuban Progreso signal also heard, although I do have WGST from the Atlanta area logged in 2019.

Thought I had something new to log on 640 last year, but lo and behold it was KTIB, which had apparently switched to Spanish language.
 
15 miles south of Orlando.

Daytime - WVLG weak with WMEN from South Florida coming in underneath it.

Nighttime - Radio Progresso, Cuba. Good signal. It is probably the most reliable station to dx here. I enjoy the bilingual AC format on an AM station.
 
13 miles south of Sacramento.
Daytime: splatter from local KSTE 650 @ 21.5 kw
Night: KSTE drops to 1kw and can be nulled to hear a clear KFI. It's not worth the effort because " Coast to Coast" is heard locally on KFBK.
 
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